R9 390 8GB vs GTX970 4GB

[UnholyCarcass]

At 1440p I definitely think the R9 390 is worth the extra money over the 970. Iirc the AMD cards do better at higher resolutions than the nvidia gpus.

 

[readers]

390, unless your case has airflow issue or your power supply has issue running it.

 

[beginner99]

Thx. In case I could also grab a 290x 4gb for about 280€. Would it match the 390 8gb for 35€ less?

Depending on which model the 290x is, for sure yes. It's probably even faster. 390/390x are only portrayed as faster because they are compared to reference 290/290x. But custom 290/290x are almost as fast as 390/390x.

Note: I'm biased. Just bought a used 290x for 230€. A new 390 would here cost about 340€. I think best deal now is to find used 290(x) and then upgrade in 2 years when 16nm HBM becomes viable (in terms of price).

 

[RussianSensation]

Note: I'm biased. Just bought a used 290x for 230€. A new 390 would here cost about 340€. I think best deal now is to find used 290(x) and then upgrade in 2 years when 16nm HBM becomes viable (in terms of price).

Great deal you deal hunter you!

I agree. The reputation for 290/290X cards is so tarnished and on top of that some 290X users bought those cards for $450-500 new so presumably some of them have upgraded to Fury X/980Ti. Between the general consumer who has negative connotation on almost all R9 2xx series cards and the users who require more performance, 290/290X should be easy to find. I would lean towards the Sapphire Tri-X or Vapor-X series. Also, the PowerColor PCS+ was a solid model, as well as the MSI Lightning.

 

[Tecnoworld]

to avoid getting a reference card, I opted for a 290x with 8GB (330€ shipped, new). Not a greatgreat deal, but not too bad either, considering that's almost a 390x (costing at least 80€ more).

 

[RussianSensation]

to avoid getting a reference card, I opted for a 290x with 8GB (330€ shipped, new). Not a greatgreat deal, but not too bad either, considering that's almost a 390x (costing at least 80€ more).

Enjoy your new card. Later on if you don't mind putting your location so that we know where you are from, that would help people from your country also know what the prices are and so on and for us too who often rely on US pricing as a point of reference.

 

[werepossum]

Great deal you deal hunter you!

I agree. The reputation for 290/290X cards is so tarnished and on top of that some 290X users bought those cards for $450-500 new so presumably some of them have upgraded to Fury X/980Ti. Between the general consumer who has negative connotation on almost all R9 2xx series cards and the users who require more performance, 290/290X should be easy to find. I would lean towards the Sapphire Tri-X or Vapor-X series. Also, the PowerColor PCS+ was a solid model, as well as the MSI Lightning.

I have no negative connotations except for the reference blower versions, but just didn't see any 290/290X models at prices I considered acceptable for brands in which I was interested. Bizarrely, 290/290X cards are often being offered at prices higher than the 390, and for the 8GB 290/290X cards often at or above 390X prices. Offering any 8GB 290X at $550 US is simply insane.

 

[Tecnoworld]

I live in Italy (I buy within eu).

 

[Tecnoworld]

Uff, this is getting silly. The seller just told me that I could have a fury pro card fir 90€ more than the 290x I ordered. What would you buy? 290x with 8gb or fuji pro??? It's urgent, any help is much appreciated! I'll play at 1440p on a haswell-e cpu@4.4ghz.

 

[RussianSensation]

I have no negative connotations except for the reference blower versions, but just didn't see any 290/290X models at prices I considered acceptable for brands in which I was interested. Bizarrely, 290/290X cards are often being offered at prices higher than the 390, and for the 8GB 290/290X cards often at or above 390X prices. Offering any 8GB 290X at $550 US is simply insane.

I reread your response twice and I do not see how it has anything to do with my post about available of existing 290/290X inventory in the used market / on last minute sales. Whatever the case was in 2013 only supports my point earlier about the overall tarnished reputation of 290/290X cards which only strengthens the idea that many of those cards are being dumped on the used market / have very poor resale value for many factors already covered.

Uff, this is getting silly. The seller just told me that I could have a fury pro card fir 90€ more than the 290x I ordered. What would you buy? 290x with 8gb or fuji pro??? It's urgent, any help is much appreciated! I'll play at 1440p on a haswell-e cpu@4.4ghz.

