Asus Radeon R9-290X DirectCU II Detailed, Priced

[azzazel_99]

You can get the ghz edition gigabyte 780ti thats a monster of a card.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Guru: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_radeon_r9_290x_directcuii_oc_review,1.html
Canuk: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/64694-asus-r9-290x-directcu-ii-oc-review-10.html

780ti is faster but a lot more expensive... At least in here europe.
OC versions are guite near in using energy. There is 6 wat difference between 780tiOC and 290xOC.

What the heck does a 780ti run in UK? This is $816 in USD. That is well over a superclocked $730 780ti card in USA.

Some of them can be over £600 so $982.

 

[wdmfiber]

780 Ti vs. 290X
Ba... both old 28nm tech anyway. At this point in time, almost 2014; I'd recommend ppl buy neither. It's time for a generation jump. Appears Maxwell may be released in ~3 month.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-maxwell-based-geforce-graphic-cards-reportedly-shipping-march-2014/

 

[Mousemonkey]

780 Ti vs. 290X
Ba... both old 28nm tech anyway. At this point in time, almost 2014; I'd recommend ppl buy neither. It's time for a generation jump. Appears Maxwell may be released in ~3 month.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-maxwell-based-geforce-graphic-cards-reportedly-shipping-march-2014/

Chances are they are going to be on 28nm at first as well though.

 

[wdmfiber]

780 Ti vs. 290X
Ba... both old 28nm tech anyway. At this point in time, almost 2014; I'd recommend ppl buy neither. It's time for a generation jump. Appears Maxwell may be released in ~3 month.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-maxwell-based-geforce-graphic-cards-reportedly-shipping-march-2014/

Chances are they are going to be on 28nm at first as well though.

I really hope not! That would essentially be another 28nm refresh
Intel is set for 14nm in 2014. Surely TSCM is making the move to 20nm by now!!
_______________
We'll know soon anyway. Rumor mill says 20nm Maxwell laptop GPU's released first(February).

 

[Mousemonkey]

780 Ti vs. 290X
Ba... both old 28nm tech anyway. At this point in time, almost 2014; I'd recommend ppl buy neither. It's time for a generation jump. Appears Maxwell may be released in ~3 month.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-maxwell-based-geforce-graphic-cards-reportedly-shipping-march-2014/

Chances are they are going to be on 28nm at first as well though.

I really hope not!That would essentially be another 28nm refresh
Intel is set for 14nm in 2014. Surely TSCM is making to move to 20nm by now!!
_______________
We'll know soon anyway. Rumor mill says 20nm Maxwell laptop chips released 1st(February).

Not really as the architecture will be different from Kepler but it will be on a proven node.

 

[wdmfiber]

780 Ti vs. 290X
Ba... both old 28nm tech anyway. At this point in time, almost 2014; I'd recommend ppl buy neither. It's time for a generation jump. Appears Maxwell may be released in ~3 month.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-maxwell-based-geforce-graphic-cards-reportedly-shipping-march-2014/

Chances are they are going to be on 28nm at first as well though.

I really hope not!That would essentially be another 28nm refresh
Intel is set for 14nm in 2014. Surely TSCM is making to move to 20nm by now!!
_______________
We'll know soon anyway. Rumor mill says 20nm Maxwell laptop chips released 1st(February).

Not really as the architecture will be different from Kepler but it will be on a proven node.

If it was Intel, I'd say ya.
But not with AMD or NVidia. I think we'll get the "whole deal" or nothing(delays). Just like the GTX 680/Radeon 7970, new fab & arch.

We'll see thou

 

[Mousemonkey]

780 Ti vs. 290X
Ba... both old 28nm tech anyway. At this point in time, almost 2014; I'd recommend ppl buy neither. It's time for a generation jump. Appears Maxwell may be released in ~3 month.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-maxwell-based-geforce-graphic-cards-reportedly-shipping-march-2014/

Chances are they are going to be on 28nm at first as well though.

I really hope not!That would essentially be another 28nm refresh
Intel is set for 14nm in 2014. Surely TSCM is making to move to 20nm by now!!
_______________
We'll know soon anyway. Rumor mill says 20nm Maxwell laptop chips released 1st(February).

