AMD Radeon R9 290 Review: Fast And $400, But Is It Consistent?

[net_nakul]

Before I felt sorry for the people who bought the Titian before the 780 came out. Now I feel sorry the people who bought 290x.

It's like, early adopters and pre-orderers are being punished (they should be rewarded). Wish they would release all cards at once in a generation so consumers can make reasonable judgements. (-_-)

 

[basroil]

Looks like Tomshardware needs to start using the 4gb version of GTX770 for benchmarks alongside the 2gb one. That should eliminate the variance issues in BF4 and Tombraider (both suffer from texture swapping above 1080p and 1440p)

 

[Shwee]

That is indeed some incredible performance for $400. I do share their concern for the retail cards, but I suspect that's just luck of the draw. For a card that's basically overclocked beyond the cooler's capacity at purchase, you can't expect to get that perfect sample every time. Same thing with CPUs. When the non-reference coolers are available, I'm predicting we'll see AMD having just pulled a miracle with their graphics cards. Only a small price increase for a better cooling solution is standing between this nonsense and what these two chips are capable of.

Kind of funny... seems that AMD has outstanding engineers, only to have their new pride and joy held back by a terrible cooler.

 

[ginjaninja7]

hmmmmmmmmm wonder what will hapen if I crosffire 2x R9 290. Toms hardware's next review I want to see the performace 😛

 

[rolandzhang3]

Well this looks amazing, lovely to see so much competition, too bad the prices here in Australia kinda suck 😀

 

[jk47_99]

Despite the negatives, the retail card and lack of an endorsement from a rival site, this is the dawn of a new era we are witnessing. This is amazing performance for the price, it makes higher resolution gaming much more affordable and could be the kick in the backside that PC gaming needs.

Imagine what the non-reference coolers will be able to do, keep temps and noise in check to prevent throttling, add two 8 pin connecters for higher voltage, and then you still have better optimized drivers and the mantle API to look forward to! They have obviously kept some cards close to their chest and are waiting for a response from the other side, it’s a real game of cat and mouse to try and see what the 780Ti can do and then hit it with the sucker punch of a fully optimized and cooled R9 290x.

 

[CommentariesAnd More]

The only thing I hate in your reviews Chris , is because you over exaggerate about noise. I have seen people run GPUs like 7970s on ref cooler with full speed with little complaint of noise. I always see you complaining about noise on AMD's ref coolers. Firstly , people have cases at a distance of like 1m from the ear in many ways. Can be from front , back , bottom or sideways. Consider the nearby noise , since not everyone lives in a place with no noise around , right ? Then noise reducing solutions like the AcoustiPacks which many people prefer for reducing noise. They are available for like 30$ and thats with 3 layers coating. Then again , your reviewing a 400$ card performing at par ( in some way ) with a stupidly price 1000$ card. Do you think its fair to say its noisy ? I'd say mention it can be noisy , very noisy , but dont overexaggerate it to make a huge reason to not go for the card.
"I have two issues with this. First, at 47% duty cycle, the fan is too loud. It’s obviously not as bad as the 290X’s Uber mode, but I don’t see any compelling reason to compromise acoustics when quieter solutions exist" Stick to them. And spoil the beauty too.
IMO you should think more of the average case too.
Next time if you could provide acoustics from a distance of 100 , 150 cm like , I would appreciate it.
Also Kudos to AMD. It should awake NVIDIA that AMD can fight em.
Waiting for the custom coolers to hit on those beasts,

 

[americanbrian]

Just a quick few questions? You mentioned in an earlier article that you were going to assess whether AA is actually useful when the resolutions are so high (ultraHD). I am curious if there is any discernible benefit. AA originally was used to smooth out the edges of curves, but with pixel density being what it is today does it even matter anymore?

Also, I am interested in what the 290x retail would do with the accelero3 on it. You have done the 290, but how far ahead would the 290x with sufficient cooling take it?

Great article, and shame on AMD for the poor delivery to the retail channel. I understand that they want to be really price competitive, but surely they must see that they are essentially crippling their cards and losing customer goodwill. Release the third party coolers. Don't screw over the first adopters just for a second shot at the crown.

 

[americanbrian]

I ask about the AA because I am assuming it is like 8x or 16x on the ultra settings for most games and when you bump the res so high it must take up an enormous part of the workload. I wonder how many more single card solutions would be viable just by turning off AA on the ultraHD res. Would make an interesting article perhaps?

 

[Danra]

I ordered one at about 12:45 a.m. Pacific time from Newegg.

Question:

How did you modify Arctic's Accelero Xtreme III to fit the R9 290 to cool all components, and regulate 7 volt and 12 volt for the fan? If there is a web page that describes the process please provide it.

Thank you.

 

[Heironious]

Multiplayer would add more stress to the CPUs / GPU's. Like I said, something is wrong with their machine. I would prob get higher on single player. Im going to check and find out.

