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

[wand3r3r]

The 750 ti isn't going to affect prices on the 290/x.

 

[wand3r3r]

You 780 ti guys seem lost, the title isn't argue about the 780 ti here.

 

[tulx]

The bar was raised?

Though I'm sure the 780Ti is a good card, I can't imagine why anyone besides a coin miner would care about watt/performance. Surely you have the few disposable cents for electricity if you buy a 600€ video card - you wouldn't care about the fuel mileage when buying a Maybach.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

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.

True, but also the weight of price/perf is severely diminished at $700 because they're all terrible regardless.

Price/Perf is a sweet spot $160-$240 metric where it holds the most weight, above and below that it's quickly fading.

Though I'm sure the 780Ti is a good card, I can't imagine why anyone besides a coin miner would care about watt/performance. Surely you have the few disposable cents for electricity if you buy a 600€ video card - you wouldn't care about the fuel mileage when buying a Maybach.

I care, my 780 has exceptional perf/w, especially when I undervolt and downclock it.

I never used to, but I do now. Specifically because I was water cooling, and my rad wasn't inside so it didn't matter how much heat/noise was populating the air, because that air wasn't around me.

To each their own, we don't all need to agree on what does and doesn't matter and how much it matters, we all have our own choices to make.

 

[Imouto]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...5172-sapphire-r9-290-4gb-tri-x-oc-review.html

OC results without clock graphs or any explanation. Sad that no one except PCPer worried about this.

 

[el etro]

I have 3dvagabond on ignore but that guy needs to consolidate his posts instead of tripleposting, wtf.

The inverse happens here. Ideas never come together at the same time, but i have to fuse 4 ideas or more in one post. Readers that don't read with the same caution all messages may miss my updates. My last post was updated five times.

The worse thing is that i can only talk to you all because we most use tech terms here(Brazilian with "video-game english level" here ).

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.

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.

The best part of TPU reviews to me is the power consumption graphs. Their results question the disparity of power draw between GCN and Kelper cards that most review articles by tech sites shows so much.

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.

If Diablo 3 was not able to be run with a GTX 650Ti maxed out at 2500x1600, then i would not question its inclusion on the graphs. Any AMD/Intel APU can run D3 maxed out at 1080p...
TPU choses games based on popularity, but i think is not the better way to measure video cards power... Anyway is good to have so much games in a test suite.

My problem with their reviews is that nowdays TPU does more effort with the tests on Nvidia cards. Games that favor Kelper(AC IV, Batman, SC: BL) comes to TPU tests since their day 1 and BF4 only came to the test one month later. Have to mention too that they always use the newest driver for Nvidia and not for AMD cards....

PS: IMO, metacritic sucks...

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.

I know on forums many reference 290(x) owners overclocking the cards past 1100Mhz.
AMD's 7970 is designed by 250W tdp, but the card consume far less by TPU data. Its reference cooler is bad, but works good with the card.
7970Ghz reference(a card that you can't buy on market) have the same board aspects, but have the chip pushed so far and reference cooler speed up to maintain the card cool. Reference 7970Ghz reception was the same on tech sites.
290(x) shares the same problem: It's poorly cooled(in efficiency terms, not talking about noise here) no matter how much you speed up the fan, and because this suffer to maintain its max clock speed(But most of time runs at same speeds that GK110 cards run too...)

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...5172-sapphire-r9-290-4gb-tri-x-oc-review.html

OC results without clock graphs or any explanation. Sad that no one except PCPer worried about this.

1250 Mhz on reference PCB. I said you it's possible.

*Edited much later. I started to make this whole post 2 hours ago.*

 

[Imouto]

PS: IMO, metacritic sucks...

It's the user score what's good, not the press one. For example you have Crysis 3 on PC with 76 press and 6.3 user score which is pretty terrible. Press score is in line with the usual super high scores for everything and the user score is in line with a benchmark launched as a game.

If TPU game suite was really about popularity DOTA 2, Skyrim, Borderlands 2 and such should be there. Splinter Cell Blacklist isn't in the top 100 in Steam.

 

[el etro]

It's the user score what's good, not the press one. For example you have Crysis 3 on PC with 76 press and 6.3 user score which is pretty terrible. Press score is in line with the usual super high scores for everything and the user score is in line with a benchmark launched as a game.

76 press is very good for Crysis 3 IMO.
IMO too some critics give too low score to works that they don't like.


http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/can-someone-please-explain-inception-me (do inception really deserve this score?)

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CE6D6163DF930A35754C0A967958260 (do Terminator 2 deserve this low score?)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1219/p16s01-almo.html (LOTR 50% score?)

If TPU game suite was really about popularity DOTA 2, Skyrim, Borderlands 2 and such should be there. Splinter Cell Blacklist isn't in the top 100 in Steam.

User score is that sucks more in Metacritic. A bunch of misinformed internet trolls and wannabe critics giving very low scores to art products(games are art too!) because they don't like them.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-2/resident-evil-4/user-reviews?page=1 (see the negative reviews on Resident evil 4)

http://www.metacritic.com/music/21/adele/user-reviews (girl songs bashed only because she's a pop artist(and i am not a pop fan)

[QUOTE="LegionODorkS" on LOTR TrotK]This ZERO is for the pinheads rating this movie as 'BEST MOVIE EVER'. Yes, if you've seen only three movies in your life-- including the first two installments of this outrageously overrated series-- than yes, FANBOY, this is the best picture ever. If, on the other hand, you're over 3 years old, you may have seen... oh... I don't know... 200 better films, conservatively? Let me guess: George W. Bushole.. best President EVER?!? I thought so...[/QUOTE]
I Agree with him. It's not the best movie ever. But he's the greatest troll ever.







