R9 280X vs. GTX 770. Is the R9 worth the risk?

There is a vocal minority that has problems with these cards as sapphire asus and some others changed the specs of the boards after they were first reviewed. For example they use slower elpida memory instead of hynix and lack some other things too. I did buy 2 msi r9 280x a month from one another and never had any issues with any of them. I have to say tho, most of the artifacts come from buggy driver installs as amd has some problems with that. Those can easily be fixed with driver cleaner software and some effort. Have fun with your future card.

I'm in the exact same boat as you. I currently have the 7850 and I have wanted a 280x since announced but I ruled that option out because of bitminers. Now that they are at a stable ~$300 I was looking into more research for them. (benchmarks, stability, artifacts) and realized there are soo many people who are happy with their card and didn't bother to write a review about it. Hence the statement above, "There is a vocal minority that has problems with these cards", Only the ones with the problems complain. Also, this sort of thing happens with every new line of cards upon release. The problems happen to few (who make sure you know they got screwed) and AMD will release drivers, it they haven't already, that will fix these problems. I said screw it and I'm going for it. I just ordered my i5 4670k and soon I will order my 280x along with my new Corsair CX750w PSU. I can't wait.

Let me tell you one thing tho. I did test Mantle on the r9 and my mind was blown. Fps did increase substantially but that didn't impress me. If you compare a game running on 60fps with both Mantle and DX11 you'll see the mantle version has ZERO stutter/micro-stutter and input lag is a nonexistent , your mouse feels like an extension of your arm. These are difficult things to explain so thats why AMD chose to market only the fps gain. But trust me, the smoothness of BF4 running Mantle was something i haven't seen since Quake 3 era on a voodoo card.

Btw i'm not saying get the 280x, I would suggest getting a 290 trueaudio plus about 30% faster.

I would, but I am on a budget. Also is mantle safe to use? I know it's pretty new so are there any bugs present or is it ready to go?

Mantle is an on-going project but it's is still unknown how long it will continue. However, there are many games developer signing up to be mantle certified. I would not say it is ready to go. Mantle is safe to use but it has limited uses right now. If you don't like mantle you can still use DirectX on AMD cards. But take note that a R9 290 or 290X will run hot. Make sure you have good case airflow and you maintain your pc build well. And make sure you have a good quality power supply as well. 550-650W.

Let me expressly say I solved my issues recently with a BIOS update... yeah I know dooooom haha but it all worked out great. You just need to be cautious when you choose the correct update and do not use third party update software. Now while many others have posted about updating their GPU bios, I actually found the most success in updating my motherboard bios. Some Asus and ASRock are known problems around the 270x, 280x, and 290x boards. I believe MSI is a known problem too. It was the only success I had tho. Update your mobo bios, then try and run driver sets from AMD until you find the right one. If there is no update for your motherboard, I am sorry but its a compatibility issue. Out side of changing your mobo, you are stuck. I know I am late to this discussion but I have been fiddling with this thing for about a week and a half. I was at the end of my rope and ready to RMA like so many did and yet how many RMA to the same issues, freezing, CTD, artifacts, stuttering, input lag. It doesn't make sense right? Its a driver issue, not the board necessarily. There was a small batch of DOA boards that went out and were sold and needed replacing or had bad VRAM and artifact to insane levels. Those needed replacing but because of that there are a ton of stories from people RMA'ing to hear from Sapphire or other companies that their board is testing well and they see no issues... Its because the board is good haha... Try the board in another mobo manufacturer and watch as it flies unfortunately. This will continue until people are using either up to date bios or change their mobo physically sadly... It can even be conflicts with other hardware beyond that I imagine but my most stable run now... 14.9 catalyst with up to date bios for my mobo and not a single artifact anymore, little to no fps drops, and I can enjoy all my games at ultra settings as intended. They say update your drivers for a reason but they always exclude bios updates since it get BSOD or fry a card on you if you F up. With that in mind, BE CAREFUL ! Oh! and I am running Win 7, ASRock P67 extreme4 mobo, 16 gigs OCZ ram, Sapphiire 280x OC TRI-X edition, Intel i5-2500. It all runs like a dream now and that is pushing the i5 on potential bottleneck. The graphics are only runnning 2.0 pci-e bandwithe as 3.0 is overkill anyways. This all in mind... the 280x is a LONG card.... Make sure AMD can fit your case.