XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation Edition CrossFire Review @ [H]

Cool Vibrations said:
My god, those are gorgeous.

Now I'm torn... 2x MSI Lightning 290Xs vs 2x 290X DD :confused:
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Dont. Go for Lightning. Better PCB, more cooling potential in cooler and better OC if you want to really push it. Only thing I dont like one them is that color scheme. They used to be much more cool... Here MSI has extra year warranty over XFX, dont know how it is in US.

Nice review. I wonder if 3gb limitation is holding 780Ti back in such high settings.
 
What are the VRM temps like with the new DD cards? I could break 100+ C on the old POS DD coolers not even trying.
 
Enilder said:
Is it typical that db isn't measured for fan noise? It would've been nicer to have some quantitative comparisons of noise against others instead of qualitative comparisons. It looks like it shines in 4K environment. Looks really nice as well. $730 on newegg.
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Just my opinion on all of these other sites publishing dba data.; Measuring sound pressure levels (spl) in a live environment is worthless. Comparing random measurements between sites is less than worthless. If you are measuring cards on an open bench you would somehow have to weight the results to compensate for being in a case. Different frequencies can penetrate the case walls with varying efficiency. Lower frequencies can escape the case more efficiently than higher frequencies, but higher frequencies (to a point) are more noticeable to us.

Before we could have an acceptable method for comparing there would have to be a standard established. That standard would have to be based on scientifically sound parameters.

It's far more useful to have someone say they are quiet and couldn't be heard over the ambient noise than what would be very arbitrary and inaccurate measurements.
 
Great review,man these reviews must take forever to do.That is alot of work.Thanks for the review.

Wow I am surprised by the lack of Nvidia fans trying to explain why AMD crushed them in all the benches.

J/K but it does seems AMD R9 290/x is the way to go today at the higher resolutions.

As far as cost goes yes the AMD R9 290/x cards are priced crazy but are still less then the 780TI cards out there from what I have priced up here in Canada.

They are faster in crossfire and run good in crossfire from this review and personal experience,so why people still complaining about price compared to the 780ti.

I switched from Nvidia to AMD and the only thing I want from Nvidia now is change Physx 3 to allow AMD and Nvidia cards to run together for Batman Origins.
 
roki977 said:
Nice review. I wonder if 3gb limitation is holding 780Ti back in such high settings.
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Now, that was what I was about to ask. I was having a discussion about this with some other folks, and now that I am looking at some of these graphs, I can see that 3GB isn't enough for these higher resolutions. At first I just thought the R9 290(X) had better multi-GPU scaling, but the way that the 780Ti SLI setup just gets so unstable FPS wise, it got to be a VRAM issue.

Shit, eating crow over here.
 
Blank-Minded said:
Now, that was what I was about to ask. I was having a discussion about this with some other folks, and now that I am looking at some of these graphs, I can see that 3GB isn't enough for these higher resolutions. At first I just thought the R9 290(X) had better multi-GPU scaling, but the way that the 780Ti SLI setup just gets so unstable FPS wise, it got to be a VRAM issue.

Shit, eating crow over here.
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One more problem for the nvidia cards could be throttling issues. With the single slot config, NV cards already throttle down from about 998 down to 937mhz. With a dual card configuration, I could see them throttling down even worse.

Nvidias 83 temp target is really too low and is likely what causes such throttling problems.

I think the cards are running at lower clocks and hence the low power consumption. Sure the gtx 780 ti is a more efficient architecture, but I don't think its over 200watts for 2 cards or over 100w per card. That is really big difference.
 
Interesting review. I was wondering how the reviewer wasn't able to hear the fans even @ 93%. I've got an XFX R290 DD and I can easily hear the fans spinning @ 93%..
 
R.E. Ti power and performance I checked with real-time frequency being displayed in the games, the Ti cards were operating above their Boost clocks at first, and settled down to their Boost Clocks during all the game testing. Remember, we run these cards for at least 30 minutes before doing the performance testing. This means often the GPU Boost 2.0 cards operate at lower frequencies than some other sites, whom just bench them within the first 10 minutes of operating. We do this on both the AMD and NV cards. The Boost Clock was a consistent clock in every game under SLI. They did not throttle below the Base Clock at all. We saw higher Peaks in Power during the first few minutes of gaming, but we take our power readings after that 30 minutes of gaming, so it is generally lower than the initial first few minute peak power. We go for sustained long sessions of gaming, and report the performance and wattage then, at that point.

