XFX rolled out its first non-reference design Radeon R9 290 series graphics cards, the Radeon R9 290X Double Dissipation (model: R9-290X-EDFD), and the R9 290 Double Dissipation (model: R9-290A-EDFD). The two are based on a common board design, with a non-reference design PCB by the company, and its tall, dual-slot Double Dissipation cooling solution that's featured on the company's Radeon R9 280X DD graphics card. The cooler uses a dense aluminium fin stack to which head drawn from the GPU is fed by copper heat pipes, and dissipated by a pair of 80 mm fans. As an added bonus, the "XFX" logo on the cooler shroud lights up. Both cards stick to AMD reference clock speeds. That's 1000 MHz core and 5.00 GHz memory for the R9 290X, and 947 MHz core and 5.00 GHz memory for the R9 290. The two are offered at prices identical to reference-design cards, or a tiny premium in some markets.

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is working on a new Full Cover water block for the latest ASUS non-reference design DirectCU II series AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics card, namely the R9290X-DC2OC-4GD5.

The upcoming EK-FC R9-290X DCII will be a high performance full-cover water block for engineered specifically for the latest revision of ASUS design Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II series graphics cards. This product will directly cool the GPU, RAM as well as VRM (voltage regulation module) as water will flow directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and its VRM to remain stable under high overclocks.

According to a product page that popped up on Overclockers UK, in about a month HIS (Hightech Information System) will be releasing a custom-cooled graphics card powered by AMD's Hawaii GPU. The card is question is known as the Radeon R9 290X IceQ X2 Turbo and it comes equipped with the IceQ X2 cooler boasting two 89 mm fans as well as two 8 mm and three 6 mm heatpipes.

HIS' upcoming card also has 2816 Stream Processors, a 512-bit memory interface, 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors, dual-DVI, HDMI and DIsplayPort outputs, and it comes bundled with a voucher of EA's Battlefield 4. The Radeon R9 290X IceQ X2 Turbo doesn't seem to have final clocks (they aren't mentioned) but there is a price tag (£499.99) and a shipping estimate (January 24th).

SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced two new models of its top of the range R9 290 and R9 290X graphics cards. Both models feature the SAPPHIRE exclusive Tri-X triple fan cooler, enhanced clocks and dual BIOS.

The SAPPHIRE R9 290X Tri-X features the latest GCN (graphics core next) architecture from AMD with 2816 stream processing units and an enhanced engine clock of up to 1040 MHz. It is equipped with 4 GB of the latest high performance GDDR5 memory on a 512-bit interface and now clocked at 1300 MHz (5.2 GHz effective) delivering higher bandwidth than the reference design. The SAPPHIRE R9 290 Tri-X has 2560 stream processing units and an engine clock of up to 1000 Mhz. It is also equipped with 4 GB of the latest high performance GDDR5 memory on a 512-bit interface and clocked at 1300 MHz (5.2 GHz effective).

ASUS announced its Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II series graphics cards, which include a model that sticks to AMD-reference clocks (up to 1000 MHz core, 5.00 GHz memory), and one that offers factory-overclocked speeds of up to 1050 MHz core, and 5.40 GHz memory, the DirectCU II OC. The card features a completely non-reference design, with a PCB designed in-house by ASUS, which features a 10-phase VRM, which draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The features Samsung-made GDDR5 memory chips. There's 4 GB of memory on board, across a 512-bit wide memory interface.

The DirectCU II cooling solution is nearly identical to the one deployed on the recently launched GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC. It features a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink to which heat is fed by 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes. The heatsink is ventilated by a pair of 92 mm fans, one of which features ASUS's unique lateral+axial hybrid impeller, called CoolTech. Niceties include a back-plate, and an all-black cooler shroud, with sheets of red and gold stickers, so you could style the card the way you want to. The card is expected to be priced as low as 499€.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today announces the first and only R9 290X with liquid cooling solution in the market. As always, PowerColor have joined forces with award-winning cooling manufacture EK Water Blocks to create the PowerColor LCS R9 290X as a must have for every enthusiastic PC users.

Ultimate OC Setting with Exclusive Gold Power Kit
The LCS R9 290X runs at a pre-set factory overclock of the core to 1060 MHz, a significant 60 MHz over reference; also features 1350 MHz for memory which is 100 MHz above reference, bringing out the best performance. Together with 512-bit high speed memory interface and 2816 units of stream processor, the LCS R9 290X provides user flawless gaming experience. To ensure ultimate OC setting with stability, the latest graphics solution armed with solid-built "Gold Power Kit" onboard, enabling stable power efficiency even at load.

