AMD Radeon R9 290X Video Card Review @ [H]

Brent_Justice said:
AMD ensures us that 95c is well below the thermal threshold of the GPU, it is a safe temperature for this GPU. Believe me, I know the shock value of 95c though, it is hot, no question about it. I'm just relaying what AMD told me, AMD was confident in the temperature.
Click to expand...

I wonder if their confidence extends to components adjacent, or the plastic-covered electric cabling typically found in a computer.

I'd actually worry a bit about cabling with such a hot card.

If I were going to buy a 290X, I would be looking at what custom cards are offered.
Click to expand...

I have a relatively small chassi with an upside-down MB placement, hence I'd prefer a "blower" style cooler and custom coolers are typically not of that kind, right? Just wondering if it's even worth waiting for something that may not even come around.

I've never dabbled in water, maybe this is the time.

But then again, maybe a plain 290 with ref blower is good enough.
 
mzs_biteme said:
Anand's article doesn't say anything about AMD's quality of this card per se... It simply states that there's room for improvement of the current (reference) cooler design:
Click to expand...

Well when i see phrases like: -"But with that said, although the 290X has a clear grip on performance and price it does come at the cost of power and cooling." -, i consider them as a comment about the card's quallity!!
Temperatures and noise is something i value very much, even at a cost of performance. That's why when i bought a 560 Ti gpu for my brother's pc, i bought Gainward's Phantom edition which has less performance than overclocked models, but far superior cooling system. I value longevity most of all !
 
eloj said:
I have a relatively small chassi with an upside-down MB placement, hence I'd prefer a "blower" style cooler and custom coolers are typically not of that kind, right? Just wondering if it's even worth waiting for something that may not even come around.

I've never dabbled in water, maybe this is the time.

But then again, maybe a plain 290 with ref blower is good enough.
Click to expand...

Could a computer case with very good cooling with air blowing into it and properly exhausted help with the R9 290X and keep it cooler?
 
RCantw3ll said:
1% faster than titan on average at "all resolutions" for $450 less is pretty solid IMO. (TechPowerUp review always shows relative performance at different resolutions to other cards. Great for seeing % differences at your resolution as well as the average across all resolutions from generation to generation).

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X/images/perfrel.gif

I would definitely wait for custom cooler solutions though. Not sure I will be getting one of these cards, but it is very tempting over my 680.
Click to expand...

If the 290x is 1% faster at all resolutions compared to a stock titan then how does a uber mode or 100% fan profile compare to a non reference board non reference cooler GTX780 that can overclock faster then a stock titan?

I bought my card for 540 bucks and could care less about 4k . After taking into account with AMD faulty drivers for gaming , noise levels etc sounds like this is not a worthy upgrade for me

As Kyle mentioned earlier the display manufacturing process needs to catch up. I am still satisfied with 1920x1200 res on my NEC 2690 . Until 4k res monitors improve and drop in price i dont feel the need to upgrade to 4k
 
Zarathustra[H];1040312614 said:
Ever since buying my Titan, I knew this day would come.

I didn't think it would come so soon though :p
Click to expand...

The people who bought the 290x this week are already owning obsolete hardware. Nvidia will announce the TI soon and of course will most likely be better. You paid top dollar for the privilege of saying you had the titan. Every 6 months or less unless some new manufacturing process is implemented into the video card it is most likely that piece of hardware will be obsolete within a few month. The 290x is inefficient and wont last long as top dog
 
UnrealCpu said:
I bought my card for 540 bucks and could care less about 4k . After taking into account with AMD faulty drivers for gaming , noise levels etc sounds like this is not a worthy upgrade for me

As Kyle mentioned earlier the display manufacturing process needs to catch up. I am still satisfied with 1920x1200 res on my NEC 2690 . Until 4k res monitors improve and drop in price i dont feel the need to upgrade to 4k
Click to expand...


I don't think anyone would say this card was intended to be an upgrade for 780 owners. Compete with sure. I think "faulty drivers for gaming" is a bit of an exaggeration, in fact bordering on complete bullshit.