Note that nothing was changed on the 780 Ti's, it was just out of box cards, driver installed. We changed no values with any kind of software, so this is the default performance you'd also experience in GTX 780 Ti SLI. It is 100% out-of-box, default, stock, 780 Ti SLI performance.

I was also concerned when I saw the performance, so that's when I checked the clock speed, and I also turned on the SLI indicators to make sure SLI was working well, and it was. Both confirmed the cards were operating just as they should be.
 
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The way i think it, it's pretty petty excuse to put the blame on e-tailers.
-If that was true, then the e-tailers would also sell the referance 290X at higher prices from AMD's MSRP.
Isn't a little comical to blame e-tailers for rising the prices only at aftermarket 290Xs while they sell the referance at AMD's MSRP ?!
-And besides the comic factor, there is also the logical factor: I can't believe that a card like the ASUS 290X, with such a superior cooling system compared to the referance, which -according to the review-, eliminates all the problems with noise and temperature the referance had, will be sold the same price as the referance !! I really can't believe that, it's irrational !!
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-That's what i have written few weeks ago, at HARDOCP's review of ASUS card, but i have to admitt that ASUS proved me wrong, by selling their GPU near MSRP
http://www.amazon.com/Asus-R9290X-D...0HSY1TBK/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_d_5?tag=hardfocom-20
-But this fact also raises another question: If ASUS manages to sell their aftermarket 290X at such (relatively) low cost, then why to blame the e-tailers for inflated prices? ASUS just proved that they can sell their GPU much cheaper than their competitors.
 
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Sith'ari said:
-That's what i have written few weeks ago, at HARDOCP's review of ASUS card, but i have to admitt that ASUS proved me wrong, by selling their GPU near MSRP
http://www.amazon.com/Asus-R9290X-D...0HSY1TBK/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_d_5?tag=hardfocom-20
-But this fact also raises another question: If ASUS manages to sell their aftermarket 290X at such (relatively) low cost, then why to blame the e-tailers for inflated prices? ASUS just proved that they can sell their GPU much cheaper than their competitors.
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It probably depends on if you are buying direct from the manufacturer, or if the manufacturer is selling to a distributor who then sets their own prices. The Amazon link there is being fulfilled directly by Asus.
 
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Brent_Justice said:
Grasp this if you will, the AMD Radeon R9 290X video card was announced and evaluated on October 23rd, 2013. It is now three months later, and we are just now starting to get video cards from add-in-board partners with customized hardware, customized designs, and custom cooling. This is absolutely not what was represented to us as a timeline by AMD.
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Seems like far too often both companies can't meet market demand. I'll probably buy another XFX Radeon card, but it's appalling that the consumer is being raped because AMD can't provide enough product.
 
The OC'd black Edition only costs 700$ in Canada which is 50$ less than most of the reference 290x's & 780 Ti's. Waiting for non-sli reviews.
 
qdemn7 said:
Seems like far too often both companies can't meet market demand. I'll probably buy another XFX Radeon card, but it's appalling that the consumer is being raped because AMD can't provide enough product.
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I fail to understand why AMD is being blamed for this. Anyone who thinks that AMD isn't trying to maximize production as fast as possible is a fool. They don't own a fab anymore however so they have to deal with 3rd party manufacturers, who have multiple clients, and there is a limit to how quickly the GPUs can be produced. If demand outstrips supply, you get price increases. This isn't the consumers being raped by the manufacturers, this is consumers raping themselves (miners versus gamers to some extent).
 
