Custom R9 290/290X Reviews/Availability/Listings thread

[IEC]

My coolest running 290 (65C) is ~190W under mining load @ 1000/1370. So I think it's possible with good cooling to be roughly equivalent to 780 Ti power efficiencies.

 

[Z15CAM]

I know nothing.

Balla Purrs - You have Teeth and Claws. You share interest in what every AnandTech Forum Member wants and that is a fair share of Milk. Most of all, I know everyone wants to hear what you say.

290 (65C) is ~190W under mining load @ 1000/1370.

Now that's Good Stats for SCALING. Is it a Stock Reference Card? What's the Hash Rate? What vRam MFGr?

What this solution can help in 290 Non-X power consumption?

Hate to say this; but, from what I see with AMD's position other then their OEM Air Thermal Metering Technology, it appears to indicate your statement is irrelevant (LOL): such that, if one intends to effectively OC Hawaii, you need to Water Cool and AIB Partners have no position but to design cooling systems based on water cooling. I've answered rhetorically.

In other words, AMD have pushed the Hawaii GPU and VRM to MAX Specs on Air with their so called Screaming Air Cooler but Water Cooling will bring about Cooler, Quieter and Better Performance.

In my opinion AIB Air Cooling Solutions are going to be Bitter for Hawaii, especially if you intend to OC. Not saying they will be quieter within a Nominal Range. Lets hope AMD Driver Development and Mantle will Over-Write my words and project AMD well ahead of nVidia, this time.

 

[Fastx]

Sapphire Tri-X 290 listed at Amazon for $499.00 shipped, it is out of stock but can be ordered.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Versi...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[nardz84]

Now that mine is ordered, here's the Asus R9 290 DirectCU2 link at Amazon. $439.99 but there's a 2-4 week lead time.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HWQUI02/..._26725410_item

 

[3DVagabond]

Now that mine is ordered, here's the Asus R9 290 DirectCU2 link at Amazon. $439.99 but there's a 2-4 week lead time.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HWQUI02/..._26725410_item

Ever wonder if the whole reason the market is up is because you need to buy something? /murphy's law

 

[wbynum]

Sapphire Tri-X 290 listed at Amazon for $499.00 shipped, it is out of stock but can be ordered.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Versi...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I wonder how long "Temporarily out of stock" means. I keep thinking about hitting the purchase button for a couple Tri-x's on Newegg but it is hard to support their price gouging.

 

[nardz84]

Ever wonder if the whole reason the market is up is because you need to buy something? /murphy's law

True, I settled on paying sales tax with Amazon and waiting, figured newegg wasn't going to return to normal anytime soon.

 

[3DVagabond]

Just looking at TPU's 290X DCII review, between the 780ti and the DCII they are equal in 4 games (<1fps difference), The 780ti is faster in 7 games and the DCII is faster in 5 games.
Power usage the 290X uses 7w more on avg. and 2w more peak running Crysis 2.

If you set the bios to quiet the 290X is 32dba vs. 39dba for the 780 ti (7dba quieter). Absolutely no loss in performance for the 290X, but it does run @ 94°C, the same as the reference card. Set it on the performance bios and it's 42dba (3bda louder) and it runs @ 78°C (780 ti 83°C).

That's about as close as it can get. Too bad you can't get the DCII for MSRP. That skews everything and takes away the value advantage of the DCII.

 

[ams23]

TPU's power consumption metric is not very useful because they only measure power consumption in Crysis 2 (which happens to be a game that they do not even benchmark for performance!). The only proper way to gauge power efficiency would be to measure actual power consumed with each respective game, and then compare that to actual performance measured with each respective game using the same game sequence.

 

[3DVagabond]

TPU's power consumption metric is not very useful because they only measure power consumption in Crysis 2 (which happens to be a game that they do not even benchmark for performance!). The only proper way to gauge power efficiency would be to measure actual power consumed with each respective game, and then compare that to actual performance measured with each respective game using the same game sequence.

