Is Radeon R9 290x worth double in price than R9 280x

G

Gordon.C

Member
Yet again, I find myself torn between two GPUs.

My intention is to build a very powerful PC which would last at least 3 years of maxed out gaming however I cant decide whether it is worth it to spend twice as much on a Radeon R9 290x rather than spending half on R9 280x which has similar processing power.

I am guessing it might be smarter to get a R9 280x now and in 3 years exchange it with whichever GPU is one of the fastest then.

Which would you pick?
 
Gordon.C said:
Yet again, I find myself torn between two GPUs.

My intention is to build a very powerful PC which would last at least 3 years of maxed out gaming however I cant decide whether it is worth it to spend twice as much on a Radeon R9 290x rather than spending half on R9 280x which has similar processing power.

I am guessing it might be smarter to get a R9 280x now and in 3 years exchange it with whichever GPU is one of the fastest then.

Which would you pick?
Click to expand...

Or just 2 R9 280Xs? It's been long ago that I recommended crossfire, but with the new frame pacing technology from AMD, almost all visible microstutter doesn't exist anymore + crossfire will get even better in the future.

You get 80% more performance over 1 R9-280X, that's crazy performance!
And games that don't have any crossfire support are most of the time not heavy enough to tax 1 R9-280X.

Another problem with crossfire is the power consumption.
(some time ago, heat was also a problem, but since the coolers from the resellers are improved, you won't have any problems with that)
 
SmileMan said:
Or just 2 R9 280Xs? It's been long ago that I recommended crossfire, but with the new frame pacing technology from AMD, almost all visible microstutter doesn't exist anymore + crossfire will get even better in the future.

You get 80% more performance over 1 R9-280X, that's crazy performance!
And games that don't have any crossfire support are most of the time not heavy enough to tax 1 R9-280X.

Another problem with crossfire is the power consumption.
(some time ago, heat was also a problem, but since the coolers from the resellers are improved, you won't have any problems with that)
Click to expand...

Is the R9 290x successor of HD7990 hence being an enthusiast card a maximum peak in GPUs?

If so I guess the R9 280x Toxic shall do the trick for a much lower price...
 
The 280X and 7970 GHz Edition perform about the same, so go with the cheaper one.

If the 290X is twice the cost of the 280X, then I don't think it's worth it since the 280X is equal to the 7970 GHz and the GTX 770, both of which perform very well.

How long have you been looking at graphics cards for now? I remember you were looking ages ago too.
 
spirit said:
The 280X and 7970 GHz Edition perform about the same, so go with the cheaper one.

If the 290X is twice the cost of the 280X, then I don't think it's worth it since the 280X is equal to the 7970 GHz and the GTX 770, both of which perform very well.

How long have you been looking at graphics cards for now? I remember you were looking ages ago too.
Click to expand...

You remember? Cool man :)

It has been a while, at first I was looking at GTX 780 but I was waiting for R9 series and their performance.

While I want to build as powerful machine as possible I dont want to put in anything that wont make much of a difference for twice the money.

I think I will be gaming at 1080p hopefully maxed out for at least 3 years before buying next PC.

Is R9 280x sufficient for this?
 
Yes, the 280X is definitely sufficient enough for 1080p. I am fine with an old HD 5870 at 1080p with a gig of RAM, so a 280X will make mincemeat of 1080p.
 
R9-290X-3Dmark-2.jpg

Source Videocardz, don't forget these are leaks and might not be legit
Seems to me, the R9-280X is the competitor to the 770 and is just a rebranded 7970 GHz Edition. The R9-290X is going to compete with the 780 and Titan, probably be somewhere in the middle, in terms of price and performance.
 
PCunicorn said:
R9-290X-3Dmark-2.jpg

Source Videocardz, don't forget these are leaks and might not be legit
Seems to me, the R9-280X is the competitor to the 770 and is just a rebranded 7970 GHz Edition. The R9-290X is going to compete with the 780 and Titan, probably be somewhere in the middle, in terms of price and performance.
Click to expand...

The hd7970 is still a great card + with the R9-280X you get new special features like true audio and will also support the mantle api, this api will give several games an enormous boost.

The R9-280X has a pricetag from 299$, the R9-290X has one of 649$ like the gtx780. So I still think the R9-280X is the best choice, single and crossfire. Or you can wait until december and then buy an R9-290X for like 450$...
Like spirit said, the R9-280X will run every game out there at max on 1080P, it's also a tweaked HD7970 GE, so it competes with the GTX770 and sometimes even owns it.

