Asus R9 290x DCII (Guru3D Review)

[SolMiester]

I would really like to see what these cards are like, all at 1Ghz, which now seems manageable. Would be interesting to see if and where the wide memory bus has legs, and which architecture is stronger.

 

[Nintendesert]

Very impressive card. Looking forward to an Anandtech review of it.

 

[bystander36]

If you want to be fair, you do want to compare aftermarket with aftermarket. Remember that most review sites, when showing you an aftermarket card, compare them to reference designs.

To say the 290x is better because their aftermarket design is almost as fast as the 780ti reference, but much cheaper isn't entirely fair. You might want to see how they compare to the 780ti aftermarket designs first.

The way these cards throttle, rather than boost is also interesting. I'm not sure if I like or dislike it. It is definitely nice in terms of setting a noise limit.

 

[parvadomus]

Facing facts? The 780ti is still faster especially when it's overclocked and even at stock - aftermarket 780ti's are faster.

780TI OVERCLOCKED :

DC II 290X OVERCLOCKED :

Let's not get into that though. I think the 290X DC II is a great card. It isn't faster or better than the best custom 780ti cards, but it is a better value if you can find it at MRSP. Don't misunderstand me here because I really like the 290X DC II - it is everything the reference SHOULD have been.

Now you can stop with the attacks and actually do a proper rebuttal to my points, which were all factual. Even the HardOCP crossfire 290X tests, done on an open test bench, Brent stated that the fan cap had to be raised past 55% in overdrive to maintain clocks. This is an open test bench mind you. And i'm sure you're 100% aware that silent mode will throttle.

Now this is a tangent and I don't feel like going down this road, because the DC II 290X is a great card. But you're the one being rude with personal attacks, and everything I stated is factual. Therefore, next time you can just think for a second before you hit post.

OK, wanna wait for Matrix/Lightning/Toxic whatever edition 290X might incarnate? That chart is irrelevant now.
Going back on topic: Link it looks like a simple cooler on the 290X will make the stock 780TI irrelevant at its current price.

 

[Teizo]

Nice card. As quiet as it is, you can set a manual fan profile and get good overclocking results from it for sure.

 

[hawtdawg]

Doesn't seem like it's going to be able to match the type of overclocks seen by the 780/780Ti cards.

 

[moonbogg]

Can't get over this thing. Its so perfect I have to have it. But wait until early next year? That sounds so absurd. In any case, the next card I get will be a DCII something!

 

[Silverforce11]

Moonbogg, get the Sapphire version, its design and cooler is much more impressive.

 

[blastingcap]

Reference cards will throttle at their default fan, even uber mode 55% isn't enough for single cards in some games and thats shown by reviewers who test in ideal situations, open bench or high airflow cases. It's just a horrible cooler and I would never buy it without the intention of going water cooling.

We all knew these aftermarket cards will fix the issues tho, so no real surprises.

And it does trade blows very well versus the much more expensive 780 ti, wins some, lose some. If SKYMTL is correct and he is able to squeeze 1.3ghz on it, then its an awesome card, despite the VRM temps (asus uses different VRM components than reference).

I agree, I dislike the noise on reference 290. I can live with it, but I'd rather get an aftermarket card. Can't wait till Mantle games come out.

 

[Teizo]

Doesn't seem like it's going to be able to match the type of overclocks seen by the 780/780Ti cards.

No, but as long as they can get stock on hand and the LTC miners don't screw up the price the card will serve it's purpose very well.

If they have stock issues and pricing issues due to LTC, then that will be very unfortunate because it's obvious these aftermarket 290/X cards are going to be very nice.

 

[blackened23]

I agree with that sentiment. With these designs the 290X and 290 are looking like great products now. I couldn't say the same for reference - I look forward to seeing even more non reference aftermarket cards.

Like you said though, the price is critical. Hopefully that situation will fix itself soon.

 

[3DVagabond]

This card is nice, but the 290(nonX) cards are going to be the real winners. They're will be no perceptible difference and ~$150 less ( ~$420 once inventories settle down).

 

[moonbogg]

This card is nice, but the 290(nonX) cards are going to be the real winners. They're will be no perceptible difference and ~$150 less ( ~$420 once inventories settle down).

A 290 card like this at a little over $400 would absolutely murder the market and be the go-to card for many people (including me of course). I do have concerns about the supply/demand issue taking too long to settle down. If it takes a few months for it to happen, then I might as well wait for next gen cards because they won't be too far off at that point. This is as time sensitive as it is price sensitive.

 

[Sunburn74]

Out of reference, when is NVIDIA slated to release their next set of GPUs anyway?

 

[blastingcap]

Out of reference, when is NVIDIA slated to release their next set of GPUs anyway?

Before end of March 2014 based on the latest rumors I've heard, but I could be wrong.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/33362-maxwell-geforce-cards-shipping-by-march-2014
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?41151-Maxwell-Geforce-cards-shipping-by-March-2014

 

[Borealis7]

sure the 780TI is 10% faster when overclocked...but for 200$ more?
the 290X offers better performance for the buck.

 

[CakeMonster]

That fudzilla article has no credibility, it states that Maxell will be much more power efficient but it says it can be either 28nm or 20nm....

