Considering a R9 290 but very Leery

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PinchedNerve

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 30, 2008
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354
I have 2 EVGA GTX 670 FTW's in my kids PC's I am considering selling so I can buy a R9 290 and pass my 2 GTX 770 Lightnings to my kids but I am very leery of doing so because of my past experiences. I had 2 7850's during the Frame Pacing issues that just pissed me off to no end as Skyrim was a micro-stuttering mess and it was the only game I was playing at the time so I sold both (separately). Had a HD 5xxx (can't remember which model it was 5870?) that went tits up on me.

I had a XFX 7970 GHz Ed go tits up on me about 2 months after I installed a Accelero Xtreme cooler. Ran rock solid and much cooler for 2 months so I don't think it was the modding that caused it. One day gaming I hear a "POP" (literally) and poof, smoke and dead. Obviously I didn't bother trying to RMA it as I voided my warranty willingly. I've had few other "ATI" cards from back in the day and generally always went right back to Nvidia. I've had total shit experience with just about every ATI/AMD card I've ever bought.

Anyone regret their R9 xxx purchase?
 
XFX does cover aftermarktet coolers for the US. If you live here you really should send that card out for RMA.

I can't comment on the R9 290 however, but I have been looking at them since the prices have been finally dropping.
 
Jumped on my Asus R9 290 DirectCU when it was $10 over MSRP on Amazon. I am upgrading from GTX 460 1GB SLI config. (Well technically, I sold the 460s and used a 7850 until a 290 was available.)

I am running a single card for 1440p and loving it!

No regrets here.
 
yergg said:
Jumped on my Asus R9 290 DirectCU when it was $10 over MSRP on Amazon. I am upgrading from GTX 460 1GB SLI config. (Well technically, I sold the 460s and used a 7850 until a 290 was available.)

I am running a single card for 1440p and loving it!

No regrets here.
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First I was looking at the MSI Gaming but I have a lot of Asus products and am usually very happy with them.
 
Is there something that you can't play with your current setup? I would wait a while. Nvidia's Maxwell chip on the 750Ti is amazing so when the bigger ones hit they will be game changers. I have ALWAYS bought AMD boards, have 2 R9 290's and 2 R9 290X's. I am happy with them. I bought them at or close to original MSRP. The Maxwells will provide lower power usage, lower heat, and competition in the mining sector, so the prices on both AMD and Nvidia will be lower.
 
I am curious about the Nvidia Maxwell's as well, currently jumped from Nvidia to AMD on the 290s for mining in my off time and mantle. Can't compain when GPUs pay for themselves :D
 
Are you going from 2x770s to 1x290 or 2x290s?

With how you phrased your original post it sounds like the former. If that is the case I'm not really seeing it as being an upgrade.

If the latter, crossfire latency issues are much improved with the new Hawaii chips and driver improvements. Whether or not overall support and latency improvements are quite there yet (for you anyways) I can't really say. Skyrim though was really among the worse case games regarding the latency/stuttering issue.
 
I'm running a modded 290 as a 290x with an Xtreme III cooler.
If you are prepared to re-install windows should it play up too much, it should be a solid purchase.
I upgraded from a GTX580 and had numerous problems with a few things giving a black screen that required a reboot.
It wasnt a stability issue.
Windows gradually deteriorated until it started black screening on boot as well so I re-installed.
Its been fine since.

Something that has annoyed be so much I wont be buying AMD again is that AMD have made it so only their own DVI to HDMI cables with a built in chip will allow sound to pass.
I already kitted out my living room with long cables and then found that I could no longer get sound to my monitor.
Luckily the one HDMI port that goes to my hifi works otherwise I would have thrown it at them.
Pissed me off a treat that did, there is no need for it. Just milking the consumer.
If they want to play stupid games and not even make it clear what they have done, they lose.
NVidia cards dont have this problem, they will be my next purchase.

fyi
 
Nenu said:
Something that has annoyed be so much I wont be buying AMD again is that AMD have made it so only their own DVI to HDMI cables with a built in chip will allow sound to pass.
fyi
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Did you know that any DVI cable allowing audio to pass over it to another adapter is custom cable and outside of the spec for the original DVI? Why would you expect anyone to support this as a native function from any DVI port?
 
atronx said:
Did you know that any DVI cable allowing audio to pass over it to another adapter is custom cable and outside of the spec for the original DVI? Why would you expect anyone to support this as a native function from any DVI port?
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Because its bloody worked for years!

