Radeon R9 290X Review: AMD's Back In Ultra-High-End Gaming

[Cryio]

"Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 770 is the next step up, but it’s not so much faster that’d we’d recommend spending an extra $100.".

FINALLY you came to your senses. Stop recommanding that nonsense in the monthly GPU charts.

 

[HazardManiac]

Amazing review as usual! Thanks a lot

 

[smeezekitty]

Atleast equaling the Titan for $550 is simply amazing price/performance ratio.

But two concerns:
95*C WOW that is really hot!
The CF microstutter issue rears it ugly head again

One thing to consider about thermal throttling being part of normal operation: The cooler fitted on the card will make a significant difference in actual performance.

 

[falchard]

AMD has always been in the High End. They just have not been cranking so much power into their GPUs they fail or are too expensive for consumers. Don't see why anyone would consider paying $1000 for a monolithic GPU that does not perform monumentally better than the more modest GPU is beyond me.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

On page 11, your graphs refer to the 7970 GHz edition in place of the 280X. Is this intentional?

 

[C12Friedman]

This article has me wondering what an EVGA Hydro Copper version of the card might do.

 

[weatherdude]

Wow, a prestigous Tom's Hardware Elite award for the Radeon R9 290X. I wonder if AMD will make a point of this when they market this card like I've seen Asus do with its RT-AC66U wireless AC router.

 

[gaborbarla]

Well done AMD!!! It would be interesting to see the stats in win 8.1 as AMD apparently improved performance in win 8.1 by something like 9%

 

[gaborbarla]

Make that 4%, other 5% goes to the new driver.

 

[Justin Pinotti]

Bravo AMD. It's so clear that they are trying to better the gaming community as a whole, not just to make a quick buck. GPU prices willo begin going down, Mantle could have amazing benefits for console to pc ports and who knows what AMD's upcoming APU's have in store.
I mean hell, with frame pacing their current APUs can max out current-gen games at amazing frame rates. Albeit that's with fast RAM, a crossfired dedicated GPU and a slight overclock but still.

Once again, bravo AMD. Let's hope they have something in store for the CPU market in the coming year 😉

 

[The_Trutherizer]

I think we should all be glad this is not an NVidia card with such a good review. Fanatic NVidia Fanboys would be howling for AMDs blood. I can just imagine the replies: "AMD die die die!" "We are so superior!" "Blood! AMD fan blood! Must... drink!"

Silly buggers...

 

[Shwee]

Aww... I wanted to hear the 95% fan speed. Oh, well. Looking forward to seeing this thing in action with liquid cooling.

 

[thasan1]

im eager to see how nvidia fanboys will respond to this.

 

[Novuake]

MONSTER hardware for the price point, holy crap AMD.
Resources they stuffed into this thing is NUTS.

 

[piklar]

WoW! Go AMD! And this is coming from a guy with SLI 780s :-o

 

[shahrooz]

Beware of the R9 Titan Slayer X

 

[kaitheus]

OMG LOL I was SOO looking forward to getting the Non X version of the 290, But now I think I will just go straight for the 290X $550 for a card with near Titan performance that is just Insane! An its sure to get better with driver updates and better cooler 😀.

 

[ohim]

Damn, and i went ahead and got a 760 OC for Premiere pro and gaming, i would have totally spent this much for this beauty ...

 

[DamZe]

Congrats to AMD for making a very fast card for a reasonable price. The heat issue should be better on non referance design cards. Now let's see what the GTX 780 Ti brings for round 2.... FIGHT!

 

[Knoodle Knocker]

I wonder if the Geforce GTX 780 Ti can beat AMD RX 280X

 

[shaun_shaun]

finally! absolutely well deserved Elite award ... welcome back AMD !

 

[Novuake]

I wonder if the Geforce GTX 780 Ti can beat AMD RX 280X

Maybe, but it won't touch the price at launch.

 

[roymustang]

Wow, all the rumors were saying $699-$729 a few weeks back and AMD comes back with $549; almost half the price of the Titan, that's just awesomely insane.

That being said I'm gonna wait for custom coolers and VRMs, some of those temps were scary. Plus I want to see what nVidia is gonna due, I'm ecpecting massive price drops, they have to, there's just no choice if they want to compete.

 

[Datcu Alexandru]

Attack on Titan 290X

 

[blubbey]

Time to wait for good coolers and Nvidia's response!