Need the best amd gpu for 1440p at about the same price as a 970

Hardware GPU
1

Okay so here is the deal, I had a windforce oc version of 970 but due to drivers clogging up my pc, I was literally unusable. I had bugs like missing windows textures http://postimg.org/image/zbdomw0tz/ and after a while any new opening window would just be black.

After some tinkering (including a fresh install of windows with a HDD wipe) I had no results, so I ended up returning the card. After also hearing Logan complain about nvidia's support for linux I decide to for AMD.

Since the R9 and R7 series came out I sorta lost track of cards on the AMD side. I was thinking about the r9 290 or 290x and I need some advise on price to performance on both of those, plus some actual card recommendations (I don't need anything too fancy, just good performance/overclock-ability). Oh and I also need it to perform decently on 1440p (I will probably be playing mostly csgo and bf4/3 and some other pc friendly titles) and about the same price as a 970.

If you have any better ideas in mind I would greatly appreciate them.

2

I have a sapphire r9 290 tri-x oc arriving tomorrow I'll let you know my first impressions

3

The R9 290 will be fine. Pick one up that's been used by miners- they're cheap, and still reliable enough. Do try to get one with an aftermarket cooler though- my reference 290 at 100% is literally louder than the vacuum cleaner.

4

Gigabyte R9 290X (windforce) or sapphire tri-x are propably the best 290X's out there around the same price with 970. Sapphire vapor-x would be even better but it's usually more expensive too.

5

Thanks for the warning XD

6

I used to have one of these. Its a fantastic GPU, powerful, cool and silent! You will not be disappointed..

7

I did some 1440p benchmarks with my 290 and here are the results

https://teksyndicate.com/users/njm1112/blog/2014/12/24/r9-290-vs-gtx980-fx635045ghz-1440p-benchmarks

If you have a better CPU you'll see even better results

8

I have a single r9 290 trix OC by sapphire,  I game at 1440, and do not see many issues with games. So far the only game I have seen any kind of bad performance in was Mirrors edge, Screen tearing, but i turned it down to 1080 and then no probs. I have an i5 4690k @ 4.4 GHz though, so Im not bottlenecking at all. Make sure youre doing somehting similar. Also, I believe Sapphire ships out thier pre OC'ed cards at higher OC than the others, so if you dont want to Oc them yourself then getting a pre OCed card could benefit you.

9

Is there any difference between saphire r9 290 tri x and vapour x..... Found vapour x £10 cheaper. 

By the way thanks for all of the feedback guys :D

10

short answer the vapour X is the better cooler. difference my be minute but it is better.

11

Just got mine up and running. I'm a fan, so far so good. That being said it is super long, I measured, but it just barely fits.

12

sexy

13

R9 290 will handle most games at 1440p ultra, some like BF4 you might need high instead

14

Sapphire 290X TriX OC or Vapor X

15

yeah i thought about that but ended up going with tri-x because i found it on a big almost £50 on amazon

16

Oh and one more thing, I've got an 550W PSU, I know it might be a bit of a stretch but can i run with it at least for now??


I also have a fx 6300 on a asrock 970 extreme 4 motherboard and a couple HDDs

17

if your psu is a decent one, then there wont be any problem with that.

18

I have an XFX Pro 550W Core Edition 80 Plus Bronze, that should be a decent one, right?

19

yeah thats fine.

20

i have the msi r9 290x lightning, its a beast of a card and i can recommend it completely