Here's the first picture of the PCB under the hood of MSI's Radeon R9 290X Gaming OC graphics card, which was unveiled in Japan, over the weekend, and which was detailed in a slightly older article. It turns out that MSI will use the same board design (including the back-plate) on both the R9 290X Gaming OC and the R9 290 Gaming OC, both of which have been put up for pre-order by Canadian e-tailer NCIX. The R9 290X Gaming OC is priced at $699 CAD including taxes (US $660); while the R9 290 Gaming OC is priced at $529.99 CAD including taxes (US $500).

The PCB itself is a slight variation of MSI on AMD's reference design. The layout is identical, but there are subtle differences in component choices MSI made. For example, it ditches Coiltronics-made chokes for MagicTech. Appears to use SK Hynix made memory chips (instead of Elpida on a vast majority of retail R9 290 series boards), etc. It also appears to retain dual-BIOS. According to NCIX, both cards will feature untouched memory clock speeds of 5.00 GHz, yielding memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s, but feature 5-7 percent overclocks on the GPU. The R9 290 Gaming OC features GPU clock speeds (possibly PowerTune boost) of up to 1000 MHz (vs. 948 MHz reference), while the R9 290X Gaming OC features 1040 MHz.

At a press event held in Japan, MSI showed off its second non-reference design Radeon R9 290X graphics card besides the R9 290X Lightning, the R9 290X TwinFrozr 4S Gaming OC. The card features MSI's top-grade TwinFrozr IV cooling solution with the red+black color scheme; and a non-reference design PCB by MSI. Its PCB will feature a strong VRM, a voltage controller that's fully accessible using Afterburner, factory-overclocked speeds, and a back-plate decking up the rear portion of the card, even though there's nothing on the rear side of the PCB that requires active cooling. Since the card features a BIOS-toggle switch, you can expect one of the two BIOS ROMs to feature a failsafe BIOS with reference clock speeds. MSI is expected to launch the card a little later this month. The R9 290X Lightning, however, can't be expected before 2014. One could expect a similar-looking card (perhaps minus the back-plate) based on the R9 290 (non-X).

AMD's Radeon R9 290X is a great chip with sub-par reference cooling performance that's not just noisy but could also cool the GPU inadequately, making it throttle. With AMD allowing its partners to come up with non-reference design cards, most AMD Radeon add-in board (AIB) partners are pulling out their workhorses (think DirectCU II, WindForce 450W, TwinFrozr IV, VaporX Dual-X, etc). PowerColor has more fluid plans. The company could be among the first partners to come up with an R9 290X card that's ready for liquid cooling out of the box, the R9 290X LCS.

PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS features a full-coverage liquid-cooling block by EK Water Blocks, which besides the PowerColor LCS branding, is basically EK-FC R9-290X with the nickel-acetal top option. The block appears to be factory-fitted onto an AMD reference design PCB. PowerColor didn't mention clock speeds or pricing, although given the block's $145 aftermarket price, one can't discount the possibility of a $120~150 premium over the $549.99 pricing of the R9 290X. PowerColor could launch the Radeon R9 290X LCS, along with another air-cooled non-reference design card a little later this month.

While no announcement was made Gigabyte went on and published on its website details on two custom-cooled and factory-overlocked graphics cards powered by AMD's Hawaii GPU, the GV-R929XOC-4GD (Radeon R9 290X) and GV-R929OC-4GD (Radeon R9 290).

Pictured below, both cards come equipped with the dual-slot WindForce 3X 450W cooling solution (three fans, 6 mm and 8 mm heatpipes), and feature a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 interface, a GPU clock of 1040 MHz (the stock R9 290X/290 go up to 1000/947 MHz), a 512-bit memory interface, 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM @ 5000 MHz, and dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. The cards' prices are still unknown.

ASUS' R9 290X DirectCU II will likely have some competition when it actually launches as Gigabyte is working on its own custom Radeon R9 290X graphics card. Codenamed GV-R929XOC-4GD, Gigabyte's first non-stock R9 290X offering comes equipped with the dual-slot WindForce 3X 450W cooler that's supposed to be up to 15.9 dB quieter than the reference solution, and has an slightly-overlocked GPU (1040 MHz).

Gigabyte's card also features a 512-bit memory interface, 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, and dual DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI outputs. No word yet on pricing (or an actual release date).

ASUS has today confirmed that it is building a custom-cooled Radeon R9 290X card by showcasing the upcoming R9 290X DirectCU II. Seen below, ASUS' card makes use of Super Alloy Power technology to deliver more stable voltage and overclocking performance, is equipped with a PCB strengthening bracket and is paired up with a beefy cooler boasting two fans (including one CoolTech spinner) and four nickel-plated heatpipes (two are 10 mm pipes).

ASUS is still working on the R9 290X DirectCU II so there may be some changes for the release version. No word yet on a launch plan.

