AMD Radeon R9 290 4 GB

[Mathragh]

I think you might've wrongfully copied the maximum poweruse again.

Apart from that, thanks for the review! I think its telling that they changed the fan settings at the last moment. They really seem determined to push NVidia out of its comfortable position, forcing them to lower their margins by a lot. I can only hope AMD doesn't incur too big of an margin cut themselves this way.
I suppose they atleast have the advantage of selling a smaller piece of silicon, something which Nvidia can never properly compete on with their huge titan-chip.

 

[Lionheart]

I need my fellow Tpuer's advice.. Does anyone think an i7 940 at my current speed would bottleneck a R9 290? I game at 1080p... & yes I'm aware this card is made for higher resolutions but 1080p still good enough for me plus I would like to max out new demanding games in the future

 

[sweet]

Although the noise is unnacceptable for their top tier cards, bit naive imo, the price performance is awesome. It's taken the attractive price of the 780 out the equation. Only relevant problem is the reference design. I couldnt buy a ref card - just too noisy. I think if you're a water cooler, AMD just gave you no option. I wonder if NV will rethink the pricing of the upcoming 780ti? If not, they'll suffer for their arrogance.

Or you can spend ~50$ and happy with this
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/160486152943?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
A guy on overclock.net test 290x with Gelid icy rev 2, 52*C full load at stock

 

[d1nky]

can the shaders be unlocked on these cards, just like older series?

 

[happita]

It looks like AMD just caused a price war. I see it now, all R9 cards will be on backorder for 2 months or more because they probably won't be able to meet demand (or willingly NOT meet demand so they can drive the prices on these higher)

 

[the54thvoid]

This the Tom's Hardware link for the accelero cooler.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659-19.html

TBH, hearing that fan for the first time, jesus - that's an awful 'card'. AMD wtf were you thinking

Need some dBA numbers for a good comparison but the accelero definitely helps but at 12v it isn't 'quiet' and given the heat given off by the card, it will push air coolers to the limit i think.

EDIT: They have this info

Even at 7 V, the upgraded Radeon R9 290 is barely louder at prolonged full load than the stock versions are at idle

and they say this:

So when can we expect the custom-built cards to address our concerns? We hear they’re being held back until more is known about GeForce GTX 780 Ti—and this is entirely plausible.

 

[Shihab]

Question: What's the ambient temperature of the environment those cards were tested at?

 

[Mathragh]

I need my fellow Tpuer's advice.. Does anyone think an i7 940 at my current speed would bottleneck a R9 290? I game at 1080p... & yes I'm aware this card is made for higher resolutions but 1080p still good enough for me plus I would like to max out new demanding games in the future

It might bottleneck it in some games that are really single threaded, but judging by benchies from modern day games like crisis 3 and battlefield 3, I'd recon that cpu will be relevant for quite a while yet. Even more if mantle takes off, which would decrease the load on that cpu even more (supposedly atleast).

I think you're fine!

Edit: so probably, from this moment on, the relative performance of your cpu in the newest games should actually go up as more engines become multithreaded and more efficient (up till a certain point atleast).

 

[the54thvoid]

Question: What's the ambient temperature of the environment those cards were tested at?

Probably not as hot as Sudan...

 

[Fourstaff]

Did this card just obsoleted all the cards more expensive than it?

 

[Mathragh]

Did this card just obsoleted all the cards more expensive than it?

Probably only with the current coolers on both the 290x and non-x.
Since the 290x was shown to continuously throttle, and thus run on clocks often atleast 10% lower, i'd say that once there are R9 290's and 290x's on the market with custom coolers, you'll once again see a bigger difference.

 

[alwayssts]

I like the price, but I'm unhappy that AMD panicked and made a bad decision in not including a "quiet" mode. It's the same PCB and has the same switch; it's just disabled. I have a feeling the company didn't like the 290X reviews being confusing with the two modes, so they just ditched the "quiet" mode to make their performance consistent across reviews at the expense of noise. Now the R9 290 has no "quiet" mode, and unless you want to manually tune fan control (not many people do) you're stuck with the noise. 49dB all the time is unacceptable.

I think it's obviously more-so they found exactly the heat dissipation required (and vicariously power draw) across a sample range to keep the 290 performing at the level of 780. It is likely intentional it is similar to the level the quiet mode was tuned for 290x. This is supported by the simple calculation of 47/40% (+17.5%) fan speed and the shader/clock difference (+16%) for efficiency. It performs 1% better than 780, which backs the reality the chip is heat limited.

 

[the54thvoid]

On a more topical note (i'm sure folk can cherry pick, come on you Reds!) a lot of reviewers are attacking what AMD have done with the last minute 47% fan increase. They're saying AMD seemewd to have panicked at the 780 price cut and made the 290 give the same performance as it's flagship at the sacrifice of noise. (Guru 3D must test in another room - he finds the noise 'average'). I'd agree with what Anand says - if you bought this as a vanilla card with no intention of customising it - you'd be massively unhappy with the noise. They don't even recommend it on that alone, despite saying it's turned the price performance war on it's head with what is stellar performance at such a low price.

 

[1d10t]

What i see is an absolute winning...

with less power requirement than 7970GE,R9 290 only 40% slower than 7970 CF/7990.
I take two please

what an incredible card...
it reminds me with gtx 670 back then...

i wonder if my ek full water block for 290x is compatible with 290.. anyone?
damn, this card is tempting me hard to get 2 of this and crossfire them instead getting 2 290x..

