Disappointed in R9?

[Tengis]

I usually buy cards in the $300 range since they typically have a better price/performance ratio... but I suddenly regret selling my Tahiti 7870 and my non- overclockable Gigabyte 7970.

No game bundle and no performance increase for the 280x = doesn't make sense to buy it right now...

 

[filip]

Yup disappointing for me too, but to be honest I was really hoping for 20nm this round (At least with the R9 290x)

 

[Stoly]

It trades blows with the 770 for $100 bucks less, how's that dissapoining?

 

[Silicon_Chef]

How can you be disappointed about a card that hasn't even come out yet?

 

[gordon151]

It trades blows with the 770 for $100 bucks less, how's that dissapoining?

Should be as fast as a 770 and cost $200 less dammit.

 

[GoldenTiger]

Don't forget that they cost more than current 7970's ($270 ar often now), AND exclude the game bundle that most of those ones come with currently that ebays for $30.

 

[SonDa5]

Hd 7950 looks like best value compared to new rebranded cards. The 290x is over my budget. The 290 may be an outstanding value.

Have to wait for reviews to see if I will be upgrading from hd7950.

 

[Brackle]

Well considering the true R9 isnt even out yet, how can you be disappointed?

Also a rebadged 7970, that is $300, on par with a 770 which is $400.....how is that disappointing?

Also if that Asus card for $309 gives you 1.4v and overclocks to close to 1300....well thats not disappointing at all (I think 1 website got 1280 on the core).

Either way be patient. 290x and 290 reviews are 7 days away.

 

[Brackle]

Don't forget that they cost more than current 7970's ($270 ar often now), AND exclude the game bundle that most of those ones come with currently that ebays for $30.

This is also true. if AMD doesnt add the game bundle to the 280x, then its a horrible buy.

But one thing we arent sure about is how much better the core/pcb is on the 280x. If these 280x come out of the gate at 1050 boost speeds, might make the cards alot easier to hit 1200-1300.

I am more interested in the 290!!!

 

[Rizen]

Don't forget that they cost more than current 7970's ($270 ar often now), AND exclude the game bundle that most of those ones come with currently that ebays for $30.

From what has been hinted this is just to move the remaining 7970 inventory. The 200 series will be added to the bundles later.

The 200 series are not complete rebrands and there some additional features on the new cards such as support for 3 DVI monitors at once, so it's really up to you. If you can grab the 7970 for cheaper go for it. I don't see how this makes the R9-280X a bad deal. It's still an excellent product for the money.

I'm also not sure what people were expecting at the $299 price point. This is the same card that AMD debuted in 2011 for $550 with minor improvements at a much more palatable price point. The reality is until we see 20nm chips there probably isn't a whole lot more performance AMD can squeeze out without utilizing larger GPUs, which cost more.

 

[GoldenTiger]

From what has been hinted this is just to move the remaining 7970 inventory. The 200 series will be added to the bundles later.

The 200 series are not complete rebrands and there some additional features on the new cards such as support for 3 DVI monitors at once, so it's really up to you. If you can grab the 7970 for cheaper go for it. I don't see how this makes the R9-280X a bad deal. It's still an excellent product for the money.

I'm also not sure what people were expecting at the $299 price point. This is the same card that AMD debuted in 2011 for $550 with minor improvements at a much more palatable price point. The reality is until we see 20nm chips there probably isn't a whole lot more performance AMD can squeeze out without utilizing larger GPUs, which cost more.

I'd be suitably impressed, and perhaps even believe the supposed marketing bullet-point, had the 7970's not been in the $300 range with the bundle for months now. It's not some sudden clearance.

 

[motherpuncher]

Hmm, get a 2gb gtx770 for $400 or 4gb for $450, or get the 280x 3gb which is just as fast and higher mem bus for $310? Sounds like a deal to me! And yes I own a 4gb 770, and just bought a matrix 7970 after finding out early this morning it will crossfire with a 280x, not disappointing at all.

 

[Brackle]

Hmm, get a 2gb gtx770 for $400 or 4gb for $450, or get the 280x 3gb which is just as fast and higher mem bus for $310? Sounds like a deal to me! And yes I own a 4gb 770, and just bought a matrix 7970 after finding out early this morning it will crossfire with a 280x, not disappointing at all.

I would of bought another 770 4gb when the prices dropped. Or sell the 770 4gb now if you can.

 

[GoldenTiger]

Hmm, get a 2gb gtx770 for $400 or 4gb for $450, or get the 280x 3gb which is just as fast and higher mem bus for $310? Sounds like a deal to me! And yes I own a 4gb 770, and just bought a matrix 7970 after finding out early this morning it will crossfire with a 280x, not disappointing at all.

