The two are offered at prices identical to reference-design cards

wow, interesting and nice design

If the PCB design is good and the cooler is at least 15% better than reference I'm buying one

the copper could have nickel coating.. but overall design is very nice. hopefully the performance will not differ to the lower side in comparison with other models..

based on how nicely the 280x DD was, this might be quite promising

XFX is the "only" brand of video card that I will invest in---period! They have "always" offered a life-time warranty,on every dual dispensation(NON-reference card),that I have bought into, for so many years. I expect that once this card is actually available to buy,it will be warrantied the same. Plus...I get the very "best" tech support from a great group of customer orientated,caring people. NO plug! Just the truth!

xfx the only brand you can use to brand cattle.

seen more xfx failures over the past year than any other brand and people still flock to them xD

warranty sucks in the uk too lol

Your total "lack" of knowledge... is only surpassed by your stupidity,about this company and/or the actual "quality" of their product.
And, considering what you have in your system,it's obvious that you have no idea,what a true "high-end" component system is...or even how it really performs. Unfortunate..for you.

I'd have to have a picture of the PCB first. I've seen far too many XFX cards where they cheap out on components.

erockerI'd have to have a picture of the PCB first. I've seen far too many XFX cards where they cheap out on components.

Not..my experience...if you go to the very "top-end" video card that they sell(so far..anyway).

anolesoulNot..my experience...if you go to the very "top-end" video card that they sell(so far..anyway).

Sorry kiddo ... going to have to agree with the other two chaps here... XFX cheaps out on components.
While you have had good luck with them that card you have has an extremely high failure rate.

Not sure if you are trolling with your 8350 as high end or not...

Not..for me. I had even tried(awhile ago) an extremely so-called "high-end/top-end" EVGA Nvidia card;but,had nothing BUT problems with that thing...so BACK went that piece of junk.
And, back...came the AMD/XFX card;and, I have "never" had any "issues" with it--whatsoever. As, to what you guys..seem to "think" are "concerns of "quality, with this manufacturers card. Sorry..but your information...is WAY off. You need to "back-up" what you claim...with "valid" information,for me to even consider taking what you state here as "serious".

lol... You are basing your claim on 1 card. (sample size is an issue) Just because you have not had issues with your singular card does not mean they make good cards in general. As does the fact that 3 people in this thread have noted problems with XFX cards does not mean they make bad cards.
However...
They (XFX) tend to use lower quality components... Google is your friend... just try it, you might find you like it.

Just remember life time warranty isnt life time warranty. ;)

xfx the only company

anolesoulYour total "lack" of knowledge... is only surpassed by your stupidity,about this company and/or the actual "quality" of their product.
And, considering what you have in your system,it's obvious that you have no idea,what a true "high-end" component system is...or even how it really performs. Unfortunate..for you.

while i have no problem with anybody voicing their opinion sometimes it just shows them up for who they are...

out of interest what would you class as a "true high-end component system"?

server class hardware? extreme edition cpu? tri and quad gpu systems?

really, i am interested to know :)

edit

fwiw

i do like the look of these blowers, and their older black and white ones. but the qa of xfx has taken a nose dive since they joined ati and as yet i have not been satisfied that they have sorted that issue.

erockerI'd have to have a picture of the PCB first. I've seen far too many XFX cards where they cheap out on components.

If it's one thing i hate about them is they release a good one then they do revised ones after which suck. I was going get a XFX 7970 but i found they revised it and it limited the cards overclocking ability. It seems to be common practice of XFX to cheap out on the cards later in their life.

Although i have had 3 XFX cards and had 1 issue and they replaced a 4890 with a 6850 and the support's been great.

marsey99xfx the only brand you can use to brand cattle.

seen more xfx failures over the past year than any other brand and people still flock to them xD

warranty sucks in the uk too lol

Wah Wah Wah, Kinda like me saying i will never get a nVidia card again as i have had 4 of those fail on me lol. Shit happens some times it's their fault and some times it's not and normally not.

anolesoulYour total "lack" of knowledge... is only surpassed by your stupidity,about this company and/or the actual "quality" of their product.
And, considering what you have in your system,it's obvious that you have no idea,what a true "high-end" component system is...or even how it really performs. Unfortunate..for you.