Trust me,it'll fit perfectly.And what did i say to you about R9 290 CF on the other day

 

[hardcore_gamer]

I suppose they atleast have the advantage of selling a smaller piece of silicon, something which Nvidia can never properly compete on with their huge titan-chip.

Yep. Titan's die is ~26% larger than 290x's. AMD managed to achieve Titan's performance with a smaller chip. They can afford to undercut nvidia's pricing.

 

[zsolt_93]

Sooo. We will have a 770 TI and a 780 TI incoming from what i see. Not sure what will happen to the normal 780 though, it might get demoted to 770TI and get a bit of OC to beat this 290 thing. Surely nVidia has been given a lesson. The nVidias are not bad cards by any means now, but they seem to be totally out of place price segment wise. They need to bring out at least 2 new cards and drop prices 1-2 tiers on the older ones to stay with AMD, or they are in for some trouble.

 

[alwayssts]

Just out of curiosity...what is the unofficial tdp of 780?

Is it 250w + 10% (275w) on most cards?

I ask because what matters is the max tdp and efficiency within that tdp.

As it sits, according to Wiz's tests it looks like the 780 is roughly around 7-10% more efficient than 290 (at 1080p), with proportionally lower max tdp (290 is 300w), hence should be relatively similar over-all when not limited by heat. In essence, $100 vs 20-30w at load (at 'realistic' resolutions/settings not limited by rops/buffer) when you have a decent cooler and overclock it.

Would not be surprised if this will change with a 780 refresh that has a similar 300w tdp as well...that would make sense. Make the thing boost to ~1085-1112/6008 stock, ie 1.5x 680 (which would match/beat 290x) and leave room to max out the clock/ram (another ~10%).

These games revolving around max tdps and full potential of chips being held back has got to stop. The bullshit keeps getting deeper and people perpetually feel screwed.

The fact AMD is using these crap coolers almost seems like a reverse-Tahiti play. Instead of more-and-more limiting the chip through voltage/binning/whatever to let it seep to lower markets, it almost seems they are limiting the cards by heat in prep to unleash decently-cooled models (and full potential at stock, let-alone overclocked/volted) against the one or two new gk110 models. Pretty conspiracy-theorist, I suppose, but that is sure what it look like.

 

[Primalz]

That pricing is just excellent! so its going for US $399, so here in Australia they should be about $550. The cheapest GTX 780 is going for $700 AU & 290X is same price. So is it worth paying extra $150 for potentially 5 fps...

 

[The Von Matrices]

I think it's worth noting that for all the people complaining about NVidia ripping people off with their pricing, at this point the people who got most ripped off are those that paid $549 for a R9 290X two weeks ago. At least Titan and the 780 when could sustain their prices for months after their respective releases.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

At least Titan and the 780 when could sustain their prices for months after their respective releases.

I agree. A sustained rip-off is way better than a short-term rip-off.

 

[the54thvoid]

I think it's worth noting that for all the people complaining about NVidia ripping people off with their pricing, at this point the people who got most ripped off are those that paid $549 for a R9 290X two weeks ago. At least Titan and the 780 when could sustain their prices for months after their respective releases.

This is what annoyed Anand. The 290 driver revision made the 290X redundant. If they had left the 290 at 40% fan speed AMD would have a proper product stack. As it is you have two cards that go toe to toe, except one is noisier and cheaper.

I agree. Sustained rip-off is way better than a short-term rip-off.

Titan was not a rip off unless you couldn't afford one. Money is money, it is there to be used. If somebody has enough for a product and they can afford it without detriment to their household budget, it is not a rip off if there is no competing, compelling alternative.

When the 780 was released, Titan as a gaming card, not only became a rip off, it also became irrelevant.
Until the 290X release 780 could only be bested (single gpu) by a Titan. And even then custom 780's (Classifieds) could OC and beat a Titan OC.
When 290X release happened, 780 prices dropped to compete.
With the release of the 290, the 290X became irrelevant. You could also argue a rip off. Either way, both AMD cards need custom solutions to make their potential realised.

But to round it up to be fair... If you buy a Titan now, for gaming, you really are crazy. And unless the 780Ti works miracles and doesn't impressively beat the custom cooled 290X's (or 290's) then it is a rip off too at it's suggested price.

But again, lets' state, a rip off is a product that has no peer. Any price can be charged - you pay for that level of performance. If folk can't understand that basic premise of a free economy, you ought to live in a hippy commune.
On the same hand, if you put yourself in debt for a graphics card, you're also probably needing time in that very same commune.

 

[Phobia9651]

I agree. A sustained rip-off is way better than a short-term rip-off.

LOL, +1 to you sir!

I'm still curious about what is going to happen to Never Settle.
Nvidia has actually a decent bundle with Splinter Cell: Blacklist, AC4 and Arkham Origins, while AMD has none at all.

 

[alwayssts]

What i see is an absolute winning...

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290/images/power_maximum.gif​

With complete love and respect erm...1d10t...I hope you enjoy playing furmark to achieve those lower power levels.

I made that mistake at first as well. Gaming (which rarely maxes a card 100% like furmark) is 7.5-10% worse according to that same page.

 

[micropage7]

no vga output as minus point. since the card is $399 so anyone who buy it should have dvi at least.

 

[pr0fessor]

Nice Card. It sure is better than the 15 per cent better card R9 290X with more heat, noise and power consumption. If I hadn't two 7950 cards, I would be very interested in two custom cards of this number. But the upgrade is not worth it and the DX11.2 doesn't matter for my DX11.1 System. I guess...