I notice on EBuyer the price of the MSI R9 290 has had £90 knocked off it with other cards also having big cuts. So, given I can pick up a MSI R9 290 for £254 which should I get? The MSI NVidia GTX 970 for £275 the MSI R9 290 for £254???
Can you guys explain why you would go for the GTX 970? From what I can find the R9 290 seems to perform better and is now cheaper by some margin?
The nVidia card is cheaper to run as it uses less power, and is more stable as far as drivers etc are concerned. I've got a 290X, and personal experience of it so far is that some driver releases from AMD are terrible. 14.4 I had quite a few BSOD's with. 14.7rc3 seemed stable, and I've just installed 14.9 - we'll see how that goes. The nVidia card will also be quieter if you're looking at the reference design 290. My 290X sounds like a vacuum when I'm gaming.
The 290 performs very well but if it's got the reference cooler and you going to stick with a reference cooler I'd go with the 970. The new 3xx AMD series will be lout soon as well. Problem with the 290 it's loud and gets hot.
From the reviews I've seen, 290 only ever beats the 970 @4k and only in a couple of games. 970 beats the 290 in most circumstances and being newer, will make use of newer technologies and five better longevity. Plus it's cooler, quieter, more power efficient and overclocks like a beast.
The 290X might out-perform a 970 in some games but I don't think a vanilla 290 will beat a 970. The 970 is faster, cooler, quieter and less hungry.
Ah well just ordered two of the MSI 970 from Scan. Hopefully a good decision. Thanks all for your input.
