It's not, some of the people who have unlocked have tested with the R 290 bios at the exact same clocks as what they get with the R 290x.
there's still an increase in performance at the same clock speeds, so it's unlocking.
Others stripped the coolers off their cards and compared part...
There's one on rage3d IMO, named himself after an AMD cpu, has a total of like 45 posts, all of them bad mouthing AMD products, and how Nvidia's everything is better.
Nope nothing gets unlocked, but you can flash a 290 X bios to them, the guys on OCUK did so, it let them up the voltages more when they used an Asus? 290 x bios.
Thing is here up in canada land prices have started to go UP again on the 780's
They dropped to a low of about $520 the day they said the price drops would happen, then started to climb north again to $550-560+ and that's for reference stock cooler ones as well.
Unless your wanting to future proof for 1080p with everything maxed out and using a 120hz/144hz monitor and want to use vsync. then I suppose it's worth it.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18551534
They show the R 290 results as well "Blurred" out but we know what they are, they even left the OC result listed
R290 OC - 1115MHz / 5700MHz
but then they noticed the slip up a few mins after the post went up and edited it to -...
think I might be getting artifacts with my new TF3, playing a lot of MWO and noticing squares at odd times while playing.
My idle temps are high as well, 40-50C, under load in game they go up to about 65C
if your in canada, the MSI TFIII is really cheap at newegg
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667&AID=10657534&PID=749547&SID=rfdcb&nm_mc=AFC-C8junctionCA
$271.99 with a $30 mail in rebate to boot.
https://msi.4myrebate.com/?oc=MSI-11818
not to shabby. (880mhz version)
Like the time I had a cut so deep and wide on my finger to the bone, severed a major vein, they couldn't do stiches... soooo
Out comes the silver nitrate, to cauterize my wound shut. No painkillers of any kind, I knew it would be bad when the doctor called over 2 male nurses and said "Hold...
Im sure the pc textures will look better then the console one's, but it will be like fallout 3 on pc vs fallout 3 console textures.
Good news is easy to replace them on pc! :D
drool worthy indeed.
But I usually like to keep whatever current card I have for a gen or two before an upgrade.
So here's hoping whatever comes after the 6870 is even better!
cold, its in the basement, alot of this has to do with the time of year to.
Ie I open my window to this room, it's 0C outside, my idle temps drop to 10-12C
yes this happens at times to products.
heck when I bought my 5870 I did it a few weeks after release, was about $330 total canadian.
Now its about $430 before taxes to buy the same thing.
good to know, was iffy on if i should go x58 and a 920 for a bit more futureproof, but that would have put me over budget.
Figure this can easily last me with a small oc till Intel gets the sandy bridge etc out.
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mostly gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
about 600 to 800 dollars, taxes and shipping included
3) Where do you live?
Canada
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case...