- Jul 19, 2014
- 77
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- 4,660
Hi all,
I was looking into getting a GTX 970 Windforce 3X in SLI (each of them would cost about $350 for a total of $700), but recently AMD has slashed the pricing of their high-end cards. From what I know, this is the hierarchy of high-end cards purely based on performance (correct me if I'm wrong):
Tier 1: GTX 980 > GTX 780 Ti
Tier 2: GTX 970 ~= R9 290X > GTX 780 > R9 290
Here is my biased view on the coolers:
Windforce 3X 600W > Vapor-X > Tri-X
Right now, the Vapor-X R9 290 sells for $250, the Tri-X R9 290X sells for $300, and the Windforce GTX 970 sells for $350. All of the coolers are certainly respectable, but GM204 runs cooler and quieter than Hawaii in general. It looks like AMD would win on price/performance but NVidia would on cooling and acoustics. Because the coolers are all great, I would probably take the R9 290 or 290X as a single card.
However, I am planning a dual-card setup. The GTX 970 might run better in SLI compared to the R9 290 or 290X due to its lower temperatures, and it also looks better in overclocking.
tl;dr which one should I choose? Every card seems to be a solid offering, and right now I am leaning towards the R9 290 due to its great price, decent performance, and solid cooler.
I was looking into getting a GTX 970 Windforce 3X in SLI (each of them would cost about $350 for a total of $700), but recently AMD has slashed the pricing of their high-end cards. From what I know, this is the hierarchy of high-end cards purely based on performance (correct me if I'm wrong):
Tier 1: GTX 980 > GTX 780 Ti
Tier 2: GTX 970 ~= R9 290X > GTX 780 > R9 290
Here is my biased view on the coolers:
Windforce 3X 600W > Vapor-X > Tri-X
Right now, the Vapor-X R9 290 sells for $250, the Tri-X R9 290X sells for $300, and the Windforce GTX 970 sells for $350. All of the coolers are certainly respectable, but GM204 runs cooler and quieter than Hawaii in general. It looks like AMD would win on price/performance but NVidia would on cooling and acoustics. Because the coolers are all great, I would probably take the R9 290 or 290X as a single card.
However, I am planning a dual-card setup. The GTX 970 might run better in SLI compared to the R9 290 or 290X due to its lower temperatures, and it also looks better in overclocking.
tl;dr which one should I choose? Every card seems to be a solid offering, and right now I am leaning towards the R9 290 due to its great price, decent performance, and solid cooler.
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