I suppose this means that nVidia's claim to have "the fastest gaming card on the market" has suddenly become a grey area. Crossfire's previous woes have been completely eliminated as well so I do believe that I'll use links to this article for all the morons who continue to say "Crossfire is broken.". Thanks for the great article guys! :D
 
Rizen said:
I fail to understand why AMD is being blamed for this. Anyone who thinks that AMD isn't trying to maximize production as fast as possible is a fool. They don't own a fab anymore however so they have to deal with 3rd party manufacturers, who have multiple clients, and there is a limit to how quickly the GPUs can be produced. If demand outstrips supply, you get price increases. This isn't the consumers being raped by the manufacturers, this is consumers raping themselves (miners versus gamers to some extent).
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Why is AMD being blamed for this? It's a simple concept really that made me once coin my own adage:
"NEVER underestimate the stupidity of the average human."
 
qdemn7 said:
Seems like far too often both companies can't meet market demand. I'll probably buy another XFX Radeon card, but it's appalling that the consumer is being raped because AMD can't provide enough product.
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and this person obviously hasn't been paying attention to whats been going on the last few months lol.. the prices you are seeing on AMD cards right now have nothing to do with companies keeping enough cards in stock.. it's purely retailers milking the shit out of bitcoin miners(or altcoin or what ever stupid name they've come up with for this week).
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
and this person obviously hasn't been paying attention to whats been going on the last few months lol.. the prices you are seeing on AMD cards right now have nothing to do with companies keeping enough cards in stock.. it's purely retailers milking the shit out of bitcoin miners(or altcoin or what ever stupid name they've come up with for this week).
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I have been paying attention. Did you read the quote from Brent?

Originally Posted by Brent_Justice
Grasp this if you will, the AMD Radeon R9 290X video card was announced and evaluated on October 23rd, 2013. It is now three months later, and we are just now starting to get video cards from add-in-board partners with customized hardware, customized designs, and custom cooling. This is absolutely not what was represented to us as a timeline by AMD.
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The point is AMD has failed to meet customer's demand. It is simple as that.
 
qdemn7 said:
I have been paying attention. Did you read the quote from Brent?



The point is AMD has failed to meet customer's demand. It is simple as that.
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Well, no one could have reasonably expected the mining boom. Not to mention that AMD have outsourced their manufacturing, thus making ramping up of production not very feasible after a certain amount.
 
qdemn7 said:
The point is AMD has failed to meet customer's demand. It is simple as that.
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What? The quote you cited doesn't confirm what you are saying at all. AMD doesn't design their partner's custom boards. If ASUS, MSI, Sapphire, etc are late to market with their customized designs, that isn't AMD's fault. It might be AMD's fault for communicating the timing wrong, but they aren't the ones doing the R&D.
 
While I agree that it's not really AMD's fault that it can't keep up with demand for its products due to the unexpected rise in scrypt coins, AMD/ATI GPUs have always been fabbed by a third-party.
 
What PSU do you guys recommend for crossfiring non-reference 290X's?, Would 850w be enough or do I have to go 1000W
 
You havent got much headroom with an 850W, so while it should work ok, the PSU might not last long, especially if you overclock or run a lot of things off the PSU.

Allow 300W per 290x, 200W for CPU/motherboard/ram, thats 800W, giving you only 50W (6%) breathing room, or none if you include other things plugged in.
That is a non overclocked system.

I always buy a PSU with 33% to 50% overhead and a quality unit as well.
So in your case, I would get a quality 1KW minimum.

I'm running a 2500K and single 290x with a Corsair AX750.
 
Nenu said:
You havent got much headroom with an 850W, so while it should work ok, the PSU might not last long, especially if you overclock or run a lot of things off the PSU.

Allow 300W per 290x, 200W for CPU/motherboard/ram, thats 800W, giving you only 50W (6%) breathing room, or none if you include other things plugged in.
That is a non overclocked system.

I always buy a PSU with 33% to 50% overhead and a quality unit as well.
So in your case, I would get a quality 1KW minimum.

I'm running a 2500K and single 290x with a Corsair AX750.
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Thanks :)
 
Really interesting article. I particularly appreciated the comments about the noise levels.
 
I got a R280x before Litecoin and later Doge coin got big. It was only $300.
 
SLee said:
While I agree that it's not really AMD's fault that it can't keep up with demand for its products due to the unexpected rise in scrypt coins, AMD/ATI GPUs have always been fabbed by a third-party.
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Literally everyone's GPUs and CPUs are fabbed by a third party except Intel AFAIK. Same deal with NVIDIA, they use GloFo and TSMC too.
 
This is pretty cheap. I remember when the R290x came out, I think it was 550. Now it's like $700-800. What's worse is that it's selling out at that price.

mndeg said:
I got a R280x before Litecoin and later Doge coin got big. It was only $300.
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