Images, Benchmarks and Specifications of AMD's R9-290X Surface

[yannigr]

$600
this is what everyone is saying, but no, we will say $1000, right. Right. So you read it people. Tom's Hardware says the price will be $1000, so don't stop buying Titan's at that ridiculous price, or 780s.

 

[Cryio]

If it's a new generation, it can't possibly be even NEAR the price of Titan. Usually top GPUs from new generations launch to the 450-550 range.

 

[wanderer11]

Does anyone understand this naming scheme? It looks like the R9 is Radeon 9000 series and the 290 is the model so I think R9-280 would be the next lower card in the series.

 

[Larry Bob]

If the Rx signifies generation, and the whole reason for going to a new naming scheme was because they're running out of generations with the current naming scheme, why did they start on 9? This makes absolutely no sense.

 

[FunSurfer]

Titan will not be so lonely anymore on the Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart...

 

[johnb0118]

"There was no word on what the card would cost, though we can either expect it to be priced in-line or slightly above the GTX Titan."

Almost every other tech site is expecting this GPU to be priced around $650. Where did you get "in-line or slightly above the GTX Titan."?

These look like the same benches posted on Legit Reviews yesterday morning.

 

[johnb0118]

"There was no word on what the card would cost, though we can either expect it to be priced in-line or slightly above the GTX Titan."

Almost every other tech site is expecting this GPU to be priced around $650. Where did you get "in-line or slightly above the GTX Titan."?

These look like the same benches posted on Legit Reviews yesterday morning.

 

[johnb0118]

Rather the article on Legit Reviews was posted on Sunday.

http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-r9-290x-hawaii-gpu-specs-images-and-benchmarks-leaked_124573

 

[chewy1963]

Why oh why is everything named 'Surface' all of a sudden? It's like everything in the world was 'Turbo' back in the 80's...

 

[Swordguy]

if its under 600 bucks, totally worth it, and you could expect many pc gamers to take notice. if its priced in line with 780 or Titan, only those with money to burn will consider it. I guess it depends on how badly AMD wants people to use their products.

 

[cmi86]

$550 game changer. I hope they price this low so nvidia is forced to drop their inflated prices in the high end.

 

[twztechman]

To be honest - I was pretty angry when Nvidia priced the Titan at $1,000. Looking back at my video card upgrades, one of the best cards (and best value) was a 5870 that I picked up in October 2009. That card was a game changer and was $379. Meanwhile, Nvidia was pushing their what, 280 for $500? There are folks still using a 5870 and it's still a good card. I am currently running a 680 which I picked up in April 2012 for $499. While it was a game changer of sorts, it does not match the value of my old 5870. If this new AMD card is in the $500 range, and is at or near the Titan performance, it will be time for a shift back to AMD.

 

[HKILLER]

i will definitely buy one if:
1-doesn't heat up like an oven
2-doesn't consume too much power ( i mean a 600 W be enough for 1 card)
3-price being between 500$-700$
that would be pretty Jaw Smashing!it can out shine 780 and TITAN+a price like i said=Happy shopping time!.to me noise doesn't matter at all asi use headsets and driver will get better and better by time so no need to worry about that...

 

[hannibal]

Does anyone understand this naming scheme? It looks like the R9 is Radeon 9000 series and the 290 is the model so I think R9-280 would be the next lower card in the series.

If the Rx signifies generation, and the whole reason for going to a new naming scheme was because they're running out of generations with the current naming scheme, why did they start on 9? This makes absolutely no sense.

R9 means the gategory (the third number in the old naming system). So r9 will allways be the "best" possible GPU R8 the second best R7 the third and so on. Very much like intel i7, i5 and i3.
So the first part means the gategory or GPU used in the card.
The second number in the generation so if the best card now is R9 290x the next generation will be R9 390x (in old numbering system the first number).
The last two nubers are for the situation within the gategory so R9 290x and R9 270 use propably (this has not been confirmed) the same GPU core, but the later is a cut down version or has lower clockspeed (like 7970 and 7950 are now) (so the same as with the old system).
All in all this makes it very easy to recognise the GPUs. R9 will allways mean the flagship GPU core and last two the relative situation within that gategory or GPU core.

If I change the old AMD CPU number to this new system it would mean something like this:
7970 = R9 170
7950 = R9 150
7870 = R8 170
7850 = R8 150
7790 = R7 190
7770 = R7 170
7750 = R7 150
and so on...
if we think that 7970 is considered the first generatio on GCN. it is actually sensible why they release the new cards to directly RX 2XX (so second generation). It could allso mean that they will rename some of these old cards to the new naming scheme! So if you see in the shop r9 170 you know that it is just old 7970 renamed and not the new r9 270 (if there will be any card that is named like that when 290 seems to be the new flagship...)

 

[senshu]

If they priced this at $600, I would actually buy one.

 

[Ryan Klug]

No one is going to pay $1000 to meet-or-beat Titan. A $650 GTX 780 beats Titan when overclocked. You have a show on your hands if this new card is $650 or less.

 

[Larry Bob]

Does anyone understand this naming scheme? It looks like the R9 is Radeon 9000 series and the 290 is the model so I think R9-280 would be the next lower card in the series.

If the Rx signifies generation, and the whole reason for going to a new naming scheme was because they're running out of generations with the current naming scheme, why did they start on 9? This makes absolutely no sense.

