AMD Announces the Radeon R9 290

[btarunr]

AMD announced the Radeon R9 290, its second graphics card based on the swanky new "Hawaii" silicon. The card is a slight cut-down of the R9 290X, and features 2,560 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. The core is clocked at 948 MHz, and the memory at 5.00 GHz, churning out a memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s. The reference design board of the R9 290 is practically identical to its older sibling. AMD is pricing the card at an impressive $399, a price at which it will make both the $330 GeForce GTX 770 and the $499 GeForce GTX 780 look repulsively overpriced. Non-reference boards are expected to arrive by late-November, in time for last-minute X'mas purchases.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[rawad]

399 $ I'm sold! Now let's just wait for partners designs

 

[xvi]

More than I had hoped, but less than I had expected. I still long for the good days when a flagship GPU was $300.

You know, the days when this demo was new:

Edit: The card I had in mind was the Radeon 9800 XT. Upon further googling, it looks like it's release price was more than I remember.

 

[Pangolin User]

its cheaper

More than I had hoped, but less than I had expected. I still long for the good days when a flagship GPU was $300.

You know, the days when this demo was new:
http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/r9800xt/sphere2.jpg

Edit: The card I had in mind was the Radeon 9800 XT. Upon further googling, it looks like it's release price was more than I remember.

Add inflation for 10 years, much better cooler, vrm (its 300 watt vs less than 100 watts), and complexity of the board (12 layer), i think its cheaper these day

edit : typo

 

[HisDivineOrder]

The price does make the 770 and 780 look overpriced.

Then you get the card, you install the card, you hear the card, and you suddenly know where that extra $100 went.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

The price does make the 770 and 780 look overpriced.

Then you get the card, you install the card, you hear the card, and you suddenly know where that extra $100 went.

meeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

no system specs = butt hurt Nv owner blurting trollidge to the masses

 

[RCoon]

meeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

no system specs = butt hurt Nv owner blurting trollidge to the masses

Can't say he's wrong in fairness. I don't think my ITX case would cope well with 95 degrees being pumped inside such a small space, even with an enormous 180mm exhaust fan.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Can't say he's wrong in fairness. I don't think my ITX case would cope well with 95 degrees being pumped inside such a small space, even with an enormous 180mm exhaust fan.

Wouldn't be wrong for me to post in a titan thread that titan is a pants rip off but that would also be trolling.

 

[RCoon]

Wouldn't be wrong for me to post in a titan thread that titan is a pants rip off but that would also be trolling.

I agree, maybe his point would have been made better if he didn't sound like a 12 year old

 

[NeoXF]

I agree, maybe his point would have been made better if he didn't sound like a 12 year old

Yeah, a point, but for how long? Only for what, 2-3 weeks? After that, when stuff like Windforce3Xs launch that come with beefy overclocks and day-and-night better cooling at the same price... Raging nVidiots is the only name i'd give these people.

I keep saying, most of the Power usage charts I see are plain wrong, for starters who take either FurMark temps for comparison, especially when nVidia cheats in those, secondly who uses the highest rated power spike recorded as realistic power usage measure?
And last but not least, under water or with aftermarket cooling, every R9 290X I came across came out with very good temps and overclock headroom.

I get the sense that for the most part, people just complain for the sake of it. AMD reshaped the GPU market in a way that more people could bare it's prices and performance gains and have more choices to begin with, and they still feel the need to exaggerate and claim "colors" as if they're some kind of hood gang sympathisers... pathetic.

 

[RCoon]

I get the sense that for the most part, people just complain for the sake of it.

That's probably the main point. The other point, the most important point, is people dislike it when others say that their purchase was pointless and that they're idiots for buying whatever at whatever time for whatever price. It's an immature point to make, and does not need to be made.

People arent angry for buying the 7970 on release day for the price it cost, and people arent angry they bought a 780 on release day for the price it cost. Yet people keep saying they should be. Weird stuff.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Bravo AMD! This completely undercuts Nvidia and brings pricing far more inline with past generations I f gfx card releases.

If I was looking to upgrade I wouldn't hesitate to pick this up. It will even be a better value in 6-12 mos. after release when it drops to $350 I bet.

 

[NeoXF]

Weird stuff or not, as long as no one is blocking your way in front of the store or blocking your IP to not be able to buy X and Y stuff, they can talk whatever they want. However, it does seem like a waste of time indeed. Cases where I know someone personally and I try to help them to get the most of their money, I do get involved, personally, like a buddy of mine that almost went for some not-so-expensive-but-still-not-best-deal-ever waaaay old original HD 7970, when I told him that a "newer" version is out soon, and it will be cheaper (it is), as well as prices going down overall, like we're seeing lately... So, in essence, told him to wait a bit, and as I see it, it payed off a lot. Now I think CF R9 290 is the game, no sense in letting a 40x PCI-E 3.0 lane ROG Extreme board go to waste...

Speaking of which, why doesn't AMD like, hire Sapphire vapor chamber engineers... or some other people working on fringe-level cooling tech...

 

[Eagleye]

The price does make the 770 and 780 look overpriced.

Then you get the card, you install the card, you hear the card, and you suddenly know where that extra $100 went.