And give up a host of nvidia-only features (driver-level HBAO+ and ambient occlusion that outperforms many built-in ones for example Hitman Absolution) physx, txaa, transparency aa, sparse grid supersampling, etc.), not to mention good SLI support that has drivers w/ profiles much more promptly than AMD by months ahead generally, plus hardware frame metering? Not really that good a deal... heck, does AMD's software metering even work for DX9, aka the vast majority of games, yet? You're getting more for your money... the AMD cards aren't cheaper out of the goodness of AMD's collective heart . They have to price them lower to get them to sell.

 

[Brackle]

And give up a host of nvidia-only features (physx, txaa, transparency aa, sparse grid supersampling, etc.), not to mention good SLI support that has drivers w/ profiles much more promptly than AMD by months ahead generally, plus hardware frame metering? Not really that good a deal... heck, does AMD's software metering even work for DX9, aka the vast majority of games, yet? You're getting more for your money... the AMD cards aren't cheaper out of the goodness of AMD's collective heart . They have to price them lower to get them to sell.

I agree it was a mistake on his part, but those Nvidia features are mostly gimmicks. It's hard not to recommend AMD considering both future consoles are on AMD hardware, which most all console ports will be optimized for AMD hardware.

But he did make a mistake IMO. Another 770 4gb is what he should of bought.

 

[GoldenTiger]

I agree it was a mistake on his part, but those Nvidia features are mostly gimmicks. It's hard not to recommend AMD considering both future consoles are on AMD hardware, which most all console ports will be optimized for AMD hardware.

But he did make a mistake IMO. Another 770 4gb is what he should of bought.

We'll see if it ends up mattering, it could or it could not at this point, the only real thing being Mantle as to what could really swing things (if it takes off).... personally I don't find any of those features to be gimmicks other than txaa which I rarely use. I use supersampling in most older games... physx is great in the titles that support it, the ambient occlusion is better than many built-in ones, and transparency AA is a huge visual improvement with 2x or 4x sampling.

 

[motherpuncher]

Ah I knew better than to post my opinion! I don't play fanboy, I enjoy messing with all sorts of cards, it's not about selling them to get money back or strictly going with nvidia because of physx, or running crossfire because I think it's better or worse, I just like to play and have fun, it is my hobby. I was giving my assessment of the pricing for others who might only have $300 or so to spend and how I think these cards are a good deal. I'm now trying out 7970's (for the second time) to see what improvements have been made since I last tried it out. In a few months I'll mess with something else. Hell I'm hoping the 770ti rumor is true so I can play with that for a while. The only thing I'm trying not to mess with is the upper end cards as a matter of principle because I don't like how high the prices have gone, but I'm sure I'll cave on that eventually.

 

[HFBallad]

I agree a bit with TC.
If nothing else, I thought the rebranding would come with a few extra features like the TrueAudio instead of just literately being rebranded.

It's not so much that the card is bad. It's great. But it's not an improvement from the currently available AMD product at a similar price. Technically, since the new cards don't come with games, one could argue that the rebranded cards are more expensive than the current cards without offering any improvement.

 

[GoldenTiger]

Ah I knew better than to post my opinion! I don't play fanboy, I enjoy messing with all sorts of cards, it's not about selling them to get money back or strictly going with nvidia because of physx, or running crossfire because I think it's better or worse, I just like to play and have fun, it is my hobby. I was giving my assessment of the pricing for others who might only have $300 or so to spend and how I think these cards are a good deal. I'm now trying out 7970's (for the second time) to see what improvements have been made since I last tried it out. In a few months I'll mess with something else. Hell I'm hoping the 770ti rumor is true so I can play with that for a while. The only thing I'm trying not to mess with is the upper end cards as a matter of principle because I don't like how high the prices have gone, but I'm sure I'll cave on that eventually.

I wasn't slamming the hobby... I do the same thing . However for my 24/7 gaming I prefer nVidia simply from a features perspective, and many of those really do improve the gaming experience.

 

[Brackle]

We'll see if it ends up mattering, it could or it could not at this point, the only real thing being Mantle as to what could really swing things (if it takes off).... personally I don't find any of those features to be gimmicks other than txaa which I rarely use. I use supersampling in most older games... physx is great in the titles that support it, the ambient occlusion is better than many built-in ones, and transparency AA is a huge visual improvement with 2x or 4x sampling.

Yea Mantle is a big thing, even if developers dont use mantle for the consoles, they still have to optimized the game on GCN hardware.

All the other shit is argumentative. So yea it's an opinion and I totally respect yours .

 

[SixFootDuo]

The more I think about it, I am not sure i need to replace my 7970's in X-Fire that both run 1050 / 1500 without issue.

