So recently the new GTX 970/980s were revealed and to my surprise--NO NVIDIA DOMINANCE PRICING. Did not expect that at all. The GTX 970&980's perform phenomenally at their price points. The 980 superior in both performance and technological aspects to the 780TI, and at a lower cost (release pricing 500 vs 700). The 970 being ridiculously cost effective in comparison to even AMD solutions at ~$320-350 ($330 for an ACX cooled EVGA 970!). At this point I wanted to chuck my R9 290 out the window and prepare my wallet...
Ultimately, I chose not to do it. I seriously want to as it would erase the headaches that the 290 has given me, but I plan to do a platform change (Sandy Bridge -> Intel's Skylake) in 2015/2016 and by then NVIDIA will have something even better than what they've delivered with the GTX 9XX series.
Nevertheless, I suppose the R9 290 I picked up wasn't too bad of a purchase as I was able to get it for about 200, the Arctic Accelero IV for about 80, VRAM&VRM heatsinks about 40 totaling roughly 320--the cost of a 970 roughly. Performance wise they would be the same give or take at stock, however as described by my Black screen FIX/WORKAROUND post, I virtually have no overclocking ability that the GTX 970 obviously has since to maintain my 290's stability, I have to limit core clock to 845Mhz. Overclocking the memory frequency does not provide performance gains as the core clock at 845 mega hertz IS indeed a bottleneck--as proven by overclocking my memory frequency from 1250 to 1450 Mhz gives the same FPS in Unigine Valley benchmark, but pushing the core clock up past 845 (sometimes stable enough to benchmark but not enough for actual everyday usage) would result in performance gains of nearly 10 fps. As a result the GTX 970 could easily pull away in terms of performance--let alone the fact that it is incredibly power efficient at a rated 165W TDP (especially when compared to the 290's 275W TDP) and runs a lot cooler, has full DX12 hardware support, and optimizations for Oculus Rift which I definitely plan on picking up once the consumer version comes out.
However, If I grab the 970 now, I'm only going to regret not waiting out for NVIDIA's next line GPU architecture Pascal with new potential technologies NVLINK? Stacked VRAM? Perhaps maybe even AMD will have new enticing graphics cards. Until recently (after getting the 290) I've never had an issue with NVIDIA or AMD, but as of now I would probably always recommend and/or choose NVIDIA over AMD's solutions. I'll post my NVIDIA vs AMD post soon when I have time to finish it. I had written it a long time ago but since technologies from the two companies keep changing, the post has gone out of date very quickly. Initially it was objective, favoring neither NVIDIA or AMD but since the products they dish up keep pulling an edge over each other, it would result in my opinion of who is a better choice would flip within months of writing it -- however after my headaches with the 290, I will likely strongly favor NVIDIA with a PRO NVIDIA post.
Some other updates with my R9 290
I have since removed the back plate from my R9 290 that came with the Arctic Accelero. In order to remove it I had to reapply the thermal paste on the GPU. I had done three things, removed back plate + thermal pads, readjusted the VRM heatsinks and reapply GPU paste then secured the cooler back on.
This has solved a minor issue with my GPU where moving the mouse during no load while cause a audible high pitch whining (though I have a Corsair 330R so it was bearable). After removing the back plate with the thermal pads I put it in a ziploc bag should I decide to reinstall it. I also added plastic washers when securing on the screws for the VRM heatsinks. In addition to this when cleaning the GPU die I realized I had initially put way too much and there was Arctic Silver 5 all over the resistors/IC on the GPU. Normally this is not an issue BUT Arctic Silver 5 is actually a little electrically conductive! I had no idea about this, and many posts claim that AS actually understate how conductive the compound really is. I cleaned up the gpu as much as I could but it obviously could use some more. One of these three things fixed my GPU whine (awesome) but the black screen issue still exists.
As a result I have a theory that my black screens maybe potentially related to the electrically conductive Arctic Silver splattered all over the resistors and IC's on the GPU chip since I couldn't clean it enough and the fact that I am black screening from variances in CORE CLOCK only. I will clean it as much I can again when I have time with a tooth brush + alcohol and see if it fixes my black screens.
Changes:
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 -> Intel DZ68BC
GPU: Took off Arctic Accelero Heatsink Backplate
HDD: Broke Raid 0 Array, Added 1TB Western Digital Blue Caviar
Cooling: Changed CMYAF fan color to Blue from Silver, Changed SP120's fan colors to blue.
I changed the motherboard since on the Pro3, the SATA 6 ports were blocked by the GPU since the geniuses as ASRock decided that people who get the Pro3 wouldn't have large GPUs thus equipped the board with SATA 6 ports that point vertically up in the area where the GPU usually goes over (across from the end of the PCI-E x16 bus). Overall I got the DZ68BC cheap ($50 new) since it is outdated hardware, though it does have BIOS issues (I may write up a post about it)
Update #1: Cleaned my 290 as clean as I possibly could with a tooth brush + 91% Isopropyl (Alcohol), still black screens at stock settings.
Nevertheless what I did gain from cleaning it was seeing a label number which confirms some claims users on Overclock.net had made about unlocking 290s to 290x's. There was a claim that "290x chips were labeled (xxxx2000)" and along the lines that they were binned as 290x but were sold as 290s (with 290 BIOS) to either 1.) increase supply of 290s or 2.) 3rd party (e.g. Sapphire, XFX, Asus) decided the particular GPU did not meet their OCing standards and dropped it down to a 290. In my case, I am able to unlock my 290 to a 290x as well as have a label containing 2000 for the last 4 digits.
