Help me choose! R9 290 vs GTX 780

Fireman Dave · Aug 9, 2014

Hi all. Yet another "help me pick between a 290 and 780" thread!
I will soon be upgrading my CPU and motherboard. Will be getting an I5 4690K and probably an ASRock Z97 Extreme4 (read lots of good reviews and is priced *very* well, leaving me more cash for a GPU!). I'll be keeping my SSDs and 8GB g.skill RAM. PSU is a Thermaltake Smart Power 750.

I'm am torn between a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC (AU$499) or a Gainward GTX 780 Phantom GLH (AU$535). I have enough cash for either.

Computer will be used predominately for gaming. I love the Civilization series and the Elder Scrolls series (my HD7770 simply cannot handle my heavily modded Skyrim). Also love Diablo (playing D3 a lot right now), and also enjoy Battlefield series and similar (though I suck at them =P).

Advice? I've read reviews showing both cards are about on par performance wise - 290 better at this game / 780 better at that game. Apparently Nvidia have better drivers, and SLI is more reliable than crossfire? Also the stock cooler on the 290 leading to high temps, but the Tri-X seems to really keep things cool...

Help! And thanks!! =D

Gam3r01 · Aug 9, 2014

I would take the Tri-x 290. It offers nearly identical performance, and offers more at higher resolutions and heavily modded skyrim. The main reason I recommend it is simply the price. Similar performance, but for less cash.

Side note, favorite D3 class? Im playing lightning monk right now.

GRUxTSAR · Aug 9, 2014

I'd take the Tri-X. It's one of the best coolers for the R9 290

Fireman Dave · Aug 9, 2014

Started out wanting 290X, but then when the 290 came along figured it was a much better deal. But then started noticing that most people were using 780s. After seeing the 290 is Tom's best graphics card list, and reading up on Sapphire's Tri-X cooler I've been learning back towards the 290. Guess I'm seeking either valuation, or food reasons to reconsider.

Whilst I haven't been playing D3 for long, I started out as a barbarian, but after getting to level 20 something, I started again as a monk. Still pretty low levelled, so no real specialisation yet ^_^

Gam3r01 · Aug 9, 2014

Ah nice, just a heads up 59-60 and if you have ROS 60-70 is the struggle.

Fireman Dave · Aug 9, 2014

Thanks folks. Good to know I'm on the right track. Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X it is!
Gam3r01 you have a mighty haul of badges, so that certainly add a lot of weight to your solution!
And yes, I've got ROS, something to look forward to it seems ^_^

ajinta · Aug 10, 2014

Hello I am using two GTX 789 directCU2 from asus in sli and they are great, I locked temperature in afterburner to 70 degress celsius and played crysis 3 wit all settings up at 2560x1440 at 60 fps trought all game expet 2 level on thet big grassland, before I used only one of these cards and I do the same at 1080p. With those ards you can actualy control temperature at expance of few percent of performance, my friend bought radeon 290 with same cooler from asus and his card is a bit lauder an hotter. Foe me 780 simply fells more complete card.

Fireman Dave · Aug 10, 2014

The Tri-X cooler from what I can tell runs about 1db louder and 1 degree c warmer under load than a 780.
Also the ASUS 780 is $100 more than the Sapphire 290 where I'm from =(
Heat and noise were the issues that had been pushing me towards a more expensive 780, but this Sapphire card seems to overcome all of that.
Thanks for a response from the Nvidia camp though! I was up until recently of the same mindset as yourself, that the 780 seemed better rounded, but the work Sapphire has done is impressive, to the point where I'm not sure I can warrant the price jump to the 780?

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Help me choose! R9 290 vs GTX 780

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