OT: Decision Radeon 290 or 290X?

Rich Parry wrote on 2/23/2015, 5:41 PM

Thanks to this forum and posts from “Oldsmoke”, I’ve decided to purchase the Radeon video card. The only thing that remains is deciding between the 290 or the 290X. I believe the only difference is the 290X has 8GB of VRAM while the 290 has only 4GB.

My decision will be based on timeline preview performance (fps) rather than cost or rendering speed. Anyone know if the 290X gets me any timeline playback performance boost over the 290? Is the 290X the way to go?

I’ve not shopped around, but thinking of picking one of these.
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-VAPOR-X-PCI-Express-Graphics-11226-11-40G/dp/B00P9RDI9Y/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1424732299&sr=1-4&keywords=radeon+r9+290x

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Version-PCI-Express-Graphics-11227-00-40G/dp/B00HJOXUKC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1424732299&sr=1-1&keywords=radeon+r9+290x

Thanks in advance,
Rich

Comments

astar wrote on 2/24/2015, 8:02 AM

The 290x has superior fill rate and better compute performance. The 290 uses a Hawaii Pro chip vs Hawaii XT chip on the 290x. Hawaii XT is the same chip the flagship firepro w9100 uses.

Rich Parry wrote on 2/24/2015, 10:15 AM

@astar

Thanks for the response. I didn't realize the difference between the 290 and 290x is more than just VRAM. I expect to order the card later today.

Rich