290 xfire or wait for the Nvidia Maxwell series?

[Skurge]

If you don't use eyefinity then I believe you can use the dvi on both cards

 

[desprado]

MSI Gaming is also very good.. but for single card configs only. As is XFX DD. These guys use a custom cooler specifically designed for Hawaii. Asus and Gigabyte got lazy and re-used coolers designed for Gk110's larger die size.

Bro really MSI gaming edition is a real crap.

 

[scaramoosh]

Ah fuck it, just ordered two Sapphire 290s, £660 both both including shipping, so not much above a Ti. That way I can refit those coolers and sell them for a bit more when I upgrade again next year.

 

[wand3r3r]

I highly recommend mining in your spare time. Currently it's profitable to even mine and sell often, or hold for longer term gambling. It's worth taking a look! (I got my 2 290x with this in mind)

Did you figure out more about the 4x DVI?

 

[scaramoosh]

I have no idea what Bitcoin is and tbh it just sounds like some weird fad that'll go nowhere, maybe I'm wrong, I haven't looked into it at all, however stuff that is too good to be true, always is.

 

[Kenmitch]

I have no idea what Bitcoin is and tbh it just sounds like some weird fad that'll go nowhere, maybe I'm wrong, I haven't looked into it at all, however stuff that is too good to be true, always is.

I purchased a ref XFX 290 for $406 shipped in late November. Sold my old card for $120 so only was into it for $286. I mined LTC for a month with it and when I converted to BTC and cashed out I got $210. The end cost was $76 to me.....Sold card for $440 cash on Thursday.

I have a tri-X 290 on order from shopblt.com which may take a couple of weeks to get.

I was looking around this AM and found the XFX r9 290 Double D at superbiiz.com available in stock for $509.99 shipped. It's got to be the sexiest looking 290 to date but couldn't find any reviews of it so far. Not sure why I rolled the dice on it but I wound up ordering one of them also. Figure I can test it out and see how it works out as far as temps, etc. I'll throw it in my rig till the tri-x gets here. Once tri-x is here I'll most likely throw it in another rig and 24/7 mine with it....As long as the cooler is up to the task.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=XFX-R929AD#

Not saying you should mine but it is worth looking in to at least.

Enjoy those tri-X's

 

[Majcric]

That XFX is a nice looking 290, has anyone noticed the power requirement of 750w?

 

[el etro]

After a xfire of r9 290-NonX, any card multicard setup other than an SLI of aftermarket GTX 780 is money waste.

Crossfire scales better. Crossfire frametimes issue will be not a problem if you don't care about DX9 titles.

Then, my advice is to go with a dual r9 290 Tri-X setup. Maxwell would probably worth the wait, but not price-wise.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I'll be surprised if there are high end 20nm gpu's before Fall 2014.

 

[OCGuy]

I wouldn't be purchasing a bleeding-edge 28nm card at this point, unless I had to due to either building from scratch or previous card failure.

Wait.

 

[IEC]

AMD finally got it right with the 290/X Crossfire. First "plug and play" solution I've had where I don't have to do anything but install the latest Catalyst and play my games. No bridge cable = win.

Whereas my previous HD 5830 CF and HD 7790 CF setups were short lived, as I ran into issues with some games not supporting CF properly. Did I mention I hate bridge cables?

Anyhow, at your rates (2x 290 for the price of 1x 780 Ti) and multi monitor needs, it seems like 290 CF is your best bet if you don't want to wait for 20nm.

 

[scaramoosh]

I don't get why people want to wait for nm changes... it never matters, performance of new cards always get better at the same rates each year, it isn't like the next year, suddenly everything before it is worthless.

What is this about no bridge cables? Is that a thing of the past now with AMD? I don't use eyefinity or whatever the fuck it is called, I just need two cards for the ports, in reality I just play games on a 1080p monitor.

 

[Silverforce11]

Looks like you will have to play with 8xMSAA or SSAA, because 2x R290 is overkill for 1080p.

 

[Grooveriding]

Just buy something now. You're not going to be able to get anything faster than a 290/780 until the end of the year anyways. That's a long wait.

 

[scaramoosh]

I sold them already, terrible drivers, was a bitch getting it to work with my monitors, crossfire was worthless, just ruined every game FPS and every video recording software sucks but Shadowplay.

I just got two 650ti's off my friend to keep me going until Nvidia launch their maxwell stuff, never going AMD until they fix the software.

 

[Pottuvoi]

If you are not in hurry, wait.
Then see which one is better for you.

 

[SolMiester]

Two are 1200p, one is 2000 something by 1080 (21:9) and the other is 1080p because it's my TV. I just like to run them all at the same time doing different things...

If Crossfire will give me issues I will just skip AMD and wait for Maxwell then, I had nothing but problems with it in the past, went to Nvidia with the 400 series and haven't had any experience with AMD since..

If 1 of the displays are a TV, then HDMI is perfect for it. What about 780 B1 Rev, 290 CF takes a dedicated enthusiast to tame.
You dont say where you are, but aren't 290's the same price as 780 in the US or there abouts!
High end Maxwell is ages away.

 

[etrin]

why all the talk and wait for maxwell?
The first card is the 750Ti and every review says its junk.
So what is this supposed to do that will make it earth shaking?

 

[BrightCandle]

A move to 20nm will bring a near doubling of transistors and hence somewhere near a doubling in performance. Unlike CPUs the GPUs still scale pretty well with increased transistor density. Its assumed that Maxwell will be released on 20nm when it comes.

Seeing as how TSMC just transitioned to volume on 20nm it seems reasonable to assume that the Maxwell mid and high end cards (not the ultra low end) will be 20nm and hence offer upto 100% more performance than todays cards at the same price point. Knowing that but not quite knowing the date does it seems sensible to be buying the previous technology right now?

In my opinion you should buy the high end of a process as early as possible, that gives you 1-2 years and you should stay on that card until the next process comes out. The refreshes are often more efficient but significantly less of a jump than a new process node.

 

[etrin]

IF and I say IF N comes out with a card that is 2x as fast as today there will be one and it will be $1200. I don't care if it cost $50 to make they are the worlds worst at Fing the customer. So I don't believe for one second there will be anything close to todays cards at the same price point.
if it wasn't for this coin crap they would already be 1/2 of what they are now and begging for someone to buy them.
Why do you think they B1 chips are coming out now, to say they are 1% faster, if not they would have NEVER made one and the 780 would still be $700.