AMD Radeon R9 290X 4 GB

The Von Matrices · Oct 30, 2013

sweet said:
As if you owned the card, lol.

70% fan in a close case is just around 55 dba at your seat. That guy said that the card is noticeable, but it is not a big deal when he wears his headphones. Of course he is using the stock coooler.

For your information, a normal conversation is 60 dba, and when wearing headphones you barely notice it.

I have used the reference 7970 cooler, which is nearly identical to the R9 290X's cooler in that it uses the same motor and fan, and it is very annoying if it gets above 45%.

erocker said:
Wear headphones.

I use speakers and not headphones, so I can see how headphones would make a difference, but any additional noise is going to affect perceived audio quality. If you have a loud computer you have to reduce dynamic range to still hear the quieter sounds while not blowing out your eardrums when something loud happens in game. There's also no point in getting a high end sound card that has a high SNR if you're going to make the noise floor really loud.

Sure, you you can put on headphones, but if you're playing an online multiplayer game you still can't stop the fan noise from obscuring your voice in voice chat, especially if the card's noise is just as loud as your voice. In every online game I've played there's always a few people who have good microphones but really loud computers that compete with their voices and make understanding what they're saying difficult or impossible.

radrok · Oct 30, 2013

The funny thing is that after price cuts the 780 costs 100 eur less compared to the 290x here in Italy.

It's the same for some other european countries according to geizhals, cheapest 290x is like 490 eur and cheapest 780 is 405-410 eur.

No brainer imo, AMD has to kinda drop prices (and it has to fast) if it wants to sell its cards in here.

HTC · Oct 30, 2013

radrok said:
The funny thing is that after price cuts the 780 costs 100 eur less compared to the 290x here in Italy.

It's the same for some other european countries according to geizhals, cheapest 290x is like 490 eur and cheapest 780 is 405-410 eur.

No brainer imo, AMD has to kinda drop prices (and it has to fast) if it wants to sell its cards in here.

Don't think that's AMD: probably both distributors and vendors trying to cash in.

Tatty_Two · Oct 30, 2013

it is indeed the vendors playing the game, if you look at some UK prices they are way lower than those Radrok has quoted so these are not AMD rrp's.........

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...R5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=57980

radrok · Oct 30, 2013

Someone is ruining AMD sales , either AMD or vendors because let's face it, would you rather buy that 290x or this?

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...Graphics+Card+++3+FREE+GAMES+?productId=57506

It even has three games bundled lol

Solaris17 · Oct 30, 2013

the 290x

crazyeyesreaper · Oct 30, 2013

Ill take the 780 my card was free though hurray early Christmas lol

MxPhenom 216 · Oct 30, 2013

radrok said:
The funny thing is that after price cuts the 780 costs 100 eur less compared to the 290x here in Italy.

It's the same for some other european countries according to geizhals, cheapest 290x is like 490 eur and cheapest 780 is 405-410 eur.

No brainer imo, AMD has to kinda drop prices (and it has to fast) if it wants to sell its cards in here.

Not to mention the Lightning GTX780 here is $539.99 which is already a bit faster then the Titan which will be faster than the 290x for a bit cheaper.

And it comes with free games so you could come out spending ~$500 or less.

broken pixel · Oct 30, 2013

290x ? 780 aftermarket variant? 780ti hell no. I will wait for an aftermarket 290x, or even the R10 Zues to be released, hahahaha!

radrok · Oct 30, 2013

MxPhenom 216 said:
Not to mention the Lightning GTX780 here is $539.99 which is already a bit faster then the Titan which will be faster than the 290x for a bit cheaper.

And it comes with free games so you could come out spending ~$500 or less.

Talking about Lightning, let's hope AIB get wild with 780ti and 290x :toast:

Tatty_Two · Oct 30, 2013

personally, I am waiting for the straight 290 version, hopefully with a very decent aftermarket cooler, if it don't look nice, sound nice and perform nice, i will be getting me one of them cheaper 780's, I can take a miss on the games bundle, maybe they could replace that for a troop of half naked dancing girls!

radrok · Oct 30, 2013

Tatty_One said:
personally, I am waiting for the straight 290 version, hopefully with a very decent aftermarket cooler, if it don't look nice, sound nice and perform nice, i will be getting me one of them cheaper 780's, I can take a miss on the games bundle, maybe they could replace that for a troop of half naked dancing girls!

I was expecting massive boobs from Sapphire's boxes but they failed to deliver :mad:

HumanSmoke · Oct 30, 2013

radrok said:
I was expecting massive boobs from Sapphire's boxes but they failed to deliver

Given the way Roy Taylor love to self-publicize, maybe he can strike a deal to appear on the custom cards box art thereby fulfilling both his and your wishes

eidairaman1 · Oct 30, 2013

Good Review

qubit · Oct 30, 2013

The Von Matrices said:
In every online game I've played there's always a few people who have good microphones but really loud computers that compete with their voices and make understanding what they're saying difficult or impossible.

