Eh, no, 7970s aren't cheaper. They're the exact same price as the 280xs, since they're the exact same card. It's just that one has a different name.
Also, take into consideration the differences in prices across different regions. In Canada, a 280X costs as much as the 290X did at launch in the US. That's REALLY expensive. It's getting in to the price territory that was once only occupied by the best of the best, and pro cards.
I'd say, unless you're running a massive budget and have nothing else you could spend that money on, get something with better current value, like the R9 270, R9 270x, GTX 760, GTX 660, etc.
Oh, but you want to know whether to get AMD or nVidia?
Apparently, current AMD cards have phenomenally better performance than nVidia cards in dolphin or something like that, due to integer performance or whatnot. Though, I'm not sure if this little quirk is still present in newer cards, but a good amount of the HD 5000 series cards had issues with their memory clocks being different from stock, at all. Like how my current card blanks the screen as soon as PowerPlay applies, and the computer stops responding to anything, and the only way to make sure it doesn't happen, ever, is to make sure my card is overclocked on startup, with AMD's unofficial overclocking interface. But, that's just my card aging horribly, and I think they fixed those by now.
EDIT: I mention memory because it's the massive difference-maker in dolphin. Nothing else, unless you use a GPU that's too slow.
Also, take into consideration the differences in prices across different regions. In Canada, a 280X costs as much as the 290X did at launch in the US. That's REALLY expensive. It's getting in to the price territory that was once only occupied by the best of the best, and pro cards.
I'd say, unless you're running a massive budget and have nothing else you could spend that money on, get something with better current value, like the R9 270, R9 270x, GTX 760, GTX 660, etc.
Oh, but you want to know whether to get AMD or nVidia?
Apparently, current AMD cards have phenomenally better performance than nVidia cards in dolphin or something like that, due to integer performance or whatnot. Though, I'm not sure if this little quirk is still present in newer cards, but a good amount of the HD 5000 series cards had issues with their memory clocks being different from stock, at all. Like how my current card blanks the screen as soon as PowerPlay applies, and the computer stops responding to anything, and the only way to make sure it doesn't happen, ever, is to make sure my card is overclocked on startup, with AMD's unofficial overclocking interface. But, that's just my card aging horribly, and I think they fixed those by now.
EDIT: I mention memory because it's the massive difference-maker in dolphin. Nothing else, unless you use a GPU that's too slow.
in a perfect world we would all be piles of sand with no ability to form coherent bodies of body