Strix 970 or Windforce 290x?

Im going to be building a PC soon and I can't decide between the 970 or 290x. I like the 290x for mantle and also future upgrades to 4k and a multi gpu setup, but the 970 seems to have more performance for general gaming as well as lower temps and better support. Im completely torn on what to buy.

here's the part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/TheInsaneGent/saved/pRKkcf

I already have 2x4 gb of Patriot Viper 3 1600mhz RAM and a 1tb 7200 rpm seagate HDD that I'll be using.

Im going to go ahead and assume that this is going to be more a matter of opinion, but I just figured I'd ask anyway.

If your willing to spend $329+ on a GPU I personally would just grab the 970. it's cooler and overclocks better. and you get good features. not to say you aren't going to get any with going AMD they have excellent features. but with Nvidia's features,  to get the most out of your card you are going to have to buy into some of it. which i really don't recommend.

also i would recommend the Gigbyte G1 Gaming Edition of the 970. they are higher binned and overclock absurdly well.

+1

There are quite a few things you should take into consideration here. What kind of features are more important to you? Will you actually use those features? Nvidia will try its best to lock you into their walled garden, while AMD will push for more open standards (at least right now). But then again, how important is this difference in philosophy for you?

The next thing would be power consumption and heat output (and possibly a dual GPU setup in the future). Power conumption will not be a big deal when it comes to your electricity bill since you're not running them 24/7, but CF R9 290x's need quite a bit of airflow to stay cool (especially since there is no good blower-type cooler for those cards). With the 970 you could get a second aftermarket card and still be fine, or even get a blower-type 970 later on so your top card is not really affected by the additional heat.

What games do you play? As much as we hate it, there are many games which simply run better on Nvidia hardware and also quite a few that are optimized for AMD. How many of your must-play games fall in one of those categories?

In your situation, playing games at 1080p (judging from the monitor on your list) I would honestly get the 970 and simply not buy into g-sync or shield. It'll be more consistent across most games when it comes to performance and it will simply be the more convenient solution. If a nice 290x isn't 80 or 100 bucks cheaper that is.

thanks, I'll probably go for the 970 since I play a wide variety of games, maybe I'll get a 290x when I can to see how it works, but for now the 970 looks like the better option.