AMD Radeon R9 200 Series MegaThread: FAQ and Resources

**NOTE: This thread is still under development, individual pages are still under work and things are going to be edited and changed - just keep this in mind, I'm working on it. **
**Individual pages are being setup for each card series as well as crossfire FAQ's and compatibility**

AMD Radeon R9 2XX Megathread
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The AMD Radeon R9 2XX series was a first aimed enthusiast classified platform announced by AMD in late 2013, with the R7 category targeted at the budgeting aspect of the newly established series. Two completely new chips were released under the codename Hawaii, with an XT and a Pro variant. Hawaii is currently AMD's top current enthusiast chip offering high video ram capability and memory bandwidth, with the drawbacks of high power consumption and heat. The majority of the series is modified past HD generation GPU's, with new labeling. The latest inclusion to the series is the R9 285, along with the R9 290X2 which has not been released as a reference model, as it was never intended to be a graphics card in the series at all. It was a move and production by the manufacturers only, with both a selection of one air and liquid cooling option available. With the near release of the 3XX series Radeon graphics cards you can often pick up a great deal on an AMD R9 2XX card currently. This Megathread aims to give you an insight on all of the current R9 2XX series graphics cards, along with almost all of the manufactured cards of each model. Because the R9 2XX category has launched (8) reference model cards and no more appear to be of a surprise and anticipated release, this thread will have no rumour sections. All of the current R9 2XX series models are listed below with their first look specification:

*Note: All models listed are with STANDARD video ram specification. Manufacturers produce and supply higher video ram models then the baseline.*

R9 270
Chip Codename: Pitcairn
Video Ram: 2GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Bandwidth: 179GB/s
150W TDP
ROPs: 32
Cores: 1280
Texture Units: 80
RRP: USD $179

R9 270X
Chip Codename: Pitcairn
Video Ram: 2GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Bandwidth: 179GB/s
180W TDP
ROPs: 32
Cores: 1280
Texture Units: 80
RRP: USD $199

R9 280
Chip Codename: Tahiti Pro
Video Ram: 3GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 384-bit
Bandwidth: 240GB/s
250W TDP
ROPs: 32
Cores: 1792
Texture Units: 112
RRP: USD $249

R9 280X
Chip Codename: Tahiti XTL
Video Ram: 3GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 384-bit
Bandwidth: 288GB/s
250W TDP
ROPs: 32
Cores: 2048
Texture Units: 128
RRP: USD $299

R9 285
Chip Codename: Tonga
Video Ram: 2GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Bandwidth: 176GB/s
190W TDP
ROPs: 32
Cores: 1792
Texture Units: 112
RRP: USD $249

R9 290
Chip Codename: Hawaii Pro
Video Ram: 4GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 512-bit
Bandwidth: 320GB/s
275W TDP
ROPs: 64
Cores: 2560
Texture Units: 160
RRP: USD $399

R9 290X
Chip Codename: Hawaii XT
Video Ram: 4GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 512-bit
Bandwidth: 320GB/s
290W TDP
ROPs: 64
Cores: 2816
Texture Units: 176
RRP: USD $549


R9 290X2 (Dual GPU)
Chip Codename: Hawaii XT x2
Video Ram: 8GB GDDR5 (Total)
Memory Bus: 1024 (512 x 2)-bit
Bandwidth: 346GB/s x2
580W TDP
ROPs: 128 (64x2)
Cores: 5632 (2816x2)
Texture Units: 352 (176x2)
RRP: USD $1399

R9 295X2 (Dual GPU)
Chip Codename: Hawaii XT x2
Video Ram: 8GB GDDR5 (Total)
Memory Bus: 1024 (512 x 2)-bit
Bandwidth: 320GB/s x2
500W TDP
ROPs: 128 (64x2)
Cores: 5632 (2816x2)
Texture Units: 352 (176x2)
RRP: USD $1499


'R9' Refers to the category, '2' (first number) refers to the series, '7-9' (second number) refers to the model, '0 or 5' (third number) - after the release of the R9 285 this number has no meaning, inclusion of the 'X' (fourth letter in sequence) on the end of some means it's an extreme edition, and with a '2' (fifth number in sequence) at the end means it's two GPU's on the same PCB (mechanically connected). With all this implied, the higher the number, the better the card is in the series.



