R9 290

Discussion in 'Support!' started by Timevans999, November 6, 2013.

  1. kalherine

    kalherine Active Member

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    here in portugal its moore expensive then 680,but iff there cheaper,yes thats a good buy then.
  2. doud

    doud Well-Known Member

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    100$ cheaper, but comparing gtx770 4g VS R9 290 4g, Same price, and R9 290 is just much more powerfull than gtx770 4g. I have a preference for Nvidia because of drivers. Now my problem is : since both have 4gigs, and my choice is specifically driven by Planetary annihilation, should i consider 770gtx 4G enough (and keeping nvidia) or move to R9 290 (which also has 4gigs but is obviously much more powerfull) ?
    Thanks ;)
  3. Timevans999

    Timevans999 Active Member

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    Being a fanboy has nothing to do with the best card. Nvidia are way over priced and don't represent good value for money.
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  4. Timevans999

    Timevans999 Active Member

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    Where your going wrong is making your choice solely to run PA. That is too limited an horizon. Ati are more straight forward and cost less.
    bradaz85 likes this.
  5. doud

    doud Well-Known Member

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    Yes ATI are more straight forward and cost less, but from my own and very very long experience with Graphic cards (3DFX voodoo, 3DFX voodoo2, combo 3DFX voodoo2, nvidia all sorts of GTX /SLI combination, ati/AMD), Nvidia has allways proven to be the most rbust when it comes to drivers.
    Now if one tells me AMD OpenGL 4.3 implementation is better than Nvidia, then no problem i'll go for Nvidia.
    Yes my choice is solely to run PA and this is why i've put 250$ in this game :)
  6. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    They both "bad" in terms of compatibility with standards, but Nvidia always provide best OpenGL drivers.
  7. doud

    doud Well-Known Member

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    Thanks a lot SXX, even if i could get much more brut performance from R9, i will go for 770 4gigs. I know the Graphic part can be a pain for optimization, so i prefer to go for better compatibility (which to me, means : less tweaks to make it work, thus better use of brut performance). Thanks again !
  8. garat

    garat Cat Herder Uber Alumni

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    My main opposition to ATI in recent years has been their OpenGL drivers. They've generally been behind the curve and quite simply not as high quality. The cards from either vendor tend to be pretty good. But the software quality seems to be the thing that fluctuates the most.

    However, a few of us are now running 7870's at work, so we get more card coverage than Nvidia 660, 680 and Titan. I still prefer my 660 at home I think, but the 7870 (and up) are great cards as well.
    kalherine likes this.
  9. maxpowerz

    maxpowerz Post Master General

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    any ATI HD x870 series card is good :)
    I had Dual 6870's and they were awesome till the PSU went pop.
    I'm sure with ATI the HD XXXX numbers relate to card performance.
    In example
    7xxx 6xxx 5xxx 4xxx <--- shader and dx support level
    x8xx x7xx x5xx <-- this relates to the gpu architecture and gpu clock
    and the xx70 <-- extra features on the card

    I have always thought that ATI had a better time rendering higher res at higher frame rates where nVidia had slightly better performance at lower res but with nVidia you could turn on AF AA and extra pretty with minimal impact on the nVidia.
  10. doud

    doud Well-Known Member

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    I'm 99% sure to go for 770gtx 4gigs. If it's only meant for PA, and if for budget reasons the other option is R9 290, would you like me, go for 770gtx 4gigs, or would you go for R9 290 ? Thx :)
  11. Timevans999

    Timevans999 Active Member

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    I want everyone to buy NVidia cards but there not for me.
  12. garat

    garat Cat Herder Uber Alumni

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    I have no use experience with the 770. For the money, 660 was my choice 5 months ago when I upgraded my home machine. If the pricing is close tot he same, I'd probably go with the R9 290, but not until there's a non reference version available, preferably from EVGA as I've had the best personal luck with them. But in general, aggregated reviews from Newegg, Amazon, and various other sites tend to be pretty reliable - as long as you're talking more than a dozen or two reviews. :)
  13. Timevans999

    Timevans999 Active Member

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    Separate room for your computer with a low ambient in it .
  14. doud

    doud Well-Known Member

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    Thx for your sharing ! My main concern is quite easy : since i'm planing to change because of PA and only to be able to play in extreme conditions, did you find working with Amd gfx more difficult when it comes to workaround opengl drivers impkementation ? Do you have to workaround issues with amd drivers that are more likely to consume more resources than not having to workaround ? By chosing PA, i wanted to go for the best gaming software company (uber of course :) ) so now i want to give this game the best gfx card to play in extreme conditions.
    When you speak about reference card, i've seen multiple vendors offering a r9 290. So what do you call reference card ? Do you mean vendors could change the original design ? Aren't they supposed to keep the original design ? And doesn't this mean non reference card will cost higher ? Thx :)
  15. Timevans999

    Timevans999 Active Member

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    Look the 770gtx is way slower than the r9 290 it has less of nearly everything especially mem ctr and compute cores.
  16. garat

    garat Cat Herder Uber Alumni

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    Reference = They're making the exact same card as ATI's reference design. In many cases, it is literally the exact same card, just with a slightly different sticker on it.

    Non-reference is when you start to see custom cooling, modified layouts, different factory clock speeds. Right now, I don't think you can buy a non-reference 290. You can find some 280s, however.

    From a PA perspective, there are some oddities about AMD that we're currently working through right now that make ATI cards in general not as performant as Nvidia on our game. However, we have to make sure both Nvidia and ATI are performing at relative parity (when comparing apples to apples). A 7870 should ultimatley perform almost identically to the 660, though each card does some things better than the other so it's never going to be total parity.

    My best recommendation is always:
    1. Determine your budget.
    2. Find the latest gen cards that fit in that budget.
    3. Go to Tom's Hardware or Anand Tech or somewhere similar, and do some research on both.
    4. Read Newegg and Amazon reviews - find cards that have a lot of reviews and hopefully 4+ stars/eggs.
    5. If it's a choice between a better card or an SLI/Crossfire configuration, I'll always pick the best single card, even if the benchmarks show the cheaper SLI config to be more powerful. Too much reliance on SLI support for individual titles that may or may not exist.

    That simple list has never done me wrong, regardless of whether I happen to be Nvidia or ATI for that particular generation.

    Being a fan of either card rarely results in the best purchase for your money. Pick the one that makes the most sense is my approach. If you hate one card or the other, it just makes your research simpler, but you are, in my opinion, potentially missing out on better bang for your buck purchases.
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  17. doud

    doud Well-Known Member

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    That
    That's why this ******* 1% of chance i buy R9 290 is still here. But i'm really not confortable with AMD drivers o_O
  18. Timevans999

    Timevans999 Active Member

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    Plus the 770 been out for ages and the r9 is just out. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that NVidia were going to have a problem. the 780gtx ti haha is good @ 560 quid in the uk.
  19. garat

    garat Cat Herder Uber Alumni

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    BTW, I have no opinion on the 290 vs Nvidia argument - I haven't used either. Based on what I've seen on Tom's, 290 is probably better bang for the buck right now, but we also have known perf problems on AMD right now that we're actively attempting to resolve.

    But for the record - newer isn't always better, more isn't always better. How it's implemented and real world tests are the only thing that actually matter. But for now, if the prices are identical for a 770 vs a 290, I'd say go 290, just don't go with one of the ones currently available. Wait til the first non reference cards hit.
    SXX likes this.
  20. doud

    doud Well-Known Member

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    Thanks a lot Garat :)

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