XFX R9 290X 8GB, $389 after rebate with free GTAV and Dirt Rally

Damit. MIR's. If it wasn't MIR I'd bite.

Oh well. The right one will come along eventually :)
 
Hey guys,

My ambitions here at Hard forum are to provide proactive support and offer solutions to the community.

Sales is not one of them.

If you ever have Rebate issues, please know that our technician staff, including myself, have the authority to force/override any rebate claim when provided with a rebate tracking #. If you ever have a rebate issue, please let us know.

Normally, I would avoid a thread like this as it could be considered a conflict of interest, however, I think that this reply is safe.

XFX Support
 
Thanks for the reassurance in the rebate process with XFX. Always great to see representatives active in the forums.
 
If the 290x supported monitors in PLP oriientation I might have jumped on this. Only the 285x and upcoming 3xx series do.
 
I want to say I am quite sure it does. I don't believe it's limited to 285x, I think it is more the software side of eyefinity. Last I used eyefinity, it was as easy as drag and drop.

Someone else please chime in to keep me honest.
 
Hmmm... 8GB VRam, 2 solid games, sooooo tempting...
 
I still don't understand the hesitation with products with rebates. Maybe I am super lucky or some kind of genius, but I buy a ton of items on rebate and have yet to have a SINGLE one denied. And that's from a variety of manufacturers and vendors, not just one or two. It is a pretty straight forward process. I don't understand how anyone can screw it up. Receipt/Invoice, signed rebate form, proof of purchase/upc, mail to address. Literally takes 5 minutes max.
Sorry for the rant, but seriously, if a company is going to pay you money based on your ability to follow simple instructions and mail in a form in a process that takes a total of 5-10 minutes max, I'm not hesitating at all.
 
Net Prowler said:
I still don't understand the hesitation with products with rebates. Maybe I am super lucky or some kind of genius, but I buy a ton of items on rebate and have yet to have a SINGLE one denied. And that's from a variety of manufacturers and vendors, not just one or two. It is a pretty straight forward process. I don't understand how anyone can screw it up. Receipt/Invoice, signed rebate form, proof of purchase/upc, mail to address. Literally takes 5 minutes max.
Sorry for the rant, but seriously, if a company is going to pay you money based on your ability to follow simple instructions and mail in a form in a process that takes a total of 5-10 minutes max, I'm not hesitating at all.
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Its 2015, I can get porn, pizza and the other P, all at the touch of my thumb, why make me mail shit; just saying.

Case in point, Oakley registration, you take a picture, and upload, how freaking hard can it be.
 
I have not trusted a rebate since ECS fucked me out of 30 bucks a long time ago. That was until I got a power supply from Corsair, got my rebate then.
 
Sodapopjones said:
Its 2015, I can get porn, pizza and the other P, all at the touch of my thumb, why make me mail shit; just saying.

Case in point, Oakley registration, you take a picture, and upload, how freaking hard can it be.
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bigdaveberg said:
I have not trusted a rebate since ECS fucked me out of 30 bucks a long time ago. That was until I got a power supply from Corsair, got my rebate then.
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Well I didn't say it was the most convenient thing Sodapopjones, but it's definitely not the most inconvenient or difficult process.

And to bigdaveberg, I believe that is more of a company issue not getting the rebate rather than the rebate process itself. ECS never had as reputable of a feel to them for me as Corsair, Antec, MSI, Patriot, etc
 
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You have to ask yourself, what is the purpose of a rebate? Why not just make the product cheaper?

Simple. They know that they won't fulfill a rebate for every product purchased. Everyone thinks it won't be them, but many miss the deadline, it gets "lost" in mail, they skip some step, the user forgets to cash the check, the check gets lost in the mail, and so forth.

So the rebate company banks that this will always happen, which is why there are so many items that even pop up as FREE after rebate, because its not really free, and they will bank.

So I go out of my way to avoid deals with rebates when I can, and even if there is a rebate I don't factor in that cost and just look at the product cost.
 
I think rebates can do two things.

1. Yes, there is the percentage that will buy something based on the "After rebate" price, but never get around to filling it out, so it goes un-claimed.

2. It ensures you keep the product you are buying, as many stores will not accept returns on items with missing bar codes.


Just hope this thread doesn't turn into a conversation about mail in rebates only, and not the great deal on the card :)
 
Net Prowler said:
I still don't understand the hesitation with products with rebates. Maybe I am super lucky or some kind of genius, but I buy a ton of items on rebate and have yet to have a SINGLE one denied. And that's from a variety of manufacturers and vendors, not just one or two. It is a pretty straight forward process. I don't understand how anyone can screw it up. Receipt/Invoice, signed rebate form, proof of purchase/upc, mail to address. Literally takes 5 minutes max.
Sorry for the rant, but seriously, if a company is going to pay you money based on your ability to follow simple instructions and mail in a form in a process that takes a total of 5-10 minutes max, I'm not hesitating at all.
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Cause many of us, myself included, have done exactly what you've done (like you say - it isn't complicated) and been told BS lines like we didn't include the UPC ( I STAPELED IT TO THE REBATE SUBMISSION FORM! - If you got the rebate form, you got the UPC). Or the famous, we didn't receive your rebate submission please resubmit the forms (BTW - only the original UPC is acceptable, not a photocopy --- which they KNOW was sent with the original, supposedly not received, submission). SCAM.

I generally have good luck with them, but I'm not 100% and at least a couple I've had denied were flat out lies from the company. So I have to consider at this point that you don't pay for something with a rebate if you can't afford to miss the rebate.

