r9 290 or 780 for 3 monitor setup

[laputan machine]

Hi, some months back I got a 3 monitor(1080p) setup for gaming. Right now I have an xfx dual fan 7950 feeding it, but while it does try it's best it's really not quite powerful enough for my tastes, so I might upgrade.

How do the 290 stack up against the 780? Here the 290 is a bit cheaper, and the extra gb of ram is also tempting, but of course it is noisier and seems to overclock worse. My 7950 gets pretty noisy too, how much worse is the 290 when it ramps up the fan speed?

Right now I'm playing World Of Tanks the most, and while I can use most preferences at ultra, I can't really use any shadows in the game without the performance tanking.
SLI or Crossfire is not an option.

 

[Silverforce11]

World of Tanks is extremely CPU limited so doesn't really matter about the GPU. On a lot of maps, even OC to 4.5ghz I drop below 60 fp and my GPU is like 20% loaded. Same applies for all users since the game is single threaded... in 2013. Its a sin.

If R290 is cheaper I go with those, they come faster out of the box for cheaper. But don't get reference cards for gaming its not worth the noise and heat. Grab aftermarket models that are out now or a few more soon.

If 780s are similar priced, those are a no brainer.

 

[laputan machine]

Yes, I know I will never get 120fps in WoT no matter what I do. However I do want to have more than 20-30, and have the game looking as good as possible.

I forgot to mention that I use a small itx case, the sg05. But if that can handle the heat of an overclocked non blower 7950 it shouldn't choke that much more on a non blower 290 or 780.

 

[Silverforce11]

I used the sg05, with an extra 120mm fan exhaust on the roof (i cut the top panel), it was excellent with thermals.

Whats your GPU load at 3x 1080p on the OC 7950? Pretty sure if you disable 8x MSAA it should be fine.

 

[laputan machine]

About 94% when I disabled AA. The game is more taxing than you'd think on 3 monitors.

 

[Silverforce11]

I tried very hard to notice a difference with some of their fancy graphics options, but its pretty meh, lipstick on a pig if you will. Lightning option especially, I couldn't see the difference after countless games.

I don't know if it helps you, but I run WoT maxed on 1080p and 1 R290 doesn't even reach 40% load.

 

[MangoX]

If you've got that case then I'd suggest you'd stick with a blower and not a aftermarket card.