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

Looks like the 290X is getting close to the old Fermi spaceheater cards regarding operating temperatures. Not really interested in that scenario although it could supplement the furnace this winter. Guess I'll hold onto the
GTX 780 since it is already paid for and see what the later generations have to offer. Won't be getting a 4K monitor any time soon so that doesn't hold much interest.

Do need to find a home for my old HD7970 Black Edition which has been on a shelf for the last few months. Doubt I'll use it again.
 
Even though it has >2x the components of a 7870 its performance is around 1.8x the performance of the 7870 in Uber mode. Why isn't it >2x performance? Where's the bottleneck?
 
That thing is a beast! Yes it does take a bit more power draw, but I gotta think a custom cooler will solve that. Will be interested to see what happens there
 
Was on green, still got my two GTX480's cooking my room. Looks like one of these will replace them. Less heat now!!! Got team Red!!! haha. :D
 
What about eyefinity/nvsurround resolutions?

AMD just undercut nVidia big time though. Wonder what this card would be like under water.
 
I'm interested in seeing the reviews next week for the 290 non-x...very curious how much slower it'll be then a 290x and if it'll be on par with a 780 performance wise
 
In for two for $1150 with next day and rush processing from the egg. THANK YOU KYLE! YOU'RE A SEXY BEAST!
 
Oh yes!

Very good review, like how it was broken up in Quiet, Uber, and 100% UBER! sections!

People laughed when I suggested a price of $499 for the 290x some weeks ago... $549 close enough! :D

My trusty old 5870 will finally be retiring, and my monitor will follow sometime later. This thing also looks like it's begging for water... :cool:
 
Seen this card bundled with BF4 ( $60 msrp ) going for $580..so basically a $520 deal on a card if intending on getting the game anyway. That's a killer deal I must say.
 
Kepler continues to pay dividends in the power usage deparment.

That being said very well done, competing on the same level as Titan for $450 less is fucking epic. With all of this boost stuff I'd be extremely interested in seeing one of these things under water.

I look forward to the benches of Mantle enabled BF4 next month.
 
I had my wallet out ready to buy one tonight, but with those temps and acoustics there is no way in hell I am buying a reference card. Any word on when the aftermarket cards are gonna start hitting the market?
 
Good review, looks like a great card with an excellent price/performance ratio -- I hope for better thermals with custom boards/fan solutions though. 95 degrees pumping into a room for an hour or more isn't something I'd want to experience ever again (GTX 480).
 
Very nice job on the review!

One question I have though: what bios setting was used for 4k testing (quiet or uber)? Considering how much faster the 290x is compared to the titan @ 4k, it would be interesting to see what framerates the 290x could crank out if it was completely unleashed (100% fan speed)
 
I'm running 3 480's still, one of these could probably replace all three 480's. And think of the power savings!

I'm going to wait and see where the 290 ends up before I spend money. I'm curious as well to see if my MCW82's will fit on the 290/290X, or if I'm going to have to buy full cover blocks.
 
Would be very interesting how much more performance can be had with Mantle. I'm definitely looking forward to that in December.

Have to say though, not surprised at the absence of the usual AMD thread crappers. I guess they're having a powwow to discuss what negative points to harp on moving forward.
 
Bombastic people. Time to sell me your 780s for cheap, bring on the pms for canadian delivery.
Thx [H] for evolving your review process and including 4k numbers, and bringing back Battlefield 3 for what may be its last appearance in your reviews. Your late nights mean happy ones for all of us!
Also nice to see the 290x is officially GCN 1.1, not "next gen" for all those saying it is.
 
NickJames said:
Lol, suddenly heat/power is an issue? [H]ard has gone oft apprently
Click to expand...


This gen is about performance; it's with the die shrink where the heat/power gains will come. And while its not crushing anything, it certainly seems to deliver based upon price/performance. I have two monitors in boxes that will be going up for Eyefinity based on one of these, although after that review, I am tempted to wait for the non-reference cards or perhaps better yet, go in for a 50" Seiki instead.

Great job on the review, Brent. That was certainly a long way to go with a short time to get there.

One question, though, that I just may have missed in the review: How was the noise level of the various BIOS settings during testing? I know that the test environment probably wasn't set up for it; I am more looking for your impressions comparitively.
 
