MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning 4 GB Review

Name: MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning 4 GB
Brand: MSI

W1zzard

on Apr 22nd, 2014,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: MSI

(35 Comments) »

Introduction

AMD's Radeon R9 290X is built on the company's Hawaii GPU, the first truly new high-end graphics chip from the company in a very long time (21 months). Using 6.8 billion transistors, the GPU is built on a 28 nanometer process at TSMC, Taiwan. It features 2816 shaders and 64 ROPs connected to 4 GB of memory using a 512-bit wide memory bus.

We are reviewing MSI's flagship R9 290X Lightning today. It comes with a large triple-slot, triple-fan cooler and MSI says it to be equipped with everything hardcore overclockers need to break world records. MSI overclocked GPU frequency by 80 MHz out of the box, while memory remains unchanged.

The MSI R9 290X Lightning is currently available online for $699.

MSI R9 290X Lightning Market Segment Analysis
	HD 7970 GHz Ed.	GeForce GTX 680	GeForce GTX 780	Radeon R9 290	Radeon R9 290X	MSI R9 290X Lightning	Radeon HD 7990	GeForce GTX Titan	GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Shader Units	2048	1536	2304	2560	2816	2816	2x 2048	2688	2880
ROPs	32	32	48	64	64	64	2x 32	48	48
Graphics Processor	Tahiti	GK104	GK110	Hawaii	Hawaii	Hawaii	2x Tahiti	GK110	GK110
Transistors	4310M	3500M	7100M	6200M	6200M	6200M	2x 4310M	7100M	7100M
Memory Size	3072 MB	2048 MB	3072 MB	4096 MB	4096 MB	4096 MB	2x 3072 MB	6144 MB	3072 MB
Memory Bus Width	384 bit	256 bit	384 bit	512 bit	512 bit	512 bit	2x 384 bit	384 bit	384 bit
Core Clock	1050 MHz	1006 MHz+	863 MHz+	947 MHz	1000 MHz	1080 MHz	1000 MHz	837 MHz+	876 MHz+
Memory Clock	1500 MHz	1502 MHz	1502 MHz	1250 MHz	1250 MHz	1250 MHz	1500 MHz	1502 MHz	1750 MHz
Price	$470	$400	$480	$460	$570	$700	$900	$1000	$660

Packaging

You will receive:

Graphics card
Driver CD + documentation
3x Voltage measurement cable
2x PCIe 6-pin to 8-pin adapter
PCIe Molex to 6-pin adapter
VRM heatsink for liquid-nitrogen use

The Card

MSI is using a predominantly black cooler with a yellow fan that has a few yellow highlights radiating outward. The shroud looks exactly the same as that of the GTX 770 Lightning. Dimensions of the card are 30 cm x 13 cm.

With the thick heatsink, the card takes up three slots when installed in your system.

Display connectivity options include two DVI ports, one HDMI port and one DisplayPort. You may use all outputs at the same time, so triple-monitor surround gaming is possible with one card, even more so if you use a MST DisplayPort hub.

The GPU also includes an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible, which includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support.