Dilemma: 780TI vs 290 Crossfire

T

TekRok

2[H]4U
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I no longer game as much as I used to. I am no longer that big of an enthusiast when it comes to PC's. I mainly want a solid rig with a little bit of an overclock here and there, but nothing too serious. I used to run the system in my signature on a 4k screen, now I use 2 1080p screens.

I am trying to sell off pretty much every component except for the CPU and get something simpler without watercooling and likely go to a single card.

I havent been with Nvidia for a very long time, 8 years +. The major benefit I see with the 780ti is its stock cooler which is pretty good, noise level, and being a pretty powerful card in general. If you were in the same shoes as me, would you get a 780TI or go crossfire with 290s?
 
If u already have the 290s just keep them, they are selling cheap and downgrading from 290 crossfire to a single 780ti seems like a big waste. A single 290 itself isn't THAT much slower than the 780ti
 
Yeah, if you want silence or at least a good quiet PC, then Nvidia's stock cooler is much better than AMDs stock cooler, but both of them are left behind by AIB custom coolers like the VapourX or directCU.
 
Yeah dude don't throw good money after bad money. You're talking 3 - 4 frames give or take across both manufactures.

Save your money and put it toward a new 4790K that can do 5.5Ghz on air oh and you still have money for a new Asus z97 board and 16GB of 2133 memory
 
If youre just going to be gaming on a single 1080 screen, why not sale off one 290 and just keep the one for your rig? That would net you around $250-300 in your pocket and youd still have a very good performing gaming and all around rig. A single 290 is enough GPU horsepower to max pretty much anything at 1920x1080 except maybe Crysis 3 if that.
 
Nah, bad advice. Keep both 290's ... you're basically future proofed for the next 18 months. You need that power now even at 1080p for max eye candy.

There is a huge HUGE misconception among some of the HardOCP'ers in that they think one 780 / 290 can play all games at 1080p / ultra settings. This is just not true.
 
SixFootDuo said:
Nah, bad advice. Keep both 290's ... you're basically future proofed for the next 18 months. You need that power now even at 1080p for max eye candy.

There is a huge HUGE misconception among some of the HardOCP'ers in that they think one 780 / 290 can play all games at 1080p / ultra settings. This is just not true.
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What games can you not play maxed with a single 290 or 780? Im playing everything at max settings at 1920x1080 with a single, albeit heavily overclocked GTX670. The only thing that I have to drop a setting on is Crysis 3 and thats just Post Processing being dropped from Ultra to High. Im getting frame rates in the 40's on Metro at max settings. Now TressFX bogged down in Tomb Raider for some reason and Id get into the low 30's sometimes and even upper 20's but with it set to normal, I was back up into the upper 50's and above.

So if Im playing everything at max settings with a single GTX670, I dont see why you wouldnt be able to with a much faster R9 290 or GTX780.

Dont get me wrong, Im not saying a pair of 290's is overkill for 1080. Id love to have a pair of those and get a locked and steady 60 fps in everything but if OP is looking to downsize his rig and isnt going to be gaming that heavily, selling a 290, pocketing a cool 3 bills and rolling with a single 290 isnt a bad way to go and will still be a great performing rig.
 
I will say that I have the ASUS GTX 780Ti DCUII http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HSY1RVC and I don't hear anything from it with all games maxed out at 1080p.

I even play Crysis 3 in 3D and don't hear but a whisper from it.
 
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I have tried all of the cards, from R9 290 / 290X to the 780 GTX Ti. The Ti is 10% faster than the 290X and ~15% faster than the 290. That is during BF4 multiplayer sessions.

Currently I am using 2 x r9 290 Reference cards since I got them dirt cheap but I have to run the fan at 100% to make sure they don't throttle. And believe me, they sound like my vacuum machine at those fan settings. I can't hear much of my in game sound. I still have my 780 GTX Ti lying around since I haven't decided to sell it just yet. I also kept a few 290 TriX that had great performance and a decent sound profile, nothing like the reference coolers.

If you have AIB 290s then keep those, otherwise sound alone should play a factor in your upgrade.
 
take a fraction of the money you would spend on buying the 780ti, and get a silent case.
 
I have an 800D with a decent airflow and still suffer from severe heat issues since i am using crossfire with stock coolers.

I would suggest to spend on custom cooling more than a custom case.
 
I'm using a ref HIS 290 and gigabyte wf3 290 crossfired. I have the wf3 on top with the ref HIS on the bottom. I set the fans to top out at 55% max and so far noise hasn't been an issue for me personally. My case airflow is quite good (rosewill Thor v2) and my room is relatively chilly @ 72F. 290 crossfired will pretty much put the beat down on a single 780ti.
 
ssnyder28 said:
If u already have the 290s just keep them, they are selling cheap and downgrading from 290 crossfire to a single 780ti seems like a big waste. A single 290X itself isn't THAT much slower than the 780ti
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FTFY.

But I agree. Keep 2 of the 290s you already have.

If the power usage, noise, and heat output is a real concern for you, then I would recommend buying a non-reference R9 290X with money you get from selling the other cards. I like the XFX Double Dissipation version, myself, and it can be had for around $500 US at the moment while the best sale I've seen on a 780 Ti has been around $600. From a price/performance perspective, the 290X beats the 780 Ti, as they both have very similar performance at 1080p.
 
This really must be [H]ardForum where one talks about not playing games much anymore, selling everything off and a stripped down system that still has either a 780Ti or 2 290s (i.e. $800 worth of cards). ;)

And here I was thinking I had a pretty good system with 2 270s :rolleyes:
 
Guys just to clarify. I currently have 4 (four) Radeon 290's in Quadfire, all under water. The plan was to either sell everything and get a 780TI, sell two 290's and keep the other 2 under water and call it a day.
 
I can tell you what I did.Bought and sold several 780Ti card's and never hit the silicone lottery and was disappoint in all the 780Ti cards.Reference and non-reference cards.

So I kept my R9 290 crossfire and I am very happy with my choice.I am only running on air and you already have water setup so it could be and easy choice.

What the hell though change is always good and 780Ti is a good card and its only a video card anyway so it should not matter at all which video card you keep
 
Cross fired 290's is more powerful than a single 780Ti. Simplest way for you to go is sell off the two extra 290's and pocket the dough. The rest of your rig looks top notch so why sell it and start over from scratch?
 
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