AMD Announces Radeon R9 290X

[btarunr]

AMD announced market availability of the Radeon R9 290X, its new flagship graphics card, with which it plans to take on the likes of the GeForce GTX TITAN. Based on the swanky new 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon, the R9 290X features 2,816 stream processors, 176 texture memory units, 64 ROPs, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. The chip offers hardware support for DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and is ready for AMD's ambitious Mantle API. Various AIB partners should begin offering their R9 290X cards today, which all stick to AMD's reference design. The biggest feature of the card, in the end, is its stunning price of $549.99. If it manages to beat the GTX TITAN, NVIDIA is in a world of pain with its high-end lineup.



Also Read:

• Our Radeon R9 290X review
• Our R9 290X CrossFire review

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[EpicShweetness]

Just read those reviews. It's a loud, power hungry, BEAST!!!
Did you get that price right $550?!?

 

[TRWOV]

549?

 

[Deleted member 50521]

Hmm, the price is better than I thought. Upgrading time comes near!!!!

 

[Delta6326]

XFX R9-290X ENFC Radeon R9 290X 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 ...

Have fun

 

[pyyy]

I am waiting for 3 slot non reference design(like the ones ASUS had made).
Everything looks good. Only the heat is an issue but with non reference the clock can stay at maximum during load.
Note on page 5, I think its not 4.31 billion transistors

 

[buggalugs]

Well you guys should have listened to me haha, just like I said $549 with performance between 780 and titan.

My local store is sold out already though, probably from pre-orders but they are only listing Gigabyte, powercolor and sapphire, so should be some Asus, HIS, etc coming. My local store (Australia) is asking $649-$699 for them and they're still sold out.

 

[arterius2]

IMO, this card is an engineering failure, it runs almost 50W more than gtx780/titan and what do I get? only 1~3avg fps faster? this is a major roadblock for me to even consider purchasing this card. I would much rather buy a much quieter/cooler card that performs almost at the same performance, and willing to accept the premium.

When people say "oh who cares im just gonna watercool this bitch", ummm no, 300w of heat is still 300w of heat, doesn't mater if you water cool it or not, that same amount of heat is still output to the surroundings and its still consuming the same amount of energy, from a technical point of view, this card is very inefficient and inelegant. to put it into perspective, its same as OCing 780gtx by 15% and selling it as R290x, there is no innovation here, its just pure brute force, people. nothing to see here, move along.

 

[johnsushant]

IMO, this card is an engineering failure, it runs almost 50W more than gtx780/titan and what do I get? only 1~3avg fps faster? this is a major roadblock for me to even consider purchasing this card. I would much rather buy a much quieter/cooler card that performs almost at the same performance, and willing to accept the premium.

When people say "oh who cares im just gonna watercool this bitch", ummm no, 300w of heat is still 300w of heat, doesn't mater if you water cool it or not, that same amount of heat is still output to the surroundings and its still consuming the same amount of energy, from a technical point of view, this card is very inefficient and inelegant. to put it into perspective, its same as OCing 780gtx by 15% and selling it as R290x, there is no innovation here, its just pure brute force, people. nothing to see here, move along.

The card comes at $75 cheaper than the cheapest GTX780 while also including Battlefield 4 with it. Those very $75 can be well spent on paying a premium for a good 3 slot cooler or investing into a custom water cooling loop one always wanted. To put it into perspective a R290x is better than anything the green side offers for its price point. Innovation is more about cheap to the masses than costlier albeit efficient cards for 1% of the public.

 

[arterius2]

The card comes at $75 cheaper than the cheapest GTX780 while also including Battlefield 4 with it. Those very $75 can be well spent on paying a premium for a good 3 slot cooler or investing into a custom water cooling loop one always wanted. To put it into perspective a R290x is better than anything the green side offers for its price point. Innovation is more about cheap to the masses than costlier albeit efficient cards for 1% of the public.

wrong!
people are saying "well if I buy r290x im obviously gonna watercool it" did they consider the price of a watercooling kit?(+100~200$!) add that on top of the card it runs alot more than gtx780.

 

[repman244]

wrong!
people are saying "well if I buy r290x im obviously gonna watercool it" did they consider the price of a watercooling kit?(+100~200$!) add that on top of the card it runs alot more than gtx780.

It all comes down to this:

People still bought the GTX 480 despite the temperature and consumption because it was a good card back then.