How are we supposed to answer that question? Are you planning to keep this card for 3-5 years? or would you be willing to resell it in 1.5-2 years? If you are just using the 28nm card as a stop-gap, then I would buy a 290/290X/390/970 and save the 90 Euro towards a future 16nm HBM2 card. If you intend to keep the card longer, then sure get the Fury, barring that 980Ti isn't much more expensive because in the US just $90-100 US separate these cards making 980Ti a no brainer for most.

 

[Tecnoworld]

Where I live, the cheapest gtx 980 is 65€ more than the fury pro I could buy, while the ti goes for 280€ more!

The last time I bought a card as a stop gap was a hd6950, which I turned into a 6970 and finished keeping it for several years, hehe...

So ok, it would need to be a card allowing me to play games at 1440p with most of selectable detaild for at least 1.5/2years, but if then I see that the card is enough, I could keep it more.

 

[AtenRa]

Uff, this is getting silly. The seller just told me that I could have a fury pro card fir 90€ more than the 290x I ordered. What would you buy? 290x with 8gb or fuji pro??? It's urgent, any help is much appreciated! I'll play at 1440p on a haswell-e cpu@4.4ghz.

Go for the Fury, much better for 1440p and it will become even better with new games.

 

[showb1z]

I got my 390 for €320. If I could've gotten a Fury for only €420 I definitely would've gotten that.
That's a crazy deal really, cheapest Fury I can find is €540. Did it fall off the truck or something?

 

[RussianSensation]

Where I live, the cheapest gtx 980 is 65€ more than the fury pro I could buy, while the ti goes for 280€ more!

Sounds like the Fury is a good deal then relatively speaking. Make sure to pick the Sapphire Tri-X or XFX Triple Dissipation over the Asus Strix model.

 

[Tecnoworld]

It's the sapphire! Costs 420€ shipped.

 

[Seba]

What happened to your "maximum 320€ budget"?

You my regret such an expensive purchase in less than a year, when the new generation of graphics cards will arrive.

 

[Shmee]

Nice! Sapphire tri-X is one of the best coolers period in recent times.

 

[Tecnoworld]

Seba, you are totally right and that's my main concern. I actually sold my old 6950 for 80€ and that could 'help'.

Reading on the web I found that the next gen will actually come in 2016, but in low/mid end products. Hence the real replacement for Fury (and nvidia's gtx 980) will be out in early 2017. So I can live with that....

 

[Seba]

I am more or less in the same boat (about one month ago I sold my old GTX 660 2GB, for ~110€ and now I need another graphics card). I am waiting for Black Friday deals.

Here the Sapphire Tri-X R9 Fury card sells for at least 600€, so 420€ would be a great price (for someone looking for a graphics card in that price range). I would like to find something in the 250€ price zone (local prices) and this price segment is almost a desert (cheapest R9 290/GTX 970 are almost 350€ here).

 

[Tecnoworld]

Seba, are you in the eu?

 

[Seba]

Yes, but I do not want to buy from another country, because local warranty has a great value here (this is why I got 110€ for my old GTX 660 - it still had more than a year of warranty left, at a shop with positive reviews).

 

[RaistlinZ]

Uff, this is getting silly. The seller just told me that I could have a fury pro card fir 90€ more than the 290x I ordered. What would you buy? 290x with 8gb or fuji pro??? It's urgent, any help is much appreciated! I'll play at 1440p on a haswell-e cpu@4.4ghz.

What's the Fury Pro? I'm only familiar with the Fury, Fury X, and Fury Nano.

Also OP, what CPU are you using? No point spending big bucks on a GPU if you're already CPU limited.

 

[Tecnoworld]

Raist, I think it's the fury (non x). The card is this one:

http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=186E1407-85D2-49A4-A7BD-D6D8727F67F1&lang=eng

 

[Seba]

It's a R9 Fury card, with Fiji Pro GPU, I presume.

 

[showb1z]

You got a Fury at the price of a 390X, no way you'll regret that . No matter what comes out next year.
And it's pretty much guaranteed we'll get the same release order as on 28nm, won't be seeing 500mm² chips in 2016. Fury should hold up fine.