Critics sometimes sucks.

 

[Imouto]

76 press is very good for Crysis 3 IMO.
IMO too some critics give too low score to works that they don't like.

http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/can-someone-please-explain-inception-me (do inception really deserve this score?)

Press (74) vs user (86)

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CE6D6163DF930A35754C0A967958260 (do Terminator 2 deserve this low score?)

Again press (68) vs user (93)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1219/p16s01-almo.html (LOTR 50% score?)

Universal acclaim? 94 vs 89

User score is that sucks more in Metacritic. A bunch of misinformed internet trolls and wannabe critics giving very low scores to art products(games are art too!) because they don't like them.

That's why average works so well in these sites. Every troll can be offset by the majority.

 

[guskline]

How fast can AMD ramp up production of the R9 290/290X to maximize to bitcoin craze? Had the r9 290 stayed at $399 I was seriously considereing 2 for watercooling in rig 1 below. Due to the big jump in price, I opted to upgrade rig 2 to a EVGA GTX780 Classified from 2 GTX660s in SLI.

Is any retailer even selling R9 290s at the original MSRP?

 

[Skurge]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...5172-sapphire-r9-290-4gb-tri-x-oc-review.html

OC results without clock graphs or any explanation. Sad that no one except PCPer worried about this.

Why the heck did they not include Custom 780s? They included custom 780s in the 290X directCU 2 review.

 

[el etro]

Press (74) vs user (86)



Again press (68) vs user (93)



Universal acclaim? 94 vs 89



That's why average works so well in these sites. Every troll can be offset by the majority.

Majority is not always right.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-2/enter-the-matrix (IMO Crysis 3 is better than this game)

Why the heck did they not include Custom 780s? They included custom 780s in the 290X directCU 2 review.

They should did it, and they should include 780Ti stock results too.

Going to highlight the keyword here.

You don't think too EtMatrix is worse than Crysis 3?

 

[Imouto]

Majority is not always right.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-2/enter-the-matrix (IMO Crysis 3 is better than this game)

Going to highlight the keyword here.

IMO

 

[3DVagabond]

Review on the XFX R9 290 Black Edition DD.

http://www.hardware-360.com/xfx-radeon-r9-290-black-edition-double-dissipation-4gb-graphics-card/

Not the most comprehensive review. Still no VRM temps given, unfortunately. The thermal measurements they did take though show excellent results.

There are some inconsistencies in the pics shown. I can only assume that's because they have actual pics they took themselves and then other "images" which are likely CGI renders supplied from XFX rather than actual photos of the card. :\

 

[Imouto]

If we go by the Afterburner screen the thing is throttling badly when OCed.

 

[3DVagabond]

It looks to me that the clocks drop when usage drops to zero.

 

[Imouto]

It looks to me that the clocks drop when usage drops to zero.

Even when it's at 100% usage the clock rate is dropping by ~10%.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

The deep cuts are clearly from usage drop off, however it still throttles more and more under load the longer the the card is run.

Where is the power target slider?

Erm, why the heck are they using AB 2.3.1?

 

[3DVagabond]

Another XFX 290X DD review. This time in Crossfire by [H]OCP

Brent made them sing. Looks like XFX might have something good with this one.

 

[tulx]

Another XFX 290X DD review. This time in Crossfire by [H]OCP

Brent made them sing. Looks like XFX might have something good with this one.

Yep - might just be the card that I'll upgrade my CF XFX 5870ies to.

 

[Skurge]

Toms have a roundup of all the big 3 cards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-and-290x,3728.html

Looks like the Gigabyte card is most improved and is second to the Tri-X. These are all in quiet mode btw. So looks like I made a good choice.

 

[IEC]

Another XFX 290X DD review. This time in Crossfire by [H]OCP

Brent made them sing. Looks like XFX might have something good with this one.

When we look at performance versus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti SLI we also find the XFX R9 290X DD CrossFire coming out on top. This we did not expect. We figured GTX 780 Ti SLI might provide some faster performance in some cases. However, it really didn’t. When playing demanding games at high resolutions and aiming for those high in-game settings R9 290X CrossFire pulled through as the faster solution. When we cranked up AA settings, again R9 290X CrossFire pulled through. There wasn’t one scenario in our gaming experiences that GTX 780 Ti SLI was superior in gameplay experience to R9 290X CrossFire configuration from XFX.

Looks like XFX got it right. I have had negative experiences with XFX coolers in the past but this will make me take a closer look.

 

[SpoCk0nd0pe]

Has anyone seen a review on the powercolor r9 290(x) pcs+? It's supposed to be available here on 31.01. and I would really really like to know how the cooling and noise fares compared to the tri-x.

 

[wbynum]

Anyone found a review comparing the XFX 290 DD to the Sapphire Tri-x? Was thinking about picking up a couple XFX 290 DD's for mining but like everyone else, my experience with the XFX 79XX DD cards left a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyone here mining with the XFX 290 DD?

 

[3DVagabond]

Has anyone seen a review on the powercolor r9 290(x) pcs+? It's supposed to be available here on 31.01. and I would really really like to know how the cooling and noise fares compared to the tri-x.

I'm interested in the powercolor myself. It looks like the same cooler they used on the 7990. That would be triple slot, though. It'll obviously have no trouble cooling a single Hawaii chip though.