right now i am using ati 7970 reference, means having the stock cooler, i am in similar situation of r290.. i have set some setting which automatically increases/decreases speed of the fan.. now i do hear sound since my room is AC, and i hardly use fan...
its winter and there is no concept of fan.. due to cool weather....
now when i start gaming i turn on my speakers and i hardly notice it.. but the sound do bothers, if i were u i will definately going to wait for gigabyte version with those 3 fans and get it once..
Reference gpus are good for those who are watercooling the gpu or who benchmarks the gpu
u get what u pay for.. 49k for a gpu that performance same as 780.. u cant get cheaper then this!
go for 290, 770 seems to be absurd as the price is really high!
Best of luck!