 

[arterius2]

It all comes down to this[/url]

People still bought the GTX 480 despite the temperature and consumption because it was a good card back then.

I skipped Fermi for this reason, it was to my understanding that gtx 480 didn't sell very well, and it wasn't until gtx 460 came along did Fermi started becoming more appealing.

 

[buggalugs]

IMO, this card is an engineering failure, it runs almost 50W more than gtx780/titan and what do I get? only 1~3avg fps faster? this is a major roadblock for me to even consider purchasing this card. I would much rather buy a much quieter/cooler card that performs almost at the same performance, and willing to accept the premium.

When people say "oh who cares im just gonna watercool this bitch", ummm no, 300w of heat is still 300w of heat, doesn't mater if you water cool it or not, that same amount of heat is still output to the surroundings and its still consuming the same amount of energy, from a technical point of view, this card is very inefficient and inelegant. to put it into perspective, its same as OCing 780gtx by 15% and selling it as R290x, there is no innovation here, its just pure brute force, people. nothing to see here, move along.

Dude, this thing is a monster. Titan is $1000, this thing is $549. With a decent non-reference cooler like MSI Twin Frosr or Asus DCUII this thing will overclock like a monster and put Titan to shame.

You're wrong about the "same amount of heat" with better cooling solutions. Otherwise we would all be running stock CPU coolers and getting the same performance. A better cooler doesn't allow the GPU/CPU to get AS HOT as it would with a worse cooler.

 

[repman244]

Dude, this thing is a monster. Titan is $1000, this thing is $549. With a decent non-reference cooler like MSI Twin Frosr or Asus DCUII this thing will overclock like a monster and put Titan to shame.

You're wrong about the "same amount of heat" with better cooling solutions. Otherwise we would all be running stock CPU coolers and getting the same performance. A better cooler doesn't allow the GPU/CPU to get AS HOT as it would with a worse cooler.

Technically he is correct, the card still outputs the same amount of heat but the temperature with the better cooler is lower. Just because the temperature is lower doesn't mean the heat is lower you only increase the heat transfer that's all.

It will be interesting to see how it manages with better coolers but there's no denying that the price/performance ratio is amazing compared to the Titan and even to the 780.
The bad part is the heat output which in winter is welcome but in the summer it's unpleasant.

 

[arterius2]

Dude, this thing is a monster. Titan is $1000, this thing is $549. With a decent non-reference cooler like MSI Twin Frosr or Asus DCUII this thing will overclock like a monster and put Titan to shame.

You're wrong about the "same amount of heat" with better cooling solutions. Otherwise we would all be running stock CPU coolers and getting the same performance. A better cooler doesn't allow the GPU/CPU to get AS HOT as it would with a worse cooler.

how am I wrong about it? I was simply stating scientific fact. nvm ^ repman explained it.

 

[HTC]

Technically he is correct, the card still outputs the same amount of heat but the temperature with the better cooler is lower. Just because the temperature is lower doesn't mean the heat is lower you only increase the heat transfer that's all.

It will be interesting to see how it manages with better coolers but there's no denying that the price/performance ratio is amazing compared to the Titan and even to the 780.
The bad part is the heat output which in winter is welcome but in the summer it's unpleasant.

I wonder: how does this card perform with the stock cooler if the ambient temp is ... say ... 33ºC or higher?

Can someone who's living in a hotter country use these cards to their full potential in quiet mode? I have serious doubts, from what i've seen thus far.

W1zzard doesn't mention the ambient temps so dunno how much difference, if any.

 

[vipervoid123]

Actually from many sites review ~
I can see that the only different between 'Uber Mode' and 'Quiet Mode'
Is only the noise level ~
Temperature nvr get higher than 95C ~
As u can see here :http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-r9-290x-video-card-review_126806/11

 

[repman244]

I wonder: how does this card perform with the stock cooler if the ambient temp is ... say ... 33ºC or higher?

Can someone who's living in a hotter country use these cards to their full potential in quiet mode? I have serious doubts, from what i've seen thus far.

W1zzard doesn't mention the ambient temps so dunno how much difference, if any.

Exactly, in summer the card could be throttling all the time - so how much does the FPS drop when the ambient is high and it can't reach the high clocks all the time.

