R9-290X Lightning Edition vs GTX 970

Waqas Afzal · May 21, 2015

Hey,

I am new here. i just want to ask about the graphic cards i mentioned here. R9-290X 4gb Lightning Edition and GTX 970 4gb edition. Which one is better why?. Give me a detailed review because i want to purchase a graphic card and i landed on these two. Hopefully an expert will tell me which is better overall.

Thanks!

Bigwood daddy · May 21, 2015

The 3.5 GB thing is a non factor ... kind alike Fox News, they love to get mad about things of no substance

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/middle-earth-shadow-of...

If you use cards outta the box.....
The 970 is faster at 1080p
The 290x is faster at 1440p

If you use cards w/ MSI Afterburner
The 970 is faster at 1080p
The 970 wins by the proverbial hair 1440p

Other things to consider:

Twin 970s require a bigger (250 watts extra) PSU
Twin 970s add 246 extra watts of heat to ya system
970 comes with Witcher 3
970 comes with PhysX, G-Sync and Shadowplay
The 970 has outsold all R9 + R7 cards combined so if you decide to add a 2nd card later on will be plenty in the channel.

Sapphire and MSI arethe two best 290x cards.
Gigabyte and MSI are the two best 970s.

The Gigabyte and MSI compete for best performance. Both routinely overclock well providing boost clocks over 1500 Mhz but the Giga wins more than it loses. Asus and EVGA have trouble breaking 1500.... with moist reviews around 1465. The Giga doesn't fit in many cases due to its 12.18" length and the Giga doesn't have the two its fans independently controlled. MSI shuts off its fans below 60C and will turn on one fan based upon GPU temps and the other based upon PCB readings.

If you want to see why the Asus and EVGA don't overclock as well read about the differences in VRM Phases, power delivery, chokes, capacitors, memory / VRM cooling in the article here. The nitty gritty is towards the bottom of the pages for each card (2-4). Not also that EVGA fixed the design defect noted in the article in the new SSC model so be careful as both are still in the channel. They also increased the number of VRM phases but not enough to match Giga / MSI.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...

maddogfargo · May 21, 2015

At stock speeds, the R9 290x is a little faster overall than the 970

970 uses less power, generates less heat, and generally runs quieter

A good GTX 970 can overclock very well and still use low power. When ovrclocked it can get close to 980 performance levels and will tie and sometimes beat an R9 290x.

I have no bias. I've used AMD almost exclusively for 10 years, but the GTX 970 was my most recent GPU purchase. My goals were great performance, overclocking, lower temps and quieter fans. It met all those requirements. I selected the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970 for the awesome cooler.

Waqas Afzal · May 21, 2015

what i want to know is now, the base and core clock speed, in comparison gtx 970 has a higher clock speed or r9? and which product is the best to purchase(company wise)

Waqas Afzal · May 21, 2015

Bigwood daddy :

The 3.5 GB thing is a non factor ... kind alike Fox News, they love to get mad about things of no substance

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/middle-earth-shadow-of...

If you use cards outta the box.....
The 970 is faster at 1080p
The 290x is faster at 1440p

If you use cards w/ MSI Afterburner
The 970 is faster at 1080p
The 970 wins by the proverbial hair 1440p

Other things to consider:

Twin 970s require a bigger (250 watts extra) PSU
Twin 970s add 246 extra watts of heat to ya system
970 comes with Witcher 3
970 comes with PhysX, G-Sync and Shadowplay
The 970 has outsold all R9 + R7 cards combined so if you decide to add a 2nd card later on will be plenty in the channel.

Sapphire and MSI arethe two best 290x cards.
Gigabyte and MSI are the two best 970s.

The Gigabyte and MSI compete for best performance. Both routinely overclock well providing boost clocks over 1500 Mhz but the Giga wins more than it loses. Asus and EVGA have trouble breaking 1500.... with moist reviews around 1465. The Giga doesn't fit in many cases due to its 12.18" length and the Giga doesn't have the two its fans independently controlled. MSI shuts off its fans below 60C and will turn on one fan based upon GPU temps and the other based upon PCB readings.

If you want to see why the Asus and EVGA don't overclock as well read about the differences in VRM Phases, power delivery, chokes, capacitors, memory / VRM cooling in the article here. The nitty gritty is towards the bottom of the pages for each card (2-4). Not also that EVGA fixed the design defect noted in the article in the new SSC model so be careful as both are still in the channel. They also increased the number of VRM phases but not enough to match Giga / MSI.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nv...

so what do you say would be the best to purchase. Here its like a 100 AED difference. but what i would like to know msi r9 29x lightning is worth the purchase or rather gigabyte 970 gaming 4 gb

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R9-290X Lightning Edition vs GTX 970

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