 

[Borealis7]

That fudzilla article has no credibility, it states that Maxell will be much more power efficient but it says it can be either 28nm or 20nm....

it's still possible on 28nm to be more power efficient, after all - it's a different architecture.
personally, i hope we won't see a new architecture on 28nm.

 

[blackened23]

That fudzilla article has no credibility, it states that Maxell will be much more power efficient but it says it can be either 28nm or 20nm....

I think it's very credible. Gains are still possible on 28nm, see Apple's A7 for proof of that.

We more or less know that 20nm won't be ready for prime time until 2H 2014, and wafer costs are ridiculously expensive. With that being the case, I think it's actually pretty likely that Maxwell will debut at 28nm, with a refresh in 2H 2014 as a 20nm part. I'd say that Maxwell will get a mid range part in Q1 2014 (perhaps it will be GK104 all over again) with a true high end part in H2 2014.

There's also the fact that AMD has done a refresh on 28nm for their GPUs, nvidia has not. GK110 has been around since 2012, nvidia will do their 28nm refresh on 28nm and it should be a good bit more efficient and faster - although I don't think the high end Maxwell part will debut until 20nm is ready.

 

[RussianSensation]

A 290 card like this at a little over $400 would absolutely murder the market and be the go-to card for many people (including me of course). I do have concerns about the supply/demand issue taking too long to settle down. If it takes a few months for it to happen, then I might as well wait for next gen cards because they won't be too far off at that point. This is as time sensitive as it is price sensitive.

Pretty much this. If R9 290 Asus DCUII is $420, then you could buy practically 2 of those for a price of a single GTX780 TI Lightning/Classified. However, if prices of LTC are high, retailers will continue to add premiums to R9 290 cards ($519-529), eroding much of their value proposition.

As I have said before, for the majority of PC gamers a reference card is not a good buy, regardless if it's from NV or AMD because most after-market cards can give you lower temperatures and noise levels:

"That consistency leads directly to substantially better in-game performance. To put it into context, when in Performance Mode the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC easily outpaces the reference card’s Uber Mode while maintaining a noise level below NVIDIA’s reference GTX 780 Ti. That’s impressive to say the least."

 

[Z15CAM]

Moonbogg, get the Sapphire version, its design and cooler is much more impressive.

That Sapphire solution looks like the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III with added direct contact to the Heat Pipes for the VRM's using the reference PCB design and should be verily good.

Looks like ASUS redesigned the VRM's on the PCB for the DUII making it a better solution then Sapphire to me. I haven't seen any reviews on the MSI Twin Frozr but I see NCIX CA has a MSI R9 290X Twin Frozr listed as pre-order for a ridiculous $700.

 

[Psyside]

That Sapphire solution looks like the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III with added direct contact to the Heat Pipes for the VRM's using the reference PCB design and should be verily good.

Looks like ASUS redesigned the VRM's on the PCB for the DUII making it a better solution then Sapphire to me. I haven't seen any reviews on the MSI Twin Frozr but I see NCIX CA has a MSI R9 290X Twin Frozr listed as pre-order for a ridiculous $700.

1. The temps from the review are most likley anomally, look at GTX780/Titan temps.

2. Sapphire always had crap vrm design, which overheated, from 20 Sapphire cards on 18 there is/was overheating, 6870, 7950, 6950, 7970.

3. 290X DCII is great card, but believe it or not, the vrm on reference design is as good or maybe even better, the mosfets are for sure.

 

[CakeMonster]

"That consistency leads directly to substantially better in-game performance. To put it into context, when in Performance Mode the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC easily outpaces the reference card’s Uber Mode while maintaining a noise level below NVIDIA’s reference GTX 780 Ti. That’s impressive to say the least."

Reference GTX 780 Ti is quite noisy though. Even reference 780 is on the noise side. I'd like to see this card compared to the other DC2 versions, which is the only useful benchmark for me. Is it noisier than DC2 780? Or DC2 7970 for that mater. I suspect it is because everything seems to indicate that this chips needs a lot of cooling.

 

[bgt]

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_radeon_r9_290x_directcuii_oc_review,1.html I'm sure you've seen it, but this looks really nice. When the 290's like these come out I'm going to have a really hard time not pulling the trigger on those sexy beasts.

This is a very nice card:thumbsup: Wonder what the price will be here?

 

[RussianSensation]

Reference GTX 780 Ti is quite noisy though. Even reference 780 is on the noise side. I'd like to see this card compared to the other DC2 versions, which is the only useful benchmark for me. Is it noisier than DC2 780? Or DC2 7970 for that mater. I suspect it is because everything seems to indicate that this chips needs a lot of cooling.

Sorry I should have made it clearer. Of course if you slap this cooler on a card that uses less power such as GTX660Ti or GTX770, it will be quieter. The point is people made a huge fuss for 1 month over the crappy reference design on R9 290 series. I have stated from the beginning that for most users, it's worth to wait for after-market cards anyway. The after-market designs, despite a hot and power hungry R9 290 chip, are already beating reference GTX780/780Ti in noise levels. The argument that NV's reference design is so much superior to AMD's was blown way out of proportion since for most of us something like a DCUII blows away the reference NV design anyway. I realize that AMD should have spent more $ on the reference cooler but it would still loose badly to the best after-market cards.