Here are the first pictures of a custom-design PCB for AMD's 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon. Pictured below is a pallet (a set of two uncut PCBs that are just punched, wired and stacked) of the MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning. It exposes both the obverse and reverse sides of the PCB. MSI is taking no chances in giving "Hawaii" a strong electrical muscle, given that it's quite possibly the most power hungry GPU out there (even if not the GPU with the most transistors).

The MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning PCB features a 15+2 phase VRM that draws power from a trio of power connectors, which is a first for single-GPU graphics cards. These include two 8-pin connectors, and a 6-pin. One can also make out three 4-pin fan connectors, and a few voltage measurement points. Display connectors include a pair of piggy-backed DVI connectors, and the usual DisplayPort and HDMI fare. The PCB overall, appears to be a good centimeter taller than what constitutes as "full-height" for add-on cards. The extra height creates room for a BIOS switch, some VRM circuitry, and the power connectors.

AMD is serious about putting two 6.2 billion-transistor "Hawaii" GPUs onto a single board, in a future dual-GPU graphics card it reportedly codenamed "Vesuvius," after the famous volcanic peak just off the coast of Naples. The card will feature two "Hawaii" GPUs with core configurations that are unknown at this point, but the source suggests it's in the maxed out "XT" configuration. AMD could, of course tinker with clock speeds, compared to the GHz-range Radeon R9 290X. We can't even imagine how AMD will handle power and thermals, given how its handling of the two on the R9 290X has been less than exemplary.

As a little weekend treat AMD has rolled out a new build of the Catalyst 13.11 graphics drivers, the Beta9.4. This release improves CrossFire scaling in Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer and is claimed to 'maybe' fix the intermittent black screens or display loss observed on some Radeon R9 290X and R9 290 cards. The mobile-friendly version of the driver comes with Enduro profiles for XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Need for Speed Rivals.

The Catalyst 13.11 Beta9.4 is available for Windows 8.1/8/7 and features support for the Radeon R9, R7, HD 7000, HD 6000 and HD 5000 Series cards.

Download: Catalyst 13.11 Beta9.4 for Windows / Mobility Catalyst 13.11 Beta9.4 for Windows

SAPPHIRE Technology, the world leading supplier of graphics cards based on the latest GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture from AMD, has just announced that it will now bundle vouchers for the exciting new game Battlefield 4 with several new products in its recently launched R-Series of graphics accelerators.

Battlefield 4 has been heralded as the most exciting and realistic game to be launched for some time, and looks its best and runs most smoothly on GCN based graphics cards. SAPPHIRE originally launched a Special Edition of the flagship R9 290X graphics accelerator bundled with a Battlefield 4 voucher.

Auburn-based Koolance Inc. has now made available its own full cover water block for AMD's flagship card, the Radeon R9 290X. Dubbed VID-AR290X, the block weighs 0.91 kg, it offers G 1/4 BSPP threading, and features a 'high-performance microfin (0.5 mm) design made of solid copper with anti-corrosive nickel plating'.

The VID-AR290X can be used for single and multi-card configurations and is available for $129.99.

Launches of non-reference design GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics cards are only a matter of time, with HardwareLuxx.de scoring pictures of Galaxy GeForce GTX 780 Ti HOF (hall of fame) graphics card. The HOF series from Galaxy is characterized with its milky white PCB. The GTX 780 Ti HOF could feature the same 2+ slot cooling solution, and the same PCB, as the GTX 780 HOF, which the company launched this July. You can tell it's a GTX 780 Ti by looking at its ASIC marking, GK110-425-B1. Its exact clock speeds are still under the wraps. The source expects non-reference design GTX 780 Ti cards to launch around late-November and early-December, strategically timed against non-reference Radeon R9 290X.

Here's the first picture of an AIC partner-branded GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics card, by Gigabyte in this case. The card appears to stick to NVIDIA's reference board design, which is practically indistinguishable from the standard GTX 780 and GTX TITAN, except for the special markings. Specifications of the card appear to be consistent with older leaks. Based on the 28 nm "GK110" GPU, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti features 2,880 CUDA cores, 240 TMUs, 48 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 3 GB of memory. Its core is clocked at 876 MHz, with a maximum GPU Boost frequency of 928 MHz. The memory is clocked on par with the GTX 770, at 7.00 GHz, churning out a stellar 336 GB/s memory bandwidth. NVIDIA is reportedly targeting a $699.99 price-point with the GTX 780 Ti, which would be $150 costlier than AMD's Radeon R9 290X.

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is pleased to announce that the existing EK-FC R9-290X series water blocks are compatible with reference design AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics card officially launched on November 5th 2013.

In order to simplify the search for suitable and compatible water block EK has added more than 8 different Radeon R9 290 graphics cards from various manufacturers to EK Cooling Configurator database and compatible graphics cards are being added to the list on daily basis.

