Thursday, March 13th 2014
Sapphire Readies Radeon R9 290X with 8 GB Memory
Here it is, the first consumer (non-professional) graphics card with a staggering 8,192 MB (8 GB) of video memory. Sapphire is giving final touches to the Radeon R9 290X Toxic, which features 8 GB of memory across the GPU's 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. In addition to that, the card is said to feature a massive factory-overclock, which could give it a shot at the performance crown from NVIDIA's GTX TITAN Black. The card features a large vapor-chamber equipped cooling solution in sexy black + yellow. The Toxic isn't going to be Sapphire's only R9 290X cards with 8 GB memory. There's also the R9 290X Vapor-X 8 GB, which goes easy on the factory-overclock, and probably OC headroom, but features the same cooling solution as the one on the Toxic, albeit with a different color scheme. Sapphire could launch the two on the backdrop of GDC.
Sources:
Kitguru, Videocardz
46 Comments on Sapphire Readies Radeon R9 290X with 8 GB Memory
MSI R9 290 Gaming - $469.99
XFX R9 290 Double D - $519.99
Gigabyte R9 290X Windforce - $629.99
Powercolor R9 290X PCS+ - $649.99
while the price is nice, i don't know how much time the "test" was ... so basically a 200chf economy, buy date 12.2013 so still 20 month warranty coverage, but what is manufacturer warranty if the card is on the verge to break and nearly fubar :D (ok it is a bit extreme... but since the guy doesn't give more info about the thermal environment, was is 3 of them crippled on a mobo or 6 on a riser setup with a adequate airflow or about time of use for mining...) i am used to buy 2nd hand for a good bargain and have no problems but mining kinda set me off for these also 8gb hum ... i would take a new 290 4gb over a 780/780Ti since a 780/780Ti doesn't offer much for the cost added (not mentioning that Geforce driver don't get along well with AMD All in one driver... i wonder if it is on purpose :roll: )
Whats the point in this 8GB version anyways ?.
with what i see from the 750/750 Ti i think Maxwell will be a huge step up ... for power consumption not for perf, but who really knows ... wait and see
(i would be really pissed off if the future 780 class Maxwell offer 10% above previous gen and charge a Titan price on it :roll: ... at this time i would still take a 290 4gb over it: 35% more perf would not be worth it :D )
But by that Time a vga Card last 5+ years lol
The Matrix cards hard card slots for the ram kinda like plugging the ram in to a laptop
more profitable maybe if we replace it and buy a new one
1gb still suffice at 1080p but is a bit on the edge, 2gb is a minimum to be comfortable 4gb is the norm but not an obligation, 6gb and 8gb are for hum... oh well fortunate freak with 6 4k monitor ... let says
or just a way to push the price up and make user think it is really a essential upgrade. (think about the GT610 4gb DDR3 :D )
I prefer 4GB GDDR5 GPU, it's enough for work and gaming...