Also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw :D

UnrealCpu said:
The people who bought the 290x this week are already owning obsolete hardware. Nvidia will announce the TI soon and of course will most likely be better. You paid top dollar for the privilege of saying you had the titan. Every 6 months or less unless some new manufacturing process is implemented into the video card it is most likely that piece of hardware will be obsolete within a few month. The 290x is inefficient and wont last long as top dog
Click to expand...

Not-the-fastest-card-you-can-buy doesn't equal obsolete.
 
Last edited:
FWIW Gibbo over at OCUK alluded to changing the TIM/goop helping thermal matters as well, though he didn't throw out any specifics--and obviously that's not for everyone anyway.
 
UnrealCpu said:
The people who bought the 290x this week are already owning obsolete hardware. Nvidia will announce the TI soon and of course will most likely be better. You paid top dollar for the privilege of saying you had the titan. Every 6 months or less unless some new manufacturing process is implemented into the video card it is most likely that piece of hardware will be obsolete within a few month. The 290x is inefficient and wont last long as top dog
Click to expand...

And there we are. Now both the trollers that promised to go away on pages 11 and 12 are back. Did you simply forget, or did your masters compel you to return to the mine?

Never mind, I withdraw the question.

UnrealCpu said:
Ok you chased me off . I will now read how you will chase off kickass from this discussion too. Both 10 year veterans

Goodnight!
Click to expand...

KickAssCop said:
I think I am done with this thread. Enjoy your R9 290X upgrades.
As a consumer and indifferent to brand of cards, AMD has failed us, twice. It was the same scenario with the 7970 with the exorbitant pricing that allowed nVidia to push $1000 cards as flagship.

P.S. I continue to maintain that the people who paid $1000 bucks for Titan had more money than sense.

P.S.S. One thing people are forgetting is the price drop on 780s down to $500 and introduction of the 780 Ti. If 780 Ti is even introduced at $650 as speculated then R9 290X even becomes more irrelevant than it already is.
Click to expand...
 
Sith'ari said:
Well when i see phrases like: -"But with that said, although the 290X has a clear grip on performance and price it does come at the cost of power and cooling." -, i consider them as a comment about the card's quallity!!
......
Click to expand...

That's where I strongly (yet respectfully) disagree with you...

If a card, from either manufacturer, is running within it's temperature specs, providing the expected performance, with no throttling, overheating, etc., it works as it was designed to work. Just because it runs at 5~10deg hotter then the competitor, doesn't make it's quality lower in any way. It's "value" to you maybe lower because of that, but quality stays "constant"... Both camps produced some "hair dryers" in the past, and other than exuberant noise levels, they mostly worked within their specs. You as a customer may not like the reference coolers on current crop of the 290X's, but this says nothing about the card's (as in board level design) quality or supposed longevity, and will be addresses by aftermarket designs shortly...
 
tobi54 said:
"Runs too hot"

"Too power hungry"

"It's late to the party by X months"

"It's too loud"

These are all the arguments reworded and repeated every other post. Trolls need to stop getting fed.


Let's see what the reviews are saying:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-review

http://www.techspot.com/review/727-radeon-r9-290x/page11.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290x-hawaii-review,3650.html

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/61505-amd-radeon-r9-290x/?page=13

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-R9-290X-Hawaii-Review-Taking-TITANs

http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-r9-290x-video-card-review_126806

http://www.pcgamer.com/review/amd-radeon-r9-290x-review/

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_review_benchmarks,1.html

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/amd-r9-290x-review-part-1/

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...iews/63742-amd-radeon-r9-290x-4gb-review.html

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5823/amd-radeon-r9-290x-4gb-reference-video-card-review/index.html

http://www.eteknix.com/amd-radeon-r9-290x-graphics-card-review/

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X/

They all mention heat and noise issues while giving them their highest ratings and recommendations across the board, the card is being unanimously praised to hell by all review sites.
Click to expand...

id say nice things about it to for a free trip to Hawaii
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Perfect, I just got a 4k screen not too long ago. I'll be ordering one once I can get a full-coverage waterblock for it.
Click to expand...

you better off with dual 780's
wile its faster you still cant max out a game on a screen like that so who cares?
youll still need 2 of them and its not worth it to put that much heat in your case
 
Why the fuck would he get two 780's when two 290X's are faster and cheaper?
 
