10Jun Nvidia GTX Titan vs R9 290x for NLE work – First impressions
I’ve been test driving the R9 290x for almost a month now and so far it has been a positive experience. Rendering speeds are slightly faster than a GTX 680 and it has no problem keeping up with the Samsung 4k panel I’ve been using. It’s pretty impressive for a GPU that sells for around $300 used, but how does it stack up against a $1000 Nvidia GTX Titan?
Looking at the two cards side by side, the first thing you’ll notice is the size difference. The R9 290x has a TDP of 290 watts and with a stock cooler it can run as high as 95C. In order to keep the temperature and fan noise down the Sapphire tri-x version of the 290x has a very large cooler as well as a 3 fan configuration. The positive side is that the GPU stays around 80C, but the trade off is a massive heatsink attached to the GPU.
The Nvidia GTX Titan on the other hand, has a TDP of 250 watts and uses a single fan design. Lower TDP means less heat is generated and less cooling is required to keep the GPU stable. The end result is a GPU in a much smaller package that tops out at around 80C.
Installed in my main NLE system (pardon the mess), I have much more room for cables. The single fan configuration also allows me to use the PCI-E slot that had previously been taken over by the R9 290x’s massive cooler. I kind of regret choosing a motherboard with only 2 PCI-e slots, I really could use 1 or 2 more.
While i’m all about the convenience and form factor of the Nvidia GTX Titan, I’m still interested to see how much of an advantage the Titan actually provides for the extra $600 plus price difference. If the Titan really blows the R9 290x out of the water, it still might be more reasonable to consider the GTX 780 TI. At a price of $680, it’s basically a Titan with 3GB less GDDR5 RAM and roughly the same performance. Plus, a $1000 really does seem like a lot to spend on a GPU. I guess it really just depends on your budget.
I started running some basic tests last night. I’ll start posting some results once I’ve had a chance to do more test rendering. Should be interesting and hopefully helpful to for those of you in the market for a new GPU for your NLE.
June 11th, 2014 at 12:26 am
I currently have a 680 and I’m curious if the next step up to a Titan (black) would be worth it.
June 11th, 2014 at 7:35 am
It does seems to be delivering faster render times (not sure if price/value ratio is that great), but while rendering I’ve been getting strange effects on my 4k panel. Still trying to figure out if its the card, cable, or monitor. Hopefully I’ll have some results up by the end of the week.
July 25th, 2014 at 10:14 am
it’s been a month, any news of good/bad stuff?