AMD Radeon R9 290X reviews

Sorry to spoil the party, but isn't there a dedicated thread somewhere for nonsense yt vids? I mean, the first one was funny maybe, even the second or third, but I'm really getting tired of it and now you're not even safe from this crap on b3d.

 

The novelty of technical or academic points of discussion in the architecture thread has a limited or sometimes inverse relationship to how good a GPU is as a product, however.

 

There you go... What kind of monitor? I'd love to team these 290x puppies with a ~"4k" monitor so that they could really stretch their legs...!

I'm also looking forward to True Video game support--that demo I listened to with headphones was incredible--amazing stuff and with my *normal* stereo phones, no less! The first time I listened I yanked the phones off because I thought someone was knocking at my door (which is to the left rear and some distance away from my leather desk chair)! Damn! Fool me once... Great stuff.

 

Yea, it probably would be a concern for folks with open-air rigs that sit 12" away from their ears, folks who play with the fan speeds just to hear what it sounds like on max blow, no doubt about it. But if you're like me and you have a case (enclosure, whatever) that sits 3-5 feet from your ears, I image things would be much quieter in actual use.

I don't get the temp thing...people are reacting as if 95C is lava and 80C is ice... My old 5770 gpu was designed for indefinite 100C load operation--and that card is still going strong after four years, in another box now. The fan will fail before the gpu, imo. I would think that processors rated for indefinite high-temp operation would have to be engineered tougher/better than chips designed to run at lower temps, actually.

But...we're also talking about a reference design here, aren't we? AMD is smart to leave room for innovation to its board partners, imo. I mean, the fact that a 290x at 1/2 the price of a Titan sometimes equals but most of the time annihilates a Titan (the real "Titanfall" story)--even with a reference design card--really impresses me. Not only that, but nV has had several months to bring maturity to Titan drivers and we're working with the first set of R9 beta drivers AMD has released. I would not be surprised to see that there are a few more rabbits to pull out of the AMD-driver hat...

 

Very nice way of putting it--who wants speculation and hypothesis when we now have the real thing to discuss?

 

I'm pretty sure that concern for GPU temp has been constant since the arrival of the 3D accelerator. Though considering the issues in the past ~8 years with failed solder joints due to thermal cycles, maybe it is valid to some extent. (Yes I know about the ROHS solder aspect). But I don't think most of the people whining are thinking solder failure - it seems like people just want their GPU to magically run at room temp.

Hey I once put a Peltier on a Matrox G400. Hehe. My perspective on GPU power output has changed a little since then.

 

Yeah it is as quiet at gtx780(quiet mode) in a closed case, few feet away from the user test,

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/amd-r9-290x-review-part-1/19/

and the cooler is rather good if you can live with noise,
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/1...as-high-end-product-line/4#comment-1095207139

and ati has had 90C card like 4850 single slot before.

It's a great card, I'd be more concerned about the clockspeed changes and that the 64ROPs performance seems a little underwhelming considering an overclocked 780 can chase it down at 4k, better drivers might do the trick in that department though(and overclock on memory, keep forgetting that they are clocked lower).

 

3x1200P Eyefinity

 

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/910-6/performances-theoriques-pixels.html

 

So, Radeon 290X is launched. Reviews all over the webs, some more detailed and interesting, others not so much, perhaps even with some flaws here and there....

Techpowerup. Radeon 290X Review:
Page 5- Closer look:

AMD's Hawaii graphics processor uses the GCN shader architecture. It is produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC Taiwan, with 4.31 billion transistors on a 438 mm² die

So, does it have 6200M transistors, or 4310M?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X/5.html

And something for the fun

Analogous to OpenGL mega-textures, Tiled Resources is a feature game developers take to because it utilizes monolithic, large textures instead of countless small ones in a 3D scene by allocating portions of the texture to covering various objects on demand. This is a tangibly more efficient method of resource management and heralds a kind of virtual-memory system for GPUs. Proliferation of DirectX 11.2 doesn't just have lack of adoption by NVIDIA as a roadblock, there's also the OS limitation. DirectX 11.2 is not supported on Windows 7 and requires Windows 8.1, yet Windows 8 and its successor, Windows 8.1, are incredibly unpopular with PC gamers (at least our forum members) due to the idiotic user-interface that insults our intelligence

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X/2.html

Well, it is very inconvenient to keep such a hot device inside my case. I would worry and I would worry a lot. I know about AMD's explanations and promises, and I am aware about warranties but still, it is like holding a hedgehog inside one's panties....

Can't we think about something innovative to keep this temp in check around the 50s or 60s C?

 

Guru3D really likes the Asus DirectCu 290X:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_radeon_r9_290x_directcuii_oc_review,1.html

 

That's more like it!

 

That's clearly the version we've all been waiting for but it should absolutely have been this from day one. AMD totally dropped the ball with that crappy cooler.

This is definitely one awesome card though and way better than the stock 780Ti for the price. A direct comparison to the DirectCU II version of the 780Ti would have been interesting though.

 

Fantastic card. Cool, quiet, fast, and has some OC headroom.

Put that cooler on an R9290 and I'm in.

 

Hardware Canucks too:

I'm waiting for the R9-290 with the HIS IceQ² - they seem to be consistently quieter and cheaper, though I think the Asus cards will overclock more and probably use better components.

Just goes to show how AMD screwed the pooch on the stock coolers. A decent cooler prevents the card from throttling down to lower performance, and are quieter while they do it.

 

Meanwhile AMD has essentially been caught with "the smoking gun" according to Scott at TechReport, regarding review samples being notably better than retail units. It is a fact now unfortunately, even after the fan speed adjustment driver

On the plus side, with all the negative publicity they've gotten over it I doubt they'll ever pull that again.