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

[technoholic]

IMO Hawaii delivered. Honestly i didn't like the HD 6000 series from AMD but they came back to the game with 7k series. And especially with Hawaii AMD has not only caught up but also showed Nvidia that they are a serious competitor and nothing is (and will be) the same as before. Yes, this card has heating issues and perhaps arrived somewhat late but lets consider the fact that AMD delivered Titan-like gaming performance in a smaller package and with less transistors used (than Titan). Price is the biggest plus of course. At the lower side, R9 280X forces Nvidia to cut price on GTX 770. Nvidia's G-sync is cool and attractive but comes with extra cost, probably requiring a new monitor + requiring an Nvidia GPU. Also with GTX 780 Ti in the market soon, we will see more attractive pricing from both sides. All in all, i wish Hawaii's heating issue will be solved by better cooling solutions from major vendors.

 

[UlfricStromclock]

so should i buy it ?or will 780 TI be any different ?

 

[slomo4sho]

I stand corrected. I didn't think back far enough.

The HD 5970 also released at $599 MSRP.

I really can't wait for the price drop. Mind you, my 780 HC does 1325 on water. So 2 of those should be awesome for smooth gaming experience!

There are plenty of individuals who have waterblocks ordered and should receive them this week. Lets wait and see how well the card OCs when under water. In addition, the 780 drivers have been refined over the last few months and I am sure AMD will increase the performance of the card over the next few driver updates considering the first set of drivers just became available yesterday and are still beta.

AMD really did fail with the cooler. I wonder if there will be Ares II style cooler designs for this chip down the line for individuals who don't want build a custom water loop.

This has been the only bench thus far using a makeshift water block:

3820@4.6GHZ 1250/1650@1.3V load = 79.1 fps. Load temps peaked at 55C

Consider checking out this thread over the next week or two:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1436635/ocn-gk110-vs-hawaii-bench-off-thread/0_100

 

[Sakkura]

I stand corrected. I didn't think back far enough.

The HD 5970 also released at $599 MSRP.

That's a dual-GPU card though.

 

[sixsamuraisoldier]

GODDAMN AWESOME!!!!!!!!

 

[sixsamuraisoldier]

GODDAMN AWESOME! (sorry if i posted this before, my computers lagging)

 

[spschillerstrom]

I want to preorder am R9 290 (non X) asap, anyone know where I can do this? I have set email notifiers on Newegg but no preorders

 

[Shwee]

What the hell happened to the 8000 and 9000 series? Why the sudden change to something weird like this?

The 8000 series actually did exist, but was entirely made of rebrands and was exclusively OEM. I think there was some new mobile GPUs though. This R9 line-up is the replacement for the HD9000 series.

IMO, they also wanted to get rid of "HD" as that's old tech now. They're advertising for Ultra HD now.

 

[hero1]

I bet Nvidia phases out the Titan, the GTX 780Ti will take on the 290x and the 780 after price drop will compete with the 290!

I can see this happening for sure. I am glad I took back my Titan and waited for the GTX 780. Now let the price wars begin.

P.S: I think the money I am saving for the 4K monitor will be used towards my next build that will use my MVF board and 3770K. Stay tuned friend. And I don't see me replacing this monitor anytime soon unless they come out with a 30" IPS 120Hz and 2ms GTG!

 

[slomo4sho]

Titan at 1802/1953 vs. 290X at 1466/1730.

 

[technoholic]

so should i buy it ?or will 780 TI be any different ?

I'd wait and see what price/performance variables R9 290 and 780 Ti will put on the table. If you pick from AMD's side, it is better to wait for custom cooled models from ASUS, MSI etc etc

I want to preorder am R9 290 (non X) asap, anyone know where I can do this? I have set email notifiers on Newegg but no preorders

R9 290 will supposedly be launched officially on 31st and will probably be available for purchase same day

 

[Sakkura]

Titan at 1802/1953 vs. 290X at 1466/1730.

Dafuq is with those clocks.