Which Radeon R9 2XX series card is right for you?

The card you choose should be based on what you need, and also how long you'll need it for. There is no way to future-proof a graphics card, but there are ways to spend less and get the exact same performance for your particular uses over a similar period of time. The more you spend usually always means the longer a card will last, however the amount extra it costs over another may not be worth the investment at all. An example of this would be buying the R9 290X which costs noticeably more then the R9 290, but the performance difference is not anything worth taking note of for the majority of people. To help you decide which card is best for you, it is worth taking a look through each individual subtopic for each card series. This will give you an understanding of what the cards are capable of, and what is worthwhile in your point of view for your uses in your desired price range. Each Card series listed will have it's relative and overclocked performance, with resolutions varying from 1366x768 HD to 3840x2160 Ultra-HD. Each Radeon subtopic also lists almost every card available, along with facts/features and requirements to make your choice straightforward if your either upgrading an older card or choosing a new one for a build. Your choice must be based on:

-What the card is being used for (e.g. Gaming - particular games your playing ect.)

-what you really need, and not always what is best

-What resolution(s) you plan to use or how many screens your considering

-minimum settings your comfortable with

-How long you want the card to last

-what you plan on getting in the future

The future is often impossible to predict, but for graphics cards it's often easy to tell what you will need for the period of time you want it for. Games for example don't increase their requirements in a massive jump over a period of months, game requirements gradually increase over time. When buying a new card you must consider if your planning on upgrading also, there is no point buying a card suited to your current needs if you were to upgrade later. For example; If your knowingly going to upgrade to game at 2560x1440 but you select your card based upon 1920x1080 performance, your going to realize your choice of card was not the best for your needs, and your going to want to upgrade. A smart choice of card can last you 2 years depending on what you do, the price you can get it at is the factor which can make all the difference. If you do not care about what is needed then you will most likely buy the best out there, That is perfectly fine to do but does come at a cost, the cost at times is often ridiculous but worth it to people due to bragging rights.



Considering buying multiple cards?

it is suggested that you check out the Crossfire Facts and compatibility thread for R9 2XX series graphics cards.



Considering buying a Radeon R9 2XX series graphics card but have never installed a graphics card before?

Check out the R9 2XX graphics card installation and removal thread.



AMD Radeon Driver updates and Release thread found here.



Thread Notifications:

An R9 2XX graphics card installation and removal thread has now been released

A Driver Updates thread has been released

Multiple individual pages have been released and are currently being worked on.



Please refrain from spamming messages about incorrect information listed in this thread or posting opinions about what you 'think' is correct, If you manage to spot something or would incline to have a suggestion, please send me a private message through Toms Hardware for an investigation and changes. Fanboy arguments or Trolling are NOT tolerated in this thread, if so the moderation team will be sorting that out.

 
AMD released the Omega Driver 14.12 Today.. it is bugfree fixing over 400 bugs with optimisations and features like VSR

with 14.11.2 beta my farcry 4 was 35-45 FPS in ultra

with 14.12 Omega it is 65-80 FPS in ultra
 
it is bugfree
Just because it fixes issues doesn't make it bug free.