Though, I could sell the 7970's for $235 each which might pay 85% of a new R9 290x

 

[Lorien]

I usually buy cards in the $300 range since they typically have a better price/performance ratio... but I suddenly regret selling my Tahiti 7870 and my non- overclockable Gigabyte 7970.

No game bundle and no performance increase for the 280x = doesn't make sense to buy it right now...

Once the current stock of HD7k cards are mostly out of the channel the new cards will be included in the Never Settle program.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7400/the-radeon-r9-280x-review-feat-asus-xfx

Moving on to retail matters, buyers of the 200 series will want to pay attention to the fact that the 200 series is not currently part of Never Settle Forever. AMD’s video game bundle program is not being extended to the 200 series at this time, so on top of the price cuts for the 7000 series they will also have an active game bundle while the 200 series does not. AMD for their part isn’t saying anything concrete about the future, but they are strongly hinting that this is temporary, and that the 200 series will be added later after the 7000 series is cleared out in order to give buyers an extra incentive to pick up a 7000 series card first. Given AMD’s situation it makes a lot of sense...

Also: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/10/07/asus_r9_280x_directcu_ii_top_video_card_review/9

Based on the real world gameplay experience, the ASUS R9 280X DC2T is a massive value. For a price that is only $10 more than a "reference" Radeon R9 280X (Available on October 11th.) we get the same performance as the GeForce GTX 770 that is $90 more expensive. In fact, in some cases, the ASUS R9 280X DC2T was even faster than the GTX 770.
...
The ASUS R9 280X DC2T sets a new benchmark in video card value. We hope to see lots of followers.

http://techreport.com/review/25466/amd-radeon-r9-280x-and-270x-graphics-cards

And before the end of the year you will get a further boost in performance with Mantle on BF4 and by then we'll know a good number of games/engines that will support it as well.

 

[Brackle]

The more I think about it, I am not sure i need to replace my 7970's in X-Fire that both run 1050 / 1500 without issue.

Though, I could sell the 7970's for $235 each which might pay 85% of a new R9 290x

yea...I would hold on tight with what ya got. I mean MAYBE the 290x with a good overclock might be as fast as 2x7970....no way to know yet.

 

[motherpuncher]

Yes when I sit down and play I too prefer nvidia. I've had everything from crossfire hd5850 to crossfire 7970, from sli gtx 560 ti to sli gtx 670, and everytime nvidia is the best way for me personally, but man do I love getting new hardware and overclocking it and benching it! But I will say for a single card setup I don't think AMD is a bad choice.

 

[Brackle]

Yes when I sit down and play I too prefer nvidia. I've had everything from crossfire hd5850 to crossfire 7970, from sli gtx 560 ti to sli gtx 670, and everytime nvidia is the best way for me personally, but man do I love getting new hardware and overclocking it and benching it! But I will say for a single card setup I don't think AMD is a bad choice.

Now there is a possibility that the new 290/290x cards fix the multi-gpu problem AMD has. Speculation of course, but this is something I am interested in. Bridgeless crossfire, and possible near 100% scaling....its drool worthy!

 

[FrgMstr]

The game bundles are being extended to the 7000 series to move remaining inventory off retailers' shelves. Once those 7000 series are sold I would expect to see a new gaming bundle strategy from AMD.

 

[motherpuncher]

Now there is a possibility that the new 290/290x cards fix the multi-gpu problem AMD has. Speculation of course, but this is something I am interested in. Bridgeless crossfire, and possible near 100% scaling....its drool worthy!

Yeah I'm looking forward to that, plus they have hardware metering now, right? That should make all the difference in the world.

 

[Brackle]

Yeah I'm looking forward to that, plus they have hardware metering now, right? That should make all the difference in the world.

Exactly....In a sense the frame pacing issue will basically be nil since the 2 cards in crossfire will talk between the PCI-E lanes? I assume that will fix all the stuttering issues I have had in the past.

Here's hoping AMD sends [H] 2 cards to do a crossfire review /crossfingers

 

[GoldenTiger]

Yea Mantle is a big thing, even if developers dont use mantle for the consoles, they still have to optimized the game on GCN hardware.

All the other shit is argumentative. So yea it's an opinion and I totally respect yours .

True enough on the rest of the stuff... not everyone uses it or even knows about it. And Mantle could indeed be a huge thing, GCN optimization I don't think is going to be very relevant any more than nVidia having the 360 for example was relevant to the PC for most of its life. However if Mantle takes off it's going to be a huge coup for AMD, and while I personally am not so sure it will, I definitely recognize it very well could.

 

[FrgMstr]

Welp that answers alot of questions.

I have my moments.

 

[HFBallad]

About the frame rates from techreport....

...are the vrams (or lackthereof... 2gb vs 3gb) throttling the cards in comparison to 280x at 1440p?