Video Card Tuesday: $370 R9 290X & Borderlands: TPS Now Shipping
by Ryan Smith on October 14, 2014 7:45 PM EST
Following up on last week’s Radeon pricing observations, it looks like there has been one final shift in Radeon R9 290 series pricing. While R9 290 has held steady around $299 with the occasional small rebate, we’ve seen R9 290X continue to fall and drop below the roughly $400 price they were going for last week. Finally stabilizing, the R9 290X has leveled out at around $370, with a handful of cards going for even a bit less than that. At $370, the R9 290X is now $30 less than the week before and this puts it just $40 over the MSRP of the GeForce GTX 970.
Though I had been expecting prices to fall further, I am a bit surprised to see R9 290X prices drop below $400 so soon. With GTX 900 series availability still being outstripped by demand, Radeon prices needed to come down from their initial MSRPs in reaction to the NVIDIA launch, though not necessarily this quickly. Regardless, this does mean that the R9 290X is in a better position than it was last week; AMD can’t completely close NVIDIA’s technology advantage gap, but from a price/performance ratio anything that brings R9 290X closer to the similarly performing GTX 970 will help AMD’s partners move cards. In the meantime it’s worth noting that AMD appears to be sticking to their guns on influencing product value through game bundles rather than engaging in a pure price war, as the $370 R9 290X goes hand-in-hand with the continued inclusion of AMD’s Never Settle Forever bundle.
Speaking of game bundles, NVIDIA sends word this afternoon that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is now shipping for customers who received vouchers as part of NVIDIA’s recent game bundle. This bundle was never extended to the GTX 900 series – NVIDIA is clearly having no trouble selling those cards right now – but this offer is still active on the higher-end GTX 700 series cards as part of the company’s efforts to sell off the remaining GTX 770/780 inventory.
| Fall 2014 GPU Pricing Comparison | |||||
| AMD | Price | NVIDIA | |||
| Radeon R9 295X2 | $1000 | ||||
| $550 | GeForce GTX 980 | ||||
| Radeon R9 290X | $370 | ||||
| $330 | GeForce GTX 970 | ||||
| Radeon R9 290 | $300 | ||||
| Radeon R9 280X Radeon R9 285 |
$250 | ||||
| Radeon R9 280 | $200 | GeForce GTX 760 | |||
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just4U - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link
The cards are fairly comparable so I'd say the quicker AMD gets those prices down the better. I've been looking at the 970s but I'd opt out for a 290x all pricing being equal.tviceman - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Why in the world would you opt for a 290x over a gtx970 at an equal price? The 970 has lower power consumption, better overclocking, better acoustics.... it's simply better every way possible.nathanddrews - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Once you OC the 970 or 980, there is no contest whatsoever. We just have to keep in mind that most people don't overclock unless the card ships that way by default.Looking strictly at frames per second, the 290X is neck and neck with the 970 in a lot of games, behind a little in some games, ahead by a lot in others (especially at 4K). Plus you get a ton of free games with the 290X. It's not a terrible choice if all you care about is pure performance.
An OC 290X can even hang with a stock 980 in some games for $200 less, which is a lot of money, halfway to a second 290X. Again, for the enthusiast overclocker, the 290X is not even in the running. The number of cases where a 290X is a better choice than a 970 or 980 is very, very small, but I can understand why some people would jump on the lower price.
just4U - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
There are a lot of options if your going 970 (performance wise..) 290, 290x, 780 would all be excellent alternatives in my opinion. Once you start eyeing that 980 though... There isn't anything comparable (right now..) for single GPUs.
FITCamaro - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
Power consumption is the last thing I think about in my gaming rig because, at the end of the day, you're talking maybe an extra dollar or two a month with heavy usage.hojnikb - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
yeah, but with higer power also comes louder system :)anubis44 - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
None of the aftermarket R9 290/290X cards (eg. Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, Sapphire, XFX) are loud. They're pretty close to silent. Get your facts straight.chizow - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
For 1 card configs this is generally true, you probably won't notice too much difference, however, in the case of a 970 vs. 290X, the difference is ~100W, which is definitely noticeable. Just turn on a 100W lightbulb in your office/gaming room and you'll notice a different in just a few minutes. And, if you start getting into multiple card configs, that becomes a massive difference.Also, the main concern isn't really power costs, or electric bill for most people. At least not for me. It's mainly about ambient room temperatures and using your computer in a comfortable environment. Going low power does make a really big difference, winter is coming sure, so you can just crack a window, but the difference in room temps are really tangible.
garbagedisposal - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
"Just turn on a 100W lightbulb in your office/gaming room and you'll notice a different in just a few minutes"You must be out of your mind.
Please. Don't listen to this guy, he has no idea what he is talking about. The graphics card isn't going to be making a noticeable difference in ambient room temperature unless you live in a sealed box.
chizow - Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - link
LOL, I guess you haven't used a lightbulb in a while, it's hard to find 100W bulbs nowadays (they're actually quite dangerous), but you can get a decent comparison by using a couple 60W. Or just use 2 more 24" or larger monitors. They're about 50W each. Just goes to show you people don't seem to understand how big of an impact all these electronics have on ambient air temperatures.