Btw unicorn, even with the 649$ price, it has a far better price/performance then the TITAN, since its performance is about equal to the TITANs performance (synthetic benchmarks are not always the best indicators, watch all the graphs please :P)
 
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SmileMan said:
The hd7970 is still a great card + with the R9-280X you get new special features like true audio and will also support the mantle api, this api will give several games an enormous boost.

The R9-280X has a pricetag from 299$, the R9-290X has one of 649$ like the gtx780. So I still think the R9-280X is the best choice, single and crossfire. Or you can wait until december and then buy an R9-290X for like 450$...
Like spirit said, the R9-280X will run every game out there at max on 1080P, it's also a tweaked HD7970 GE, so it competes with the GTX770 and sometimes even owns it.

Btw unicorn, even with the 649$ price, it has a far better price/performance then the TITAN, since its performance is about equal to the TITANs performance (synthetic benchmarks are not always the best indicators, watch all the graphs please :P)
Click to expand...

If the R9 290X is going down with price I am definitely waiting. I was looking to buy the new PC setup in january (hopefully with some post-christmas discount)

My local store does not even sell R9 290X yet. And if its comparable to TITAN with $450 off price its worth it right, especially if the price is prone to drop soon.
 
I don't think the cost of the 290X will be reduced by December. Usually when these cards go on sale, they stay at their retail price until the competition gets stronger and the manufacturers are forced to reduce the prices. Since the 290X is competing with the Titan and will likely be cheaper than the Titan from the get-go, you'll probably find that the 290X doesn't really drop in price a lot but the Titan might a bit - especially if there's going to be a $300-400 price gap between the two (assuming the 290X goes on sale for $650 and the Titan is still retailing for $1000). Right now, the Titan is dominating the market (in terms of raw speed), so it's expensive. There is no single card solution out there which can really match it at the moment in terms of raw speed. Once the 290X comes out at a lower cost than the Titan, there will be some competition, so the Titan may get cheaper to compensate. Therefore, I think it's unlikely that the 290X will get cheaper.

The fact is, if you keep on waiting, you're never going to buy anything. You'll be waiting all your life. If you have the money now and want a GPU, just get the 280X. It performs very similarly to the 7970 GHz and the GTX 770 and they are both strong cards. I've just heard that the Mantle API is coming to the 7000 series cards too, but I'd still go and get the 280X over a 7970 GHz now (just because it's newer) unless of course the 7970 GHz is miles cheaper.

The 280X will monster 1080p, so I don't see the point of waiting and getting a 290X for 1080p when the 280X will already be more than sufficient. High-end cards from 3-4 years ago can still do 1080p without a problem, so I think by buying the 290X for 1080p you would be wasting your money. Think of it like buying a Titan for 1080p, it's kind of a waste when there are cheaper cards out there which will do the job just as well and the Titan and 290X are capable of doing so much more than 1080p. I could understand it if you were definitely intending to upgrade to a higher resolution later, but if you intend to stick with 1080p, it'd be a waste I think.
 
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Nvidia will also reduce their prices and I heard some rumours they're working on a titan ultra or something.
Anyway, AMD will reduce in price in December, but not as much as I first said. It'll probably still be on par with the gtx 780s price, which will lower around 50-60 dollars or so.

But these are all predictions, if you buy your pc in January, I recommend you to wait and see what happens. Then ask your question again.
 
spirit said:
I don't think the cost of the 290X will be reduced by December. Usually when these cards go on sale, they stay at their retail price until the competition gets stronger and the manufacturers are forced to reduce the prices. Since the 290X is competing with the Titan and will likely be cheaper than the Titan from the get-go, you'll probably find that the 290X doesn't really drop in price a lot but the Titan might a bit - especially if there's going to be a $300-400 price gap between the two (assuming the 290X goes on sale for $650 and the Titan is still retailing for $1000). Right now, the Titan is dominating the market (in terms of raw speed), so it's expensive. There is no single card solution out there which can really match it at the moment in terms of raw speed. Once the 290X comes out at a lower cost than the Titan, there will be some competition, so the Titan may get cheaper to compensate. Therefore, I think it's unlikely that the 290X will get cheaper.

The fact is, if you keep on waiting, you're never going to buy anything. You'll be waiting all your life. If you have the money now and want a GPU, just get the 280X. It performs very similarly to the 7970 GHz and the GTX 770 and they are both strong cards. I've just heard that the Mantle API is coming to the 7000 series cards too, but I'd still go and get the 280X over a 7970 GHz now (just because it's newer) unless of course the 7970 GHz is miles cheaper.