Talk about grasping at straws, they bought out every reputable site out now? Crazy talk.
 
Elios said:
you better off with dual 780's
wile its faster you still cant max out a game on a screen like that so who cares?
youll still need 2 of them and its not worth it to put that much heat in your case
Click to expand...

This advice is just awful, I'll quote the review.

"It is amazing how powerful the R9 290X is at Ultra HD 4K gaming resolutions when compared to the GeForce GTX TITAN. This is where the R9 290X truly shines. In the case of 4K gaming, the Radeon R9 290X is definitely a "TITAN killer."

So if you can't max out 4k then who cares? Yeah, lets all give up and ignore the clear performance advantage at that resolution. The fact that neither of these cards can max out 4k should be more of a reason to get the faster card not less, odd logic. Crossfire may use 60-80w more than SLI 780s but how much of that is going to be dumped into the case with blowers is hard to say. I doubt you would see a large increase in case temps.
 
Last edited:
I'm glad you reminded us midway through the review that it was on the "Quiet" mode, because I had forgotten that and was vaguely disappointed. However, I do want to point out what jumped out at me - on a lot of these games, the minimum FPS on the 290x was substantially higher than some of the other cards, up to 50%.

If I have 2 cards with the same average, but one has a minimum of 20 FPS and the other is 35 FPS, I'm taking the latter every time.

That being said...would a move from Crossfired 6970s to a single 290x be a no-brainer? Waiting for an aftermarket cooling design, that is. The sad thing is, I'm still not seeing games being able to be clearly maxed out on 1600p.
 
TwistedAegis said:
I'm glad you reminded us midway through the review that it was on the "Quiet" mode, because I had forgotten that and was vaguely disappointed. However, I do want to point out what jumped out at me - on a lot of these games, the minimum FPS on the 290x was substantially higher than some of the other cards, up to 50%.

If I have 2 cards with the same average, but one has a minimum of 20 FPS and the other is 35 FPS, I'm taking the latter every time.

That being said...would a move from Crossfired 6970s to a single 290x be a no-brainer? Waiting for an aftermarket cooling design, that is. The sad thing is, I'm still not seeing games being able to be clearly maxed out on 1600p.
Click to expand...

Games will keep evolving, and it will always be the same deal of the newest games won't be maxed out @ 1600p on a single gpu card.
 
eloj said:
And there we are. Now both the trollers that promised to go away on pages 11 and 12 are back. Did you simply forget, or did your masters compel you to return to the mine?

Never mind, I withdraw the question.
Click to expand...
How is this name calling permissible is beyond me.
 
Gibbo said:
Nope

Its down to the BIOS on the card and having the right software version.

Asus works with GPU tweak.
MSI will no doubt work with Afterburner.
Sapphire with Trixx.

But they can do voltage, just software updates needed to go official. :)

I am upto 1225Mhz core stable and 6600MHz ram.

This card is an absolute beast!!!

On water, I can see 1300MHz core speeds and 8Pack and his LN2 will be taking new records for sure!!


P.S. Retail cards seem better than AMD Press cards! :)
Click to expand...



Gibbo said:
**UPDATE**

Hynix and Elpida are both just as good as each other.

I took my Elpida card which could only do 5700MHz, flashed the Asus BIOS to it, pumped up the voltage and now the Elpida card is matching with 6600MHz. :)

So there you go, Elpida, Hynix, it don't matter. What matters is voltage control. ;)

Asus BIOS FTW. :D

By the way this is an R290 I've flashed with R290X BIOS, works a tread, but shaders not unlocked, but can now hit 1220 core and 6600 RAM on the regular R290 as well. At these speeds this also obliverates Titan. Incredible value!
Click to expand...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=25174099#post25174099
 
Wow. Excellent article. Can you please elaborate on two things:

1. What was the power consumption with 100% fan?
2. What fan level was used in 4K mode? If you were using Quiet mode, how does moving to Uber and 100% affect things?
 
