Can't Decide On HD7990/R9 290/GTX 970

DoN_GruFFnuT

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Hey , This Christmas I am looking for an upgrade , I've been looking around and cant decide on which graphics card to get.
SPECS: i5-3570k - 16GB Ram - MSI 7870 - Corsair CX5oow (2months old) - GA-Z68XP-UD3 (rev. 1.3)
I play at 1080p and currently run most of my games pretty good but fancy an upgrade.

I have a choice to get a "used" HD 7990 that has apparently only been used for a "limited" time for £200-£16 Postage (Guy's selling quite a few), although it is in fact powercolor's first version of the 7990 (Unofficial one) which concerns me as it requires 3 8-pin PCIE power cables and is probably the "worst" 7990 since it is way before AMD made the official one. In many benchmarks I still see the HD 7990 up top most of the time and I understand that its performance is dependent on Crossfire support which is decent in most games I know of and I also believe that the stuttering has been mostly fixed as well. I also understand i will need a new PSU and will buy Corsair CX 750w since it is relatively cheap (£60) - This brings the price of this altogether up to around £280ish

MSI R9 290 - £215 - Good card overall , doesn't fall far behind the 7990/690/780 and is single GPU , think my PSU is fine for quite a while.

Palit GTX 970 - £250 / MSI 970 - £270 - Great card , better than R9 290 I believe and consumes far less power , interested in nVidia inspector also.

I play on a 74hz Monitor and like V-sync on or capped and understand that going for the HD 7990 is overkill considering the others can probably cope and cost far less power and heat, but I am at the point where I want a proper gaming experience and never have to bother with my FPS and custom tune graphics/tweaks and want to see never under 74Fps.

I hope this is an easy read and makes sense and just need some opinions to decide for me as haven't seen many people in this position before , Thanks so much for reading. :D

 
Solution
A HD 7990 is by far more superior as it is a dual gpu mounted on a single board. but it build a lot heat as you know, but you could also meet problem since games will see it as a xfire GPU which some games does not support well or not at all where you will half your performance.

Corsair CX 750 isn't recommended for a dual GPU system. This is too cheap of a PSU and would cost a little more to go for something better (super flower, seasonic, XFX, antec HCG, and more)

thus, this would make is even more expensive. I would recommend you A GTX 970 but they are almost all out of order.

Also, you could wait and see what amd will lauch for it's 3XX series

pierrerock

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A HD 7990 is by far more superior as it is a dual gpu mounted on a single board. but it build a lot heat as you know, but you could also meet problem since games will see it as a xfire GPU which some games does not support well or not at all where you will half your performance.

Corsair CX 750 isn't recommended for a dual GPU system. This is too cheap of a PSU and would cost a little more to go for something better (super flower, seasonic, XFX, antec HCG, and more)

thus, this would make is even more expensive. I would recommend you A GTX 970 but they are almost all out of order.

Also, you could wait and see what amd will lauch for it's 3XX series
 
Solution
I would get one of the GTX970 cards, especially if you prefer to not replace your PSU. Even then, the Corsair "CX" may not last under stress. It was built with inferior Samxon capacitors that have been cited for early failure (<1 year).
I would avoid the early HD7990. Especially since the seller has "quite a few" of them, they may have been heavily stressed by bitcoin miners just before graphics card mining became obsolete. I would not count on them to be reliable.
 

DoN_GruFFnuT

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What other PSU would be decent for a HD7990 ? - Is the Corsair CSM Gold any better or same sorta thing , and the guy who's selling them has sold 4 already and has 4 left , do you believe that they were all used for mining? - I feel as I must get the 970 for all the obvious reasons but the HD7990 is holding me with its power haha :D Thank you for response :D
 

pierrerock

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yeah it's almost 95% chances it was used for mining. There is two reason to buy a HD 7990 new : 1 - mining 2 - you have a lot of money to spend on your computer. So this is a mining card and i would not recommend it. Even if it is a monster of raw power.

Corsair CSM isn't good either good corsair are : HX and TX
 
Yes, I'm not a gambler, but if I were, I'd bet that those cards all came out of mining rigs, and were run at 100%+overclocked, 24/7.
I believe XFX PSUs (made by Seasonic) are fairly common and inexpensive. For a single GTX970, 550W is enough. For a HD7990, I'd get 650W.
Assuming it runs hot and loud, and that you may still encounter Crossfire issues, not to mention reliability glitches (or an outright croaker), I believe the HD7990 would lead to a severe case of buyers' remorse.

 
GTX970 hands down.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_970_STRIX_OC/25.html

It can overclock further (I prefer the ACX 2.0 EVGA 1.17GHz model). Also there are new features like MFAA you should read about at the NVidia site.

*The fans can even turn off on certain models like the above EVGA when non-gaming or light gaming.

The R9-290 can make sense on a lower budget, and don't forget you can currently get THREE FREE GAMES.

The HD7990 would be a nightmare. You're dealing with Crossfire which as mentioned has issues, noise, buying a better power supply. Some games don't even support Crossfire or do so while stuttering.

 

DoN_GruFFnuT

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Hmm I guess that brings the HD 7990 out of the picture , I wasn't too keen on it all but the power of it kept me interested. So now I could get the R9 290 or GTX 970 , or even something else ... which brand would you recommend? I do want to spend little as possible. (R9 290 is good value but want really good performance) I was thinking of the MSI R9 - £215 --- MSI 970 - £270 ---- Inno3d 970 (Beast cooling / OC) £300

Thank you very much for advice :D
 
I like MSI video cards. I'm not a fan of Asus graphics cards (but love their motherboards). EVGA is also a good choice for nVidia graphics cards, and the Gigabyte WF3 cooler on my HD7970 is remarkably effective and quiet, although also huge.

 

DoN_GruFFnuT

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I guess for now I'm gonna just look into the R9/970 a bit more to decide. Can't thank you all enough for helping decide what to do about the HD 7990 , Knew I could count on this community - been browsing this site for a long time but only just made an account to ask this question and it got answered good , Thank you.
BTW , since this is my first thread , is there any action I should take to "end" it or such ? :D
 
Well, once you select a solution, sooner rather than later it will be closed. We tend to prefer that ongoing discussions continue (as type=Discussion) in their own threads, so people just looking for answers can peruse "Solved" threads for them.