Did you know that NVidia and AMD cards allow Dual DVI ports to function as single HDMI and audio ports and just about any DVI to HDMI lead you buy supports this.
Whether its outside of the original spec is irrelevant.
All the cards have supported it for a long time, AMD have just decided to only let audio pass if there is a dongle.
This change was performed in a driver update as a 7970 owner found out to his disgust.
Read up on it.

Note that it does work if you have a specific lead from AMD that stops the driver from blocking audio out.
 
I've had 3 of the 290's now, I did regret the original pair I bought for MSRP ($399) when they first came out. There were a lot of issues, in particular I had the black screen problem. I sold them and eventually came back around to the Sapphire Tri-X after playing with a 780ti for a bit.

This card is absolutely amazing and the driver issues are a thing of the past (obviously any new release has teething issues, it was the same with Nvidia and the 700 series). I haven't even bothered to overclock it, it runs cool and fast as hell. It benches within 3-5% of my stock 780ti, and I do not regret buying it for a second even though I had to pay $549 for it.
 
hcforde said:
Is there something that you can't play with your current setup? I would wait a while. Nvidia's Maxwell chip on the 750Ti is amazing so when the bigger ones hit they will be game changers. I have ALWAYS bought AMD boards, have 2 R9 290's and 2 R9 290X's. I am happy with them. I bought them at or close to original MSRP. The Maxwells will provide lower power usage, lower heat, and competition in the mining sector, so the prices on both AMD and Nvidia will be lower.
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No issue at all with my current setup. This is a bit more about upgrading my kids and another Nvidia GPU release will only drive down the resale value of their 670 FTW's. I figure I can sell both of their 670 FTW's and buy a R9 290 for little or no out of pocket money. The 770 Lightnings are pretty nice and they game way more then I do now so I don't really need SLI anymore.
 
I had 3 reference R9 290s (ended up selling them at a profit when the whole scrypt mining thing blew up) and they were fantastic cards. I actually regretted buying R9 290Xs prior because they were basically the same performance for over $100 less. Loved them.

Any R9 290 that you can get for $400 or less is an incredible card. I'd say - stick to single GPU gaming. That's at least my new mantra until Maxwell drops. Just stocked up on the fastest single cards to tide me over.
 
I upgraded to an R9 290 from GTX 680 SLI. Yes, upgrade. When I first bought the 680s I was thrilled with them and everything ran great.

Fast forward 1 year - BF4 came out and my problems began. First, one of my 680s popped and I had to RMA it Then the driver issues started. I was never able to enable SLI Surround with any of the R331 driver series (ie: the drivers that were the mandatory minimum for BF4). I tried reinstalling, only using 1 card, swapped cards, etc. nothing would work with my projectors. I could roll back to 320.49 and everything would be perfect again but that driver doesn't work with BF4.

I waited for the non-reference R9 290s to become available and then waited a bit longer for prices to come down (which they never did). I bought the MSI R9 290 GAMING for ~$CA600 and I've been pretty happy with it. BF4 runs great on it.
 
yergg said:
Jumped on my Asus R9 290 DirectCU when it was $10 over MSRP on Amazon. I am upgrading from GTX 460 1GB SLI config. (Well technically, I sold the 460s and used a 7850 until a 290 was available.)

I am running a single card for 1440p and loving it!

No regrets here.
Click to expand...

Do you play BF4 by any chance? if you do, what kind of performance are you getting?
 
rdqlus said:
I upgraded to an R9 290 from GTX 680 SLI. Yes, upgrade. When I first bought the 680s I was thrilled with them and everything ran great.

