ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II OC Launched

[Divide Overflow]

Really looking forward to a W1zzard review of this card!

 

[haswrong]

Really looking forward to a W1zzard review of this card!

hopefully there will be some mantle introduction finally!

 

[Casecutter]

Quite what Nvidia math co-processors have to do with the 290X escapes me...

Well the Gk110 is also found in professional products, if Nvidia still has huge orders for corporate and supercomputing, (as you point to) then Nvidia should have no qualms keeping intense production which bodes well for cost and supply to the gaming market. Although, “systems going live” would indicate component are bought and supplied, but they could still need to fill orders. If Nvidia didn’t still see such demands for GK110 wafer starts I’m sure they’d be less open to price reductions… that’s all. From your info it would seem they’re still bullish in professional market and firing on all cylinders so that maintains the gaming segment. I might also point to the 20Nm not coming anytime soon at least the professional side; if it was I think some HPC projects would consider holding back any such announcement(s), although that’s an extremely harder marker to evaluate.

 

[HumanSmoke]

Well the Gk110 is also found in professional products, if Nvidia still has huge orders for corporate and supercomputing, (as you point to) then Nvidia should have no qualms keeping intense production which bodes well for cost and supply to the gaming market.

Pro markets tend to suffer from inertia and long lead-in times ( validation, funding, bespoke software) as well as a full 3 year like-for-like warranty replacement, so it's probably a given that GK110 will remain in production for some time just as Fermi based boards continue to fill shelves. Safe to say that Nvidia's first 20nm design out of TSMC wont be the GM 110 given the problems of leading with the big die on a new process (see GF 100 and G200), and will follow the more successful model of launching the process with a mid-range/size part as seen with Kepler.

I might also point to the 20Nm not coming anytime soon at least the professional side; if it was I think some HPC projects would consider holding back any such announcement(s), although that’s an extremely harder marker to evaluate.

The HPC market is extremely time sensitive. Time and workloads for the systems will be mapped out many months (if not a longer) in advance. Projects are almost never delayed simply because downtime has an unpleasant ripple effect. It is the prime reason that Titan's phase 1 upgrade specified Fermi cards as a stopgap measure until K20X's became available.

At this point in time, crypto mining seems to be dictating pricing and availability of AMD cards, as such it doesn't really impact Nvidia to any great extent. They could price the 780 Ti at $400 and it still wouldn't take any meaningful percentage of sales from AMD since most cards are destined for mining or mining+gaming. Anyone not interested in mining and in the market for a high end graphics board is still limited to what is actually available which is why 780's still sell - they are both plentiful in relation to the Hawaii based cards, have more AIB options, and thanks to price gouging by (r)etailers are competitive in price in many markets.

 

[haswrong]

in hardwarecannucks review, they use the photos of asus gtx 780 instead of r9 290x.. notice the differently layed out memory chips.. its weird, how gtx card can substitue r9 pcb, even the images are named gtx780, lol

 

[ManofGod]

I have to lol at that. Yes, we paid a massive premium for our Titans way back in Feb/March but the fact is, I run my Titan for gaming at 1124MHz core and 7000MHz memory. At that I get a graphics score on Firestrike of 11954 (10778 with cpu). When i re-benched there at 1176MHz to match the OP card overclock (Guru3D score) I got 12284 on gfx score (11036 overall).

Remember that all Titan's are 'stock' cards and it's only through customising that people could let them fly. So regardless of pricing, there's no need to feel sorry for Titan - it still performs very well indeed. I feel sorry for people that bought Titans and didn't flash the BIOS. It's remarkable how fast hey are when you bypass Nvidia's ridiculously low ball limits.

But back OT, it really shows how much lack of thought AMD put into their final 'stock' cards when the partner custom cards do so much better. Shame on you AMD for not trying harder at launch. And kudos to Asus for making such a terrific card. Maybe a few more of these custom coolers with this greatly improved performance might tempt the greedy greens to reduce their stratospheric pricing?

Meanwhile, I have been enjoying my XFX R9 290 for the last month or so on a reference cooler. Not loud at all and does not cause my machine any problems. The Asus looks good and I am sure does well but, good luck removing all that heat that is being dumped into your case with this design.

I personally like the reference design and even when I cranked the fan to 100% just to see what it sounded like, it was not a whining, jet like sound at all. In fact, it is no noisier than any other card I heard when the fans where running at or near 100%. (Be interesting to see what this card sounds like with both fans running at 100%.)

 

[happita]

Meanwhile, I have been enjoying my XFX R9 290 for the last month or so on a reference cooler. Not loud at all and does not cause my machine any problems. The Asus looks good and I am sure does well but, good luck removing all that heat that is being dumped into your case with this design.

I personally like the reference design and even when I cranked the fan to 100% just to see what it sounded like, it was not a whining, jet like sound at all. In fact, it is no noisier than any other card I heard when the fans where running at or near 100%. (Be interesting to see what this card sounds like with both fans running at 100%.)

Most enthusiasts have zero problems venting the hot air out of their cases. If the cooling style that the majority of the non-reference cards will use is more efficient versus the "blow hot air out of the back" cards, then I'm all for it. And if worse comes to worse, just ghetto mod an extra fan to blow right across the card to get marginally better temps.

The fact that you don't have any of the common problems that most R290/R290X owners face makes you very lucky. Heat, loud fan, and throttling will be enough to turn any loyal AMD'er to the green side, heck, even me. But I'm just biding my time and timing seems ripe for the picking once all the non-reference cards come out.

 

[Nihilus]

Bit coin mining had a nice crash yesterday due to Chinese regulations. Hopefully these miners will back off a bit.