Flyinfinni said:
AMD designed it to run at 95*. That means the operating temperatures of the GPU die and the components around it that reach those temps are much higher than 95. As an engineer familiar with this type of requirement, I would not be concerned about longevity as this was taken into account in the design of the card. This is no sacrifice in quality. In fact, the components are probably of higher quality as they were chosen for the purpose of being able to operate continuously at these temperatures.
Click to expand...

i design steam piping for power plants and generally speaking i design for 7000 thermal cycles. these sites cycle twice, maybe three times per year so 2333 years before thermal fatigue becomes even a consideration. if AMD is doing their job properly they'll design with an over-kill approach when it comes to thermal fatigue. of course my shit factors in loss of life risk. i would hope AMD's does not :D
 
r10jo6.jpg


;)
 
OMG THE THERMALS AND NOISE!!! HORRIBLE!!!!

If anyone from nvidia bitches about thermal and noise, just bring up the 470/480/570/580 GTX's that operate at normal around 90c.

Either way great damn review Guys. Cant wait to see what a 290 can do!
 
DASHlT said:
OMG THE THERMALS AND NOISE!!! HORRIBLE!!!!

If anyone from nvidia bitches about thermal and noise, just bring up the 470/480/570/580 GTX's that operate at normal around 90c.

Either way great damn review Guys. Cant wait to see what a 290 can do!
Click to expand...

That's all they have....don't take that away from them! ;)
 
Yup, very interested in the 290 at this point.

10 bucks says it blows the 680/770 outta the water and comes uncomfortably close to the 780.
 
DASHlT said:
OMG THE THERMALS AND NOISE!!! HORRIBLE!!!!

If anyone from nvidia bitches about thermal and noise, just bring up the 470/480/570/580 GTX's that operate at normal around 90c.

Either way great damn review Guys. Cant wait to see what a 290 can do!
Click to expand...

my 580 has never got near 90....


also the 780 has room for a refresh or 2 and the Titan has room for refresh as well
and both STILL use less power and dont get as hot...
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
Games will keep evolving, and it will always be the same deal of the newest games won't be maxed out @ 1600p on a single gpu card.
Click to expand...

I've been gaming for over 20 years now, so I get that. But still, I always hold out hope at each video card review for a little more. :p And BF3 is 2 years old now; with those framerates in single player, there is no way that will hold up in MP.
 
Elios said:
my 580 has never got near 90....


also the 780 has room for a refresh or 2 and the Titan has room for refresh as well
and both STILL use less power and dont get as hot...
Click to expand...

Give it up, Elios. You and your overpriced Titans are doomed!
 
KickAssCop said:
I am not talking about stock performance. I can't even remember the last cards I ran at stock settings. I have had more than Titan performance at 650 price tag since May of this year (6 months ago). Seems like you did not see that, did you.

Either way, thanks to the poster who posted the OC review video. Their 780 was at 1110 Mhz it seems. If that is true then R9 290X truly is an irrelevant card for me. Oh well, time to wait for 780 Ti or something similar priced a bit later (maybe Q1 2014?).
Click to expand...

And the 290x will whoop the 780 butt at high res gaming....what is your point?

People are not going to be buying the 290x to game at 1080p :rolleyes:
 
atp1916 said:
Give it up, Elios. You and your overpriced Titans are doomed!
Click to expand...

Titan is a halo card people will still buy it as it has far more compute power still

780 over clocks better and cost the same

i dont see a win here the review shows the all 3 cards with with in 5 fps of each other
meh?
ill take the one that WONT turn my room in to a sauna in the summer

also there have been some reviews saying that in 'uber' mode once the heatsink gets saturated speed drops off since the card start to throttle...

ill wait till some one does a test in a cramped case with room temp around 80f
 
Elios said:
my 580 has never got near 90....


also the 780 has room for a refresh or 2 and the Titan has room for refresh as well
and both STILL use less power and dont get as hot...
Click to expand...

The reason why the 580 never hits that high is because Nvidia put in a thermal throttle protection so it didnt get that hot anymore.

Thats why Nvidia in the video game called furmark.
 
atp1916 said:
hahaha. NVidia, back to the drawing board for you.

$450 290 stomping on the $1,000 Titans? :cool:
Click to expand...

proof?
is it more then 10% faster unlikely
stomping would mean 20% faster OR MORE (hint its not)
the 290x BEARLY beats it and even that its only by a few fps who cares STILL WAY TO HOT
and STILL USES MORE POWER

id get a pair of 7970s over this turd
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top