Sexy cards can't wait to see what they do on water.. I never run a video card with out water cooling I can't stand the noise.. Really can't wait to see what the 290's non x can do.. Great review as always and nice going AMD..
 
Nicely done.
Very good depth and easy to understand.

First, I'm sure with watercooling, the temperature and fan throttle will be moot.

Second, I also would have liked to have some subjective impression on how loud the fans are at various loads.
I've had many AMD reference cards and their stuff is always louder than nvidia's.

I'm thinking these cards are a big plus in what they offer for the price, their performance is on par with the nvidia offerings at present because not many folks have made a move to 4K.

Personally, I'm not going to game at 4K until I've upgraded my TV room to 4K first. 5760 x 1200 will have to do for a while.
 
Nice review, read the whole thing. Power usage is a little scary to me but looks to be pretty legendary.
 
Great review. Not that I need a new GPU, but this card is really attractive for the price.
 
so you get titan performance for close to half the price or close to twice Titan performance for 10% extra cash with Crossfire

well done AMD
 
Filter said:
im confused why it doesnt beat titan at 1600p but is way faster at 4k.

when can we buy it is my next question
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Many factors probably play into it, including 512-bit memory bus, more bandwidth, larger L2 cache, larger rop caches, all of these things provide wider scaling when you really start to increase the pixel count.
 
Blind Man said:
I would be very curious whether the relative gains at 4k resolutions would also apply to Eyefinity groups (for example, 3240x1920) - I don't see why not.
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Of course, but keep in mind 4K is still a lot more pixels, and I think that's where this card really shines over the competition. But yes, it should also do well anywhere from 1600p and up.
 
Clarification request on the Uber mode stuff...

Was it enabled, or was the fan control manually adjusted for the 4k stuff?

I would assume it wasn't touched during the general eval which is why it had it's own section to clarify performance improvements, but was unsure on the 4k part :)

Sweet eval guys, Always love the depth.
 
Tsumi said:
What about eyefinity/nvsurround resolutions?

AMD just undercut nVidia big time though. Wonder what this card would be like under water.
Click to expand...

The 4K resolution we tested at is higher than the 5760x1200 3x1 setup we normally test at, so this was actually a more demanding test, almost 2M more pixels.
 
AMD hit it out of the park in terms of pricing and performance but that blower cooler is just complete trash. I was just about to order but now I'm thinking I can't handle another 6990 leaf blower. I may wait for the ASUS ROG version of the 290x or see what nVidia does with the GTX 780 Ti.

Hopefully we'll see some water-cooling results soon to find out whether the 290x's have any additional headroom once you get the heat under control.
 
So I guess most of the speculation was right..it trades punches performance-wise with the flagship Titan for $450.00 less...Seems like a no-brainer to buy. $550 is def. a sweet price point.
 
Sparrow_69 said:
Very nice job on the review!

One question I have though: what bios setting was used for 4k testing (quiet or uber)? Considering how much faster the 290x is compared to the titan @ 4k, it would be interesting to see what framerates the 290x could crank out if it was completely unleashed (100% fan speed)
Click to expand...

Uber mode, 55% fan speed
 
Rhinohelix said:
This gen is about performance; it's with the die shrink where the heat/power gains will come. And while its not crushing anything, it certainly seems to deliver based upon price/performance. I have two monitors in boxes that will be going up for Eyefinity based on one of these, although after that review, I am tempted to wait for the non-reference cards or perhaps better yet, go in for a 50" Seiki instead.

Great job on the review, Brent. That was certainly a long way to go with a short time to get there.

One question, though, that I just may have missed in the review: How was the noise level of the various BIOS settings during testing? I know that the test environment probably wasn't set up for it; I am more looking for your impressions comparitively.
Click to expand...

Our test systems are kind of loud, I run my fans on my H100 at full speed to achieve a high overclock. I can say I did not notice the fan on the 290X until I set it to 100% fan cap, then it spun up pretty high, about 65-70% in Crysis 3, and I could hear it. But it wasn't annoying, my cpu fans were louder.
 
Considering the 290X shines at resolutions above 1600p, I wonder what the performance difference would be with 2-4x SSAA enabled at 1080p compared to the Titan or 780 in several games.

I know BF4 has downsampling options, so that could be worth looking into.
 
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