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

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3DVagabond said:
In the charts ~1/2 of them say 290X and the others say 290X uber. Very confusing on what settings it's being compared at.
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based on the main body of text, i believe they are comparing 290x silent and uber modes with the triX. so if it says 290X they mean silent mode.
 
gorobei said:
based on the main body of text, i believe they are comparing 290x silent and uber modes with the triX. so if it says 290X they mean silent mode.
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Why Uber mode @ 1440 but no Uber mode @ 1080?

Then when they show average clock speeds they only show quiet mode, but when they do noise and power they are showing Uber mode again.
 
Ryan Smith said:
Because we never collected uber mode results for 1080p; Our uber mode results are a subset of our total data (since our primary emphasis is on performance at default).
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Thanks for answering. You really should go one way or the other. Use nothing but one (quiet or uber) or use both (better option, IMO). Maybe you should get a complete data set at both settings? I don't think reusing old data with current data is particularly accurate, anyway. Updated drivers and game patches changes results. Especially when we are often talking low single digit percentage differences between the cards being compared.

As I said, thanks for answering my question.
 
3DVagabond said:
I don't think reusing old data with current data is particularly accurate, anyway. Updated drivers and game patches changes results. Especially when we are often talking low single digit percentage differences between the cards being compared.
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Actually we always validate new drivers to see if performance has changed. For the tests we use there have not been any performance changes since the fan speed refactoring (which was already accounted for).
 
Ryan Smith said:
Actually we always validate new drivers to see if performance has changed. For the tests we use there have not been any performance changes since the fan speed refactoring (which was already accounted for).
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That doesn't account for the missing uber results, which is the real issue I think. You should give us both sets of benches at 1080 as well. If you are taking the time to validate results with current drivers, why not do uber 1080 as well? You have to do 4K and 1440 to validate the prior results. Why not take the opportunity to fill out the benchmarks?
 
I don't think I could get a Sapphire with only a 2 year warranty... What are your thoughts on this? I've had graphic cards die before...
 
shadow9d9 said:
I don't think I could get a Sapphire with only a 2 year warranty... What are your thoughts on this? I've had graphic cards die before...
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Personally I only typically end up keeping cards for <2 years anyway, so for me it's not an issue. It depends on how long you expect to keep it for. Everyone is different.
 
shadow9d9 said:
I don't think I could get a Sapphire with only a 2 year warranty... What are your thoughts on this? I've had graphic cards die before...
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Are you talking about MSRP or market price?

I couldn't imagine buying a Hawaii for gaming @ current market price. You would have to be a serious AMD loyalist.......

At MSRP? Sure....as long as you don't plan on keeping it out of warranty.

The day after my 290 arrived is when the bubble started......lucky.
 
OCGuy said:
Are you talking about MSRP or market price?

I couldn't imagine buying a Hawaii for gaming @ current market price. You would have to be a serious AMD loyalist.......

At MSRP? Sure....as long as you don't plan on keeping it out of warranty.

The day after my 290 arrived is when the bubble started......lucky.
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I plan on keeping it for 6+ years. When I build a new computer, I still use the old one and want it to be viable.

My soon to be old computer has a 6950. Anything less than a 290 wouldn't be much of an upgrade.

As for price, I expect to pay around 400 to 430. Nothing else seems to compare... I'd prefer nvidia, but their offerings can't touch the 290 for price/performance.
 
If you want 6+ years warranty, I think XFX is resurrecting its lifetime warranty on DD coolers for some card series, not sure if 290 is one of them, but 280X is.
 
shadow9d9 said:
I plan on keeping it for 6+ years. When I build a new computer, I still use the old one and want it to be viable.

My soon to be old computer has a 6950. Anything less than a 290 wouldn't be much of an upgrade.

As for price, I expect to pay around 400 to 430. Nothing else seems to compare... I'd prefer nvidia, but their offerings can't touch the 290 for price/performance.
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I wouldn't buy a Hawaii with a stock cooler if it is meant to last 6+ years.....

You aren't going to find one with a warranty over 3 years anyway, but you want a custom cooler to avoid unnecessary degradation.

As for your last sentence, did prices drop back down? I haven't seen MSRP listings for a couple weeks now...
 
OCGuy said:
I wouldn't buy a Hawaii with a stock cooler if it is meant to last 6+ years.....

You aren't going to find one with a warranty over 3 years anyway, but you want a custom cooler to avoid unnecessary degradation.

As for your last sentence, did prices drop back down? I haven't seen MSRP listings for a couple weeks now...
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I am waiting for the aftermarket cooler releases. The Sapphire was just reviewed as the first one, which is what I was referring to. Dell had one 290 today at $420 with free shipping earlier.

There are a few companies with standard lifetime warranties. I am waiting for their releases.
 
Can confirm that pre-orders for this card is live in Europe. You can pre-order it in Sweden, too. It says it will be in stock the 3rd of January.
 
Eh. I dunno. 50$ premium for that cooler on the reference PCB? I was really impressed by the review, but I'm not sure it's worth 50$. The windforce cards generally have a 10$ premium. The DC II has a 20$ premium. The ACX cooler on the nvidia side has a 10$ premium (for non dual BIOS models). The MSI gamer cooler has a 0$ premium on the nvidia side. So sapphire says they want 50$ for a triple fan cooler. Say what now.

So sapphire wants a 50$ premium for that cooler. Reference PCB. Review was impressive, i'm not feeling a 50$ premium for that cooler. If it were a custom PCB with 8 power phases optimized for LN2 like the lightning SKU..MAYBE...50$ seems a little crazy with a ref PCB. There are tons of triple fan coolers that don't add 50$ to a SKU.

The lightning 780 has a 30-50$ premium right now. Yes I know it didn't launch at that price, but MSI came to their senses. I expect the lightning 290X to have a similar premium. 50$ at most. And sapphire wants 50$ for a reference PCB triple fan. Yeah, not feeling it.
 
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Over here in Denmark (Northern Europe!) the Gigabyte WF3 290 is ~$16 less than the Sapphire, and it also includes a copy of BF4, something the Sapphire does not.
Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.. if only there had been any reviews of that card, I'd have jumped on it..!
 
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