FRONTPAGE AMD Launches R9 290 Series Graphics Cards

[LegolasElf]

I'll just leave this here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X_CrossFire/1.html

 

[Janus67]

Do you play FPS games Janus? I cant handle being below about 50 FPS and even then I dont really like it. I can see in other games its not as important but in FPS titles, I feel its important to have 60+.

I do quite a bit, but I haven't played competitively (in matches/etc) for almost a decade. I prefer to be above 50-60, of course and if I can run at 100 even better. But ultimately, I think a smooth 45-60 FPS is pretty playable, even if less than ideal.

 

[Robert17]

Well, that didn't take long:

http://hwbot.org/hardware/videocard/radeon_r9_290x/

 

[EarthDog]

MEH, that guy barely overclocked it!

 

[Robert17]

I saw some pics of an LN2 pot on one, 1450oc on the GPU, results were more records, not posted to the Bot yet. Waiting......

 

[EarthDog]

1450? MEH. But who knows what/if any vmods were done to it.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Hard mods not needed - get rid of OCP and get software control up to 2.0V with a simple BIOS flash, courtesy Shamino.

 

[xsuperbgx]

How stout is the voltage regulation/ power circuitry on these?

 

[hokiealumnus]

Not the greatest; it's still reference. I found a PCB shot on Guru3D here. It appears to be 7 phases total - one for the mem, one PLL and five for the GPU. I would wager people getting the highest LN2 results are using Epower. Still, it's very pleasing to have launch day software control.

 

[Humanoid1]

R9-290X looks Great for 1920x1080 gaming, faultless.

I would buy one if I had the spare cash, partly because I really want to get beyond this 60Hz refresh we are all getting so used to... we've all seen how horribly limited the 60Hz thing is highlighted in those tests - its painful to be putting up with that and having to exaggerate optical illusions in our minds to hide the crudeness of it all.

But there is no denying the Great Value of the R9-280X, fantastic performance for the money really



...going to work towards one of those for next year (with new screen) maybe and go for an affordable sneaky side grade from 7950 --> 2nd hand 7970GHz for this year ^^

 

[doz]

Well, the decision was made for me today. No 290x instock still (I cant just refresh the page all day and wait for the split second it becomes available).

There was an Asus GTX 780 DCu2 open box for $486 shipped after coupon code. At that price, Im pretty sure Ill be happy over the 290x

 

[Humanoid1]

If you are in a hurry to buy, I suspect you will be very happy

Reading around, in general the R9-290X does seem significantly better than the 780...

But:

There are no aftermarket coolers available yet.
A Good 780 with non-reference cooler when OC'd well should be better than the R9-290X

and that was a Good price you found! ^^
...enjoy your new toy


Rumours I have been hearing say the AMD non-reference coolers might start appearing Late November or December or even January...

 

[doz]

Yeah, December its looking like.

 

[wingman99]

I wonder if Nvidia prices will drop? It seems lik they don't care what AMD does.

 

[Humanoid1]

It would be really good for AMD if NVidia do not drop...

That is not very likely though with the upcoming release of the 780Ti, they will want to reshuffle pricing structure to get it in without isolating too many potential customers.

I think NVidia would have to be a little crazy not to at least price match the 780 with the R9-290X and hope their 780 Ti can somehow squeeze between that and the Titan performance wise.

- Maybe the Titan will get phased out / relegated to niche markets due to a 780Ti being cheaper to produce and too low a performance gap.

 

[doz]

780ti is rumored at $650. Expect the 780 to drop to $600. NV has always carried a premium over AMD. If they drop to $550, AMD better watch out.

 

[Humanoid1]

Sounds about right doz. V. Vague rumours say it will slot between the 780 and Titan performance wise...

But some ideas floating over from Hexus think maybe the 780Ti will have a full set of 15 SMX units enabled - 3 more than the 780 and one more than the Titan...

which would kinda make sense when going by some sites like Tom's where on average the R9-290X beat the Titan by 6.12% @ 1080 and the 780 by 12.29%
- @ 1440 the R9-290X on average beat the Titan by 10.54% and the 780 by 17.14%
(avg of all the gaming benchmarks (ofc including the ones where the 290X lost) they did in their review at those resolutions - yeah I did put that in a spreadsheet to get the %'s lol)

I would imagine NVidia want something to definitively put them back on the No.1 spot - enough to put such reviews as that firmly behind them!

 

[SeeThruHead]

I think out of the box the 780ti will beat the titan. It won't have the 6GB ram or Dual Precision to keep the cost down, probably 650-700.

 

[TransformedBG]

Is this the one you can xfire with a 7970?

 

[hokiealumnus]

No. That's the 280x.