 

[bemused_fred]

"By upping its shipping fan speed from 40% to 47%, AMD allows its reference cooler to blow harder"

I bet it does! HIYOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

 

[Novuake]

"I played through the entire single-player campaign in one night to nail down the best possible repeatable sequence to use for benchmarking"

Not sure if I should envy you or feel sorry for you, if it were a more entertaining game I guess its an easy decision.

 

[technoholic]

At what price range will the GTX 780Ti launch now? Supposedly $650 to $700? So, for $100 to $150 price difference over R9 290X, it should beat R9 290X and Titan in gaming. If it is a little more expensive than that, it will enter the realms of dual 290s. I think Nvidia won't do this mistake. I think NV will have to launch 780 Ti at below $650. Well, this is a very good competition for us

 

[Novuake]

Pretty much what I expected the one down from top single GPU has always been CLOSE and sometimes even better with mild overclocking that the top tier.
For that exact reason I have HD7950s instead of HD7970s.

Now if I could just keep an eye on the 290 to see if this press sample was a fluke.
Nice review with lots to consider.

HAIL THE ACCELERO!

 

[bharatwd]

From this article......the 290 is not only a titan and 780 killer, its also a 290x killer )))) if the 290 holds up to this review, buy a 290 crossfire and a custom cooling rig for both of it...........its a great bargain for 400$ and rightly priced..top of the line cards should not increase 400$

 

[ginjaninja7]

hmmmmmmmmm wonder what will hapen if I crosffire 2x R9 290. Toms hardware's next review I want to see the performace 😛

 

[bemused_fred]

Stock cooling: not even once. That arctic 3 accelero cooler is just a hint of what someone like asus, sapphire or HIS might achieve: consistent 1.1GHz clock rates with whisper-quiet noise.

 

[jimishtar]

boy, that cooler sucks... this aint a win in my books. sure, i would buy it and put some aftermarket cooler on it, but for the average user, this is simply bad product. way to loud and hot.

 

[kvragec]

That is significant performance drop from a retail AMD Radeon R9 290x retail... Could we expect the same from 290??? I was planing to upgrade my pc with one

 

[kvragec]

That is significant performance drop from a retail AMD Radeon R9 290x retail... Could we expect the same from 290??? I was planing to upgrade my pc with one

 

[Reynod]

Think I'll wait for the update on these from you Chris before commenting further.

The better cooling really helps ... good pickup there.

 

[vertexx]

AMD is clearly forcing NVIDEA to show its cards, first with the inevitable price cut, and now with the 780TI, holding a few of its own to play after NVIDEA makes its moves.

This is all shaping up to be a pretty good boxing match between the two, and I agree with others that this will end up being very good for consumers this holiday season.

AMD better be careful though with the press vs. retail card performance. A bad reputation for something like that can be a very bad thing if it causes consumers to not trust what they're buying. Let's see if the retail 290 also under-performs....

 

[Stickem]

I'm going to sit in my Nvidia chair and eat my cookies and drink my frosty beverages while you AMD boys fret about performance, heat, and acoustic issues. SMH =)

 

[Novuake]

Yaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnn. So what! AMD took 8 months to finally come out with cards that can beat a GTX780? And 10 months to finally beat the Titan. Wow...not! AMD should be so proud to finally pull their perverbial head out of their butts to finally catchup with Nvidia after almost 3/4 of a year. Nvidia is laughing. Why? AMD can only play catchup and will never lead. And just wait until the Crossfire and SLI results are shown in the next review. Once again, we will find out that the frame rate lag will cause most games to be a much better and smoother experience on the Nvidia cards, even with lower frame rates. Remember folks, FPS is just the beginning. Playability is what really matters - NOT FPS!! In this, AMD loses hands down - even the new Hawaii GPUs show this same trend. Ultimately, AMD will be doomed by their driver development team. Regardless, the Titan and GTX780 GK110 GPU family is yesterday's news. The new Maxwell GPU by Nvidia will be an evolutionary change to graphics cards. AMD will literally crap their pants when it is released, and will take over a year to catch up to Nvidia only to get beat again by the 2nd generation Maxwell GPUs. The one thing AMD has going for them is price, and that will be their undoing. Less profit margin over time means shrinking profits, less funds to invest into future GPU development = FAIL. It's only a matter of when, not if AMD will collapse in upon itself...

First off. What YOU find important is not what EVERYONE finds important. Wake up, your fanboy is showing.

Second, to most people PRICE matter at a given performance. So keep yawning.

Third, you better HOPE that AMD does not "AMD will collapse in upon itself...", the day that happens, is the day you pay 2000$ for a Titan and that is the day GPU development grinds to a halt.

So please, stop thinking through your obvious fanboyism and see how important competition is in the technology industry and how GROUNDBREAKING this card is for the PRICE its introduced at...