Actually from many sites review ~
I can see that the only different between 'Uber Mode' and 'Quiet Mode'
Is only the noise level ~
Temperature nvr get higher than 95C ~
As u can see here :http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-r9-290x-video-card-review_126806/11

Noise level because the fan is working harder to keep it under 95 - and it's probably the limit where it starts throttling.
Interesting question is tho, how much FPS are you getting after extensive gaming because it sure won't be the same as in the beginning when the temperature is low.

 

[Lionheart]

IMO, this card is an engineering failure, it runs almost 50W more than gtx780/titan and what do I get? only 1~3avg fps faster? this is a major roadblock for me to even consider purchasing this card. I would much rather buy a much quieter/cooler card that performs almost at the same performance, and willing to accept the premium.

When people say "oh who cares im just gonna watercool this bitch", ummm no, 300w of heat is still 300w of heat, doesn't mater if you water cool it or not, that same amount of heat is still output to the surroundings and its still consuming the same amount of energy, from a technical point of view, this card is very inefficient and inelegant. to put it into perspective, its same as OCing 780gtx by 15% and selling it as R290x, there is no innovation here, its just pure brute force, people. nothing to see here, move along.

Why hasn't a Mod banned your annoying trolling arse

Seriously GTFO this site

 

[NeoXF]

IMO, this card is an engineering failure, it runs almost 50W more than gtx780/titan and what do I get? only 1~3avg fps faster? this is a major roadblock for me to even consider purchasing this card. I would much rather buy a much quieter/cooler card that performs almost at the same performance, and willing to accept the premium.

When people say "oh who cares im just gonna watercool this bitch", ummm no, 300w of heat is still 300w of heat, doesn't mater if you water cool it or not, that same amount of heat is still output to the surroundings and its still consuming the same amount of energy, from a technical point of view, this card is very inefficient and inelegant. to put it into perspective, its same as OCing 780gtx by 15% and selling it as R290x, there is no innovation here, its just pure brute force, people. nothing to see here, move along.

That's in Quiet mode. And this is still, with early drivers... and in a game that nVidia typically has the uperhand in (at least with their own Ambient Occlusion settings). UHD gaming might be far from mainstream, but after all, this is what AMD marketed the card for the most. Do the math, it offers better fps/watt than GK110, so this is subjective. Non-reference models will make it shine even more.


Also to people claiming AMD has some kind of interdiction on non-reference models:

"ASUS DirectCU II versions with Super Alloy Power and OC/TOP pre-overclocks will follow in the coming months."

Straight from the horse's hooves maker's mouth (ASUS).

Actually from many sites review ~
I can see that the only different between 'Uber Mode' and 'Quiet Mode'
Is only the noise level ~
Temperature nvr get higher than 95C ~
As u can see here :http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-r9-290x-video-card-review_126806/11

From what I understand, the main difference between Quiet and Uber is 40% fan speed on Quiet vs 55% max on Uber (both still have a max temp set at 94-95C and they clock when temps allow it, up to 1GHz, tho even in Uber, 1GHz isn't guaranteed, it depends on the application/game too obviously). Uber also unlocks a lot more power circuitry and PCI-E related stuff, that give huges boosts in Crossfire apparently...


In other hands, what's with all the nay-sayers? AMD just delivered a killing blow to the exclusivism of nVidia's firmly cemented high-end gaming monopoly and literally made 4K gaming a lot more plausible for more people now. And everyone should be happy for that, including (and especially) poor nVidia fanboys.

 

[arterius2]

at 4 times the amount of noise and 25% more power draw, the 290x is about 1% faster than a stock 780gtx in silent mode at 1920x1080, and 4% more in 2560x1600. lets not forget that there's almost 20C degrees in temperature difference as well under load.

yep that sounds like an engineering failure in my book, ill pass.
and yes you are right, AMD should probably fire its design team.

 

[Prima.Vera]

How is the length compared to a 5870? I need the exact nrs Please.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Lets keep to mature debate without insults and name calling otherwise my patience switch may get turned off

 

[xvi]

I think it's worth noting that this is also just the launch price. As it's a popular comparison, Titan has had some time to come down, except it hasn't. This is likely because there hasn't been competition.

Regardless of whether your lucky underwear says "nVidia" or "AMD", everyone should be happy right now. Our job as consumers right now is to sit back and let the price wars unfold.

 

[DeOdView]

cranked up the fan speed to 70% and you're be golden! GG AMD