I had an MSI GTX 970 4G which I returned during RAMGate and bought a Powercolor R9 290X for significantly less ($110 less before taxes). I thought I was getting equal performance while saving a Benjamin and saying FU nVidia. Boy was I mistaken, that Powercolor card was easily one of the worst pieces of hardware I've ever had and so I returned that too. There were no replacements in stock and I figured screw it I'll wait for the R9 300 series. It turns out the R9 300 series is a lot further than most people think so I've been sitting here without a video card for about a month and it's driving me nuts. Options I've been considering: 1 - Gigabyte R9 290X WF - $360 ($406.80 with tax) - I've been pretty scared away from 290X cards thanks to Powercolor, I'm extremely weary of buying another one. 2 - Gigabyte GTX 970 WF G1 Gamer - $440 ($497.20 with tax) - There are no reasonably priced Gigabyte 970 WF cards available currently, for some reason prices are going up not down, so much so that the G1 is about the same price as the base model. 3 - MSI GTX 970 100 Million Edition - $450 ($508.50 with tax) - $488.50 if the rebate ever comes through. It's essentially the same crap I had before except with a backplate, comes in puke green instead of red, and is supposed to have a "Free Gift" (redundant much?) yet the sellers are not giving whatever the gift was supposed to be. 4 - MSI GTX 980 4G - $630 - A local dude is selling a sealed MSI 980, says he has the receipt. I'd like a 980 but I'd feel retarded paying $630 for a card that's barely any faster than the 970. Yet it'd be nice to be free of the 970's issues and leaves the potential to SLI it in the future when the 980s are worth squat. I also don't like dealing with people as you never know when someone is selling you a potato in a sealed box. What say you? Even though the price is absolutely demented, and there's the hassle of dealing with the seller, I'm leaning towards buying the GTX 980.
Hmm. As you don't want to wait for the 390s, and returned your 970, I'd not advise you to grab another 970. You could have kept your first card and saved yourself some trouble All of the following is a mere guess, and don't bash me if you find it to not be what you'd have hoped for in the best of all ways, but: The 290X might be your best bet... As the 970 vram thing was your problem, you should not get yourself another one, never mind any stupid gifts your get. As an owner of 980sli the path to grab another one later is always valid, but don't forget that'd be another 630CND anyhow. If you're actually going for nvidia on purpose (physx, gsync, gfexperience, whatever), I'd say go with the 980. If you want to go with amd, then get the 290x, or wait, because fsync is coming along too. If I was you, I'd probably check on the aftermarket situation, if you'd lose lots of money with reselling either a 980 or the 290X, in case you'd want to board the 390X train later.
The aftermarket situation is this: - 290 cards don't sell for decent prices thanks to *******s selling butchered ones which have been tortured for a year in mining. - GTX 980s don't sell because no one is willing to pay such high prices for something used. Even the 970s don't sell well. I'd have to use Ebay or something and I've never had to deal with selling online. Oh and those prices I listed... those are "sales" (LOL!). The prices for 980s in Canada is beyond stupid, I have no words, the cheapest MSI 980 available from stores is $670 on sale - http://www.ncix.com/detail/msi-geforce-gtx-980-twinfrozr-50-102295-1088.htm So after tax that's $757.10, and like I said, that's the cheapest one I could find. The guy selling the 980 for $630 claims he paid $720 after taxes.
Hehe and I thought Quebec had high taxing. Well as everything you've got is pretty hard to sell in the aftermarket, and you don't wait for the 390s, I guess the best bet in terms of how long you'll enjoy your card is the 980. Even though it's expensive, I somehow see it last longer than the 290X in terms of how long you'll keep it to game. Or, as always, get the 290X and save up some money to go with a 390 once the custom cards are out.
IMHO getting a custom-cooled R9 290 from a reliable partner is a good choice price-per-performancewise if you're ruling out the GTX970. It will keep you going for a year or two still I'm sure after which you can re-upgrade. I can wholeheartedly recommend the one I have, Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X (OC). The Vapor-X is even better (Vapor-X cooler, custom PCB) but a little pricier. The Tri-X is a reference design PCB with the Tri-X custom cooler. I haven't had a single issue with mine, plus it even succesfully unlocked to a 290X. Gaming temps are around 70 centigrade. You're not the first to say that Powercolor / Vertex 3D etc. (TUL) give issues. Reference PCBs with the default cooler in particular are troublesome.
I looked around for a Tri-X model, it was suggested before, but none are available for reasonable prices, I'm considering the Gigabyte WF model mostly because of its price and because I find Gigabyte to be pretty much the most reputable supplier.
Hi Neo Cyrus, This is the cheapest i could find. http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_1200_557_559&item_id=077887 http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_1200_557_558&item_id=067679
Thanks for the links, but sadly they're no use. If I get a 980 I'd definitely buy the $630 MSI one since I know the MSI 4G is a very good model... and that means I don't have to pay tax on it either so it ends up much cheaper. The one I linked was the cheapest MSI 4G (the only 980 they sell?) model I could find, not the cheapest overall. As for that 290, that's precisely the issue, it's a 290, not 290X, and it's priced around the same as 290X cards. A GTX 970 OC'd to hell and back barely cut it for me, a 290 certainly won't.
