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ofrm1 said:
r3tr0gam3r1337 said:
ofrm1 said:
r3tr0gam3r1337 said:
ofrm1 said:


I currently have a Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X in my system. It's a great card considering that the vapor-x line is the highest tier of R9 cards released.


sorry to step in but the highest tier is from ASUS with thier ROG Matrix cards.


Do you just mean in price? Because certainly not in performance.


im not going by price, the ROG cards have several features not found on the sapphire cards not to meantion unlocked voltage which is also on the XFX cards, just because the sapphire cards have 3 fan's does not mean they perform better!


It's not just because it has more fans, it's because Sapphire is dedicated to AMD cards. ASUS isn't. It's the same reason EVGA makes the best Nvidia cards. It's because they're exclusive to Nvidia. The ROG Matrix is recycling the DirectCU II cooler that's on the GTX 700 series cards, so it isn't even designed to combat the R9's ridiculous heat output. 

But don't take my word for it. Dare to compare.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/09/08/asus_rog_r9_290x_matrix_platinum_video_card_review/1#.VJpdrUAAA

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/08/01/sapphire_vaporx_r9_290x_trix_oc_video_card_review/1#.VJpdoUAAA

The Vapor-X at base runs around as well as the ROG Matrix does Overclocked, and the ROG Matrix hits the thermal limit that AMD has on R9 cards which is 94C with 100% fan speed. The Vapor-X reaches 72C with 100% fan speed. Overclocked, the Vapor-X wins in every game except for Farcry 3, perhaps. Seems pretty clear to me. Unless you want ridiculous features like Liquid Nitrogen compatibility, (which is kind of pointless, as anyone who is planning on running a rig for that is going to be buying 780 ti's because they're faster) the Vapor-X is the clear winner. It not only manages to perform better in games, but it does so much cooler.

 

EDIT: And they're both priced at around $630 without discounts, so they're the same tier on pricing.


the fact is that while you can go on about this that and the other getting away from the actual point, just because the Sapphire card performs better under air cooling does not instantly make it the top tier card, the way your saing it is like saying AMD's reference design for the 295X2 is better than ASUS's ARES III card, not that sapphire though dedicated to AMD have not made their own dual GPU card that runs as cool as the ASUS card, Sapphire are good for value vs performance while ASUS's ROG is all about performance, the Matrix card has LN2 and a molex connector to heat up the vram while the card is running record breaking overclocks, something the varpor X does not have.

 

EVGA may be Nvidia only but that doesn't stop ASUS from producing some ground breaking cards their either, a perfect example is their MARS III card ( a dual 760 on one PCB) even Nvidia hadn't made a dual 760 and neither had EVGA, don't just fall for the assumption a manufacturer dedicated to one companie is better than one that caters for many.



Current PC build:

Asus Z97I-Plus, i5 4790K @ 4.6ghz, EVGA GTX 980 ACX 2.0 1377/1853/124%, Corsair Vengence Pro 2400mhz 2x 8192mb, Corsair RM850, Corsair H80i, 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, 750GB Seagate Momentus XT SSHD, 320GB Weston Digital HDD, Corsair 230T, Corsair K50 Raptor, HP XQ500AA mouse, Windows 10 Pro 64bit. iiyama Pro Lite G2773HS 120Hz 1Ms G2G gaming monitor.