Without doing it as you say and then comparing it to TPU's, we have no way of knowing if Crysis 2 power usage isn't useful. Crysis 2 is a game that both companies should have well optimized drivers for though. I can't think of any objective reason to believe it's not representative of typical gaming power usage.

 

[ams23]

Without doing it as you say and then comparing it to TPU's, we have no way of knowing if Crysis 2 power usage isn't useful. Crysis 2 is a game that both companies should have well optimized drivers for though. I can't think of any objective reason to believe it's not representative of typical gaming power usage.

Power efficiency = perf. per watt. One cannot determine that without measuring both perf. AND power consumed on the same task, period.

When Anandtech measured both perf. and power consumed in Crysis 3, GTX 780 had ~ 15% better perf. per watt in comparison to R9 290X. Like it or not, GK110 is more power-efficient on average compared to Hawaii.

 

[wbynum]

Broke down and ordered two Tri-x 290's from Newegg. If I had ordered from Amazon I would have to wait for the cards and pay tax. No tax with Newegg and they are throwing in a free junk Radeon R7 240 video card per Tri-x 290 ordered. So final price breakdown per card:

$600 - ~$20 (ebay the 240 card) - $12 (Fatwallet 2% cash back) - $6 (CC 1% cash back) = ~$562 shipped.

Every AMD card I have bough over the years has been paid back with mining and then some. These will be no different.

 

[blastingcap]

Nobody can tell what the future will hold for sure. Can't make definitive statements like that. But Tri-X is a good gaming card in any case.

 

[el etro]

Power efficiency = perf. per watt. One cannot determine that without measuring both perf. AND power consumed on the same task, period.

When Anandtech measured both perf. and power consumed in Crysis 3, GTX 780 had ~ 15% better perf. per watt in comparison to R9 290X. Like it or not, GK110 is more power-efficient on average compared to Hawaii.

Did you look the effect of the AMP! solution on GTX 480? Why not believe it can help 290 power consumption too?

Just looking at TPU's 290X DCII review, between the 780ti and the DCII they are equal in 4 games (<1fps difference), The 780ti is faster in 7 games and the DCII is faster in 5 games.
Power usage the 290X uses 7w more on avg. and 2w more peak running Crysis 2.

780Ti/GK110 wins because of Blizzard engine games and Batman Nvidia Origins:



-Diablo 3: 780Ti scores 20% more FPS than perf. mode 290xDCU;

-Splinter Cell: 780Ti scores 40% more FPS than 290x DCU perf. mode;

-World of Warcrack: 780Ti scores 15% more FPS than 290xDCU;

-Batman Nvidia Origins: 780Ti scores 20% more FPS than 290xDCU.

Really, you have to thank 290x is not much behind 780Ti in this test...

If you set the bios to quiet the 290X is 32dba vs. 39dba for the 780 ti (7dba quieter). Absolutely no loss in performance for the 290X, but it does run @ 94°C, the same as the reference card. Set it on the performance bios and it's 42dba (3bda louder) and it runs @ 78°C (780 ti 83°C).

That's about as close as it can get. Too bad you can't get the DCII for MSRP. That skews everything and takes away the value advantage of the DCII.

Could ASUS fixed vrm cooling of the card before send a sample to TPU?

 

[wbynum]

Nobody can tell what the future will hold for sure. Can't make definitive statements like that. But Tri-X is a good gaming card in any case.

True, but history shows that my statement is far more likely than the doom and gloom statements over the last 3 years.

 

[blastingcap]

If going by history, you could simply buy coins directly. If you page average USA electric prices then buying coins has historically been 10-20 times more profitable than mining--and that's been true every single year. So you can spend 10-20 times less money on video cards and get the same return. Some people split the difference and mine some and buy some as well, especially if you want the cards for gaming anyway. Good luck.

 

[3DVagabond]

Power efficiency = perf. per watt. One cannot determine that without measuring both perf. AND power consumed on the same task, period.

When Anandtech measured both perf. and power consumed in Crysis 3, GTX 780 had ~ 15% better perf. per watt in comparison to R9 290X. Like it or not, GK110 is more power-efficient on average compared to Hawaii.

