R9 290 or GTX780 ??

[blackened23]

Frankly, I think an R9 290 at $550 is a good deal

LOL. Yeah, that's a fantastic deal for anyone that could be employed by AMD, or anyone that has a vested interest in selling AMD cards, or a crypto coin miner. Great deal indeed. For anyone in those categories, absolutely a steal of a deal, at 150$ over MSRP.

Meanwhile in the real world...I don't think so.

 

[IEC]

Yeah, that's a fantastic deal for anyone that could be employed by AMD, or anyone that has a vested interest in selling AMD cards, or a crypto coin miner. Great deal indeed. For anyone in those categories, absolutely a steal of a deal, at 150$ over MSRP.

Meanwhile in the real world...I don't think so.

I'll repost this, since it needs to be reiterated so people don't pay stupid prices:

290s and 290X are continuously in stock at or slightly above MSRP, but they go OOS very quickly. The ones in stock at absurd prices are there to catch the truly desperate.

Amazon has had Radeon 290s @ $43x.xx in and out multiple times over the past few days alone. Newegg had at least a dozen Sapphire Tri-X 290s @ $499.99 base price yesterday.

 

[blackened23]

As far as I can tell, crypto coin miners are causing price hikes everywhere including amazon. Such as this card sold by amazon themselves:

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-RADEON-947...eywords=r9+290

Complete list of 290s at amazon (mostly 3rd party sellers):

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ngJavascript=1

Of the cards that amazon sells, one is 112$ over MSRP. Another is 70$ over MSRP. I haven't seen any *at* MSRP. Although my search could be failing me here. Which specific model is at MSRP? Then we have the 280X cards which are all, even the ones sold by amazon directly - they are all 100$ above MSRP across the board. All thanks to miners who don't play PC games. (yes, there are exceptions, however MOST aren't the intended gamer demographic).

Truthfully, you'd have to be nuts to buy at a price like this. I haven't seen MSRP at any regularity, although even the Tri-X at 499.99 is still well above MSRP. Maybe masterpass could offset that though, if it's still around at newegg? Shrug. A tri-X at closer to the MSRP would be a very tempting card, it's pretty impressive. But I have to do a double take at anyone suggesting 550$ is a "good deal".

I do agree with you. The Tri-X is a very impressive card. At 500$ it's much less impressive, but 50$ off (through masterpass) could go a long way towards offsetting that like I said.

 

[IEC]

As far as I can tell, crypto coin miners are causing price hikes everywhere including amazon. Such as this card sold by amazon themselves:

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-RADEON-947...eywords=r9+290

Complete list of 290s at amazon (mostly 3rd party sellers):

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ngJavascript=1

Of the cards that amazon sells, one is 112$ over MSRP. Another is 70$ over MSRP. I haven't seen any *at* MSRP. Although my search could be failing me here. Which specific model is at MSRP?

Truthfully, you'd have to be nuts to buy at a price like this. I haven't seen MSRP at any regularity, although even the Tri-X at 499.99 is still well above MSRP. Maybe masterpass could offset that though, if it's still around at newegg? Shrug. A tri-X at closer to the MSRP would be a very tempting card, it's pretty impressive. But I have to do a double take at anyone suggesting 550$ is a "good deal".

I do agree with you. The Tri-X is an impressive card. At 500$ it's much less impressive, but 50$ could go a long way towards offsetting that like I said.

Amazon lists them at MSRP or slightly above regularly but for very limited windows and maybe 10 quantity at a time. Then reverts to higher prices.

 

[blastingcap]

Not regularly. When people cancel orders they relist them after the system verifies that it's canceled for real. It takes a while sometimes. They do sell out entirely of them eventually until the next shipment.

 

[nitromullet]

I think the bottom line is this...

If you can get an R9 290 at or near MSRP, go for it. Otherwise, the GTX 780 is a great card for ~$500.

I was in the market for an R9 290 myself, but I gave up and bought a used GTX 770 for ~$275 instead. That should keep me in business until either the next generation of cards or there are some significant price drops on the Radeons. Given AMD's history, mining aside, we should expect to find R9 290's for $300 eventually.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Personally I think the 780 is overpriced and I wouldn't pay one cent over msrp on any card. So the only option imo is to wait it out for an aftermarket 290 at msrp. You could be in for a long wait though.

 

[IEC]

Yes regularly.

Here it is again, 5 left in stock, more shipping in on Jan 1.

www.amazon.com/XFX-980MHz-2XDVI-Graphics-R9290AENBC/dp/B00H347ZKY/

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Yes regularly.

Here it is again, 5 left in stock, more shipping in on Jan 1.

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-980MHz-2XD...=radeon+r9+290

$35 too much.

 

[IEC]

$35 too much.

This time, yes. The other day a merchant who shall remain unnamed had Asus 290X in stock for 4% under MSRP.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

This time, yes. The other day a merchant who shall remain unnamed had Asus 290X in stock for 4% under MSRP.

I know that unnamed merchant wasn't gouge-egg. Even the ps4 on gouge egg is bundled with $400 of junk. They even have a bundle with a 60" friggin tv at retail price. smh.