Known Issues:

[410367] System black hangs/BSOD upon resuming from S3/S4 sleep on AMD Radeon™ R9 285 configured in AMD CrossFire™ mode
[410293] With AMD CrossFire™ enabled, Timeout Detection Recovery (TDR) occurs during actual gameplay when YouTube Mix moves to the next song in Firefox®
[408368] Some artifacting will be seen in certain scenarios with AMD Fluid Motion Enabled
[407622] Screen tearing on enabling VSync with Alien: Isolation game
[407934] Frame drops may occasionally be observed playing back progressive Blu Ray content on some AMD Kaveri APU configurations
[407095] 3D movies cannot be viewed using Power DVD on some AMD Kaveri APU configurations with only 2GB of single channel memory
[407175] Catalyst Control Center Video Quality settings may not be available or retained if the "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" option is not selected on some AMD HD series GPU's.
[406495] Pull down detection fails to lock in Metro Video playback applications
[410255] A system restart or hang may be observed on sleep/resume while transcoding video with Media Espresso
[410398] A black screen may be experienced when attempting to enable Eyefinity after changing the display mode (Portrait, Landscape)
[410391] Primary display may not be retained after disabling Crossfire while in Eyefinity mode
[409705] Enabling or disabling Crossfire may lead to one side of the 4K MST display being shown as black
[410393] Minor stuttering may be seen in Dragon Age Inquisition on Single and Multi GPU configurations​
'nuff said
 


compared to their shitty 14.9 drivers.. i say its bugfree for my 280X

the crashing and framedrops were a pain
 
I just hacked the Catalyst Omega W7 version to run on Vista. It was much more involved than hacking
14.9 which just required changing an INF file. I had to write a wrapper DLL for powrprof.dll and hex edit
several files to use my DLL instead.

But it is running great and improved my benchmark scores. Can't wait until my new (to me) card arrives
 


Because I don't have a lot of spare $$$ to upgrade to 7 plus I don't want to mess up all my junk that I have set up.
 

ZeusGamer

Admirable
If we're still talking about the Omega Drivers, here's my experience once I installed it.

I had to uninstall and install again three times just for it to recognize my R9 280X in crossfire config. Once it finally did, I was having awesome FPS boosts from almost all my games. I was surprised when Watch_Dogs was giving me better FPS than it did before with previous drivers. The only game I'm still having troubles with at the moment is Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4. I still CTD from time to time stating that the .exe has stopped working. I'm not sure as to why this is still happening to me, but I'm blaming Ubisoft haha! Other than that, everything has been amazing!
 


ubisoft have relelased patch 1.5 try it.. i am doin it right now.. there are some improvements
 

ZeusGamer

Admirable


Thanks man... I'll try it out once I get home from work.
 

ZeusGamer

Admirable


I didn't get any changes man. I don't know why Ubisoft hates AMD so much.
 


yeah, me too :(

other companies dont behave like ubisoft :(

EA ,Activison etc are always equal to both nvidia and AMD

ubisoft always stay partial to nvidia

 

Hugoagogo

Reputable
Dec 17, 2014
8
0
4,510
Has made my blackscreening more frequent. Running Win 7 64 with a sapphire r9 290 on watercooling. Completely fed up with Amds failure to address this issue,after trying every fix/update now looking at an NVidia card. Back running 14.4 in the meantime
 


is this the same for the 14.9 drivers also?
 
14.12 drivers increased my R9 290X's performance by around 6% with the exact same clocks from the 14.9 driver. I must say I am quite impressed that the omega driver has done that much of an improvement. Games such as BF4 now have no freezes, and no more "display driver has stopped working and has now recovered".

Drivers and updates discussions will soon be transferred to the driver updates thread which will be released soon. Due to the amount of threads and sublinks under development by myself, this does take it's time.
 

Hugoagogo

Reputable
Dec 17, 2014
8
0
4,510
Ive found the 14.4 to give me the least black screening. It occurs less on these drivers than 14.9 but 14.12 produces the more regular black screens. I hope santa brings me a nice new NVidia.
 


meh,

ever tried to clean up driver leftovers with DDU before reinstalling newer ones..

??
 

Hugoagogo

Reputable
Dec 17, 2014
8
0
4,510
Ive made a drive image of a fresh windows install I use with no graphics drivers installed so it is a completely fresh install of whatever drivers Amd see fit to release. I wish I read up more on this card as it is seriously the worst card ive ever dealt with, meh