R9 290 vs 290X

[Marcvs]

Been asked by a mate if he should go for an r9 290 or an r9 290X for compute performance - In other words is the performance gain actually worthwhile or is it kinda meh. Also is the Sapphire Tri-X edition worth getting for its better cooling. (at £25 more than a stock one)

Regards

[kalniel]

You mentioned the deadly word 'worth'

There is an increase in compute performance, but it's hard for any of us to put ourselves in his shoes and say what that worth is to him. Personally, it's not worth it (in fact lesser models in the GCN have better computer power for the value IMHO).. but my circumstances will be different - if you're doing a task that's mission critical than the extra computer power may quite easily pay for itself, or not, depending on how much you charge/your time is worth

Now that we are in the days of dynamic clocks based on temperatures, then if you're using it for a lot of work I would go for a model with good cooling - check the reviews carefully so that you can be sure the cooling will actually be better for your uses (eg in case rather than open bench if that's your situation).

[dfour]

The tri-x version is well worth the extra £25 over the stock cooling. Dont buy the stock one unless your planning to water cool it.

[Marcvs]

Currently it looks like the R9 290 is going to be much better bang for the $$ than the 290X - Any thoughts. - The TriX, 290 is up for £284 vs 290X Tricool for £355-430

[dfour]

I dontthink there is that much performance difference between the pair so go with the 290 non-X. Non that you would notice at 1080p

[scaryjim]

ISTR that when Hexus tested the TriX 290 it performed almost identically to a stock 290X.

Hmmm, http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...-r9-290-tri-x/

Between the 290 and the 290X, as you'd expect, but it overclocked enough to put it ahead of a stock 780 Ti in 3D Mark

For my money, the 290X simply isn't worth any extra money, but it does depend on what resolution/settings/games he's targeting. If he can get a 290 Tri-X and overclock it as much as hexus did, it'd be a very good investment IMO.

[Eldeblor]

r9290x is basically an over clocked r9290 so I would go with the r9290 as it is cheaper and just over clock it. Obviously not on the reference cooler but with possibly a MSI or gigabyte cooler.

[dfour]

r9290x is basically an over clocked r9290 so I would go with the r9290 as it is cheaper and just over clock it. Obviously not on the reference cooler but with possibly a MSI or gigabyte cooler.

Not completely true the 290x has another shader cluster enabled over the 290. 2816 vs 2560 shaders.