OCZ sends Visa cards for their rebates, and I have two cards sitting on my desk right now with less than $5 on them. I can't use them because the cards must have a minimum balance of $5 in order to be used, so they are trash reminders of rebate frustrations. I have a third card with $5.41 on it. What can I buy with that, since you can't go over? I guess I could use it at McDonalds. Lame.
 
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Archaea said:
Cause many of us, myself included, have done exactly what you've done (like you say - it isn't complicated) and been told BS lines like we didn't include the UPC ( I STAPELED IT TO THE REBATE SUBMISSION FORM! - If you got the rebate form, you got the UPC). Or the famous, we didn't receive your rebate submission please resubmit the forms (BTW - only the original UPC is acceptable, not a photocopy --- which they KNOW was sent with the original, supposedly not received, submission). SCAM.

I generally have good luck with them, but I'm not 100% and at least a couple I've had denied were flat out lies from the company. So I have to consider at this point that you don't pay for something with a rebate if you can't afford to miss the rebate.

OCZ sends Visa cards for their rebates, and I have two cards sitting on my desk right now with less than $5 on them. I can't use them because the cards must have a minimum balance of $5 in order to be used, so they are trash reminders of rebate frustrations. I have a third card with $5.41 on it. What can I buy with that, since you can't go over? I guess I could use it at McDonalds. Lame.
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Valid point. I guess I have an advantage of having a Fry's next to me. I simply tell them the balance on the card and they enter it in, deduct balance from total price, and I pay the rest of the amount owed with different payment methods. I have actually used 3 prepaid debit cards from rebates (all from different companies) and a credit card to pay for a purchase at Fry's before with no issue. I always make sure to use all the balance on rebate cards in one transaction to avoid the OCZ Visa card dilemma you are facing.

If you prefer checks (since many companies do the card to try to get you to not be able to use all the money) both Asrock and EVGA still mail you checks.
And to address all other concerns about rebates, yes, they do bank on you messing up the process or forgetting to mail in forms. BUT if you follow instructions and have an insurance policy (explained in next sentence), you should be fine.

I always photocopy the submission form with UPC stapled or taped to it as proof that I sent in everything. (since the photocopy has both shown attached, I would think it would be pretty hard for them to argue that it never was attached if that is the way it was photocopied before being sent) I have never had to prove it, but that is a good way to ensure that you won't get screwed over in ways similar to what others in this thread have experienced.

To stay relevant to original topic, I think this is a good deal because the coolers on the XFX products are pretty efficient at removing heat for the noise level. Also, I have never had a rebate issue or had a rebate denied with XFX.
 
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cybrnook said:
Just hope this thread doesn't turn into a conversation about mail in rebates only, and not the great deal on the card :)
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Well, IMO the only way this 290x really even makes sense at this price is if you get two of them, and I'm not even sure you can do two rebates per household nor count on actually getting both rebates back in your wallet at the end of the day. That impacts whether or not its a good deal.

The reason I say that, is that 8GB is really only useful in select titles at 4K, but really you need a second 290x for high 4K performance on said titles.

In crossfire, two 8GB cards would certainly kick some ass, but that's very pricey and counts on two rebates being fulfilled.

And otherwise, why not just go with a cheaper 4GB card?
 
Any more actual discussion on the deal and the card itself and not a diatribe on mail-in rebates? :)
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Any more actual discussion on the deal and the card itself and not a diatribe on mail-in rebates? :)
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Besides this being a nice card? Not really...no one likes to deal with black friday rebates lol......stop playing with consumers with stupid rebates.
 
Ducman69 said:
Fo sho! But since crossfire doesn't use more than one GPU's memory size (in DX11 anyway), the 8GB card would make sense.
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Like I said, you're going to run out of GPU on a 290(X) before you can even use all 8GB in Xfire, quit trying to argue your point and admit you have no idea what you're talking about.

1430748911U8nIsW8LSm_3_4.gif
 
Yeah, at 4k I use 3.5GB of ram on mostly very high (not ultra) settings with the advanced settings turned on. If you turn on AA the fps will tank but still won't use the 4GB. This is with crossfire 290s.
 
Sodapopjones said:
Like I said, you're going to run out of GPU on a 290(X) before you can even use all 8GB in Xfire, quit trying to argue your point and admit you have no idea what you're talking about.
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You can say it until your face turns blue, but posting that picture is absolutely useless. All it shows is a few of the multitude of configurable settings and not how much memory is being utilized at those settings. Thus it won't show if the framerates demonstrated are at all affected by the amount of VRAM available, and the 290x was designed to operate with a 4GB memory pool so its not unreasonable to assume that two 290xs could benefit from a 8GB memory pool if there was a game that could exceed 4GB of memory utilization (which yup, GTA5 can with the right settings).

A 290x crossfire and 295x2 both have 4GB of usable VRAM, you realize that right? Comparing two virtually identical 4GB setups, two separate cards vs two combined cards doesn't tell anyone anything. So I'm not saying its wrong, but if you're going to get all incensed, bring information that is actually useful to the discussion and show either what the memory is or show crossfired Vapor-X 8GB 290s vs 4GB 290s that show there's no framerate increase.

For example, lets look at Tomb Raider. A 295x2 is simply two 290x 4GB cards with internal crossfire and watercooling. A Tri-X 8GB 290x Crossfire is more or less identical, except it has inferior cooling BUT double the VRAM at 8GB. Can double the VRAM with the same two chips matter? The answer is sometimes YES!
72_67_gtx-980-sli-vs-r9-290x-8gb-cf-295x2-amd-fx-9590-4k.png


So in that particular game doubling the VRAM of two 290x's doubles the performance at 4K. I don't know if that's the case with GTA5 if you configure the settings for high VRAM usage, but its possible.
 
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