Like it or not? All I did was post the results from a site we've used regularly on this forum. You are the one who doesn't like TPU's results. I was neither bashing or defending them. Except to say that both companies drivers would be mature with Crysis 2. The point of that statement is it should mean that both GPU's are being stressed to near their maximum.

Was Anand comparing the 290X DCII? Looking at TPU's perf/W they would have the 780 ti ~12% more efficient than the reference 290X but ~2% more efficient than the DCII. hardly enough of a difference to get all defensive about.

The only thing I said I didn't like was the inflated pricing due to mining. It would be good if we could get this level of performance for $600 instead of $700.

 

[3DVagabond]

Could ASUS fixed vrm cooling of the card before send a sample to TPU?

I doubt it, there's nothing in the review that would suggest they did. It didn't O/C worth a darn, so that might point towards saying that they didn't. It's just at 1050MHz the VRM running hot probably doesn't affect performance/stability. VRM can operate a lot hotter than we've seen them get in reviews. They just won't give you as smooth a current delivery as needed to get the best O/C's, from what I can gather. Although I'm not sure of the temp tolerance of Asus' Digi+ VRM. Military spec, which is what the reference VRM are, is minimum of 125°C, although some military grade specs call for as high as 175°C. There's no reason to believe though that the spec is any higher than the minimum. Still ~100°C is nothing to get concerned about unless you are planning on pumping extra voltage into it. Temps can rise fast with additional voltage.

 

[3DVagabond]

If going by history, you could simply buy coins directly. If you page average USA electric prices then buying coins has historically been 10-20 times more profitable than mining--and that's been true every single year. So you can spend 10-20 times less money on video cards and get the same return. Some people split the difference and mine some and buy some as well, especially if you want the cards for gaming anyway. Good luck.

He's talking about buying video cards for gaming and mining to subsidize/offset the cost. He's not talking about the best way to invest in bitcoins. He can't play video games by buying bitcoins.

 

[blastingcap]

I have 3dvagabond on ignore but that guy needs to consolidate his posts instead of tripleposting, wtf. He probably replied to me with something off-topic that I already addressed in my post, like playing games on cards. Lol.

 

[Yreka]

I have 3dvagabond on ignore but that guy needs to consolidate his posts instead of tripleposting, wtf. He probably replied to me with something off-topic that I already addressed in my post, like playing games on cards. Lol.

He basically complimented your keen observation of the situation, and stated that he agrees 100%

 

[3DVagabond]

I have 3dvagabond on ignore but that guy needs to consolidate his posts instead of tripleposting, wtf. He probably replied to me with something off-topic that I already addressed in my post, like playing games on cards. Lol.

LOL

 

[Imouto]

Performance of 780Ti is better in TPU test, maybe because of Blizzard games(Games where 780Ti is having a 20-40% lead over 290x, and anyone who play this games will use a 290x/780Ti). And there 780Ti its not even close to the "miles away better efficiency".
And DCU is not the better or even less the definitive cooling solution for 290 cards.

I agree that TPU's choice of games ain't the best, more taking in mind that WoW is a 9 years old game that looks 15, Diablo 3 is almost in the 300 fps realm with these cards and Splinter Cell is a crappy 7.4 metacritic score game.

I want The Walking Dead by Telltales in the roundup. Haohaohao.

TPU's power consumption metric is not very useful because they only measure power consumption in Crysis 2 (which happens to be a game that they do not even benchmark for performance!). The only proper way to gauge power efficiency would be to measure actual power consumed with each respective game, and then compare that to actual performance measured with each respective game using the same game sequence.

Or you could look at the perf per watt page in that review and read the methodology.

LOL

I consider being on his ignore list a bliss. The only problem is having to deal with messages like this from time to time. I don't really know how many times he said the same already but it's pretty close to Blackened23 with his Hawaii bashing.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Like it or not?

The bar was raised?

 

[blastingcap]

The bar was raised?

Even with currently awful prices on R9's, the 780 Ti isn't good price/performance either. In a month or two we'll have Maxwell which may finally drive prices down a little bit.