Return GTX 970 for R9 290x?

[SteveGrabowski]

Should I, or should I not return my GTX 970 for an R9 290x? Let's assume I'll put aside my anger at being lied to by Nvidia and assume I want to use my card for three years for AAA games, with hopefully a smooth degradation in settings to still play games decently at 60FPS over its lifetime. I currently run 1080p, and might consider an upgrade to 1440p. But I might also just wait until 4k is a reality on reasonably priced single cards ($350 and less) and wait until then to upgrade the monitor. I'm leaning towards a 290x for the true 4GB of VRAM. I'm not going to wait for the R9 300 series because I do not have a capable fallback card to use after returning my 970 if I end up sending it back. Thoughts? I have a 620W PSU which is more than capable of pushing a 290x, especially considering I use a locked 80W CPU (Xeon E3-1231v3).

As for my 970, it's quiet, has no coil whine whatsoever, and is a so-so overclocker (+245MHz over reference on the core). My 970 is rock solid for gaming now on 1080p, but I worry about its future with 0.5GB less VRAM than advertised. So which is the better card? (let's just assume the price is the same for simplicity)

My priorities are strictly performance and longevity. I don't care a whole lot about how loud it is as long as it's not ridiculous like a reference 290x uber.

 

[Pneumothorax]

Stick with your 970 as you're on 1080p. This issue will mostly affect us 1600P on up gamers.

 

[el etro]

I would not return the 970 for anything...

 

[Silverforce11]

Same price? Custom R290X (Tri-X, Vapor, PCS+) is the better card.

We're already seeing limitations of not having 4GB at 1080p in recent games (poor frame time & stutters in Mordor, more texture pop-ins in Dying Light).

You have to ask yourself whether future games will or won't continue this trend of pushing vram limits?

 

[garagisti]

Should I, or should I not return my GTX 970 for an R9 290x? Let's assume I'll put aside my anger at being lied to by Nvidia and assume I want to use my card for three years for AAA games, with hopefully a smooth degradation in settings to still play games decently at 60FPS over its lifetime. I currently run 1080p, and might consider an upgrade to 1440p. But I might also just wait until 4k is a reality on reasonably priced single cards ($350 and less) and wait until then to upgrade the monitor. I'm leaning towards a 290x for the true 4GB of VRAM. I'm not going to wait for the R9 300 series because I do not have a capable fallback card to use after returning my 970 if I end up sending it back. Thoughts? I have a 620W PSU which is more than capable of pushing a 290x, especially considering I use a locked 80W CPU (Xeon E3-1231v3).

As for my 970, it's quiet, has no coil whine whatsoever, and is a so-so overclocker (+245MHz over reference on the core). My 970 is rock solid for gaming now on 1080p, but I worry about its future with 0.5GB less VRAM than advertised. So which is the better card? (let's just assume the price is the same for simplicity)

My priorities are strictly performance and longevity. I don't care a whole lot about how loud it is as long as it's not ridiculous like a reference 290x uber.

FWIW, Nvidia cards do perform well at lower resolutions.

If you do end up sending it back, i'd recommend a 290 Trix, and 290's only about 5 odd percent or so faster or slower, except gameworks(sigh...) titles. The other $100 you could use towards newer cards, may be PSU.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Personally no, unless you were moving up to a 980. I wouldn't move to a 290/290x.

 

[.vodka]

You have to ask yourself whether future games will or won't continue this trend of pushing vram limits?

They will, and that's the problem. Nvidia's special driver they have in the works over this matter will make the most out of the fast 3.5GB available, but once games get more complex and need more and more vram for their assets/etc, you'll eventually have to start using the slow 512MB for critical stuff and that'd be, as the reddit guy experimienting with his SLI 970 said, "stutter nightmare". Having to lower settings on a card as fast as the 970 thanks to those useless 512MB on future games would be a shame.

So for now the 970 is one hell of a card for 1080p, the question is for how long. 4GB is the sweet spot right now and will be for some time, as 380x/GM200, the latter on its geforce variant will come with that amount of memory if the rumors are to be believed...

I agree with silverforce. Price being the same, and if you have concerns over longevity, then the 290(x) is a much more compelling buy now. A custom 290 performs the same as a stock 290x thanks not only to the factory OC these cards have, but also by having the cooling it needs that eliminates powertune's throttling as seen on the stock models. Such a card will perform about the same as your 970, but then you can go all the way to a custom 290x which can be found for not much more over the 290 these days.

The power consumption thing has been blown out of proportion, it's not as bad as it seems at stock settings. It does get bad once you start overclocking with added voltage.

As it's been pointed out, sapphire's 290(x) are among the best, their Tri-X and vapor-x coolers keep the cards at 70° while being almost silent and giving good overclocking headroom, relative to the stock blower of hell.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

The Sapphire Tri-X is definitely the 290x I'd be looking at. I'd love to have a Vapor-X, but these seem to have been discontinued except in the 8GB models which are a lot more expensive.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I should also add I won't run a dual card setup under any circumstance.

 

[cmdrdredd]

One caveat you should be told is that some games simply don't run well on AMD cards right now. Better keep an eye on what games you are looking to play and keep that in mind.

 

[garagisti]

One caveat you should be told is that some games simply don't run well on AMD cards right now. Better keep an eye on what games you are looking to play and keep that in mind.