R9 means the gategory (the third number in the old naming system). So r9 will allways be the "best" possible GPU R8 the second best R7 the third and so on. Very much like intel i7, i5 and i3.
So the first part means the gategory or GPU used in the card.
The second number in the generation so if the best card now is R9 290x the next generation will be R9 390x (in old numbering system the first number).
The last two nubers are for the situation within the gategory so R9 290x and R9 270 use propably (this has not been confirmed) the same GPU core, but the later is a cut down version or has lower clockspeed (like 7970 and 7950 are now) (so the same as with the old system).
All in all this makes it very easy to recognise the GPUs. R9 will allways mean the flagship GPU core and last two the relative situation within that gategory or GPU core.

If I change the old AMD CPU number to this new system it would mean something like this:
7970 = R9 170
7950 = R9 150
7870 = R8 170
7850 = R8 150
7790 = R7 190
7770 = R7 170
7750 = R7 150
and so on...
if we think that 7970 is considered the first generatio on GCN. it is actually sensible why they release the new cards to directly RX 2XX (so second generation). It could allso mean that they will rename some of these old cards to the new naming scheme! So if you see in the shop r9 170 you know that it is just old 7970 renamed and not the new r9 270 (if there will be any card that is named like that when 290 seems to be the new flagship...)

According to the LegitReviews leak the 7870 equivalent (Curacao XT) is called the R9-260/70.

 

[childofthekorn]

In all honesty this card will make Titan/780 owners feel silly supporting what was CLEARLY price gouging by Nvidia. But then again, it should have been obvious from the get go considering an overclocked HD 7970 meets the 780 at half the cost...

In all honesty. You're probably wrong. Titan will have been out for about 8 months if these AMD cards are released in a month. There is always going to be something faster in development around the corner. Anyone dropping $1000 on a video isn't shopping for bargains and has been enjoying the best of the best for half a year.

As for the 2nd part. It baffles me how often the idiotic comparison in the format of, product "x" overclocked to the limit is just as fast as product "y" running at stock speeds, so why would any moron buy product "y", is made. Unless product "y" is clock locked, which is an extremely rare occurrence in these comparisons, then it is a meaningless comparison.

I own a 7970GE card and it will not compete with an OC'd GTX 780. The 780 has a significant advantage in efficiency, and when comparing multi-GPU setups it turns into a laugher for the 780/Titan setup. I saved quite a bit of money going with the 7970, but I'm not blind to the fact that the Nvidia cards that cost more are superior in almost all aspects except cost.

I got the lulz when I noticed you were trying to demean someone elses comparison and stating the the 7970 is demolished by a OC 780 when the 7970 was released nearly 2 years ago.

I would sincerely hope, as a Fan of AMD, that the 780 would be able to compete with a product that was released even a year prior. Strictly for the sake of competition.

The price for both competitors have been pretty close +/- $50 for the most part. Nvidia's latest offerings have a far more efficient cooling as part of what people have complained about the most, which raises costs quite a bit. I can only hope AMD put some more time into their Graphics cards HSF as they said they would.

To suggest that the nvidia card is superior because its more expensive kinda gives me a view of yourself stuffing a foot in your mouth with a tattoo stating "Idiotic" just for the fact that you truly believe that.

 

[childofthekorn]

$550 game changer. I hope they price this low so nvidia is forced to drop their inflated prices in the high end.

This.

 

[childofthekorn]

To be honest - I was pretty angry when Nvidia priced the Titan at $1,000. Looking back at my video card upgrades, one of the best cards (and best value) was a 5870 that I picked up in October 2009. That card was a game changer and was $379. Meanwhile, Nvidia was pushing their what, 280 for $500? There are folks still using a 5870 and it's still a good card. I am currently running a 680 which I picked up in April 2012 for $499. While it was a game changer of sorts, it does not match the value of my old 5870. If this new AMD card is in the $500 range, and is at or near the Titan performance, it will be time for a shift back to AMD.

non reference 5850 purchased in 2010 and still goin strong.

 

[John Giles]

Geforce Titan released 7 months ago... congrats ATI/AMD on FINALLY making a product that gets +2 fps more than the Titan on a game title that was originally DESIGNED to be played with ATI/AMD hardware.

 

[Leamon]

AMD, I promise I'll buy two of these if you fix the drivers for SLI/Eyefinity configurations! At this point I can only go with overpriced nVidia!

 

[somebodyspecial]

If they price a die that large LOW, they will just lose more money. People are dumb. They are currently making ZERO, and NV is making 2/3 what they did in 2007. Nobody is gouging any of you or they would be making more than the last 6yrs right? They are far below the 800mil/year they made ~2007. You can say NV is gouging you when they make MORE MONEY, not LESS MONEY. How dumb are people these days?

Meanwhile, AMD makes...wait for it...ZERO. Because why? They don't charge enough, give price cuts and keep feeding you fools free games...LOL. Just keep asking for free stuff, AMD just keeps getting weaker and weaker. They've only LOST 6Bil in the last 10yrs total...Not bad I guess. That's a great way to stay in business...ROFL
/sarcasm

 

[nikoli707]

Guarantee you the price will be in line with the rest of the pricing for the previous 2-3 generations of cards(4-6 years), or right around $450-600 for the top two tier cards. There is just no reason to price new generation cards any higher without seriously hurting your sales in the short 1-2 year life span these cards will populate modern computers.

Besides the gtx760, nvidia is price gouging every card above it, especially the 780 and titan, they shouldve been around $450 and $550 respectively. I got my 7950 for $260 on black friday of 2012, just 6 months after it was released at $450. For the life of me, i flat out cannot understand how anyone is buying 7xx series cards at all right now when amd hasn't even released their cards and black friday merely a few months away and you can have the cards for near half price.

 

[SessouXFX]

This is why I like to wait 6 months before my next build. If this card comes out @ $600, the cost of the 780 and Titan will be very much in range of the average gamer. In a way, I pity those that splashed down so much for these cards early on. As always with PCs, today's Titan, is tomorrow's Joe.