On Saturday while finishing up the writing on our Shadow of Mordor performance story, I noticed something quite interesting. The prices of AMD's flagship Radeon products had all come down quite a bit. In an obvious response to the release of NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970, the Radeon R9 290X and the Radeon R9 290 have lowered prices in a very aggressive fashion.
UPDATE: A couple of individual cards appear to be showing up as $360 and $369 on Newegg!
Amazon.com is showing some R9 290X cards at $399
For now, Amazon.com is only listing the triple-fan Gigabyte R9 290X Windforce card at $399, though Newegg.com has a couple as well.
Amazon.com also has several R9 290 cards for $299
- Gigabyte R9 290 Windforce – $299
- Powercolor AX R9 290 – $299
- ASUS R9 290 DirectCU II – $329
- More R9 290 Card on Amazon.com
And again, Newegg.com has some other options for R9 290 cards at these lower prices.
Let's assume that these price drops are going to be permanent which seems likely based on the history of AMD and market adjustments. That shifts the high end GPU market considerably.
| GeForce GTX 980 4GB | $549 | |
| $399 | Radeon R9 290X 4GB | |
| GeForce GTX 970 4GB | $329 | |
| $299 | Radeon R9 290 4GB |
The battle for that lower end spot between the GTX 970 and R9 290 is now quite a bit tighter though NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture still has a positive outlook against the slightly older Hawaii GPU. Our review of the GTX 970 shows that it is indeed faster than the R9 290 though it no longer has the significant cost advantage it did upon release. The GTX 980, however, is much tougher sell over the Radeon R9 290X for PC gamers that are concerned with price per dollar over all else. I would still consider the GTX 980 faster than the R9 290X...but is it $150 faster? That's a 35% price difference NVIDIA now has to contend with.
NVIDIA has proven that is it comfortable staying in this position against AMD as it maintained it during essentially the entire life of the GTX 680 and GTX 780 product lines. AMD is more willing to make price cuts to pull the Radeon lineup back into the spotlight. Though the market share between the competitors didn't change much over the previous 6 months, I'll be very curious to see how these two strategies continue to play out.
290w vs 165w + faster, as
290w vs 165w + faster, as much as i would like to see $499 for Gtx 980, but still look likes it’s a winner in the end.
I was thinkin’ more like 450$
I was thinkin’ more like 450$ for 980 but Given the card hasn’t even been out a month it won’t happen. Prices will stay where they are for a while on nvidia side.
Sure wish I had some extra
Sure wish I had some extra $$$, love these price drops!
2 x 290 or 1 x 980?
2 x 290 or 1 x 980?
2 x 290 = 500w
980 =
2 x 290 = 500w
980 = 165w
In long term Gtx 980.
that is goin by tdp, AMD has
that is goin by tdp, AMD has a history of under stating them. the 290 cards are closer to ~300watts per card in real world use. But you would more consider 2 x 970’s instead of 1 x 980.
Yes i Would.
Yes i Would.
For christ sakes TDP isn’t
For christ sakes TDP isn’t power draw and you’re being completely biased. Reports are already showing the GTX 970/980 can use more power than the cards they beat (780/780 Ti). Nvidia has some nifty clocking technology that makes it difficult to find the true power consumption unless its fully stressed.
Blind ones don’t even pay any attention to the default 2×6 pin connectors on the 970/980. There is a reason the reference cards are loaded with 225W of power unlike the TDP of the 660/750/750 Ti which was much close in consumption given they only had a single 6 pin connector or zero for the 750/750 Ti.
Once those things are overclocked or using a manufacturer designed card (usually pre-OC’ed) the numbers on power change drastically.
I think Toms Hardwares
I think Toms Hardwares explained it well.
Stress Test Power Consumption
If the load is held constant, then the lower power consumption measurements vanish immediately. There’s nothing for GPU Boost to adjust, since the highest possible voltage is needed continuously. Nvidia’s stated TDP becomes a distant dream. In fact, if you compare the GeForce GTX 980’s power consumption to an overclocked GeForce GTX Titan Black, there really aren’t any differences between them. This is further evidence supporting our assertion that the new graphics card’s increased efficiency is largely attributable to better load adjustment and matching.