The 280X will monster 1080p, so I don't see the point of waiting and getting a 290X for 1080p when the 280X will already be more than sufficient. High-end cards from 3-4 years ago can still do 1080p without a problem, so I think by buying the 290X for 1080p you would be wasting your money. Think of it like buying a Titan for 1080p, it's kind of a waste when there are cheaper cards out there which will do the job just as well and the Titan and 290X are capable of doing so much more than 1080p. I could understand it if you were definitely intending to upgrade to a higher resolution later, but if you intend to stick with 1080p, it'd be a waste I think.
Click to expand...

Good point. Waiting does not solve anything, there is new stuff each half a year.
Also with the resolution I think I will be sticking with 1080p for a while. 4K displays at an affordable price wont be out for a while I guess.
 
So when are you looking to purchase this card? I saw in an older thread of yours you were intending on buying a GTX 780? Well, the 780 is faster than the 280X most probably, given that the 280X is equal to the 770, but for 1080p, it is probably overkill.

What you need to do is decide when you want to buy your system and just buy what is best at the time. There is no point threating about the future because it's inevitable. Things will get replaced and become cheaper. Technology moves along as I'm sure you are aware.

If you are planning to stick to 1080p for a while, then really you don't really need anything more powerful than the 280X or the 770. Even the 760 or the 270X will run games perfectly fine at 1080p. If a 3-4 year old high-end card will do, so will today's mid-high end cards. Buying anything faster than the GTX 770 or 280X would be a bit of a waste of money I think if you intend to stick to 1080p for a long time.
 
Gordon.C said:
Good point. Waiting does not solve anything, there is new stuff each half a year.
Click to expand...

True, waiting has advantages and disadvantages. But at this moment waiting is waste of time. The R9-280X won't reduce much in price anymore since it has awesome price/performance. So what you could do is buying a R9-280X now for your current system and buy another in january when you build your rig. With this kind of power you'll play everything at max on 1080p for a long time ;P
 
SmileMan said:
Nvidia will also reduce their prices and I heard some rumours they're working on a titan ultra or something.
Anyway, AMD will reduce in price in December, but not as much as I first said. It'll probably still be on par with the gtx 780s price, which will lower around 50-60 dollars or so.

But these are all predictions, if you buy your pc in January, I recommend you to wait and see what happens. Then ask your question again.
Click to expand...

spirit said:
So when are you looking to purchase this card? I saw in an older thread of yours you were intending on buying a GTX 780? Well, the 780 is faster than the 280X most probably, given that the 280X is equal to the 770, but for 1080p, it is probably overkill.

What you need to do is decide when you want to buy your system and just buy what is best at the time. There is no point threating about the future because it's inevitable. Things will get replaced and become cheaper. Technology moves along as I'm sure you are aware.

If you are planning to stick to 1080p for a while, then really you don't really need anything more powerful than the 280X or the 770. Even the 760 or the 270X will run games perfectly fine at 1080p. If a 3-4 year old high-end card will do, so will today's mid-high end cards. Buying anything faster than the GTX 770 or 280X would be a bit of a waste of money I think if you intend to stick to 1080p for a long time.
Click to expand...

Yup I was checking out the GTX780 during the summer I think but I wanted to see first what the competitor has to offer. Also the GTX780 price tag was quite high (still is).

At the moment it seems I will be building the new setup in January going with the R9 280X.

How about the nVidia CUDA and nVidia PhysX? Am I losing any significant graphical features when I choose a Radeon gpu?

SmileMan said:
If you're interested in second hand stuff, 87dtna has a really good deal in the sale section.
the gtx570 is not new, but in SLI you'll have the performance you want for only 220$
http://www.computerforum.com/224969-2x-evga-gtx-570-hds.html#post1895989
Click to expand...

Thank you for the tip, will check it out
 
PCunicorn said:
R9-290X-3Dmark-2.jpg

Source Videocardz, don't forget these are leaks and might not be legit
Seems to me, the R9-280X is the competitor to the 770 and is just a rebranded 7970 GHz Edition. The R9-290X is going to compete with the 780 and Titan, probably be somewhere in the middle, in terms of price and performance.
Click to expand...

Sapphire R9 280X Toxic will score higher, and easily compete with a 780, more than enough for gaming, I'm not throwing my cash at a R9 290X which is barely 15% faster for twice the price.

Oh and seriously 3DMark? The 290X is faster than a Titan in games beyond doubt.
 
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