[TakeiT]

Things like this, you'll get a green vs red war. If you compare the two, the 290x is a better card for the most part, however it does use more power and generate more heat. Some people are willing to trade off the heat/power consumption for the better performance. The 290x is also a generation older than the 970. Keeping that in mind, I would go for the 290, personally. I've had an R9 card for nearly 2 years and not had a single problem, it's well cooled and performs well. Though, if you want something of the latest generation and a lot of power, save up for a GTX 980.

Also, that whole thing of AMD cards never lasting is BS. The best computer I ever bought was used, about 8 years ago and I paid $100 for it. That machine has a lot of hours and runs amazing, infact I still have it. It has an AMD cpu, that when I bought it had no thermal paste (and ran like that for at least 5 years), never an issue with it. I have 2 more of the same computer but with an intel card (You know, those little HP desktop things, most of you probably have had one) and both of those had on board video problems. I consider AMD pretty reliable