Not really as the architecture will be different from Kepler but it will be on a proven node.

If it was Intel, I'd say ya.
But not with AMD or NVidia. I think we'll get the "whole deal" or nothing(delays). Just like the GTX 680/Radeon 7970, new fab & arch.

We'll see thou

Are the 290X's 20nm? It is the new arch isn't it?

 

[wdmfiber]

No it's still 28nm. It's a big honking chip thou, 6.2 billion transistors. Vs. the 7.08 billion monster that is the Titan/780.

Both pumped out at TSCM.
Really, only the people there know what is going on with the industry. NVidia, AMD(Radeon), Apple, ect... put their stickers on what TSCM sells them.
___________________
TSCM is worth ~8 times more than Nvidia and AMD combined.

 

[Mousemonkey]

No it's still 28nm. It's a big honking chip thou, 6.2 billion transistors. Vs. the 7.08 billion monster that is the Titan/780.

Both pumped out at TSCM.
Really, only the people there know what is going on with the industry. NVidia, AMD(Radeon), Apple, ect... put their stickers on what TSCM sells them.

It was a rhetorical question in response to your previous post.

 

[wdmfiber]

No it's still 28nm. It's a big honking chip thou, 6.2 billion transistors. Vs. the 7.08 billion monster that is the Titan/780.

Both pumped out at TSCM.
Really, only the people there know what is going on with the industry. NVidia, AMD(Radeon), Apple, ect... put their stickers on what TSCM sells them.

It was a rhetorical question in response to your previous post.

Indeed, I missed that.
Plus I figured that you would know...

 

[Mousemonkey]

No it's still 28nm. It's a big honking chip thou, 6.2 billion transistors. Vs. the 7.08 billion monster that is the Titan/780.

Both pumped out at TSCM.
Really, only the people there know what is going on with the industry. NVidia, AMD(Radeon), Apple, ect... put their stickers on what TSCM sells them.

It was a rhetorical question in response to your previous post.

Indeed, I missed that.
Plus I figured that you would know...

 

[rdc85]

I don't know why people still compare price in England with price in US directly..

We need to compare 780ti with 290x both in England price or both in US price...
I read a lot of post where people complain such high price of same parts in Europe/Asia compared in US..
(people seems to forget it)
.
.
.

In other hand I think I know why

edit: looks like 290 custom (saphire) also out, Still waiting for Toms own review...

 

[irishtr]

@ ​irishtr, Maybe you should read some reviews before you let your fanboi shine green. Faster than the 780 ti? No.... but it matches wits with it in nearly every game, some it actually does win. The heat issue was from the reference cooler... (if you could) throw an amd reference cooler on a 780 ti and what do you have ? You are right!! ; A flaming hunk of shit. So try using your head and your lack of computer knowledge to assess the information given to come up with an opinion next time, opposed to just spewing hate. On that note, I think I'll be passing on the directcu, I really want to wait for a 2x8 power card to come out, with a little better map.

EDIT: Bad name Clipboard got ahead of my passion for fanbois :3
The're just too cute.

Yea thank you for showing you can't read, I have read, reviewed and I even get to test all these cards for my profession in person (how many have you tested)? The only time I mentioned NVIDIA was the comparison of the price points which AMD and its base pressed against and it was true Price compared to NVIDIA was way better, that lasted 2 weeks before NVIDIA fired back with a price cut across the board on the 700 series. No where did I say NVIDIA is better in any fanboi way, if you took it as that perhaps you should look in the mirror and recite "Pot meet Kettle". What I did was simply point out what AMDs product was marketed as and what it actual has and IS still delivering, marketing hype. I am no fanboy of a product band, they all get equal treatment for what they are and what they deliver.

If you want to swallow TrueAudio, Mantle marketing, and bogus benchmarks and reviews so be it, that's your choice and your money to do so. I'll stick to my tried and true methods of testing longer than a 5min synthetic benchmark from a website and go with real world scenarios because the first 2 items listed are not worth their salt imo.