 

[ozymankos]

You know nothing about engineering
these cards are tested at 150 degrees and 95-100 degrees is the safe margin
the fact that it seems hot for your finger does not mean it is hot for an electronic equipment
plastic melts down at 700 degrees and copper at 2300 degrees
water boils at 100 degrees Celsius

 

[randomizer]

You know nothing about engineering
these cards are tested at 150 degrees and 95-100 degrees is the safe margin
the fact that it seems hot for your finger does not mean it is hot for an electronic equipment
plastic melts down at 700 degrees and copper at 2300 degrees
water boils at 100 degrees Celsius

Melting points have nothing to do with it. Electromigration is exacerbated at higher temperatures. It's unlikely to matter to people buying this sort of hardware as they probably replace it after a year or two anyway, but it's still something to take into consideration.

Personally I don't mind things running hot. The longer the heat stays with the hardware, the longer it takes to heat up the room in summer

 

[Sakkura]

The heat isn't really the problem in itself, the thermal throttling is. Having a nominal 1000 MHz GPU running at 727 MHz because of thermals is a sad panda moment.

 

[Memnarchon]

copper at 2300 degrees

Last time I was in university, copper was melting at 1084 degrees Celsius. Did something change in the time of my absence?

 

[Sakkura]

copper at 2300 degrees

Last time I was in university, copper was melting at 1084 degrees Celsius. Did something change in the time of my absence?

I was going to say Fahrenheit, but that doesn't really fit either. It's actually closer to the BOILING point in Celsius.

 

[Memnarchon]

copper at 2300 degrees

Last time I was in university, copper was melting at 1084 degrees Celsius. Did something change in the time of my absence?

I was going to say Fahrenheit, but that doesn't really fit either. It's actually closer to the BOILING point in Celsius.

Well all of his numbers are in Celsius,
He also refers it at:

water boils at 100 degrees Celsius

😛

 

[eric4277]

Well, now I really believe TH is being paid off by AMD. Their FPS numbers never match up with other sites and they always give AMD cards a definitive edge over Nvidia. They also chose to omit the thermal readings for the card, which are terrible.

 

[smeezekitty]

Well, now I really believe TH is being paid off by AMD. Their FPS numbers never match up with other sites and they always give AMD cards a definitive edge over Nvidia. They also chose to omit the thermal readings for the card, which are terrible.

They omit thermal readings because they make it clear it runs at 94-95c during full load using thermal regulation.

I sincerely doubt that toms is being paid off, different test conditions will cause difference numbers in the real world.

 

[Sakkura]

Well, now I really believe TH is being paid off by AMD. Their FPS numbers never match up with other sites and they always give AMD cards a definitive edge over Nvidia. They also chose to omit the thermal readings for the card, which are terrible.

Yes, they're so biased they talked about it in bold text and posted a graph of the GPU throttling down to less than 800 MHz...

 

[rrbronstein]

I've never been more blown away by a hardware review. Never have I seen a gpu beat another gpu at just over half the cost.

How is it so mind blowing? AMD caught up months later with something comparable and slightly better at the appropriate cost. To me its just competition, AMD HAD to make it happen for their sake of high end card pricing and market share. Everyone is acting like its a holy grail.

Again. The PRICE is the mindblowing part... Geesh...
There are other impressive parts as well if you look closer at the actual hardware they crammed into it... Seriously?

i dont know do you consider trueaudio mindblowing? i guess Xfire without a bridge is a step forward, although i think their moves for 4k gaming are great, 4k displays wont have much market share for another 2 years at minimum. Mantle is nice but its the same GCN architecture tweaked/enlarged to match 780, wheres all the "hardware" they crammed thats amazing. it was needed by AMD and i congratulate them for their success, just not mindblowing.

Mind you, i never said Nvidia was mindblowing either, i own video cards of both companies so i have switched back and forth. There was just too much hype as always with a new release, met my expectations on pricing and competitiveness and thats it.

 

[randomizer]

Well, now I really believe TH is being paid off by AMD.

In every other article there are accusations of bias towards NVIDIA. You brand loyalists simply can't make up your minds can you?

 

[Quaddro]

i know why many disappointed people out there..

Because they already bought 780/titan at high price..
and BAAM..
there are 290x, reach all performance that they really proud at half price..

So they are really angry, and try hard to make this card look sooo bad...and then somehow they fell better

😀

 

[kvragec]

On some sites card is pitted against overclocked custom 780 and even evga superclocked titan, and not reference one. On these sites, atleast from what i've seen, 290x is more on par with 780, and slower than titan in more benches than on others... Personally, cant wait for custom 290, sapphire toxic or msi lightning...