Upgrading graphics card - Which R9 290x?

Belwas · Jul 29, 2014

Hi all,

I'm upgrading my graphics card tomorrow from a GTX 650oc and have decided to get a R9 290x.

After reading a few reviews and questions on here, the majority seem to say the Sapphire Tri-x is the one to go for vs the Radeon, but I've not seen the MSI's gaming edition mentioned anywhere?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1752

I need to order this tomorrow so appreciate your insights

Armo1000 · Jul 29, 2014

The 8GB version is an overkill.. Go with ASUS..

Gaidax · Jul 29, 2014

Sapphire Tri-X or Vapor-X and Powercolor PCS+ are basically the best there is for this card at the moment. All the rest are just not as good when it comes to cooling, better than stock of course still.

iceglidergiant · Jul 29, 2014

Personally, I've heard of issues with every single r9 290x from every brand, be it a gigabyte windforce or an asus directcu ii. A few things to keep in mind about each model:
Sapphire is often a solid choice, as they make graphics cards for amd alone and not nvidia and their r9 200 series have been excellent thus far, and either a vapor-x or tri-x will serve you well, but a vapor x may be overkill
MSI has been known to have finicky quality control, and sometimes their amd cards have cooling or functionality issues, but are fairly reliable and I personally think that afterburner is awesome
The Asus Directcu ii cooler is simply a 780 cooler slapped onto a 290x, and the heatsinks don't make proper contact with the card. So cooling becomes an issue. However gpu tweak is a nice little tool to have for monitoring your gpu, but it doesn't really warrant buying it because of the cooling issue
Powercooler has a higher factory OC slightly than most of the others but I haven't heard the greatest things about the reliability of powercooler's products, though you could look more into that if you're really interested
The Gigabyte Windforce OC version initially had a severe cooling problem that was fixed once gigabyte was notified of the issue, and new cooling system was implemented and replaced the faulty one; however, people still report issues of that card burning out or dying, and the reviews aren't the greatest from what I've seen
Xfx is a very quality, stable choice but comes at a price premium

That being said, you need to use the information above to choose what you believe is the most stable yet performance optimized choice, but it's totally up to you. What would I recommend? Probably a sapphire or msi graphics 290x, but it's your choice entirely.

Yuna · Jul 29, 2014

Choose sapphire as sapphire deal with AMD only gpu and. They can direct, throw resources and focus their entire team, assembly plant, into designing and building Graphic card specifically for AMD. They know what they are doing. Also the jump from a GTX 650oc to R9 290x is pretty steep especially taking power consumption into consideration, just make sure your PSU can handle the new card. A minimum of 750watts should take care of the job.

Embra · Jul 29, 2014

Sapphire is the overall top brand for AMD in my opinion. Asus is also a very good make.
I have the Tri-X 290 and have had no troubles with it, runs cool and fast.
As with all high gpus, make sure you make a quality brand PSU and a case with good air flow.

You asked about MSI Gaming: http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/msi-radeon-r9-290x-gaming-oc-review,1.html

Belwas · Jul 30, 2014

Thank you all for your comprehensive answers.

I have come to the decision to upgrade some other parts first such as the PSU (as someone also mentioned) SSD and cooling for the CPU, then upgrade the graphics card later in the year.

iceglidergiant · Jul 30, 2014

Glad to hear you have come to resolution. Good luck!

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