GTX780 features vs R9 290 series?

[dlamb2471]

I'm strongly considering upgrading to either a R9 290 or a R9 290X. I will admit I am a bit of an AMD fan, but I'm also trying to look at the best value and so I'm also considering the GTX 780. Of course "best value" is a little crazy in this price catergory...I digress.

I re-read Anandtech's review of the R9 290X several times, and I've read the reviews of the GTX780. If we skip performance comparisons, does anyone have a line by line feature comparison of the two chip families? Direct X capabilities, 3-d capabilities, the new AMD audio features, etc.

Looking for genuine input here people. Thanks!

(edited for typos)

 

[dlamb2471]

Follow up to my own question, have we seen any benchmarks showing a benefit specific to 4 gig of memory verses 3 gig on the cards?

 

[Owls]

Follow up to my own question, have we seen any benchmarks showing a benefit specific to 4 gig of memory verses 3 gig on the cards?

Do you play at 1080p or 1440p+? I'm on the cusp of ditching my 3x 680s and getting 3x 290x radeons because more and more games will begin utilizing more vram. At 1600p 2gb is seriously bottlenecked.

 

[3DVagabond]

Do you play at 1080p or 1440p+? I'm on the cusp of ditching my 3x 680s and getting 3x 290x radeons because more and more games will begin utilizing more vram. At 1600p 2gb is seriously bottlenecked.

We know that 2 way crossfire is fixed with the 290, but I'd wait until some review of 3 way before I simply assumed it was fixed as well. Just my 2¢.

 

[horza]

..

 

[parkerm35]

Well if your looking for best value, the R9 290 is going to be $399 and be on par/slightly faster than the 780, now thats value for money!

 

[3DVagabond]

Well if your looking for best value, the R9 290 is going to be $399 and be on par/slightly faster than the 780, now thats value for money!

According to OCUK, with the new drivers it's faster than the 290X is with the current drivers. If that's true, we are looking at ≥ Titan, depending on resolution.

 

[bystander36]

Nvidia features:
PhysX - on a few games a year. It can be nice on some games.
3D Vision - has better support than HD3D, especially with the Helix mod community.
G-sync - will be new next year on select monitors, but may revolutionize how displays refresh. No tearing, no latency, no stuttering.

AMD features:
They really don't have exclusive features. Mantle is the closest thing that will be coming out soon, which may improve performance in a few games, by allowing dev's to more easily apply low level code into games. They also have a new way to handle crossfire, which shows big improvements on very large resolutions.

 

[EndlessWargasm]

Nvidia features:
AMD features:
They really don't have exclusive features. Mantle is the closest thing that will be coming out soon, which may improve performance in a few games, by allowing dev's to more easily apply low level code into games. They also have a new way to handle crossfire, which shows big improvements on very large resolutions.

You missed TrueAudio, another unknown, but very interesting to me at least.

Is Eyefinity still a better solution than Surround?

They are also the only ones with full 11.1/11.2 DX support.

 

[bystander36]

You missed TrueAudio, another unknown, but very interesting to me at least.

Is Eyefinity still a better solution than Surround?

They are also the only ones with full 11.1/11.2 DX support.

Well, Eyefinity has more features, such as mixing portrait and landscape modes and 5 monitor setups. And now that Crossfire doesn't use the bridge, crossfire is scaling better at the large resolutions or Eyefinity. For normal landscape or portrait mode, with 3 monitors, they are pretty much equal.

 

[Owls]

We know that 2 way crossfire is fixed with the 290, but I'd wait until some review of 3 way before I simply assumed it was fixed as well. Just my 2¢.

What problems are there with cfx with the 290? All the reviews were very positive or are there new developments?

 

[EndlessWargasm]

What problems are there with cfx with the 290? All the reviews were very positive or are there new developments?

No he is saying that crossfire is fixed in Hawaii as compared to previous chips, due to the new XDMA Crossfire hardware.

Edit: Whoops, misread. Yeah, no 3/4 way reviews as yet.

 

[3DVagabond]

What problems are there with cfx with the 290? All the reviews were very positive or are there new developments?

We've only seen 2-way Crossfire reviewed. Those results are very good. Great scaling abd very smooth gameplay. We haven't seen any 3 or 4 way crossfire results with the 290X though. Just because they are good in 2-way doesn't automatically mean 3 and 4 way will have the same results. AMD has had too many problems with crossfire in the recent past for me just to give them a pass until it's tested.

 

[dlamb2471]

Well, I certainly didn't expect the R9 290 to show up with an insanely loud fan. I think I'll wait a couple of weeks to see what the OEM's come up with, see what the new 780 Ti does to the market, and then decide between the R9 290 and the GTX 780.

 

[Slomo4shO]

Wait for non-reference 290s

 

[ShintaiDK]

They are also the only ones with full 11.1/11.2 DX support.

No they are not. Its simply a forum myth. And they lack a crucial one in terms of multithreading.

 

[wand3r3r]

No they are not. Its simply a forum myth. And they lack a crucial one in terms of multithreading.

Are you implying NV supports 11.x? According to themselves they support feature level 0. So only a portion of 11.1.

