Sunday, October 27th 2013
Non-reference Design Radeon R9 290X to Be Available From Late-November
If reviews of the Radeon R9 290X showed anything other than that it's fast enough to make the GTX TITAN look like a bad choice, it's that it's hot and noisy, and that the reference design cooling solution is hopelessly inadequate at keeping the temperatures and noise in check. At some point in the future, AMD was going to allow its add-in board (AIB) partners the freedom to launch non-reference design Radeon R9 290X, or at least cards with custom-design cooling solutions. That point is closer than we think, and could be as early as late-November, according to a SweClockers report.
According to the report, AMD's AIB partners will launch R9 290X graphics cards with custom-design air- and liquid-cooling solutions by late November, 2013. It's when the likes of DirectCU II, WindForce 450W, TwinFrozr IV, Vapor-X, and IceQ X2 will begin to associate with even the most basic R9 290X cards (which start at $549.99). AMD's R9 290X is currently available in only two SKUs, both of which are based on the AMD reference cooler design; the $549.99 standard edition, and the $569.99 Battlefield 4 Edition, which includes an Origin-redeemable key to Battlefield 4 (standard edition).
Source:
SweClockers
According to the report, AMD's AIB partners will launch R9 290X graphics cards with custom-design air- and liquid-cooling solutions by late November, 2013. It's when the likes of DirectCU II, WindForce 450W, TwinFrozr IV, Vapor-X, and IceQ X2 will begin to associate with even the most basic R9 290X cards (which start at $549.99). AMD's R9 290X is currently available in only two SKUs, both of which are based on the AMD reference cooler design; the $549.99 standard edition, and the $569.99 Battlefield 4 Edition, which includes an Origin-redeemable key to Battlefield 4 (standard edition).
26 Comments on Non-reference Design Radeon R9 290X to Be Available From Late-November
But agree for 1600p gaming, you need better hardware. (For 1080p is fine imo...)
I think AMD had all of this knowledge and upgrades figured out, but they wanted it on 20Nm part at some point early 2014. Then the beginning of this year (2013) TSMC probably came along saying , they weren’t going to be ready, while Nvidia had GK110 to drop in desktop market. At which point AMD had to change strategy and moved Hawaii to 28Nm and had to figure-out how/if it was controllable. They played with a design for 3 months, till end of April. Then 6 weeks to receive a first spin engineering samples to run accelerated qualification, while then almost congruently moving into risk production, figure sometime in August they received chips. Then move those to a card manufacture and then hold to see what the final BIOS would be. That's the wait... probably right up into the Launch day in Hawaii, for what they would set/BIOS and that pushed it into October.
AMD probably had AIB with some layout and broad cooler specification in mid-August, but they didn't know the final BIOS and survivability till like before Hawaii Launch day, so could offer any concrete numbers. That said, let's hope the AIB's have had "all hands on deck" to offer some nicer coolers that optimize the obtainable clocks, because AMD left a lot on the proverbial table I believe for them to exploit.
Because, even non reference cards will get to 94°, i mean, the only difference with stock will be that with the same temperature it will reach higher clock speeds, and quieter. Anyone?
and it was on purpose.
eg 1 = R9290X is released at its max performance and with a decent cooler and sells well
eg 2 = R9290X is released in progresivly ref, then AIB cooled then , well you know how it goes but they get more money this way per amount of research put in.
I agree with waitin' for the Windforce cooler before buying the 290. Have gone with that option for the 280X and it's ice cold and not as loud as one might think, especialy if u compare it to the stock cooler. When Gigabyte shows it can cool the beast efectively i'll sell this one and move to their 290. till then thow...7970 and 280X is the safe way to go.
I haven't even seen leakage of the cards yet...
videocardz.com/48270/msi-radeon-r9-290x-lightning-pcb-pictured
Finally, something! (and what a "something" this is, I might add...)