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 780 Ti is configured to be a notch above the GTX TITAN after all, as leaked specifications sheets reveal it utilize all components available on the GK110 silicon. Specifications sheets of a Galaxy-branded GTX 780 Ti was leaked to the web by @asder00, which reveal it to feature the full complement of 2,880 CUDA cores on the GK110 silicon, which work out to 240 texture memory units (TMUs). Other specifications include 48 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 3 GB of memory. Clock speeds include 876 MHz core, 928 MHz GPU Boost, and 1750 MHz (7.00 GHz GDDR5-effective) memory. With these specifications on paper, the GTX 780 Ti shouldn't have too many problems beating the GTX TITAN, and with it, the Radeon R9 290X from AMD. It features everything there is on the GK110, half the memory of the GTX TITAN, but one that's faster.

TechPowerUp announced GPU-Z 0.7.4, the latest version of the popular PC graphics subsystem information, monitoring, and diagnostics utility. Version 0.7.4 introduces support for several of the recently launched, and upcoming high-end graphics chips, including Radeon R9 290X, Radeon R9 290, and Radeon R9 270; from AMD's stable, and the GeForce GTX 780 Ti from NVIDIA. Among the other chips supported from the two, include the Radeon HD 8280, HD 7310; and GeForce GT 635, and Quadro K3100M.

GPU-Z 0.7.4 also introduces a number of fixes, including accuracy in reporting release date of the Radeon R9 280X, die-size of AMD "Tahiti," ROP counts on Intel "Haswell" and "Ivy Bridge" IGPs. The new GPU-Z also lets you extract video BIOS from AMD Radeon cards even without any driver for the GPU being installed. The mini stress-test that clogs the PCIe bus interface, forcing it to run at maximum possible speeds (thereby giving you an accurate picture of the PCIe configuration), can now be paused by left-clicking the stress render window. A few rare crashes with systems running Intel IGPs, were addressed.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.4 | GPU-Z 0.7.4 ASUS ROG-themed

The change-log follows.

With AMD's Radeon R9 290X and the upcoming Radeon R9 290, both NVIDIA's GTX TITAN, and GTX 780 are disrupted at their price points. NVIDIA is fixing its GTX TITAN competitive woes with the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, but it's looking like the GTX 780, despite its price cut to $500, could face trouble from the cheaper Radeon R9 290. NVIDIA's more hands-on solution? Launch a new SKU, that's and backed by non-reference designs for the most part, which some of its add-in card (AIC) partners are referring to as "GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition."

Simply put, the "GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition" is your ordinary GTX 780 with increased clock speeds of 1006 MHz core, 1046 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 6.00 GHz memory. The card is based on a new stepping of the GK110 silicon, labeled "GK110-300-B1," compared to the original's "GK110-300-A1." Expreview discovered its Inno3D GTX 780 iChill HerculeZ 3000 graphics card to be based on this new silicon, and at its given speeds of 1006/1046/6008 MHz, found to to be about 15 percent faster than a standard GTX 780, and about 7 percent faster than a GTX TITAN. It's also about 6.2 percent faster than an R9 290X on the same test-bed. Power consumption isn't up significantly, and the cooler that's an Arctic Cooling solution, does a good job at keeping the temperatures manageable, and keeps throttle limits away. Find the complete review at the source.

Launch of AMD's Radeon R9 290 (non-X) is reportedly pushed back by a week, to Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The card was expected to launch on October 31, 2013. The reason for this delay? AMD reportedly developed a new driver that significantly improves performance on the R9 290. AMD pushed this driver onto reviewers at the last minute, and asked them to re-bench their R9 290 samples from scratch, extending their NDA till the 5th. The driver reportedly makes the R9 290 extremely competitive with GeForce GTX 780. A side-effect of that would be that the recently launched Radeon R9 290X could be rendered unattractive. It remains to be seen if the driver also proportionately improves performance on the R9 290X, and how AMD ends up pricing the R9 290.

Aqua Computers latest addition to their full cover water blocks is the kryographics Hawaii for R9 290X cards. The block is entirely made in Germany and milled from 1kg high-purity electrolytic copper raw material. It covers the GPU, all RAM chips and the voltage regulators. All areas are covered by the flow path of the cooling liquid to provide an excellent cooling performance. The GPU is covered by a micro structure with a 0.5mm grid. To efficiently cool down the voltage regulators this block also features the 3D flow technique which uses a lateral flow path to transport water through the Plexiglas directly to this array.

The contact surface of the base is high gloss polished. To gain the last bit of cooling performance the kryographics Hawaii for 290X allows using thermal grease instead of thermal pads for the RAM chips. Like the base the Plexiglas cover is also milled from a solid block. To avoid the risk of cracks Aqua Computer uses casted Plexiglas and does not drill any threads inside the cover. The cover is held in place by a stainless steel frame which allows for an evenly distributed pressure.