If someone still wants to use the AMD cards I wouldn't recommend a 290x, but a 290 price point is very attractive for sure with aftermarket cooling applied especially crossfired. Now if we could just get the original prices back and not the coin mining inflated prices, that would be great!

 

[eirikheggelund]

I am throwing my 7970 in the trash and purchasing this once it hits the shelves. I am fed up with the artifacting on the 7970s. I have RMA-ed three of them.

 

[azzazel_99]

Maybe its not the cards?

 

[eirikheggelund]

Maybe its not the cards?

What could it be then?

 

[azzazel_99]

I dunno but 3 in a row with same issue seems a bit odd unless you are receiving the same card back.

 

[eirikheggelund]

I dunno but 3 in a row with same issue seems a bit odd unless you are receiving the same card back.

I agree. Apart from an outdated BIOS version, there is nothing I could think of. And I doubt that the BIOS is the cause of this.

 

[Swordkd]

Could the motherboard or Psu be feeding too much power to the card and essentially causing it to burn out? I once had an issue where my windows install would slowly degrade and I'd experience bsod's with increasing frequency. I finally bought new ram twice and the problem would go away for a bit, but would show up again. Turns out the motherboard was burning out the Ram sticks. Just a thought.

 

[somebodyspecial]

780 Ti vs. 290X
Ba... both old 28nm tech anyway. At this point in time, almost 2014; I'd recommend ppl buy neither. It's time for a generation jump. Appears Maxwell may be released in ~3 month.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-maxwell-based-geforce-graphic-cards-reportedly-shipping-march-2014/

Not possible at 20nm. So your point of waiting (while I agree with it) will take much longer. TSMC will start volume production Feb next year (or later) so don't expect 20nm cards in march. If we're lucky we'll see them in early Q3.

 

[somebodyspecial]

Still loses to 780ti by enough that I'd take Gsync, 3 AAA games and knowing with 2.7B in cash and no debt I can expect no phase1 or phase2 BS this year

Hardwarecanucks did a review (and guru3d, about to head off to read that one).
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/64694-asus-r9-290x-directcu-ii-oc-review-5.html
Not impressed, but then we had already seen tomshardware slap a $75 mod on it and it didn't wow me, nor take over 780ti's which hardwarecanucks shows dominate especially the OC/superclocked ones in the list (which can be had for $0-$30 more - who wouldn't pay this for what it scores OC'd?).
Hitman Absolution, Farcry3, AC3, Crysis3, Max Payne 3, Metro Last Light, Tomb Raider, all losses vs. 780TI OC'd cards which to me, is exactly what this 290x card is as it's far more costly than the REF design, so if you're going to call this "finally running like retail should" you need to adjust the price of what we call a REAL 290x right? It is certainly no longer $550/400 (290x/290) and you get no Gsync, 3 AAA games (BF4 instead for AMD?, Which will be the most frustrating xmas gift this year...LOL), and drivers are a serious questions mark for anyone but a total AMD fanboy. Even their fixes get delayed (phase1, phase2 anybody?).

The card won a SINGLE game at hardwarecanucks: Dirt Showdown, which to me is pointless to even benchmark as it still hasn't sold 100K copies on PC (heck only 300K over all platforms, that's a total failure), which is required to even show up on VGchartz.
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=dirt+showdown
I don't think you should bother testing games nobody plays or buys, when you can test things like Starcraft2, Diablo3, WOW, Skyrim (with HD textures or a mod or two etc maxed still potent) etc...All huge sellers STILL being played. I could list many more multimillion unit sellers but you get the point - NV wins in what we play usually(at least this round). It appears toms got a bit more, but then I think their fan was better. Either way just as I said a fan mod wouldn't magically beat 780ti as you can OC the heck out of those too, and any OC 780ti card appears to win without the need to OC yourself. IT already wins out of the box as Gigabyte/Evga show at hardwarecanucks. Even the ref 780ti wins 1/2 the games vs. this card.