Fast forward 1 year - BF4 came out and my problems began. First, one of my 680s popped and I had to RMA it Then the driver issues started. I was never able to enable SLI Surround with any of the R331 driver series (ie: the drivers that were the mandatory minimum for BF4). I tried reinstalling, only using 1 card, swapped cards, etc. nothing would work with my projectors. I could roll back to 320.49 and everything would be perfect again but that driver doesn't work with BF4.

I waited for the non-reference R9 290s to become available and then waited a bit longer for prices to come down (which they never did). I bought the MSI R9 290 GAMING for ~$CA600 and I've been pretty happy with it. BF4 runs great on it.
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Seriously, spring of last year it seems like is when nVidia's drivers started going to all shit.... I honestly can't believe my 290 is smoother and more stable than the 660Ti it replaced lol.
 
Sodapopjones said:
Seriously, spring of last year it seems like is when nVidia's drivers started going to all shit.... I honestly can't believe my 290 is smoother and more stable than the 660Ti it replaced lol.
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I agree, although it is funny that so many blind Nvidia Fanboys scream from the mountaintops that "AMD driverz are the suckz."

OP, I love my 290..I had some issues, but it was related to my specific card's bios, which I fixed by using the Sapphire TriX Bios. I am using mine with the Koolance full cover GPU block, and see temps hover in the low to mid 30s on the core and mid to low 40s on the card's main VRM..
 
Sodapopjones said:
Seriously, spring of last year it seems like is when nVidia's drivers started going to all shit.... I honestly can't believe my 290 is smoother and more stable than the 660Ti it replaced lol.
Click to expand...

I have seen no more issue posts than there generally are on either end, as usual amd has many more severe widespread issues. I sure as hell would hope an r9 290 would run better framerates than a 660ti, it's a much stronger card :rolleyes:.

Op, I have tried amd many times over the years and always am disappointed in the software support, and reference coolers on those with them. Just grab a 780 if you want a close single card, or a 780 ti if you want an oc'd upgrade. Oc to oc the 780 is much better than the 290.
 
I love the performance of my 770 but the constant driver crashes are driving me crazy.

I may switch to a 290 or 290X when prices come down some more. I don't know why Nvidia can't seem to fix these driver crash issues.
 
GoldenTiger said:
I have seen no more issue posts than there generally are on either end, as usual amd has many more severe widespread issues. I sure as hell would hope an r9 290 would run better framerates than a 660ti, it's a much stronger card :rolleyes:.

Op, I have tried amd many times over the years and always am disappointed in the software support, and reference coolers on those with them. Just grab a 780 if you want a close single card, or a 780 ti if you want an oc'd upgrade. Oc to oc the 780 is much better than the 290.
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once again talking without any factual basis . :rolleyes:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...s/63051-evga-gtx-780-classified-review-8.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...5715-pny-geforce-gtx-780-oc-3gb-review-7.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...1-xfx-r9-290-double-dissipation-review-8.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...72-sapphire-r9-290-4gb-tri-x-oc-review-8.html

Crysis 3 is a game which Nvidia cards do well (you can see the 780 ti quite a bit faster over R9 290X). Still the R9 290 cards do quite well against GTX 780.
XFX R9 290 OC (1277 Mhz) - 49.1 fps
Sapphire R9 290 OC (1251 mhz) - 48.45 fps
EVGA GTX 780( 1320 mhz) - 47.64 fps.
PNY GTX 780 OC (1213 Mhz) - 44.53 fps

In general a R9 290 can easily match a 100 - 150 Mhz higher clocked GTX 780 when compared across a range of games. R9 290 clocks 100 Mhz lesser on average OC when compared to GTX 780 so both are on par. GTX 780 is not much better by any stretch of imagination. :D
 
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SilverSliver said:
Don't buy an MSI Gaming.
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Dumb statement by someone who's likely never owned one and quickly jumped on the hate bandwagon.

