So I'm ready to hit the buy button from Amazon for $369 +$10 one day shipping to get the 770 here on Monday...and I miss the deadline by a minute. So now I have 50 hours to decide if I want it on Tuesday:)
I did look into the AMD 290, seems like a good choice too. Seems to get pretty hot, might have to consider a fan mod/replacement.
One thing to note is the AMD 290 is ok to run at 90C. The stock coolers blow but if you have an aftermarket cooler then it will run much cooler and silent. Plus you can push it to max overclocking for increased performance.
I've gone with non-AMD video cards, for the last few video cards.
More because I had a compatibility issue for my specific CPU/MB/Video Card combo (Owltoid had the issue too), and until I replaced one of the components... random crashes could not be prevented.
It wasn't that I was unhappy with the performance.
I generally stick with a company, until there's reason to switch to a new company.
Every AMD video card I've had has performed well.
And they have all run very hot, compared to non-AMD cards.
I'm currently stuck deciding between the 4GB GTX 770 (~$399) vs the R9 290 (~$399). The 290 definitely wins performance wise, but I need something cool and quiet (770 wins here). Anyone have experience with the aftermarket coolers on the 290's?
I hear there may be better 290 non-reference cooler's coming eventually, but no idea when :)
The ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme III VGA Cooler is an amazing gpu cooler for amd and nvidia. Once they are back in stock I will get one. They are cool and quiet.
The AMD 290 is no doubt a nice card for the price, but like Ualaa pointed out, most people are comfortable with a certain manufacturer until they get screwed or are forced to switch.
I personally stick with nVidia cards because not only do their drivers allow me to fine tune the quality of my games, more so, than AMD drivers do, but SLI works in Windowed mode, whereas, Crossfire does not.