Which GPU??

[PowerPie5000]

I'll start off by saying i had to return my shiny new Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X as it arrived with a warped cooler! So now i'm stuck using a GTX 660 Ti for the time being (as i had already moved my old HIS Radeon 7950 to another system)... .

Anyway, i've decided to go for a refund instead of getting a direct replacement after reading some reviews... The Sapphire 280X Vapor-X appears to be a loud and power hungry card! This puts me off a bit. What is the best 280X card out there? I'm quite tempted by the Asus 280X DirectCUII TOP, or maybe even a GTX 770 if i take the Nvidia route (will need to be a 4GB model though). What do you guys think?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Stick with what you have??

[ik9000]

Stick with what you have??

+1. Why would you want to change it?

[PowerPie5000]

Are you guys saying i should stick with a 2GB GTX 660Ti, HIS Radeon 7950 or the Sapphire R9 280X? I wanted something a little faster as i'm debating on whether to get a 27" 1440p screen or a 120hz+ screen down the road, but i can't afford to spend too much on a GPU!

The GTX 660 Ti just doesn't do it for me (it's noticeably slower than a Radeon 7950), unless maybe i add another... But i'm not even sure if my board supports SLI? And will my 600W PSU be ok for dual GTX 660 Ti's?

[cmndr_andi]

If you can get a full refund then I would take the money, sit on the GTX 660 TI for a couple of weeks and then have a look how the dust has settled.

With the release of the AMD R9 290 at a relatively low price (and pretty awesome performance) and custom cooler versions incoming we are likely to see a fair bit of change on Nvidia prices (and possibly AMD counters further down the product lines) in the next few days and weeks.

[PowerPie5000]

If you can get a full refund then I would take the money, sit on the GTX 660 TI for a couple of weeks and then have a look how the dust has settled.

With the release of the AMD R9 290 at a relatively low price (and pretty awesome performance) and custom cooler versions incoming we are likely to see a fair bit of change on Nvidia prices (and possibly AMD counters further down the product lines) in the next few days and weeks.

The R9 290 cards have a good price tag and excellent performance, but i'd like to see how the heat will affect the PCB, soldering and surrounding components... Having the card run at 95C and then cooling down again numerous times is bound to make something crack at some point... I wouldn't want them directly next to each other in a Crossfire setup either.

[cmndr_andi]

The R9 290 cards have a good price tag and excellent performance, but i'd like to see how the heat will affect the PCB, soldering and surrounding components... Having the card run at 95C and then cooling down again is bound to make something crack at some point.

That is a good point, they are some really hot chips and I guess time will tell how the other components deal with the thermal stress. However, I reckon the major problem is that AMD are committed to offering rear-exhausting blower graphics card coolers with their stock cards - so CF setups are easy to implement (so people buy more of their cards). However, it has been shown so often that for cooling a single card in a relatively well ventilated PC case that a multi-fan open air cooler provides better cooling (and usually less noise). For that reason I'm pretty confident that many of the 290s with custom coolers (like a Gigabyte windforce 3X) will be able to maintain much more reasonable temperatures, noise levels and sustained boost clockspeeds.

[kalniel]

The R9 290 cards have a good price tag and excellent performance, but i'd like to see how the heat will affect the PCB, soldering and surrounding components... Having the card run at 95C and then cooling down again numerous times is bound to make something crack at some point... I wouldn't want them directly next to each other in a Crossfire setup either.

I expect they'll be OK - AMD have previous from the X1950 series which all used to run in the 90s and were in my experience really solid (still have one that works great even after being used in the mATX computer of GPU death).

[Butuz]

Put your HIS 7950 back in and save you cash. Going from 7950 > 280x isn't much of a boost considering the cash spent.

Butuz

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I had a GTX660TI or HD7950,I would probably not look at upgrading if I was gaming at 1920X1080. If the HD7950 has a decent cooler and is not voltage locked,it should overclock well.

[PowerPie5000]

I had a GTX660TI or HD7950,I would probably not look at upgrading if I was gaming at 1920X1080. If the HD7950 has a decent cooler and is not voltage locked,it should overclock well.

The HIS card does overclock well and runs fine with the core at 1100MHz (could probably go higher), but the down side to overclocking that card is the coil whine, which is not present when running stock! And i bet the power consumption goes through the roof too! I'm hoping a decent 280X will still be a bit faster than an overclocked 7950. If i carry on gaming at 1080p then it would be at 120Hz or more... Or i might just get a 27" 1440p screen .

Put your HIS 7950 back in and save you cash. Going from 7950 > 280x isn't much of a boost considering the cash spent.

Butuz

I'll get some of the money back from selling the GTX 660Ti, so it's not all bad .

[PowerPie5000]

That is a good point, they are some really hot chips and I guess time will tell how the other components deal with the thermal stress. However, I reckon the major problem is that AMD are committed to offering rear-exhausting blower graphics card coolers with their stock cards - so CF setups are easy to implement (so people buy more of their cards). However, it has been shown so often that for cooling a single card in a relatively well ventilated PC case that a multi-fan open air cooler provides better cooling (and usually less noise). For that reason I'm pretty confident that many of the 290s with custom coolers (like a Gigabyte windforce 3X) will be able to maintain much more reasonable temperatures, noise levels and sustained boost clockspeeds.

It seems Techspot have tested an R9 290 using a HIS IceQ cooler from a 7970... The results are impressive with it maxing out at 76C using Furmark and never going over 63C when gaming (Crysis 3 & BF4)... It seems there's still hope! Just wish AMD would let their partners loose with their own coolers already.

[ik9000]

It seems Techspot have tested an R9 290 using a HIS IceQ cooler from a 7970... The results are impressive with it maxing out at 76C using Furmark and never going over 63C when gaming (Crysis 3 & BF4)... It seems there's still hope! Just wish AMD would let their partners loose with their own coolers already.

+1. getting bored of waiting

[watercooled]

It seems Techspot have tested an R9 290 using a HIS IceQ cooler from a 7970... The results are impressive with it maxing out at 76C using Furmark and never going over 63C when gaming (Crysis 3 & BF4)... It seems there's still hope! Just wish AMD would let their partners loose with their own coolers already.

Well spotted! Just as we expected then. Those custom cooled cards can't arrive to market too soon!

[PowerPie5000]

Well spotted! Just as we expected then. Those custom cooled cards can't arrive to market too soon!

I'll definitely consider an R9 290 when they get released with custom coolers... Just hope they release them soon!

[watercooled]

The issue is with the 290/X, not 280/X.