Hardware AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB Review

We finally go hands on with AMD's new flagship graphics card, the R9 290X 4GB.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2013/10/24/amd-radeon-r9-290x-4gb-review/1

 

can't wait to see more of these cards. Finally David has arrived to slay Goliath

 

this is the first review i've seen that actually addressed the quiet mode vs uber mode, and bothered to overclock it, and mention the price differences. While at the same time not making amd to be the new prophet of the world that will deliver us from the dark clutches of the nvidia and intel overlords of death communism (insert propoganda words #7,#8,#2b, and #4).... no by the miracles of the internet it was a review that actually reviewed a product.

love bit-tech

 

Surprised to see it uses more power than a 690

And I don't care what AMD say I would not be happy with a card running at 95 degrees

 

This card is based on volcanic island .... which means volcano like temps .

Jokes aside, this is a nice review. But all the love I have for AMD won't be enough to hide my dispointment. While perf and price are good, the card runs TOO hot and consumes TOO much for me. I can't imagine this card, without hairdrier style blower inside an ITX case ...

 

The stock cooler is just plain **** get the ASUS Direct CU II and MSI Twin Frozr versions out immediately

 

This is almost forcing people to go water cooling. Price point brilliant though.
Talking to a huge amd fan here. So a little disappointed here especially using a little case like I have.
One night consider rather going crossfire with a couple of 280's instead

 

.... But they'll dump the heat INSIDE your case. You'll need serious airflow and exhaust capability to prevent the system from heating itself

 

At least it will keep the house warm on a cold winter night. Don't know what I'd do on a hot summers day. Might have to turn my PC off and actually go outside

I'm just glad that things are heating up in the graphics card market, after its been lukewarm for so long.

 

This is just to funny.

So it's a little cheaper than the 780 and performs pretty much the same.

The power usage and temp's are a killer though.

 

so you never had a gtx 480 then.... was hotter and used more power



uk price is under a GTX 780 by about £40.... for titan performance = ocuk have 1 for £429

 

Can't argue the price point is low. I remember how much the 480 was slated and still is today. I reckon the cuii will cool this down nicely

 

I`ve had 2 GTX 480`s - 1 with stock cooler and 1 with aftermarket ; they don't run as hot or load as they were perceieved , and if your really that worried about power cost - turn a light bulb off!


and tbh a GTX 480 still has a lot of `umph` for today`s games - I wonder if BT could run one with the latest drivers in the latest games?

 

Given the deal Scan has on for the 7990 at the moment, it'd probably be better to pick one of those up.

Mind you, this new series of AMD GPUs seems to have eliminated Crossfire stuttering, so there is that to consider.

 

Decent performance and price but the temperature "target" leaves me a little concerned.

Most of the reviews I have read so far either have the card in a large open case or on a test bed. What sort of clocks and thus performance can we expect to see after a couple of hours in say Crysis 3 with the card in a "normal" case (like my Define R3)?


A price drop on the custom cooled, Titan equally GTS 780's (EVGA SC ACX) would makes things quite interesting. You may have slightly lower performance in a few games but end up with a card that can overclock further (in a real world case situation) and run much cooler and quieter.

I think we will have to wait and see what the custom cooled cards can offer as for me the temperature and noise levels are a bit much (it runs hotter than the 780m in my laptop FFS)

 

Good price for the performance, as expected (if AMD got that wrong they would be all kinds of stupid), and as the review said it is going to force a price drop on the GTX 780 cards. The 290X won't hold that crown for long though I don't think, with the 780Ti expressly designed to beat it. However, it's good to finally see some competition at the high end.

Also can't quite believe the temperature and power consumption figures. This is a single GPU drawing more power than a dual GPU 690 and topping the temperature charts? I build mATX and ITX rigs, so a 290X is going nowhere near them!

 

The way that AMD Power Tune works is to dynamically change the clock as many as hundreds of times a second so that the card can push the maximum number of pixels within a given power/cooling envelope.

Poor case cooling = Card reaches its headroom sooner = Card dynamically limits clocks to stay within temperature ceiling.
Excellent case cooling = Card reaches its headroom later = Card dynamically raises clocks to stay within temperature ceiling.

It means that if you have a poor cooling set-up, you aren't going to fry your card like you might have in the old days. The card will just clock down in order to stay within limits.
If AMD isn't worried by 95C temperatures, then I wouldn't be. It just means it is pushing the most pixels the card can push given its installed environment.
It should also act as an incentive for users to sort out their case cooling. A poorly cooled case will leave performance unused instead of just abusing ears with highly spinning fans.

 

i was actually contemplating buying one until I say 95 degrees

 

Is it just to early for aftermarket company's (Asus, Gigabyte, etc.) to show what their take on cooling will be ?
All i can find are pictures of their cards but with the stock cooler on them.

 

Needs after market cooler, needs watercooling really - put it in a closed case and wait a few months for some dust build up and it'll have real problems. The noise levels are also pretty insane when you go to uber mode. Xfire still broken according to other reviews too.

That said one of these with an aftermarket cooler is easily the best value out there. Hopefully it'll force a bit of a high end price war.