Ultimately, I chose not to do it. I seriously want to as it would erase the headaches that the 290 has given me, but I plan to do a platform change (Sandy Bridge -> Intel's Skylake) in 2015/2016 and by then NVIDIA will have something even better than what they've delivered with the GTX 9XX series.
Nevertheless, I suppose the R9 290 I picked up wasn't too bad of a purchase as I was able to get it for about 200, the Arctic Accelero IV for about 80, VRAM&VRM heatsinks about 40 totaling roughly 320--the cost of a 970 roughly. Performance wise they would be the same give or take at stock, however as described by my Black screen FIX/WORKAROUND post, I virtually have no overclocking ability that the GTX 970 obviously has since to maintain my 290's stability, I have to limit core clock to 845Mhz. Overclocking the memory frequency does not provide performance gains as the core clock at 845 mega hertz IS indeed a bottleneck--as proven by overclocking my memory frequency from 1250 to 1450 Mhz gives the same FPS in Unigine Valley benchmark, but pushing the core clock up past 845 (sometimes stable enough to benchmark but not enough for actual everyday usage) would result in performance gains of nearly 10 fps. As a result the GTX 970 could easily pull away in terms of performance--let alone the fact that it is incredibly power efficient at a rated 165W TDP (especially when compared to the 290's 275W TDP) and runs a lot cooler, has full DX12 hardware support, and optimizations for Oculus Rift which I definitely plan on picking up once the consumer version comes out.
However, If I grab the 970 now, I'm only going to regret not waiting out for NVIDIA's next line GPU architecture Pascal with new potential technologies NVLINK? Stacked VRAM? Perhaps maybe even AMD will have new enticing graphics cards. Until recently (after getting the 290) I've never had an issue with NVIDIA or AMD, but as of now I would probably always recommend and/or choose NVIDIA over AMD's solutions. I'll post my NVIDIA vs AMD post soon when I have time to finish it. I had written it a long time ago but since technologies from the two companies keep changing, the post has gone out of date very quickly. Initially it was objective, favoring neither NVIDIA or AMD but since the products they dish up keep pulling an edge over each other, it would result in my opinion of who is a better choice would flip within months of writing it -- however after my headaches with the 290, I will likely strongly favor NVIDIA with a PRO NVIDIA post.
Some other updates with my R9 290
I have since removed the back plate from my R9 290 that came with the Arctic Accelero. In order to remove it I had to reapply the thermal paste on the GPU. I had done three things, removed back plate + thermal pads, readjusted the VRM heatsinks and reapply GPU paste then secured the cooler back on.
This has solved a minor issue with my GPU where moving the mouse during no load while cause a audible high pitch whining (though I have a Corsair 330R so it was bearable). After removing the back plate with the thermal pads I put it in a ziploc bag should I decide to reinstall it. I also added plastic washers when securing on the screws for the VRM heatsinks. In addition to this when cleaning the GPU die I realized I had initially put way too much and there was Arctic Silver 5 all over the resistors/IC on the GPU. Normally this is not an issue BUT Arctic Silver 5 is actually a little electrically conductive! I had no idea about this, and many posts claim that AS actually understate how conductive the compound really is. I cleaned up the gpu as much as I could but it obviously could use some more. One of these three things fixed my GPU whine (awesome) but the black screen issue still exists.
As a result I have a theory that my black screens maybe potentially related to the electrically conductive Arctic Silver splattered all over the resistors and IC's on the GPU chip since I couldn't clean it enough and the fact that I am black screening from variances in CORE CLOCK only. I will clean it as much I can again when I have time with a tooth brush + alcohol and see if it fixes my black screens.
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 -> Intel DZ68BC
GPU: Took off Arctic Accelero Heatsink Backplate
HDD: Broke Raid 0 Array, Added 1TB Western Digital Blue Caviar
Cooling: Changed CMYAF fan color to Blue from Silver, Changed SP120's fan colors to blue.
I changed the motherboard since on the Pro3, the SATA 6 ports were blocked by the GPU since the geniuses as ASRock decided that people who get the Pro3 wouldn't have large GPUs thus equipped the board with SATA 6 ports that point vertically up in the area where the GPU usually goes over (across from the end of the PCI-E x16 bus). Overall I got the DZ68BC cheap ($50 new) since it is outdated hardware, though it does have BIOS issues (I may write up a post about it)
Update #1: Cleaned my 290 as clean as I possibly could with a tooth brush + 91% Isopropyl (Alcohol), still black screens at stock settings.
Ignore the smudge (I cleaned it off after taking the picture).
Nevertheless what I did gain from cleaning it was seeing a label number which confirms some claims users on Overclock.net had made about unlocking 290s to 290x's. There was a claim that "290x chips were labeled (xxxx2000)" and along the lines that they were binned as 290x but were sold as 290s (with 290 BIOS) to either 1.) increase supply of 290s or 2.) 3rd party (e.g. Sapphire, XFX, Asus) decided the particular GPU did not meet their OCing standards and dropped it down to a 290. In my case, I am able to unlock my 290 to a 290x as well as have a label containing 2000 for the last 4 digits.
This was both good and bad news in my case. The good news is that my card is actually able to unlock to a 290x and that its not a fluke, the bad news is that I suspected Arctic Silver on the components of the die as being a potential cause for the black screens (and its not). The only thing I can think of now is that I need to bump up core voltage but the Hawaii line uses voltage offsets. I am currently unable to find a way to change the clock voltage (vddc) offset through Afterburner or Trixx. The slider doesn't show up in Trixx or GPUTweak, and is blank for Afterburner. Hopefully I'll figure it out.