So that one player who's got the loud computer effectively imposes the inconvenience on his fellow players who also use headsets since that microphone's output is transmitted to everyone. Nice. :shadedshu

Suka · Oct 31, 2013

Great Card and a great review. Wish i could afford one of these suckers and a decent machine, i would be in dreamland :laugh:

N3M3515 · Nov 1, 2013

For anyone looking for a direct comparison between titan/780 SLI and 290x CF:
SLI vs CF review

sweet · Nov 1, 2013

I think W1zz should have included the new overdrive feature in CCC for 290x

HTC · Nov 1, 2013

N3M3515 said:
For anyone looking for a direct comparison between titan/780 SLI and 290x CF:
SLI vs CF review

WOW: i knew the R9 290X was faster but, in crossfire, i didn't expected it to be this much faster!

Wish W1zzard could make one of these reviews (minus the 4K display part).

Still, what surprised me the most was that the crossfire frame pacing problems that were plaguing AMD are totally gone with this card, so much so that now it's nVidia that "seems" to have frame pacing issues and just recently they were being praise for not having this: i find that amazing!!!!

radrok · Nov 1, 2013

Yep the only thing that's left to fix is DX9, which it can wait imo.

This review is much better than the hardocp one (which I never liked as a site, always kinda biased towards Nvidia), http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...deon-R9-290X-CrossFire-and-4K-Preview-Testing.

HTC · Nov 1, 2013

radrok said:
Yep the only thing that's left to fix is DX9, which it can wait imo.

This review is much better than the hardocp one (which I never liked as a site, always kinda biased towards Nvidia), http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...deon-R9-290X-CrossFire-and-4K-Preview-Testing.

So this frame pacing fix seems to be DX10 and DX11 only? Though, with only 1 DX9 game tested, i'm not sure of this.

Seems the previous review made the R9 290X look better then it was, frame pacing wise, but it still shows massive improvements over previous cards: hopefully, they can learn from this and come up with some driver optimizations for the other cards already out there, unless this is an hardware issue, in which case, other card's owners are pretty much screwed

crazyeyesreaper · Nov 1, 2013

Still doesnt tell all very small subset of games, and if you havent noticed AMD's fix is per game some games will never get fixed. You will also notice they stick to fixing the most popular titles. Thus overall SLI may not be scaling as well but it still works across a greater number of games and tends to work without issue across all Direct X versions.

I enjoy new eyecandy as much as the next person but there is still alot of work to be done by AMD before I would consider Xfire again.

HTC · Nov 1, 2013

crazyeyesreaper said:
Still doesnt tell all very small subset of games, and if you havent noticed AMD's fix is per game some games will never get fixed. You will also notice they stick to fixing the most popular titles. Thus overall SLI may not be scaling as well but it still works across a greater number of games and tends to work without issue across all Direct X versions.

I enjoy new eyecandy as much as the next person but there is still alot of work to be done by AMD before I would consider Xfire again.

I'm sure you agree: this is a step in the right direction.

All that's needed now is enough steps to reach "goal" :laugh:

crazyeyesreaper · Nov 1, 2013

Correct it is a step in the right direction the problem is AMD tends to take a few steps then just kinda stops to shoot the breeze for awhile lol. Then they seem to remember oh shit i was suppose to be working on this I better get back to it. :roll:

mastershake575 · Nov 2, 2013

Damn I checked newegg again and the Evga GTX 780 with the ACX cooler is $495 after promo code and $485 after rebate (it includes three recent games also).

AMD for damn sure has to lower there prices (the Sapphire 290x with stock cooler is $100 more).

I wouldn't be surprised if AMD dropped the stock cooler editions to $500 and released the third party cooler editions for $550

System Name	My Surround PC
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Motherboard	ASUS STRIX X670E-F
Cooling	Swiftech MCP35X / EK Quantum CPU / Alphacool GPU / XSPC 480mm w/ Corsair Fans
Memory	96GB (2 x 48 GB) G.Skill DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X 24GB
Storage	WD SN850 2TB, Samsung PM981a 1TB, 4 x 4TB + 1 x 10TB HGST NAS HDD for Windows Storage Spaces
Display(s)	2 x Viotek GFI27QXA 27" 4K 120Hz + LG UH850 4K 60Hz + HMD
Case	NZXT Source 530
Audio Device(s)	Sony MDR-7506 / Logitech Z-5500 5.1
Power Supply	Corsair RM1000x 1 kW
Mouse	Patriot Viper V560
Keyboard	Corsair K100
VR HMD	HP Reverb G2
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores	Mellanox ConnectX-3 10 Gb/s Fiber Network Card