 

[Silverforce11]

There's also bitcoinstore, they have R290/X at MSRP! It sells out fast once it comes in though I saw bout 5 in stock yesterday hehe.

https://www.bitcoinstore.com/advancedsearch/result/?q=radeon+r9

 

[blackened23]

edit: nevermind

 

[blastingcap]

Give it a rest you guys, the crypto thread is that other direction.

 

[Z15CAM]

Put it this way: A R9 290 will out perform a GTX 780 providing it's an AIB Air cooling solution and obliterate the 780 if it's under water.

In reference configuration the 780 has the advantage.

 

[blackened23]

Put it this way: A R9 290 will out perform a GTX 780 providing it's an AIB Air cooling solution and obliterate the 780 if it's under water.

We'll just pretend the 780 can't be overclocked. And that the majority of "under water" clocks for the 290 are still less than 1200mhz.

Even if we play make believe and ignore those two facts, that doesn't change the fact that 290s are near impossible to buy at MSRP, and buying it at 530$+ is a no-go unless the buyer is an idiot. Or a miner. Who wants to take a 1+ year to pay for their card through 24/7 mining.

If, theoretically, one could buy a Tri-X near MSRP - I think that would be a great buy. But the reality is, right now you're not going to find one near MSRP due to mining. Not unless you're extremely lucky. Let's just not go around pretending that every tech review website known to man has documented excellent oc'ing and scaling results for the 780. Right now, the 780 is just a better buy than a price inflated 290. So that leaves the choice for the OP to play a waiting game for MSRP on an aftermarket 290 (who knows when) or get an aftermarket 780 for a comparable price right now.

 

[Z15CAM]

We'll just pretend the 780 can't be overclocked.

No doubt the reference 384-Bit/3Gb vRam GTX 780 can hit 1300/1500+ pending whether the vRam is Samsung or Alpida but the R9 290 is capable of hitting 1170/1500 with a 512-Bit/4Gb vRam so which is faster?

In reference configuration it's Tie with the GTX 780 being quieter.

 

[Silverforce11]

All we need is Balla in here and its dejavu.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2360073

 

[Z15CAM]

[redacted] Crypto Miners but if I was going under water I would pick the Reference R9 290 over the GTX 780 ensuring the card had Hynix vRam and not Alpida.

Same goes for the nVidia GTX Samsung Vs Alpida if you want the MOST.

In my opinion, the AIB R9 290 will respond better then the GTX 780 eVGA Classy and better yet under water.

We need Anandtech Forum Members with these cards to provide info before we can make statements.

Profanity isn't allowed in the technical forums.
-- stahlhart

 

[IEC]

[redacted] Crypto Miners but if I was going under water I would pick the Reference R9 290 over the GTX 780 ensuring the card had Hynix vRam and not Alpida.

Same goes for the nVidia GTX Samsung Vs Alpida if you want the MOST.

In my opinion, the AIB R9 290 will respond better then the GTX 780 eVGA Classy and better yet under water.

We need Anandtech Forum Members with these cards to provide info before we can make a positive statement.

Your mileage will vary on the reference R290s. One of mine is an XFX which does not like memory clocks > 1340 MHz. It will give me black lines across the screen at 1341 or higher.

 

[Z15CAM]

Well I'm still gambling with a Gigabyte R9 290X with Alpida vRam Reference Card and the Accelero Xtreme III - Just waiting for a 280x60x140 rad in the mail.

So far a 1200/1500 at +156mV yielding a 2995 Unigine Valley Score and Temps scare me whether it's GPU or VRM.

Why? Mainly because is not only interesting but controversial card.

Think about it: There has never been a more powerful GFX Card put out at 512-Bit 4Gb vRam.

The last 512-Bit card was the nVidia GTX 280 and it was the most expensive card in the World - What's wrong here.

It's up to us to blast AMD R9's with voltage and contend with the heat.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

All we need is Balla in here and its dejavu.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2360073

I'm good, until the actual 290 series owners man up and start posting some built in game benchmarks we'll just have to assume the 780 is faster ^_^

 

[Silverforce11]

I haven't seen much difference in gaming performance with vram OC on the R290s, but it scales nicely with core clocks. For mining, there is a major improvement with vram at 1500 compared to 1250 though.

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

will soon post r9 290 windforce on valley thread, card should be there on monday or tuesday (which is sylvester/new years eve, i hope they deliver before 2014), else it´s gonna be more like thursday/friday
i hope it´s good, despite the fact that reviews said, tri-x sapphire were like 10° colder
this was available, should still be good,
i´m also used to setting my fans to an incline that reaches 100% at 80°C
should be good temperature wise at those settings

 

[Z15CAM]

[I'm good, until the actual 290 series owners man up and start posting some built in game benchmarks we'll just have to assume the 780 is faster/QUOTE]

Sorry Balla but GPU Benching has nothing to do with game playing but is the Reference R9 290 as good as the eVGA GTX 780 Classy - Humm - I say YES.

You should not have to pay more then $549.99 for a Reference AMD R9 290X or more then $499.99 for an AMD R9 Reference 290 according to MSRP pricing and that's CDN dollars.