I'm doing a upgrade to my rig and need some advice. I was looking at either the Msi R9 290x or the ASUS R9 290x then realized the prices are way over the MSRP. This for some reason caused pause at the idea of going with AMD and now the idea of throwing a Gtx 780 ti into my rig has entered the mix.
1: Will the 780 ti work well with my FX-8350?
2: Should I wait and hope the prices for the 290X comes back down so I can stay 100% AMD with my rig?
the R9-200 series cards are not coming down in price ANY time soon. you are better off going with a GTX 780 or at least if you really want to stick with AMD grab an R9-290. its almost the exact same performance 2 or 3 frames off of a 290X. and its about the price of the 780. in the 500 to 600 dollar range.
1) No, there are no compatibility problems between AMD CPU's and nVidia GPU's, or vice versa.
2) I don't see any reason to stay 100% AMD at the high end, as you will be overpaying $200-$300 for the same performance (as Kat mentioned). Please don't throw away hundreds in the name of being a fan of something. Get what works best for you. On another side note, you will probably not see a huge performance increase going from 7970 to a 780Ti, so it's up to you if 10-20% better performance is worth $700. If you can sell your 7970, then you could probably recoup a few hundred at least.
I was in your exact same boat about a week ago. I had originally thought i was going full AMD, but then I looked at the prices of the 290x's and did a 180. I was pretty much forced to go nvidia, so I went with the GeForce GTX 780 Ti ACX Superclocked. It's your choice if the 5-15 frames are worth 200 dollars (compared to the 780) in some games.
what's up with all those people? i upgraded my gt 220 to a r9 270. and you want a 7970 to an 780? i think you should buy a custom loop. overclocking is fun and with water you can go really far:). if you really need a better gpu, sell your 7970 to a miner quick and buy a 780Ti. 7970 to 780 isn't that much more performance.
Thanks for all the great comments. I was in a hurry on my OP and should have had a bit more info. The upgrade is partly due to me doing a build for my wife. I was think of putting my 7970 in her rig and maybe going for something with more meat. I like the 7970, I just want to make sure I'm getting the same or higher performance for price when I make my next purchase.