AMD Radeon R9-290X tested and reviewed

AMD have made huge driver improvements over the past couple of years, and especially in the last 12 months. I've honestly been impressed with them in that department more than any other. Recent announcements indicate they intend to improve them further in areas such as OpenGL. I'd really not let something like drivers put you off.

 

In stock at scan in the UK - shame they've decided to put a £60 odd premium on the price...tutut

 

good performance with good price, but better get it with aftermarket cooler as the stock is **** .

as performance it stand between 780 to titan, but 10% average better than 780, which oc can close the gap... i for myself not really impressed by performance considering it thier new "gen" vs "old" gen of nvidia kepler... however price is right.

as for titan killer, titan died long time ago when 780 got released, so it seems 780ti will be faster or equal to 290X but probably gonna cost 650$... one thing nvidia need to learn from AMD is pricing, heck nvidia did very good job with pricing the 7XX series(besides 780, though price vs titan was good)

 

Matches titan at much better price. What else to say ?
The competition we all like.

 

AMD and Nvidia (Nvidia of late) are about equal in the driver side of things by now, would we agree?

 

Is it actually possible for 95c to be safe for that card long-term (3-4 years of usage)? My 8800gt fried itself at that temp...

Good question. AMD's beta drivers fixed my BF4 issues, and they were out day 1 of the beta, so as long as they keep those driver updates fixing things without breaking other things, then sure!

 

Impressive review. We likely need more details on how each temperature target behaves.
And how it behaves if we decide to sacrifice quietness and keep performance.
That should show if cooling have actual ability to keep card at 80°C under full load.
I am used on my modified accelero to sit at 51-55°C under full load.
I can accept 72°C in most scenarios while moving to R9-290x and on few rare 80°C.

If cooling can't keep it down even at high noise level then I'll wait for aftermarket cooling tests.

 

I could be wrong (it is a hobby of mine, apparently), but the advancement of the current dies and fab processes allow these gpu's to take more of a beating.

Also, I vote to have the 8800gt and the AMD equvialnt adopted in some way to be incorporated into the Guru3d logo.

@Palit8800gt, you werent my first, but you were simply the best.. like #Tina Turner 'The Best'.

@mcfart (it wasnt until i read your user name out loud that i realized what i was reading, lol) I remember reading awhile back, that AMD was having a real seesaw moment with their drivers. Nvidia has been having more of a... well 314.21 are the last stable drivers for me.

 

Impressive performance.
But at that temperature there's practically zero room for overclocking, while the GTX780 has a LOT of room to overclock towards 1200mhz or so.
Hilbert, would you consider making a performance review of the GTX780 overclocked (Like the Lightning, for example) vs 290x stock and OC?
I'd like to see how it looks from a performance / Price ratio.

 

Can only hope this helps to rebalance the force and bring prices for the high end cards down from Titan levels. price drop on the 780 would be welcome as well

well done AMD!

 

That true Ash, but remember, the 290x has only just been released/reviewed and with plenty of more driver updates to come, where the 780 has prbably been near maxed from driver revisions, i think the 290x will come out on top in the long run.

And with water cooling being as simple as the method myself (currently still on my 580's) and others have used, that being slapping an antec 620 prefabbed water cooling kit on the gpu die with a few cable ties, your looking at a powerful and cool running gpu that is priced extremely well.

 

It's too hot regardless of what AMD say

it's hitting same temperatures as 470/480 did :3eyes: which AMD made funny ad about

Just like 470/480 card needs water to excel, get extra untapped performance out of it

 

If it wasnt for the fact that I already bought 780SLI this would have swayed me to the red side regardless of me being a true NV supporter. NV better wake up and stop bleeding their loyal customers of money if they want to stay on top.

The way I see it. AMD is the new King in town, and it doesnt matter if Nvidia bring out the 780ti, I think the damage is done, I seriously doubt how they can be competitive on a price level. One used to argue "but their drivers are better", but these days since their focus drifted off to their Shield the drivers are terrible.

Well done AMD, well done indeed.

 

wait until AMD release their ti version of this card then i guess.

@War Child,
if said price gouging that almost everyone and myself included believe, is in fact true, then if Nvidia wanted to, they could easily sell the 780ti for for less than what the 290x is going for.

But, unfortunately, Nvidia now know what they can get out of a loyal fan base regardless of what the competition is selling for.

 

Quite impressive. Let us hope the third party coolers will provide better heat dissipation.

All I could say is: damn you TSMC for holding back technology.

 

I remember reading an article by the AUS version of PC PowerPlay that talked about how Doom 3 and its awesome gfx was one of the reasons gpu manufactures had to release better gpus. A game that forced the industry to adapt in preparation of its coming.

Dont if true, but it was fun to read.

What has this got to do with the 290x? Well doom 3 uses gfx cards to render its world/environments, so... gfx. henghengheng

 

From a price point is a major win no doubt, as I said in a previous post of 280x, from technical point is somewhat a failure, one year later to equal competition and consumes more energy, but... it is what the market needs to drop prices.

 

Drivers rarely improve the temperature of a card, mate
I still have my SLI 580's on water as well, but I don't really want to watercool a new generation of cards, so I'll just stick to air on the GPU's and stick to water on the CPU at least.

I am tempted by this card, I won't lie.
Especially since I have my actual PC case in the other room, so I can crank up the fans and not care how loud it is.
Oddly though, current listings of the 290x on one of the leading Swedish store chains has it priced at 943$ equivalent, even though it's bubdled with BF4, it still seems incredibly expensive. They have the 7990 priced at the same level. Strange.

 

I'm gonna wait for the 290. with less cores it could run a tiny bit cooler and I'm gonna hold out for a nice Lightning/Vapor-X/Dual-X/IceQ version bringing the temps further down. If I can game with temps of around 75C with one of those, I'm good.

Or I could just snag up another 7950 Vapor-X for £160. Fu*king hate these dilemmas!!!

 

Its ok putting them out at £450 but I cant see anywhere that has them in stock at that price. SCAN are asking £515.
As mentioned id like to see a vanilla cooled stable OCed 780 up against a vanilla cooled stable OCed 290x.