Processor	8700k Intel
Motherboard	z370 MSI Godlike Gaming
Cooling	Triple Aquacomputer AMS Copper 840 with D5
Memory	TridentZ RGB G.Skill C16 3600MHz
Video Card(s)	GTX 1080 Ti
Storage	Crucial MX SSDs
Display(s)	Dell U3011 2560x1600 + Dell 2408WFP 1200x1920 (Portrait)
Case	Core P5 Thermaltake
Audio Device(s)	Essence STX
Power Supply	AX 1500i
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Corsair
Software	Win10

System Name	HTC's System
Processor	Ryzen 5 5800X3D
Motherboard	Asrock Taichi X370
Cooling	NH-C14, with the AM4 mounting kit
Memory	G.Skill Kit 16GB DDR4 F4 - 3200 C16D - 16 GTZB
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse 6600 8 GB
Storage	1 Samsung NVMe 960 EVO 250 GB + 1 3.5" Seagate IronWolf Pro 6TB 7200RPM 256MB SATA III
Display(s)	LG 27UD58
Case	Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX 850M 80+ Gold
Mouse	Razer Deathadder Elite
Software	Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS

Processor	Intel Core i9 11900KF @ -.080mV PL max @220w
Motherboard	MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK
Cooling	DeepCool LS520SE Liquid + 3 Phanteks 140mm case fans
Memory	32GB (4 x 8GB SR) Patriot Viper Steel Bdie @ 3600Mhz CL14 1.45v Gear 1
Video Card(s)	Asus Dual RTX 4070 OC + 8% PL
Storage	WD Blue SN550 1TB M.2 NVME//Crucial MX500 500GB SSD (OS)
Display(s)	AOC Q2781PQ 27 inch Ultra Slim 2560 x 1440 IPS
Case	Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Windowed - Gunmetal
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Realtek ALC1200/SPDIF to Sony AVR @ 5.1
Power Supply	Seasonic CORE GM650w Gold Semi modular
Software	Win 11 Home x64

Processor	8700k Intel
Motherboard	z370 MSI Godlike Gaming
Cooling	Triple Aquacomputer AMS Copper 840 with D5
Memory	TridentZ RGB G.Skill C16 3600MHz
Video Card(s)	GTX 1080 Ti
Storage	Crucial MX SSDs
Display(s)	Dell U3011 2560x1600 + Dell 2408WFP 1200x1920 (Portrait)
Case	Core P5 Thermaltake
Audio Device(s)	Essence STX
Power Supply	AX 1500i
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Corsair
Software	Win10

AMD Radeon R9 290X 4 GB

The Von Matrices

radrok

HTC

Tatty_Two

Gone Fishing

radrok

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator

crazyeyesreaper

Not a Moderator

MxPhenom 216

ASIC Engineer

broken pixel

radrok

Tatty_Two

Gone Fishing

radrok

HumanSmoke

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit

Suka

N3M3515

sweet

HTC

radrok

HTC

crazyeyesreaper

Not a Moderator

HTC

crazyeyesreaper

Not a Moderator

mastershake575

System Name	RogueOne
Processor	Xeon W9-3495x
Motherboard	ASUS w790E Sage SE
Cooling	SilverStone XE360-4677
Memory	128gb Gskill Zeta R5 DDR5 RDIMMs
Video Card(s)	MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage	1x 2TB WD SN850X \| 2x 8TB GAMMIX S70
Display(s)	49" Philips Evnia OLED (49M2C8900)
Case	Thermaltake Core P3 Pro Snow
Audio Device(s)	Moondrop S8's on schitt Gunnr
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime TX-1600
Mouse	Lamzu Atlantis mini (White)
Keyboard	Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Moondrop Luna lights
VR HMD	Quest 3
Software	Windows 11 Pro Workstation
Benchmark Scores	I dont have time for that.

System Name	Old reliable
Processor	Intel 8700K @ 4.8 GHz
Motherboard	MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	32 GB Crucial Ballistix 3666 MHz
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 3080 10GB Suprim X
Storage	3x SSDs 2x HDDs
Display(s)	ASUS VG27AQL1A x2 2560x1440 8bit IPS
Case	Thermaltake Core P3 TG
Audio Device(s)	Samson Meteor Mic / Generic 2.1 / KRK KNS 6400 headset
Power Supply	Zalman EBT-1000
Mouse	Mionix NAOS 7000
Keyboard	Mionix

