Sad fact my current PSU are 620W Cooler Master Silent Pro M2, and it most probably not sufficient to support 290X lightning beast. Planning to buy 850W PSU from either Cooler Master, Seasonic or Silverstone. The most thing i need to consider it 290X + PSU are roughly at GTX 980 price, this make me as the long time ATI/AMD card user feel a bit in dilemma.

My options are as below:

1. 290X Lightning + Cooler Master V1000 = 1299+649=1948
2. 290X Lightning + Seasonic X1050 = 1299+795=2094
3. GTX 980 (ASUS/GIGA/MSI) = 2299
4. GTX 980 (Leadtek) = 1999
5. GTX 970 (ASUS/GIGA/MSI) = 1499
6. Sapphire 290X 8GB + CM V1000 = 1699+649 = 2348

Another enquiry, do you think the 8GB VRAM worth the price premium?

Are you going to overclock this beast?

Sad fact my current PSU are 620W Cooler Master Silent Pro M2, and it most probably not sufficient to support 290X lightning beast. Planning to buy 850W PSU from either Cooler Master, Seasonic or Silverstone. The most thing i need to consider it 290X + PSU are roughly at GTX 980 price, this make me as the long time ATI/AMD card user feel a bit in dilemma.

My options are as below:

1. 290X Lightning + Cooler Master V1000 = 1299+649=1948
2. 290X Lightning + Seasonic X1050 = 1299+795=2094
3. GTX 980 (ASUS/GIGA/MSI) = 2299
4. GTX 980 (Leadtek) = 1999
5. GTX 970 (ASUS/GIGA/MSI) = 1499
6. Sapphire 290X 8GB + CM V1000 = 1699+649 = 2348

Another enquiry, do you think the 8GB VRAM worth the price premium?

What is the rest of your system? Your PSU is sufficient for a 290x imo.

Both MSI and Sapphire website show that the minimum requirement of PSU are 750W

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R9-290X-LIG...o-specification
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/p...n=&lid=1&leg=0#

Since R9 300 series is approaching, do you think 290X still be a viable purchase? I would like to make a final upgrade before our Government April fool present :GST

My current system spec:

i5-4670K
16GB DDR3 1600MHz value RAM
Giga Z87X D3H
Sapphire HD 7870 GHz
1.5TB + 2TB WD green
Cooler Master V6GT CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 620W
Corsair Carbide 400R
     

Nah, your PSU is fine. The Lightning power consumption is similar to other aftermarket 290x.

PCPER Lightning test system only use 412 watt of power on load with 3960X processor.

Tomshardware tested the card only use 258watt average on Heaven benchmark loop with some occasional spikes to 400+ watts. Your PSU should be able to hand those. Even when overclocked to 1150mhz the card only consume 272watt on average when gaming.

Thanks for the info, I have read essentially all the reviews around regard of the 290X. just concern of the PSU requirement of the official website which almost all state 750W as minimum. If no need to change my PSU, RM 1299 for 290X lightning will be very tempting.

btw, I'm considering also the Sapphire 290X 8GB at price 1699. do you think the price premium worth?

Both MSI and Sapphire website show that the minimum requirement of PSU are 750W

http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R9-290X-LIG...o-specification
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/p...n=&lid=1&leg=0#

Since R9 300 series is approaching, do you think 290X still be a viable purchase? I would like to make a final upgrade before our Government April fool present :GST

My current system spec:

i5-4670K
16GB DDR3 1600MHz value RAM
Giga Z87X D3H
Sapphire HD 7870 GHz
1.5TB + 2TB WD green
Cooler Master V6GT CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 620W
Corsair Carbide 400R
     

Thanks for the info, I have read essentially all the reviews around regard of the 290X. just concern of the PSU requirement of the official website which almost all state 750W as minimum. If no need to change my PSU, RM 1299 for 290X lightning will be very tempting.

btw, I'm considering also the Sapphire 290X 8GB at price 1699. do you think the price premium worth?

Thanks for the info, I have read essentially all the reviews around regard of the 290X. just concern of the PSU requirement of the official website which almost all state 750W as minimum. If no need to change my PSU, RM 1299 for 290X lightning will be very tempting.

btw, I'm considering also the Sapphire 290X 8GB at price 1699. do you think the price premium worth?

Now near the end of January already, if me I'll wait for 300 series. Your HD7870 still can play latest games too.

If tak boleh wait better for for cheap GTX970... (lol i know it's Radeon subforum) or get a 2nd hand r9 290?

If you plan to run with high resolution multi-monitor setup, it'll be worth it. However for 4k & higher resolution, you'll need more than one card to get nice fps though. If you plan only single monitor, 4GB is more than enough. I'd get 290x lightning. Your PSU is enough for single card.

Thanks for your precious opinion, if 290X against GTX 970, will 290X be a better buy?

Of course

290x dirctx 11
970 DirectX 12

Anyway I will buy lightning

Unless you're going to CFX them, 8GB is pretty useless imo. Unseen83 play at 4K res with 2x 4GB 290x CFX and he don't have problem with the 4GB framebuffer... i think.

If you plan to run with high resolution multi-monitor setup, it'll be worth it. However for 4k & higher resolution, you'll need more than one card to get nice fps though. If you plan only single monitor, 4GB is more than enough. I'd get 290x lightning. Your PSU is enough for single card.

thanks for your precious advice!      if compared to newer GTX 980 or 970, do you think 290X lightning will still be a good buy? especially compared with 970

U will buy 290X lightning? I'm considering that too...although not excel in power efficiency, it perform well and the price are good enough. Just curious that my 620W PSU can run this beast, if not then I may need to pay for another PSU or just grab GTXes.

I think 290X will most probably been updated to run DirectX 12 in future. plus, All of the game currently will backward compatible with DX 9 and i think it will be the case to DX 11. plus there will be a few years before the game designing firm completely ditch DX 11

You can't update 290x to run DirectX 12. Already confirmed DirectX 12 cannot run on 290x.

To me is depends on the PCB & cooler design, for example if Gainward/Leadtek GTX970 vs 290x Lightning, i definitely will choose the latter, but if gigabyte windforce gtx 970 vs 290x lightning then i might choose the former. I personally like full length PCB & big cooler, it look great inside the casing (provided your casing has side window)