is AMD Radeon R9 290X a good choice for starting this gen?

hey everyone. the question is clear. is that good enough? is there any better card around with a better price to start the new gen with it? or it's still too soon to build a pc for the new gen and it's possible to find better cards in the near future?

also i want to know the best CPU (price/quality) for this card. i don't want an ultra expensive cpu. i just want something nice with a good price to feed my GPU to maximize output for next 3-4 years :)

thanx in advance ,,,

the nvidia 780 TI will be superior to that card when its released in nov ? but it'll also cost like 700-750 bucks and i think that amd card will be 400 something.

I have no idea what cpu would be good enough for that card either. I have a intel 4770k and i have it overclocked to 4.5ghz and i feel even though its a good cpu, it sucks compared to what i would really imagine as a future proof cpu and yet theres nothing much better to get in that price range.

but probably for max speed go intel i7 4 core. with new consoles coming out they will be using 8 threads so you should want to match that. or get an amd 8 core if your cheap

yes it is great but I would wait for ones without stock coolers or get a gtx 780 for $50-100 less and comes with 3 pretty new big games. if price is not an option then wait for the gtx 780 ti as for cpu give a price but imo the best bang for your buck is a i5 2500k, 3570k, 4670k. or maybe even a fx 8350 (these all are around $200-250 and are well worth it especially if you oc them).

This. But if you have an extra 100$ to spend, getting an i7 4770k wouldn't be a bad idea at this point.

the 290x runs extremely hot and loud. if you game with one, for about 3-4 hours, it ends up downclocking itself to as low as 600mhz (same speed as an HD 7970) because it's max operating temperature is a scorching 94c. so don't waste your time or money on it.

gtx 770 4g is the best bang for the buck.

the gtx titan is the most future proof because it's very fast and has 6gb vram, but it is too expensive.

the gtx 780 ti (6gb vram) will be the best option, even though it will be expensive as well.

don't waste you money on any video card that has less than 4 gb of vram. people will complain and say "you don't need that much vram." but don't listen to them, the next gen games of 2014-2015, and onward, will start crushing 2-3gb video cards soon, even at 1080p.

intel i7 4770k or i7 3930k, i7 4930k will last for years. the amd fx 8350 is "ok"

go with a motherboard that will support 2133mhz ram.

I'd start the gen with a Gtx 880 or something like that. I wouldnt consider the 290x "next-gen" in a gaming pc. Its more like the last hurrah for current gen pc's.

I know it will be a year, but it will be worth the wait to have an actual "next-gen" pc.

Intel Core i5 4670 Haswell 3.4Ghz 6MB, either 290X or 280X

thank you guys.i read what you said and i'll consider all of them before starting spending my money for a new pc.

it was really helpful. you guys ROCK!

I wouldn't buy one. I would wait for a refresh when they fix the issues with the card. To me it seems like the thing is being pushed to its limit already and that just makes me uncomfortable. If you are only planning on having the card for a year or less sure, but to me it seems like there will be a lot of card failures. That is just my speculation based on my PC experience over the years, so take it with a grain of salt. I just don't like the feeling that my card is being pushed to its max off the bat.

I dislike it rather much.

It's loud and hot and according to OC3D, it takes more than 10 minutes for it to return to idle temps, after load.

Doubtful. Go read the HardOCP crossfire review. The 290X, especially in Crossfire, stomps anything nVidia is offering. It's 20-40% faster than two GTX 780s in SLI and quite a bit faster than Titan SLI. At 4K it's almost twice as fast as Titan or 780 SLI in some cases. As the drivers improve, it's becoming apparent that the 290X is much faster than any of nVidia's high-end cards. The 780 Ti will likely be slower and $150 more expensive.

If you want a future proof card, buy a 290X. It's the most powerful card by a long shot, and the fact that all of the next-gen consoles are running AMD hardware will work to its advantage in the long run. nVidia shafted themselves in the long run by not getting their hardware in any of the consoles. Almost everything these days is multiplatform, and from now on it's all going to be developed to run on AMD hardware with nVidia an afterthought.

290X is'nt really fast enough for 4k though, IMO.

Seriously its not lol. Until we see cards getting 120fps on current gen games then We are definatly not ready for 4k. Dont know why companies push products that cant even perform properly yet because the GPUs wont be able to keep up with them for a few years to come. (4k monitors) Oh wait they are just greedy

People trying to seriously game at 4K at not likely going to be running a single gpu at the very least they will have 2 high end cards if not 3 to 4.

The 780 that has had a price drop is better, you can get an MSI gaming edition that performs better than Titan and the 290x for £420. It runs cooler, you can overclock it like a beast, uses less power and Nvidia traditionally have way better drivers.

The 290x has been a disappointment so far, maybe the non reference cards can do something about it with custom coolers, however who knows when they'll come, probably 2014, by which point we'll be looking to the 800 series.

disregard this post, he is noob

It's actually fact

Agreed. Except for maybe the drivers bit.

I love that AMD brought strong performance, but I couldn't in good conscience put a card that is designed to run at 95c in my computer case. That's an ABSURD amount of heat to dump into a case...even with the centrifugal fan blowing most of the heat out of the case, the ambiance from the back of the card has to add up over time I imagine. Additionally, that heat is immense. How well will all those transistors live up to the heat up and cool down on that card? I can imagine short lives for those cards just from the heat.

My 670 dc2 never tips over 70c! It's much less powerful...but I like that it's nice and frosty.

Yeh my Asus sound card sits right above my GPU as it's my only viable slot due to having other cards in there and it already gets mega hot as a result, the 290x wud kill it lol.

R9 290x is a great card to get. I would wait for non-reference model to be announced and released. What is your price range on the CPU?

I have this SAME issue with my Creative zxr.

95c is atrocious for any component. It's just poor design, no matter what excuses are made.

Wait until there's a 290x available with a working cooler. They're unacceptable in their current state and better cooling will stop the downclocking and improve performance.

I would wait for next year and the 20nm cards.

and have it STILL LAG 30fps