It looks like this card is priced at $600 (superbiizz has it priced, though I think MSRP is $570). If that is true, take 780ti with 3 AAA games and Gsync. Also note the lowest temps on a card in that review above is 71c of ...wait for it...EVGA Superclocked 780ti...So there is another 12c you can play with to overclock the already SUPERCLOCKED card. Even the Gigabyte OC 780ti is 72c...Where is the ASUS 290x DirectCU card? 78c. So you're never going to catch them when even the MOD can't get you to their temps. AMD'ers need to face the fact that NV put out a superior chip this time. Period.

Another important note, when in SILENT mode 290x runs right back up to 94 even on this modded card. So unless you think the DirectCU II Top 290x has a crappy fan/heatsink solution, you are not going to get more. Your NON-REF card is finally here, and it still loses. What now? Add games or reduce prices. I hope they do neither but guess they'll do one or both after xmas sales are over and you are selling to GAMERS instead of MINERS. Clearly NV's ref cooling solution is not as great as we thought, NV just had the better chip. Because the OC/SC cards in the review drop the temps 11/12c AND are overclocked. So essentially a great fan on NV totally killed the fan upgrade on AMD's 290x. The ASUS solution is better than ref clearly, but nothing but liquid will really speed this past 780ti and you can put the same liquid together with NV also. Also note even with the NON-REF ASUS card they still lose the NOISE race. OUCH.

The only thing I see that AMD closed the gap on was watts. That part is basically a wash. Even on the OC page where they OC's the Asus card, it still lost to BOTH 780ti's that are OUT OF THE BOX in Crysis3/Tomb Raider (the only two they tested with OC'd Asus). They hit 1200+mhz so AMD lost this round. Nothing will end the pain until they produce their next cards. AT this point you only have price and free games to fight with. We are clear now, fans won't kill NV's lead. Can't buy until Jan and MSRP is $570, but I doubt that as I already see $600+ for this card. I'm sure miners will run these out of stock also.

Guru3d shows basically the same, loses every game to 780ti (NOT OC'd, but just REF) except for Hitman Absolution (which of course would lose if against an OC card just like it lost at hardwarecanucks). Not sure why they don't put an OC card in the list for NV. Even at 4K at guru3d the 780ti REF card won 3/4 game tests. So you'd easily lose even the 4th game if you buy an OC card for $30 or if they would have shown 780TI ref even in the Hitman benchmark at 4k (oddly left out, so 290x won vs. 780 NON TI). NV still wins, though you have to realize you won't run there, of the 4 tests 3 were 35fps avg or less and the 4th only hit 42fps, so you'll be playing with mins near 20fps. NOT playable.

Guru3d reviewed the MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming Edition on 12/11, so not sure why they are not comparing it in their ASUS 290x DirectCU II review. I guess they wanted to give AMD a fighting chance The MSI card is $699 and OC'd out of the box FREE and hit an extra ~150-170mhz on top (depending on gaming or oc mode being run OOBE) adding another ~10% to it's scores. It runs 980/1046 in gaming mode vs. ref 876/928 and also has an OC mode that pushes to 1020/1085 for newbs so even more perf & already good without mucking with software etc. Newbs will get a very good experience with no need to even know what Ocing is (which for guru3d they hit 1225mhz). I'm unimpressed by AMD right now.

 

[eirikheggelund]

Could the motherboard or Psu be feeding too much power to the card and essentially causing it to burn out? I once had an issue where my windows install would slowly degrade and I'd experience bsod's with increasing frequency. I finally bought new ram twice and the problem would go away for a bit, but would show up again. Turns out the motherboard was burning out the Ram sticks. Just a thought.

I don't know. But I doubt it. I have a pretty new Asus Maximus V Formula motherboard. The power supply, a Corsair AX 860, is even newer.

 

[Swordkd]

The motherboard that did that to me was a new Asus as well. 12 years ago, but still.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

When they test, I hope it's an in depth test and let us know whether it's faster with the gold stickers or the red stickers.....

all kidding aside, hopefully we will see more than "outta the box" testing.....this is kinda important when ya compare two cards and one is capable of being OC'd 23% and the other can only go another 7.5%