Wednesday, October 30th 2013
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Radeon R9 290 (non-X) Launch Pushed Back a Week
Launch of AMD's Radeon R9 290 (non-X) is reportedly pushed back by a week, to Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The card was expected to launch on October 31, 2013. The reason for this delay? AMD reportedly developed a new driver that significantly improves performance on the R9 290. AMD pushed this driver onto reviewers at the last minute, and asked them to re-bench their R9 290 samples from scratch, extending their NDA till the 5th. The driver reportedly makes the R9 290 extremely competitive with GeForce GTX 780. A side-effect of that would be that the recently launched Radeon R9 290X could be rendered unattractive. It remains to be seen if the driver also proportionately improves performance on the R9 290X, and how AMD ends up pricing the R9 290.
Source:
3DCenter.org
64 Comments on Radeon R9 290 (non-X) Launch Pushed Back a Week
Update: The launch has been pushed back to 5th November, no details as to why.
I for one am hoping for a $50 price break in the 290X and the 290 to come in at $400 but that is probably wishful thinking :nutkick:
I would expect the game bundles to come sooner to 290s than what AMD was hoping.
As a casual reader of the hoopla here, wow.
I remember, years ago, being an AMD fan, over Intel. AMD CPU's were as fast and very cost effective vs. Intel. Not so different today.
Anyways, I bought this laptop because it was an Intel. I don't like burning my fingertips! :laugh:
Point is this, despite the jetsam, there is some really good info on GPU stuffs, floating around these forums.
Methinks, I would hypothetically build a computer today, with a pair of 780's with the fancy Titan cooler shroud and GeForce LED's.
If I were to build it, say, next May? Probably, with the 290's, or x's, if a decent cooler and price rolls around.
So, what does that make me? Green, Red or just level headed?
:lovetpu:
Sorry, I don't buy that you're delaying it for the reviewers. You're delaying it because you're busy retooling your factories to up the clockrates of your cards post-780-is-$500-ohcrap-what-do-we-do-now? panic mode. Plus, you're busy sending out updated firmwares to reviewers and sending out new drivers that you hope will eke you out past nVidia.
This is what happens when--without a marketing department--you "reveal" and "launch" a month out, promising preorders but don't deliver for weeks on end. How long did you think you'd do this before nVidia responded?
I'm gathering AMD thought nVidia wouldn't respond until much later, but we all knew that if AMD seemed on the verge of success with discrete GPU's for even a few weeks, nVidia would end that easily enough.
And so they did. 780's for all! They're a bit slower than the R9 290X, but they're also a LOT easier to deal with as their premier coolers are quieter, nVidia's problems with coil whine are far less than AMD's, and the hardware is just outright not as hot or stressed to the max.
Most people don't want their computer to actually be better as a space heater, too. If only AMD had a marketing department (instead of laying most of them off), they might have gotten a product out before nVidia's price cuts neutered their product launch.
:toast:
:roll:
Fanboy! ;)
And then Zeus will come down and wreak vengeance and furious anger upon us all.
@ Rcoon..... i still maintain these are enthusiast products and generally enthusiasts dont care too much for power consumption, most are more concerned about performance.
Just kidding. :laugh:
I wondered why there weren't optimized drivers for Hawaii release, now I get it! Wait for a point after Nvidia steps onto the rug with their price and their new models adjust clocks, then yank it out at the very last minute. This should play well as figure most reputable reviewers will retest the R9 290X again. If such drivers would bump like 12.11 provide 7% we have an all new game!
Oh poor us... (AMD) our R9 290X just barely spared with Titan, oh no we will be beat by a $700 OC GTX780... was that a thud! So, at first folks figure an R9 290 might at best be par with a $499 GTX780, except now wham it could beat it, and if AMD sets the price at $429... 10, 9, 8, 7...
It's very improbable that anyone have a valid source for their claims. Unless you have a link showing something, do us all a favor. Turn off caps-lock, check your fanboyism and prejudice at the door, and start your sentences with "I think.."
I think AMD has some genuine improvements to drivers, not benchmark sabotage, given that the card is so new. It seems like they're being pulled in so many different directions (Mantle, TrueAudio, etc), it shouldn't be too farfetched that they haven't had time to work on the maturity of their actual drivers. Drivers aren't perfect out of the gate. AMD isn't creating extra performance, they're unlocking normally untapped performance.
As I end up saying in every AMD Radeon thread (and others in this thread have said already), those who prefer nVidia should be happy to have competition to drive down prices. Everybody wins here.
And how is it fishy that they release an updated GPU with better power consumption and thermals and clock it up higher? Have you not seen the news for the R9 280X? AMD is doing the same thing currently... Also, the GPU is not the "GTX 780 GHz Edition". It's still being packaged as a standard GTX 780.
Different time zones. For example it's 18:15 here.
These are questions that every buyer, AMD/NVidia/Intel/whatever should do, IF he respects his hard earn money MORE than a brand. Now IF AMD/NVidia/Intel/whatever is more important than anything, I am asking you all the wrong questions.
Let me clarify this. I do NOT say that this IS what happened. Only that their is a possibility.
So when someone is smelling fishy things in AMD drivers, I say that maybe I smell fishy things in Nvidia's behavior towards its own loyal customers. I could be 100% wrong off course. Nvidia doesn't do fishy things. They are call "features" and "exclusives" and "proprietary".