780 or 290?

[Surfie]

Hi guys,

Well, I've stumbled upon a cache of coins which I had put down and forgotten about. About $600 worth. Enough in any event to get a graphics card update that I've been thinking about for a while.

Now the 780ti and 290x is out of my reach, and I only do 1080p gaming anyway, but I'm wondering which would be my best value upgrade, the 290 or the 780. I've got a 680 at the moment, and it is good, but I'm not too impressed with the benchmarks on it, in so far as the latest cards just smash it out of the park.

Bear in mind that the stock cooler doesn't mean a damn, since I will be water cooling it.

Other relevant specs:
Asus Rampage IV Formula (was an extreme, but it died, and I couldn't afford direct replacement)
Intel 3930K
32GB Corsair Vengence Memory 1333
2 x Samsung Evo 512 SSDs
2 x Western Digital 1TB Mechanical Drives
1 x Western Digital 2TB Mechanical Drive
Corsair RM750 PSU

Edit: And in light of the upcoming GPU releases in April, should I, perhaps, just hold off and see how that affects prices? If it drops the TI down far enough, then that would be a worthwhile wait I suspect.

Please also know, I have an idea of what most people will say. I'm just trying to get a guage on how accurate my own thoughts on the matter are for the time being...

 

[barnsley]

I'd say 290 as you are watercooling. They can be pushed very far under water.

 

[DJundertaker25]

I'm currently using a r9 290 (sapphire tri-x) you can get an easy overclock on them in comparison to gtx 780 (in my experience). And the heat problems and such don't really happen with the aftermarket coolers. So watercooling isn't even necessary if you want to safe the money.

As for benches it's pretty much a tie with the gtx 780 and r9 290. Although if it's acceptable to you. I'd go with a second 680 if you're sticking with the 1080p it'll outperform both the r9 290 and the gtx 780 with ease.

But if you want to go to a higher resolution like 4k or 5760x1080/1200 a r9 290 will out perform a gtx 780 thanks to the amount of vram. there's a visiontek r9 290 cryvenom coming up. But don't wait for it from what i've seen the heatsink is made up of a nickel/copper alloy. Which pretty much means you'd be better of just buying an xspc razor.

As for waiting for the next gen of cards like the 8970 and the gtx 880. I wouldn't get your hopes up. The last performance increase wasn't really that big of a deal and i don't think you would need that amount of processing power in the near future anyway.

 

[NeverBackDown]

A 290 is generally faster than a 780. So i would go 290 and also the fact that you are watercooling this card will be best bang for your buck.

 

[Wraith]

Another thread another set of stats

 

[NeverBackDown]

Another thread another set of stats

Specs are worthless for this type of comparison. These two cards come down to drivers and developer/game bias of the cards. And generally the 290 usually wins but also depends on the games OP plays.

 

[Surfie]

Thanks all for the thoughts. Nice to see that in general they mirrored my own.

I did think about going down the second 680 route, but there aren't many of them on ebay, and the ones that are there are more expensive than the 290.

I think that I will get a 290 and then a second one a bit later on when the prices drop. As long as they are reference, water blocks will go on fine.

Now I did spot a couple of good deals on ebay, but having never used the site before, I gotta wonder if there are any gotchas or pitfalls that I need to avoid?

 

[barnsley]

I think that I will get a 290 and then a second one a bit later on when the prices drop. As long as they are reference, water blocks will go on fine.

Now I did spot a couple of good deals on ebay, but having never used the site before, I gotta wonder if there are any gotchas or pitfalls that I need to avoid?

I wouldn't get a used 290 from ebay (or from ebay at all) as chances are its a knackered ex mining card.