ATI Radeon HD 8990 vs R9 290x

meanbunny

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Oct 23, 2013
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Hey guys,

I am getting a system exchange from Dell soon and I wanted a little information on what the current best GPU's out there are.

What is the difference between the ATI Radeon HD 8990 and the R9 290x?

Which one is the most powerful? Are they even comparable?

Also should I just wait until the new series comes out soon?

Thank you all for your time.
 

Okaythen

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Nov 7, 2013
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The HD 8990 is the OEM only 7990 I believe. The 7990 is better than the R9 290X but it is two 7970s crossfired in a single card. So you are subject to the problems that come with crossfire i.e. driver issues, heat, power, etc. Best to go with the fastest single card solution, but honestly I wouldn't go with a R9 290X until the third party cooling solutions are out to unlock the potential of that card.
 

meanbunny

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Oct 23, 2013
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So what do you guys recommend I do? What is the best dual gpu card AMD makes right now? Should I just go with the HD 8990 Dell is offering me? Should I wait for a different series to be launched? Just really confused with all these options, I just don't want to make the wrong decision.
 

Okaythen

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Nov 7, 2013
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If you are happy with a dual card solution I would just go with the 8990 it's a beast and it seems like they have worked out most of the issues in the latest drivers. Really most new games should have crossfire support and ones that are old and don't support crossfire will run fine on a single 7970.
 

Okaythen

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Nov 7, 2013
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It's coming from Dell so I would hope they would appropriately size the PSU for that card's draw.
 

meanbunny

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Oct 23, 2013
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I have one more question guys. My current CPU is the Intel (R) Core i7 980x. The one they want to replace me with is the Intel (R) Core i7 4820k. Is that a fair exchange? My current CPU has 6 cores that one only has 4 cores. When my CPU was sold a couple years ago it was worth $1000. The 4820k is only worth $350 right now. Should I go ahead with the exchange or should I complain about the CPU not being good enough?
 

abkart

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Feb 15, 2014
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anything less than 4820k is not worth than 980x... but 4820k is worthier than 980x

4820k is only 8 cores but powerful than 12core 980x

4820k features: cpu is upto 3.9Ghz speed in a 22nm lithography

64GB memory support in four channels 1333/1600/1866 Mhz