Titan
Microsoft DirectX 11.1 API (feature level 11_0)

http://www.nvidia.com/titan-graphics-card/features-technology

R9 290/x

Third is DirectX support. All of the R9 and R7 and Radeon HD 7000 series support DirectX 11.1 and DirectX 11.2 Tier 1 under Windows 8.1. This 11.2 Tier 1 support is added as a driver update. However, only the R7 260X, R9 290 and R9 290X will support DirectX 11.2 Tier 2 under Windows 8.1. The different tier's represent the level of Tiled Resources feature supported under DX 11.2. R7 260X, R9 290 and R9 290X will have the ability to support the entire feature set, both tiers of Tiled Resources under DX 11.2 in Windows 8.1. Remember also, DX 11.2 is only available under Windows 8.1, not Windows 8.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/10/23/amd_radeon_r9_290x_video_card_review

 

[ShintaiDK]

Are you implying NV supports 11.x? According to themselves they support feature level 0. So only a portion of 11.1.

Titan
Microsoft DirectX 11.1 API (feature level 11_0)

http://www.nvidia.com/titan-graphics-card/features-technology

R9 290/x
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/10/23/amd_radeon_r9_290x_video_card_review

Not sure how you could imagine that I implied that nVidia fully supported it. None of the 2 supports DX11.2 fully. Or even DX11.0. Its simply a mix of who supports what. I dont even think both combined fully supports it.

 

[Z15CAM]

For the money/performance I'm really impressed with the R9 290 at $440 CDN add the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III for another $76 = $486 + 13% HST and $12 shipping = Approx $562 CDN - But NO Games. That's about on par with the eVGA 03G-P4-3783-KR GTX 780 with Games but doesn't include Tax and Shipping = $650 say $100 more but you get 3 Games.

I wonder if aftermarket 290 Cooling solutions will perform any better then the Accelero Extreme III for under $75.

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PS: Since I have a 2560 x 1440 PLS Display - It's a no brainier to choose the R9 290 over a GTX 780 for the pricing.

 

[blackened23]

While i'm not a fan of the reference blower, I will state that the 290 is just an incredible value for the performance you get at 400$. If you're accustomed to AMD reference GPUs, the reference shroud may be a complete non issue to you - I know more or less what my former 6970 and 7970s sounded like, and the 290 is basically similar in terms of acoustics (at similar fan speed percentages).

If you're accustomed to AMD acoustics - which you seem to indicate you are in your OP, by all means buy the 290. The performance is incredible for the price, period. That being said, If *I* were on the market, i'd personally hesitate until aftermarket cards are available. That's me though - my preferences have shifted towards acoustical perfection over the past few years and i'm not a big fan of the AMD reference shroud. In fact, I can't believe they didn't really improve it over the 7970 - although aftermarket cards should fix this. Still, I cannot deny that the value of the 290 is exceptional. If you're acclimated to AMD reference blowers (and noise wise they've been the same for years) the 290 should do you well.

The one thing to consider is the game bundle with the 780. I've seen that 3 game bundle selling for around 45-50$ for all 3 games at other forums, so that's something to keep in mind. Or perhaps they're games that you actually want to play. Even with this game bundle in consideration, the 290 is a better value if you completely ignore the differences in acoustics.

 

[imaheadcase]

Nvidia drivers are known to be "better", but depends on who you ask of course. Nvidia does have some nifty things going so far with drivers this year, Geforce Experience is really nice. Gives you Shadowplay which is awesome, and well as optimizes games (this includes enabling non-official feastures for games)

 

[Face2Face]

You missed TrueAudio, another unknown, but very interesting to me at least.

I am waiting to see how TrueAudio works with the new Theif game coming out. Could be pretty freaking awesome.

 

[blackened23]

I wonder if aftermarket 290 Cooling solutions will perform any better then the Accelero Extreme III for under $75.

I'm inclined to say better, since the Extreme III doesn't cool VRMs or memory properly. I've used various accelero coolers over the years and I will say the noise output is non-existent. Even at 100% manual fan speed - those things are RIDICULOUSLY quiet. Absurdly quiet. But that's a given since they're 11 inch, 3 fan and 3 slot coolers.

I think overall, that AIB coolers will be substantially better and substantially cheaper with all things (VRM / memory cooling) considered. The accelero is basically too expensive since they're 80-100$ a pop, and that's tough to overlook when they don't cool the VRM and memory chips properly.

 

[akahoovy]

I'm inclined to say better, since the Extreme III doesn't cool VRMs or memory properly. I've used various accelero coolers over the years and I will say the noise output is non-existent. Even at 100% manual fan speed - those things are RIDICULOUSLY quiet. Absurdly quiet. But that's a given since they're 11 inch, 3 fan and 3 slot coolers.

I think overall, that AIB coolers will be substantially better and substantially cheaper with all things (VRM / memory cooling) considered. The accelero is basically too expensive since they're 80-100$ a pop, and that's tough to overlook when they don't cool the VRM and memory chips properly.

Thanks for the info. I was about to pull the trigger and order two 290's and two Acceleros. I can hang in for aftermarket cards then.

Are they coming just after the 780 Ti debuts or the beginning of December?

 

[Subyman]

If you aren't water-cooling then just get the 290, both the 290X and the 290 throttle to around the same performance. When temps are no longer a factor, then the 290X should be comfortably faster. However, the 780 is a great overclocker, so enthusiasts that over clock or run water have a harder choice to make.