System Name	Ryzen Reflection
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570S Aorus Master
Cooling	2x EK PE360 \| TechN AM4 AMD Block Black \| EK Quantum Vector Trinity GPU Nickel + Plexi
Memory	Teamgroup T-Force Xtreem 2x16GB B-Die 3600 @ 14-14-14-28-42-288-2T 1.45v
Video Card(s)	Zotac AMP HoloBlack RTX 3080Ti 12G \| 950mV 1950Mhz
Storage	WD SN850 500GB (OS) \| Samsung 980 Pro 1TB (Games_1) \| Samsung 970 Evo 1TB (Games_2)
Display(s)	Asus XG27AQM 240Hz G-Sync Fast-IPS \| Gigabyte M27Q-P 165Hz 1440P IPS \| Asus 24" IPS (portrait mode)
Case	Lian Li PC-011D XL \| Custom cables by Cablemodz
Audio Device(s)	FiiO K7 \| Sennheiser HD650 + Beyerdynamic FOX Mic
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 850
Mouse	Razer Viper v2 Pro
Keyboard	Corsair K65 Plus 75% Wireless - USB Mode
Software	Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit

System Name	X99
Processor	5930K @ 4.7GHz @ 1.323v
Motherboard	Rampage V Edition 10
Cooling	EK
Memory	Dominator Platinum 32GB
Video Card(s)	2x Gigabyte xtreme gaming 980ti
Storage	Samsung 950 Pro M.2, 850 Pro & WD320
Display(s)	Tempest X270OC @100Hz
Case	Thermaltake Core P5
Audio Device(s)	On-board
Power Supply	120-G2-1600-X1
Mouse	Mamba 2012
Keyboard	K70
Software	Win10
Benchmark Scores	http://www.3dmark.com/fs/6823139

System Name	MoneySink
Processor	2600K @ 4.8
Motherboard	P8Z77-V
Cooling	AC NexXxos XT45 360, RayStorm, D5T+XSPC tank, Tygon R-3603, Bitspower
Memory	16GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600C8
Video Card(s)	GTX 780 SLI (EVGA SC ACX + Giga GHz Ed.)
Storage	Kingston HyperX SSD (128) OS, WD RE4 (1TB), RE2 (1TB), Cav. Black (2 x 500GB), Red (4TB)
Display(s)	Achieva Shimian QH270-IPSMS (2560x1440) S-IPS
Case	NZXT Switch 810
Audio Device(s)	onboard Realtek yawn edition
Power Supply	Seasonic X-1050
Software	Win8.1 Pro
Benchmark Scores	3.5 litres of Pale Ale in 18 minutes.

System Name	PCGOD
Processor	AMD FX 8350@ 5.0GHz
Motherboard	Asus TUF 990FX Sabertooth R2 2901 Bios
Cooling	Scythe Ashura, 2×BitFenix 230mm Spectre Pro LED (Blue,Green), 2x BitFenix 140mm Spectre Pro LED
Memory	16 GB Gskill Ripjaws X 2133 (2400 OC, 10-10-12-20-20, 1T, 1.65V)
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon 290 Sapphire Vapor-X
Storage	Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, WD Velociraptor 1TB
Display(s)	NEC Multisync LCD 1700V (Display Port Adapter)
Case	AeroCool Xpredator Evil Blue Edition
Audio Device(s)	Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply	Seasonic 1250 XM2 Series (XP3)
Mouse	Roccat Kone XTD
Keyboard	Roccat Ryos MK Pro
Software	Windows 7 Pro 64

System Name	Quantumville™
Processor	Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard	Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling	Noctua NH-D14
Memory	16GB (2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio
Storage	Samsung 850 Pro 256GB \| WD Black 4TB \| WD Blue 6TB
Display(s)	ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) \| Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case	Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply	Corsair AX1600i
Mouse	Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard	Yes
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

System Name	Little Boy / New Guy
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X / Intel Core I5 10400F
Motherboard	Asrock X470 Taichi Ultimate / Asus H410M Prime
Cooling	ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 280 A-RGB / ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO
Memory	TeamGroup Zeus 2x16GB 3200Mhz CL16 / Teamgroup 1x16GB 3000Mhz CL18
Video Card(s)	Asrock Phantom RX 6800 XT 16GB / Asus RTX 3060 Ti 8GB DUAL Mini V2
Storage	Patriot Viper VPN100 Nvme 1TB / OCZ Vertex 4 256GB Sata / Ultrastar 2TB / IronWolf 4TB / WD Red 8TB
Display(s)	Compumax MF32C 144Hz QHD / ViewSonic OMNI 27 144Hz QHD
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P400A / Montech X3 Mesh
Power Supply	Aresgame 850W 80+ Gold / Aerocool 850W Plus bronze
Mouse	Gigabyte Force M7 Thor
Keyboard	Gigabyte Aivia K8100
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 Bits