Since I've actually own this card for some time, here's my quick review: it runs flawlessly. It's quiet, has hynix ram, maxes out at 79c at load, and looks awesome. I have zero regrets purchasing this card. OP, be wary of the group-think crowd trolling around here that have never purchased one of these cards.
 
raghu78 said:
once again talking without any factual basis . :rolleyes:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...s/63051-evga-gtx-780-classified-review-8.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...5715-pny-geforce-gtx-780-oc-3gb-review-7.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...1-xfx-r9-290-double-dissipation-review-8.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...72-sapphire-r9-290-4gb-tri-x-oc-review-8.html

Crysis 3 is a game which Nvidia cards do well (you can see the 780 ti quite a bit faster over R9 290X). Still the R9 290 cards do quite well against GTX 780.
XFX R9 290 OC (1277 Mhz) - 49.1 fps
Sapphire R9 290 OC (1251 mhz) - 48.45 fps
EVGA GTX 780( 1320 mhz) - 47.64 fps.
PNY GTX 780 OC (1213 Mhz) - 44.53 fps

In general a R9 290 can easily match a 100 - 150 Mhz higher clocked GTX 780 when compared across a range of games. R9 290 clocks 100 Mhz lesser on average OC when compared to GTX 780 so both are on par. GTX 780 is not much better by any stretch of imagination. :D
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That's cute but a 290x costs as much as a 780ti currently, and even those tend to only hit 1100mhz on air typically at similar noise levels. So really the 780 let alone the ti way outpace a paltry 1100mhz r9 290, which is all you'll get. And one cherry picked game from one review hardly says much, I did research across sites and forums unlike you mr. rep.
 
m3ryno said:
Dumb statement by someone who's likely never owned one and quickly jumped on the hate bandwagon.

Since I've actually own this card for some time, here's my quick review: it runs flawlessly. It's quiet, has hynix ram, maxes out at 79c at load, and looks awesome. I have zero regrets purchasing this card. OP, be wary of the group-think crowd trolling around here that have never purchased one of these cards.
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Did you notice it has zero VRM cooling? Did you notice the TERRIBLE rma service? How about the fans that need oiling, or outright replacement? I've owned plenty of MSI cards. A Lightning 7970 that was garbage, and a Twin Frozr 7950 were my most recent experiences directly.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Well, not zero.
MSI loves covering the entire PCB in a metal plate.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/R9_290X_Gaming/4.html

It seems to cover everything except VRM's, which is covered by the backplate actually.
Looks like the top of the VRM's go straight into the heatsink itself.

I don't own the card but I'd say it seems above-average just looking at these pics.
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My mistake on that. I had seen a few MSI cards with no active VRM cooling and thought this was included. I would still stray away due to RMA issues, but that's another problem entirely.
 
GoldenTiger said:
I have seen no more issue posts than there generally are on either end, as usual amd has many more severe widespread issues. I sure as hell would hope an r9 290 would run better framerates than a 660ti, it's a much stronger card :rolleyes:.

Op, I have tried amd many times over the years and always am disappointed in the software support, and reference coolers on those with them. Just grab a 780 if you want a close single card, or a 780 ti if you want an oc'd upgrade. Oc to oc the 780 is much better than the 290.
Click to expand...

I never said anything about Framerate, I said smoother, the retarded TDR's are gone; wasn't watching Angry_Joe crash while he tried to stream Titanfall enough for you lol. Heres's your :rolleyes: back
 
SilverSliver said:
My mistake on that. I had seen a few MSI cards with no active VRM cooling and thought this was included. I would still stray away due to RMA issues, but that's another problem entirely.
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You're thinking of the MSI 280x which throttles itself under normal load.
And the 780 Ti which had a missing VRM thermal pad.
 
Have ran a 7970 and a 680 and recently bought a Gigabyte Ref 290 for $380 (lightly used) my experience thus far with both cards has been great, no issues to really report from either camp. Waiting on an adapter to show up tuesday and will let you know how the 290 works out.
 
I have two 290s, which are overclocked. Noise for me is not as issue as I wear headphones when I game. Setting a custom fan profile keeps both of my gpus around 70c under full load, with the stock blower style cooler.

When I think about it, I am getting almost DOUBLE the performance of a 780ti for only a FEW BUCKS MORE, with ADDITIONAL vram at 512bit
 
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