And then you buy an EK Water block (Top of the line) for the $100 you saved

 

[Slizzo]

Weird stuff or not, as long as no one is blocking your way in front of the store or blocking your IP to not be able to buy X and Y stuff, they can talk whatever they want. However, it does seem like a waste of time indeed. Cases where I know someone personally and I try to help them to get the most of their money, I do get involved, personally, like a buddy of mine that almost went for some not-so-expensive-but-still-not-best-deal-ever waaaay old original HD 7970, when I told him that a "newer" version is out soon, and it will be cheaper (it is), as well as prices going down overall, like we're seeing lately... So, in essence, told him to wait a bit, and as I see it, it payed off a lot. Now I think CF R9 290 is the game, no sense in letting a 40x PCI-E 3.0 lane ROG Extreme board go to waste...

Speaking of which, why doesn't AMD like, hire Sapphire vapor chamber engineers... or some other people working on fringe-level cooling tech...

AMD is trying to beat nVidia over the head on price point. Otherwise you would have seen higher prices on the R9 290 and R9 290X with better reference cooling.

 

[xvi]

AMD is trying to beat nVidia over the head on price point. Otherwise you would have seen higher prices on the R9 290 and R9 290X with better reference cooling.

It's effectively the same cooler as the reference 7970, isn't it? Going with something that's already in production would be much cheaper for AMD (and inherently their customers).

 

[Slomo4shO]

The price does make the 770 and 780 look overpriced.

Then you get the card, you install the card, you hear the card, and you suddenly know where that extra $100 went.

Or you can wait a couple weeks and pickup a non-reference card for the same price and not have the issues of noise or temps... Brilliant!

 

[ensabrenoir]

nice price......wonder if nvidia will cut again.... that would be historic. 2 points for Amd...

....truth b told everything in the tech world is overpriced upon release. Remember when Dvd players first came out? I remember paying over $300 for one...now they come free in boxes of ceral(ok maybe not but you can buy one new for $20)..... Tis the enthusiast's burden.

 

[Divide Overflow]

Can't wait to see some non-reference cooling designs!

 

[haswrong]

Add inflation for 10 years, much better cooler, vrm (its 300 watt vs less than 100 watts), and complexity of the board (12 layer), i think its cheaper these day

edit : typo

yea? now get me someone who gives me money for all this cheap $hit! any ethical job will do either..

 

[buggalugs]

nice price......wonder if nvidia will cut again.... that would be historic. 2 points for Amd...

....truth b told everything in the tech world is overpriced upon release. Remember when Dvd players first came out? I remember paying over $300 for one...now they come free in boxes of ceral(ok maybe not but you can buy one new for $20)..... Tis the enthusiast's burden.

Haha, Tell me about it.......CD drives were $1,000 in the 90's.

I can understand new tech being expensive but graphics cards aren't new tech. They have been using the same base technology for years, just shrinking the process and adding more engines and adding a few features.

That's probably the main point. The other point, the most important point, is people dislike it when others say that their purchase was pointless and that they're idiots for buying whatever at whatever time for whatever price. It's an immature point to make, and does not need to be made.

People arent angry for buying the 7970 on release day for the price it cost, and people arent angry they bought a 780 on release day for the price it cost. Yet people keep saying they should be. Weird stuff.

Maybe some people need to go back and read where all this BS started. If the Nvidia guys didn't come into the AMD thread complaining and whinging about every little thing and calling the 290X a failure, no-one would bother making points about Nvidias exhorbitant pricing.

Its a classic. The guys that started all this BS with negative comments towards AMD/290X are now claiming the high ground. lol. RCoon, your name has been on the radar for a while as one of the worst. You're still doing it in this thread. You've already said many times this card is hot, but you gotta make the point again that you couldn't run it in your small case. We get it, Most of us are waiting for non reference so its not an issue. Stop pretending to have the moral high ground because you don't.

Let us enjoy AMDs new cards without all this BS. We are not in the NVidia thread slamming Nvidia, YOU are in the AMD thread(s) slamming AMD.

 

[NeoXF]

AMD is trying to beat nVidia over the head on price point. Otherwise you would have seen higher prices on the R9 290 and R9 290X with better reference cooling.

Yeah, I doubt a plastic shroud, a couple of pipes and grills, and a fan go for that much... Maybe EVGA or ASUS or Sapphire charge a premium for their cooling solutions, but the likes of Gigabyte or MSI, which often haven some of the best, usually come with prices same as reference. And even then, what's that? 10-20 more bucks?

Nah, no matter now, if I can still buy a R9 290 for 1700 RON (~515 dollars) here, with a decent binning and custom cooler... I'm great.

 

[arterius2]

We are not in the NVidia thread slamming Nvidia, YOU are in the AMD thread(s) slamming AMD.

Of course you are, the recent Nvidia 780ti threads are filled with a bunch of AMD fanboys butthurt over the fact that Nvidia is about to have a leg up. Just stop this pretentious BS please, it's embarrassing.

 

[Frick]

Of course you are, the recent Nvidia 780ti threads are filled with a bunch of AMD fanboys butthurt over the fact that Nvidia is about to have a leg up. Just stop this pretentious BS please, it's embarrassing.

1. We don't know that.
2. Being butthurt is one thing, responding to it with more butthurt just brings more butthurt. "Butthurt. Butthurt never changes." as Ron Pearlman would've said.
3. It's all BS anyway.
4. Fanboyism really REALLY has gone too far now. It's beyond religion.

 

[NeoXF]

Food for thought:


R9 290 + Accelero Xtreme III/MK-26 review:

http://ht4u.net/reviews/2013/arctic_accelero_xtreme_iii_meets_amd_r9_290/index.php

Translated:
http://translate.google.com/transla...ccelero_xtreme_iii_meets_amd_r9_290/index.php