They have gotten worse since the 7k range though i just hope they get it together and hope they don't fail with the 290 range.

^
Yeah XFX 280X DD acts this way too, I saw one review and it OC'ed to a lousy 1070-1100mhz max or so..


But the cooler looks great, 280x one was a little loud, I wonder if they pimped it further. Well it would be logical imo, since 290 is a lot hotter.

AsRockWah Wah Wah, Kinda like me saying i will never get a nVidia card again as i have had 4 of those fail on me lol. Shit happens some times it's their fault and some times it's not and normally not.

why doe's it?

xfx do not produce chips for multiple companies who base their business on. if all nvidia cards had an 85% return rate like i have seen on some xfx cards then maybe i would agree with your analogy.

xfx have made some dogs since they started making cards from both camps, not saying all their cards but most have been designed by accountants.

marsey99why doe's it?

xfx do not produce chips for multiple companies who base their business on. if all nvidia cards had an 85% return rate like i have seen on some xfx cards then maybe i would agree with your analogy.

xfx have made some dogs since they started making cards from both camps, not saying all their cards but most have been designed by accountants.

I guess you took that the wrong way my bad... Well i been buying nvidia video cards back when the heatsink was just stuck on with thermal tape and no way i meant how you took it..

Although that tape failing to hold the heatsink was nvidia's fault as it was sold under their name and putting v reg next to were the south bridge used to be is just pure bad design (not saying they do it still or done it for a while now.).. I have had failing ATI cards before like the fan on a 4890 which started to click although that was the only card i have a issue with.

In the end i hope XFX made this a good card and if they have they don't revise it with worse components later on in it's life like they did with some from the 7k range.

I wish XFX just used reference card and just put a better cooler on it though and that goes for some other companys too.


I am in the market for a 290(X) would be in the market for a 780ti if the price was even reasonable.

AsRockI am in the market for a 290(X) would be in the market for a 780ti if the price was even reasonable.

with the cryto-coin situation going on, nvidia prices look reasonable across the board :p

DF is BUSYwith the cryto-coin situation going on, nvidia prices look reasonable across the board :p

no 600-700 $ card is reasonable in fact not even a 500$ one lol.

My opinion on XFX quality. I have purchased over a dozen XFX cards in the 6000 and 7000 generations and every single one of them is still going strong in their respective systems. (I am a system builder.)

I have flashed some of the Double D 7950 BE's using a 7970 BIOS and overclocked the heck out of them. I am running my 7970 at 1.1GHz core and 1575MHz VRAM and it's been running like that for well over a year under heavy gaming loads. Many of the high end 6000 series even came with double-lifetime warranties, so they carried over to the next owner if you sold the cards.

So from my point of view, XFX quality is not in question. That being said ...

I do know people who have had issues with the cards, some were thermal, others were stability, and a few were outright failures. So like someone else said, sample size does indeed matter, a lot.

To be honest however, many other brands have somewhat similar results based on online customer reviews, though I often take customer reviews with a grain of salt since you have no real way of knowing their tech level. ASUS, Gigabyte, HIS, XFX, PowerColor, etc. all seem to have roughly the same generalized ratings based on those reviews.

As far as the FX-8350 being a high-end processor, I don't even see how that's debatable, it is. I have one of these in my main system, as well as several i5 and i7's sitting here from Sandy Bridge on up to the 4770K, the 8350 games on par with most all of them. It handles multi-threaded apps amazingly well, and it has no problems with even the most demanding of games. It falls within a frame or two of the 4770K in Battlefield 4, can easily handle Crysis 3 a and Arma 3, and is just a general overall fantastic processor for the price point. Assuming you couple it with other good hardware that is.

Lastly, to comment on the Cryptocurrency, AMD cards are currently far more popular than Nvidia since they generally cost less, and mine more, than many of the Nvidia offerings at the moment. This is why you see the higher end AMD Radeon 7000 series as the most commonly recommended cards by hardcore miners.

Anyway, nice to see the new XFX DD 290 cards, however this time around when I pick up a 290X, I will likely either go stock with an NZXT Kraken G10/G40 cooling solution, or go with a different aftermarket card to mix it up. Sapphire looks promising.