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Started by DrRorschach | | 13 answers
Nvidia Gtx 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290x?
Basically I need to decide between these two cards and I don't know which one to choose...

My processor is a 4GHz AMD A8 6600k with integrated Radeon HD8570D graphics and my motherboard is an MSI FM2-A55M-E35 uATX.

Which card will run best on this board and CPU?

(P.S. my mobo has AMD Crossfire so is it possible that the 290x will be able to recieve a boost from my integrated graphics?)

Thank you all.
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a b Î Nvidia
a b U Graphics card
October 3, 2014 11:13:56 AM

amd_roy said:
Before you make a decision remember the 290X has a 512bit bus and the maxwell only 256bit.


That doesn't make much of a difference.
In quiet mode, the 290x can be overclocked from 1250 to 1295 MHz. This increases its bandwidth from 320 GB/s to 331.52 GB/s.
However the 970 can be overclocked from 1753 MHz to over 2153 MHz, increasing its bandwidth from 224 GB/s to 288 GB/s. All while running quiet under load.
a b Î Nvidia
a b À AMD
a c 149 U Graphics card
October 3, 2014 10:56:40 AM

^but does 290X performance advantage really worth the extra price over 970?
a c 94 Î Nvidia
a b À AMD
a c 248 U Graphics card
October 3, 2014 10:51:42 AM

Mantle is a big help on low end CPUs but not much with the 290x ... at 4k I'd want the 290x, but I wouldn't pay $550 for it.
October 3, 2014 9:55:45 AM

Before you make a decision remember the 290X has a 512bit bus and the maxwell only 256bit. The Radeon also supports Mantle, important, see here http://games.on.net/2014/10/sniper-elite-3-adds-support... and the 290X does outperform the 970 considerably in higher resolutions. Being part of Team Red is also fun, AMD is very active with uses on twitter.


October 3, 2014 9:04:39 AM

JackNaylorPE said:
DrRorschach said:


I'm aware of the amount of heat the 290x produces but that still doesn't answer my question...
Which will work better with my CPU?


Question's been answered.

Again the 290x is "not in the race" (as in "not competitive")....unless you are over 2560 resolution....



At 1920 x 1090 out of the box, it's $200 more money to go slower and with both overclocked as far as they can go, the gap widens substantially.

At 2560 x 1600 out of the box, it's $200 more money to for a tie and with both overclocked as far as they can go, the 970 runs away.

The only time CPus come into play as far as one versus the other is when you have multiple GFX cards and THG reported recently that AMD did SLI better than it did in CF.


The 970 will fit on my motherboard with no problems right?

Best solution chosen by DrRorschach

a c 94 Î Nvidia
a b À AMD
a c 248 U Graphics card
October 3, 2014 8:59:04 AM

DrRorschach said:


I'm aware of the amount of heat the 290x produces but that still doesn't answer my question...
Which will work better with my CPU?


Question's been answered.

Again the 290x is "not in the race" (as in "not competitive")....unless you are over 2560 resolution....



At 1920 x 1090 out of the box, it's $200 more money to go slower and with both overclocked as far as they can go, the gap widens substantially.

At 2560 x 1600 out of the box, it's $200 more money to for a tie and with both overclocked as far as they can go, the 970 runs away.

The only time CPus come into play as far as one versus the other is when you have multiple GFX cards and THG reported recently that AMD did SLI better than it did in CF.
October 3, 2014 8:57:11 AM

DrRorschach said:
sla70r said:
If you want to heat your room at the same time you game, get the 290x.

If you want blazing fast performance at a low price, 970.


I'm aware of the amount of heat the 290x produces but that still doesn't answer my question...
Which will work better with my CPU?


I think both will suffer bottlenecks in CPU dependent games, for games where you do not have a CPU bottleneck the 970 is better
October 3, 2014 8:50:47 AM

sla70r said:
If you want to heat your room at the same time you game, get the 290x.

If you want blazing fast performance at a low price, 970.


I'm aware of the amount of heat the 290x produces but that still doesn't answer my question...
Which will work better with my CPU?

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