Ryan asked a viewer question in his 980/970 Maxwell interview with Tom Petersen about the inconsistency with the same work load with the reference and non-reference cards. Tom Petersen didn’t want to comment on it and just said they are Gaming cards. Something fishy is going on there.
http://media.bestofmicro.com/J/8/455588/original/103-Overview-Power-Consumption-Torture.png
If I were to guess Nvidia wants to market refernce specs since there bios locked. While non-reference cards aren’t and can suck up +100watts more doing the same non gaming work load.
This really sounds like the
This really sounds like the best information to go by when purchasing and building a system around a GTX 970/980 card. It becomes even more necessary to look at reviews and power tests on a 970 or 980 before you buy one, because the power requirements could be all over the place. NVidia should be a little more transparent about this point if the power efficiency is what they are trumpeting.
I can see a scenario where a person wants to get a GTX 980 because they hear it’s the best, and the person picks up a 3rd party card for a good deal, only find that they don’t meet the power requirements. It rings true for many things, but the buyer really needs to research before they buy on this one.
Crossfire/Sli using lower end
Crossfire/Sli using lower end cards in the same series is always the better choice. Bang for buck always wins!
Yes, AMD is the one
Yes, AMD is the one understating the TDP, only.
To illustrate, let’s take a
To illustrate, let’s take a look at how Maxwell behaves in the space of just 1 ms. Its power consumption jumps up and down repeatedly within this time frame, hitting a minimum of 100 W and a maximum of 290 W. Even though the average power consumption is only 176 W, the GPU draws almost 300 W when it’s necessary. Above that, the GPU slows down.
http://media.bestofmicro.com/J/E/454298/gallery/00-Power-Consumption-1-Millisecond_w_600.png
TDP is actually 290w.
Nvidia advertises GTX 980 TDP at 165w and even during gaming sessions its above that averaging 177w and spiking at 290w.
I was being sarcastic.
I was being sarcastic.
Neither. If you’re going
Neither. If you’re going multi-card today, 970 SLI is by far the best bang for buck. 290CF ain’t bad, though, especially for $599.
I still haven’t seen any benchmarks comparing the “best of the best” of overclocked, aftermarket 290, 290X, 780, 780Ti, 970, and 980. Every review I’ve seen is “look at how much faster the 980/970 is vs these reference cards and old drivers, now look how well 980/970 can overclock…”
Anyone know a site that has done a overclocking showdown or something?
P.S. Some of us don’t give a shizzle about power consumption.
In the US the GTX980 might be
In the US the GTX980 might be only $150 more then a R9 290x, but here in Canada. The price difference is more then $200.
Also the GTX970 cost more then a 290x.
So making the R9 290x a much better deal then getting a GTX980 or even a 970.
It’s not quite that bad in
It’s not quite that bad in the UK, but the cheapest 980 is 160% the price of the cheapest 290X and double the price of the 290.
£430 GTX 980
£269 R9 290X
£252 GTX 970
£215 R9 290
CF 290X is the option for 4K and will outshine the 980 at only 125% of the price; for <4K gaming AMD are now very competitive on price with the 290 aimed for the ~£200 market segment; above that, the GTX 970 is in the sweet spot and clearly the better buy but the 290X is not so terribly far off the mark.
I bought a Gigabyte Windforce
I bought a Gigabyte Windforce R9-270X OC only a year ago, and now I see this… Tempted. Very tempted.
Mokèlé-mbèmbé, Mokèlé-mbèmbé,
Mokèlé-mbèmbé, Mokèlé-mbèmbé, Mokèlé-mbèmbé!
I’ve got enough damned Nesses!
HONK HONK!
Make room for
HONK HONK!
Make room for 390X!
lol
foolish someone getting a
lol
foolish someone getting a card just base on tdp… lol
by the time you are saving money with a lower power compsuntion card… there will be already generation card already out…
power usage… is not a concern to majority of customers, now if you dont have any gpu… you can take it into account just MAYBE…
i would get a R9 290X over a GTX980 any day.