780 vs 290x vs 290?

Upgrading my system and trying to decide on a video card. Here are my options right now:

XFX 290 Double Dissipation: $460 - 30 rebate

MSI/ASUS/Gigabyte 290x: $650-100 / $600-20 / $550

evga 780 Classified / Zotac 780 Amp!: $600-20 / $560-20
(also evga 780 SC for 570-20 and evga 780 Dual for $560-20)

** All prices in canadian **


Any opinions on which one(s) are best for playing on one of these monitors:

LG 34" 34UM95-P (3440X1440)
Asus PB287Q (3840x2160)

Not sure which of the 2 monitors yet, but will be probably buying one of those by year's end latest.

I'm thinking the AMD based ones will be better due to higher ram on them...? Are the 290/290x drivers stable/good? When I went from 275GTX to my current Gigabyte 7950 I had BSOD for a while until I spent a bunch of hours researching "fixes" for it -- was related to 7950 drivers.

Also, any of the above companies to avoid (build quality and support)?


Thanks for any info/opinions.


(Will be used with new 4790K on Z97 MB; 16GB DDR3 --- mostly play Skyrim, CiV5 type of games for now but want something that will play whatever I want to play whenever I want to play now and for the next little while)

For 4k gaming I would get 2x 290s. Or if you can afford it 2x 290x's. 3gb cards at that res could choke when using AA.

Thanks. Don't plan on getting of any video cards any time soon. Don't usually play with AA on as for my eye sight everything looks fine usually without. I do put it on if the game can handle it, but not my greatest concern.

Basically, go for 4gb cards for those monitors?

For the price difference between 290 i listed and others, is it worth going up to the 290x/780 for the extra $120 or so?

I've looked at several reviews, but don't know who to trust! Some reviews show 290 and 290x pretty similar. Some reviews show the 780 little better than 290x -- some reverse! On the same games.


........

Do what i did. I pulled the trigger on a Sapphire r9-290 vapor-x. It looks wicked sick and overclocks like a monster. current price at the Egg is 439.00 so its deffently worth the moniez. Ill post pics in 4day when it gets here. Free games here i come.

Apparently the XFX 280/290 cards have an issue with VRAM overheating, you may want to look into that before you choose one of those.

780 if budget allows.

the 290 or 290x has the infamous Black Screen bug that apparently no one can fix.
every now and then, you just have to manually switch the bios after reboot if you get a black screen, and it is a major pain.
that's something that drove me nutz, go search in AMD forums yourself if you don't believe me.

the stock 290 or 290x is VERY noisey. you can opt to use an artic cooling cooler
else that thing is like a helicopter. I have 4x 290x for Crypto mining, and I need to put them in a room, with door closed.
and EVEN THEN it is too loud.. so.....

and XFX DD is the WORST heatsink ever. really.
If you can, get Gigabyte. Though as you say you are just about gaming... I almost see no reason not to get 780 (x2) if you can, and rule the world with fps.

Because he is running 4K is the reason to go AMD. He will need that 4GB of vram...BUT since he doesn't use AA, he should be able to get away with a 3GB card...2 780's is what I would get for 4K gaming.

Perhaps I have been lucky, but through almost a dozen AMD Rx cards, I have not experienced this black screen problem (though it does exist).

If you're willing to go used the depreciation is very steep. Great deals all over eBay

tom10167 said:

If you're willing to go used the depreciation is very steep. Great deals all over eBay

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If you want to take a chance on an AMD card that's been mining 24/7 for months.

Mandrake4565 said:

If you want to take a chance on an AMD card that's been mining 24/7 for months.

Click to expand...

I did this and it works OK. For a $130 discount (with warranty intact) it was definitely worth taking the chance on it to me.

290's and 290X's won't be so old that they'd have spent a ton of time mining at least, and you can find non-reference cooler 290's for ~$330-$350 on eBay right now.

grumperfish said:

I did this and it works OK. For a $130 discount (with warranty intact) it was definitely worth taking the chance on it to me.

290's and 290X's won't be so old that they'd have spent a ton of time mining at least, and you can find non-reference cooler 290's for ~$330-$350 on eBay right now.

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Agreed just wanted to bring it up, if it is a chosen route.

Sammich said:

Apparently the XFX 280/290 cards have an issue with VRAM overheating, you may want to look into that before you choose one of those.

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I've got an XFX R9-280x-TDFD Version 1. Wondering if you can point me in the direction where you got that information. Is there any util. that can read VRAM temp? HWMonitor and GPU-Z only reports GPU temps.

Paid $360 from a local shop 8 months ago upgrading from a XFX 6950 DD.

I'm pretty sure he meant vrm overheating. Xfx cards are notorious for having vrm temps in excess of 100-110℃

Supertrucker said:

I'm pretty sure he meant vrm overheating. Xfx cards are notorious for having vrm temps in excess of 100-110℃

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I should have known better. I have had 7 XFXs and only had to RMA one; a one month turn around.