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

[Marcopolo123]

>>>We decided to forgo the video demonstrating what a 95% duty cycle sounds like. It’s pointless and potentially bad for your long-term hearing. The noise is simply unbearable without commercial-grade ear protection.<<<

this made me laugh xD

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

$550? ERRMERRGERRDD! I'm impressed, not on the egg yet though; I wonder why?

 

[Memnarchon]

Can we see testing with a 4770k in crossfire? I would like to know what kind of performance hit we may take on the pcie lanes getting split to 8X8?

+1000

This will clear a lot of things.
1st we will see the performance of CF on non-PLX LGA1150 motherboards.
2nd we will see how it will perform on AMD motherboards since only 1-2 of them have PCIE3.0.

 

[Knoodle Knocker]

I just bought 2 MSI GTX Lightning 2 weeks ago. I have not tested these extensively. I read some articles that it beats Titan with some games. Now, did I make mistake buying these? Maybe I should have waited for AMD 290X? Now I feel bad.

I'm asking the experts here for some advice. 🙁

Thanks in advance.

 

[leaderWON]

hooray competition!!!

 

[JQB45]

The sad thing is, an AMD APU will make this thing look silly in a few years from now.

 

[huilun02]

The sad thing is, an AMD APU will make this thing look silly in a few years from now.

If they keep making chips they way they are now, an AMD APU that outperforms the 290x would set your house on fire.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Wow at the fan boyz.
Did any one of you look at the noise charts?
72 dba is comparable to a loud vacuum cleaner. Or sitting next to the kitchen in a very noisey ,busy restaurant.

You would have to wear headphones to block out the noise to enjoy your games.

 

[ubercake]

I'm seeing a lot of variation among review sites. Those that seem to use Ultra settings for everything and MSAA at 4x or 8x show frame rates a lot more similar among the cards.

If Tom's doesn't explicitly specify MSAA in the test setup, does that mean the test is not using MSAA? That might explain the seeming better performance for the AMD cards on this site as opposed to other sites? Other sites with AA at msaa 4x and ultra settings in BF3 show better performance with the GTX 780 and the Titan at 1080p. I'm guessing the ultra or MSAA setting is the differentiator?

It seems there is a lot of variation in what's being reported for this new AMD card. I'm guessing it has to do with the test setup.

At any rate, it's awesome that AMD has come through with another good card, but we're still not to a point where a single-card solution is going to keep your minimum frame rates near 60 in a lot of newer games meaning a two-card solution is still the way to go if you want 60fps or higher consistently at 1080p. Some games still even put you under the 60fps mark with full details and AA at 1080p with two cards. Aside from the insane noise levels associated with the R9 290x (imagine the noise of two?), I'm not so sure two cards is the best option when crossfire is the solution.

When we get to a point where a single card can get me 60fps 99.99% of the time on a 1080p monitor, I'd consider it worthy of higher resolutions. At this point in time, there's nothing out there that can.

 

[Poul Wrist]

So, a waterblock on there and you're in performance heaven? 😀

 

[BigMack70]

@ubercake - It's also possible that the variation is due to the temperatures that the particular 290X is running at, as most reviews are reporting significant clock throttling at times. I don't know that all reviewers use the same methodology for handling that, and a 290X @ 1000 MHz will obviously perform quite differently than when throttled to 800 MHz.

 

[redeemer]

So Hawaii @$549 beats the 1k Titan lol

 

[ubercake]

@ubercake - It's also possible that the variation is due to the temperatures that the particular 290X is running at, as most reviews are reporting significant clock throttling at times. I don't know that all reviewers use the same methodology for handling that, and a 290X @ 1000 MHz will obviously perform quite differently than when throttled to 800 MHz.

Makes sense. I'm tempted to pick one of these cards up for a second gaming system; for the science of it, of course.

I will wait for the OEMs to come up with better cooling solutions since the noise seems to be an issue though.

 

[n3cw4rr10r]

wow. I am impressed. That is one beast of a card AMD put out. Maybe I will upgrade after all.

 

[refillable]

This card+i7 4930k+1440p Monitor

What do you want more?

 

[ubercake]

This card+i7 4930k+1440p Monitor

What do you want more?

A 120Hz 1440p monitor.

 

[cangelini]

@ubercake: Correct--all of the anti-aliasing settings are specified on the setup page. For some of these games, we're using FXAA. For others, certain quality presets have MSAA applied automatically. If you have questions on any of them specifically, let me know.

 

[slomo4sho]

This card+i7 4930k+1440p Monitor

What do you want more?

3 more of these cards and 4-5 more of those monitors. The monitors must be capable of portrait mode.

 

[SkateZilla]

Im still gonna wait for 3rd Party Custom Cooler Versions.

 

[slomo4sho]

Im still gonna wait for 3rd Party Custom Cooler Versions.

Either that or put the card under water since waterblocks are already available. This card overclocks extremely well when properly cooled.

 

[Quaddro]

Im still gonna wait for 3rd Party Custom Cooler Versions.

Do hope that 290x reference is fit with my Prolimatech MK-26 cooler..

I can't wait any longer to buy this card..😀

 

[Novuake]

MOTHER OF!!!! 1200MHz core!!! NO voltage modding? I find that hard to believe.

That would mean its a sin NOT to watercool one of these beauties!!!

 

[slomo4sho]

MOTHER OF!!!! 1200MHz core!!! NO voltage modding? I find that hard to believe.

That would mean its a sin NOT to watercool one of these beauties!!!

http://www.overclock.net/t/1436561/various-amd-radeon-r9-290x-reviews-thread/360_30#post_21046990

It hits over 1400 on LN..

World record material

 

[Gmaer987]

by grabthar's hammer what a savings!

 

[SkateZilla]

Im still gonna wait for 3rd Party Custom Cooler Versions.

Either that or put the card under water since waterblocks are already available. This card overclocks extremely well when properly cooled.

That's prolly what will happen, as my home gets hot in the summer until we finish renovating and replace the broken AC Unit.

I dont think using a CPU Closed Loop Cooler on this GPU by itself is gonna work too well, lol, might need a full cover block.

Might as well start building a new custom loop to replace the Corsair H100 too.


Im just looking at how many reviews are pointing out how it downclocks when it gets hot, due to fan profiles and crap.

a 2-3 Fan Cooler would solve this problem... I hate the dust buster blower design...