| JEMC said: @disolitude: Isn't the SteamOS based on Linux? And don't AMD Linux drivers suck? (Honest question here as I only know what I've read on forums).
@ofrm1: AMD's R9 290 is also a good choice: it's cheaper than a 970 and almost as fast, plus with a non reference card heat is not a problem if your case has good ariflow. Yes, it's more power hungry, but unless you plan to run it for +10 years during several hours a day, it will still be cheaper than a 970. |
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. It barely breaks 70C under load, 75C under load when overclocked, and performs at about the same level as a reference 290X. Still, a 970 is a better solution in my eyes as it does run slightly better, and doesn't require a higher PSU. Also, it just seems as if the Maxwell series is more optimized for more games. There are several prominent games which the R9 series just doesn't seem to perform well under, likely because the games were designed with Nvidia's archetecture.
As far as a steambox, if you're buying the official steamboxes like the Alienware Alpha, you're already making a huge mistake because of the inability to upgrade the gpu. What a collossal waste of money. I'm with you. Get a copy of windows 7 off ebay for $65, run steam through big picture and you're done.