Yeah, if the GTX970 wasn't enough for you then the 290 or 290X won't do. Besides the 290X is only marginally faster than the non-X, though with some games the gap is wider. If you need a new GPU right now, then it's pretty much the GTX980 for you I think.
TriX is the best cooler all around, also has the coolest VRM. Gigabyte WF3 model can still heat up 780GTX, now imagine 290X.. :nerd: imho 980GTX is not worth that extra price premium. 970GTX well, now you know why its so cheap.
Just pick up a custom cooled 970. I know the internet is still in an uproar about the RAMgate thing, but it's still a fast card for not that much cash.
I saw the Newegg reviews for the Gigabyte WF model... the failure rate is astonishing even if there were 10 times more people that didn't post good reviews. So that leaves me thinking about either a 970 or 980. And you mean not so cheap? Which would you guys go with then? The MSI 970 ME which is basically the 4G with a back plate (not even higher clocks), or the Gigabyte G1? They're both about $500 after tax new, that's not only not cheap, it's absolutely outrageous, insanity, completely absurd, for a mid range card. Imagine if I told you years ago that we'd be paying $500 for the mid range and $1100+ for the actual high end card? As far as 970s go I couldn't find a non-super-shady used one. The last guy I spoke to was rude so he can shove his 970s up his ass, I'd pay a premium to get the cards new and so he doesn't sell his. Anyway, what I was getting to is that the end price for a 970 Vs 980 is $500 Vs $630 for me. For 5%-20% more performance depending on the game I'm not sure if it's worth it since it varies so much.
I'd go with the MSI one, personally. And it's unfortunate you guys are getting raped like that price wise. Don't you have any U.S. friends who can buy one here and send it to you? You'd have to pay import tax but even if you declare the actual value you'd still be saving a crap ton of money.
your options are a 970 or a 980 you had a 970 did it do what you wanted if not your only option is the 980. sorry another option is wait and see what happens new GPUs are coming out soon AMD may have an awesome GPU coming out NVidia will release something to fight it or beat it time will tell. I am loving my 970 awesome GPU for 1080p gaming I have no interest in 980 a lot of money for not much more at 1080p
I have no one that can send it to me and unfortunately the reason that the prices here are currently so outrageous is partially because the Canadian dollar very recently went down a chunk while the US dollar has been going up (a large amount?) so there is a large disparity now. Oddly enough the CAD is roughly the same it's always been worth in every other currency, 0.75 Euro, more than the AUD, ~100 Jap Yen, etc. Not too long ago CAD/USD were equal but $1 CAD is more like $0.80 USD now. The only time we had American prices on some things was when the CAD was worth $1.10. Tax on everything that's not basic food is 13% (meaning they tax some foods), which seems low but that's because they rape us on everything else. When sales tax was lowered to 13% the prices on everything else government controlled went up. To give you an idea a tiny bottle of basic whiskey comes no cheaper than $40 at any local liquor shop, nearly all of that goes to the government pigdogs and not the manufacturer. And don't get me started on gas, or the mandatory costs-more-than-a-car insurance. Well... that went off topic. :wanker: AMD aren't even "officially" announcing anything about the R9 300s until Computex which is in June. So even if they release the cards right after in July that's way to far for me. I wish some more info on the MSI 970 ME was available, I'd go with that if I knew it was cherry picked, but there's almost no info available.
I know how it is my friend, I'm Canadian myself. I've been living in the states for the last few years. I wasn't aware the CAD value dropped so much recently. I do remember when it was actually higher than the USD though. Those were funny times. My family kept coming over the border to shop because it was amazingly cheaper. As for the 970 ME, I'm not seeing it listed anywhere, but it looks like it's a "special" version with cheaper components.
I think you're referring to the LE which is a cheaper version of the 4G, when I say ME I'm referring to the Million Edition which appears to be a green 4G with a backplate, same clocks, seemingly the same components (but I'm not sure). I know a more premium one is the Golden Edition, but the ME doesn't have any info indicating it's a higher binned chip like those and it doesn't have its clocks. Edit: Welp, apparently that's not an option either. I checked it earlier today and there was tons of stock of it (including over 10+, they only list up to 10, at a local shop) and now it shows none in stock.
^ I checked the links Sabbath posted and the Sapphire 290 Tri-X costs about half of the (Zotac) GTX980 it seems. So an idea: get the 290 now to have some video card, it will run any game at 1080p60 or even 1440p60 with max settings. You can also easily make it perform equally to 290X by overclocking (or try unlocking if you want / dare). Sure, if the GTX970 barely cut the mustard for you, you may have to make some compromises with the 290 for the time being. Doesn't cost you "too" much ATM though and will keep you going till the R9 300 series is out. Then you can get the GPU you really want. PS: some benchmarks show the 290X actually even outperform the GTX970 with higher resolutions where VRAM / memory bus width make a difference (290 has 4 GB 512-bit GDDR5). Example: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/dying_light_vga_graphics_performance_review,8.html (and this is an NVIDIA optimized game btw.)