Especially gameworks(oh the irony) titles

 

[garagisti]

News OP can use:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...tx-970-3-5gb-vram-issue/post/4440406/#4440406

Hey guys,

Just wanting to let you know that AMD is offering a deal to those who return their GTX 970 to get a "REAL 4GB Graphics card."


https://twitter.com/amd_roy/status/560462075193880576


"Anyone returning their GTX 970 and wanting a great deal on a Radeon with a full 4GB please let us know."

Return your GTX 970 and get a AMD R9 290/X 4GB GPU with the deal.

E-mail: roy.taylor@amd.com

Looking forward to it. Spending $330+ on a GPU that has issues with current games that UNACCEPTABLE! Not to mention nvidia totally lied until they got caught and couldn't hide anymore. Imagine what's going to happen couple of years down the road when more and more games are going to take advantage of memory exceeding 3.5GB. That's totally un-acceptable for a high end GPU.

 

[Abwx]

News OP can use:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...tx-970-3-5gb-vram-issue/post/4440406/#4440406

LAWL....

 

[SteveGrabowski]

News OP can use:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...tx-970-3-5gb-vram-issue/post/4440406/#4440406

Thanks! I just emailed AMD Roy.

 

[chimaxi83]

One caveat you should be told is that some games simply don't run well on AMD cards right now. Better keep an eye on what games you are looking to play and keep that in mind.

Which games?

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Personally no, unless you were moving up to a 980. I wouldn't move to a 290/290x.

There is no way I'd consider a 980, as it's a lousy price to performance card (as flagships tend to be).

 

[WittyRemark]

No

 

[digitaldurandal]

Especially gameworks(oh the irony) titles

Unfortunately for Nvidia.. all of the latest Ubisoft gameworks titles have had serious problems lately. If that trend continues it won't matter too much if AMD is crippled on the title.

Personally I would prefer that studios did not do gameworks or gaming evolved. It only serves to hinder PC Gaming. We need as much volume as possible so that studios will spend more and more of their time working to make our experience better.

 

[96Firebird]

Thanks! I just emailed AMD Roy.

Let me know what the response is. Curious as to the details.

 

[monstercameron]

Unfortunately for Nvidia.. all of the latest Ubisoft gameworks titles have had serious problems lately. If that trend continues it won't matter too much if AMD is crippled on the title.

Personally I would prefer that studios did not do gameworks or gaming evolved. It only serves to hinder PC Gaming. We need as much volume as possible so that studios will spend more and more of their time working to make our experience better.

ge and twimtbp are fine, ihvs invest in software to run on their hardware. the problem is the sabotage and effectivrly getting a lesser product because of your product choices.

 

[boozzer]

They will, and that's the problem. Nvidia's special driver they have in the works over this matter will make the most out of the fast 3.5GB available, but once games get more complex and need more and more vram for their assets/etc, you'll eventually have to start using the slow 512MB for critical stuff and that'd be, as the reddit guy experimienting with his SLI 970 said, "stutter nightmare". Having to lower settings on a card as fast as the 970 thanks to those useless 512MB on future games would be a shame.

So for now the 970 is one hell of a card for 1080p, the question is for how long. 4GB is the sweet spot right now and will be for some time, as 380x/GM200, the latter on its geforce variant will come with that amount of memory if the rumors are to be believed...

I agree with silverforce. Price being the same, and if you have concerns over longevity, then the 290(x) is a much more compelling buy now. A custom 290 performs the same as a stock 290x thanks not only to the factory OC these cards have, but also by having the cooling it needs that eliminates powertune's throttling as seen on the stock models. Such a card will perform about the same as your 970, but then you can go all the way to a custom 290x which can be found for not much more over the 290 these days.

The power consumption thing has been blown out of proportion, it's not as bad as it seems at stock settings. It does get bad once you start overclocking with added voltage.

As it's been pointed out, sapphire's 290(x) are among the best, their Tri-X and vapor-x coolers keep the cards at 70° while being almost silent and giving good overclocking headroom, relative to the stock blower of hell.

HA, 50 watt difference and people were screaming it like it was the 2nd coming of christ.

 

[Magic Carpet]

HA, 50 watt difference and people were screaming it like it was the 2nd coming of christ.

Yep, not much. Sure as hell my oc'ed Haswell consumes more than that. When I played with a friends MSI 290 Gaming, it consumed about 45w more in Metro Redux (compared to my Asus GTX 670 Top). If you are running factory clocks, there is nothing to worry about.

 

[Sunaiac]

I'd probably get a 290 Tri-X non X.
Given the price difference and how slight the actual perf difference (5%) is.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Depends on your usage,i'm a tight ass with my settings as i enjoy a higher fps more times then ULTRA OMFG graphics that half the time offer little more while tanking your frame rate by 50%.Like Ultra vs High in BF4 for example.

I like higher fps,minimums of 60s would be nice if possible so i think the 970 will still suffice.I find myself dropping settings on my 2gb 770 often enough where usage still is way under 2gb lol.Nothing i play outside of BF4 comes close to 2gb usage.

 

[fleshconsumed]

IMO if you can return 970 for a full refund at no loss to you, then I'd say definitely go for 290/290x. If you have to take a loss on a card, then it's less clear, I'd probably still do it considering that you can probably sell your 970 for what you're going to pay for 290/290x give or take a little. But as I said, it will depend on how pissed off you are at nVidia and if you're willing to go through all the hassle of selling/buying/installing drivers and whatnot.

Another choice might be to keep your 970 until AMD releases 380X and ditch your 970 for 380X then.