[Dead] [Newegg] PowerColor R9 290 = $229.99 AR and FS

[RussianSensation]

[DEAD] as of September 29, 2015

PowerColor TurboDuo Radeon R9 290 AXR9 290 4GBD5-TDHE/OC 4GB 512-Bit GDD

= $249.99 - $20 rebate (expires Sept 30, 2015, Limit 1 per household) = $229.99 with FS

Best card for the $ for those with a sub-$250 budget. Destroys cards like R9 380 4GB and GTX960 2-4GB by 45-50%+.

"PowerColor Radeon R9 290 TurboDuo - $249
NVIDIA simply cannot get the pricing of its sub-$300 lineup right and continues to offer nothing compelling until the $310 GeForce GTX 970. The company may yet make a ton of money with their mid-range line-up, but that's only because of its better sales-force. The Radeon R9 290 TurboDuo from PowerColor is a gem.

At just $249, the Radeon R9 290 TurboDuo offers current-gen tech. Our tests show that the R9 290 is a whopping 52 percent faster than the $50 cheaper GeForce GTX 960 at 1920 x 1080 pixels, our target resolution. It also offers 4 GB of video memory. " ~ TechPowerUp

The video card’s measurements are 10.5 inches in Length, 1.5 inches Wide, and 4.5 inches in height.

Source

If you can't quite stretch it towards a $270 R9 390 or $290-300 GTX970, this is easily the best value in graphics cards right now in the US. Perfect stop-gap GPU to last a gamer 18-24 months to weather to upgrade once 16nm HBM2 products are much more mature and prices have settled down.

 

[Sonikku]

Only 293 watts full system load? Hell, I could run this on my 430watt antec.

 

[RussianSensation]

Only 293 watts full system load? Hell, I could run this on my 430watt antec.

I think it depends on the rest of your system though and how overclocked/overvolted your CPU is. I think it's possible to run a 290 on a 430W high quality PSU, although I am not sure I'd personally do it long-term. I used a 520W with max overclocked i7 860 @ 3.9-4Ghz with HD7970 @ 1150mhz and it handled 100% CPU + GPU load concurrently without issues.

I would suggest that long-term you do think about upgrading the PSU at some point. There are always great deals:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2448872

The Antec 430W is rated up to a maximum of 360W on 12V rail so theoretically it could work:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

Those old PSUs were built like tanks:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=35

 

[b-mac]

Seems like a heck of a deal!

 

[poofyhairguy]

290s will go away soon! Get them while they exist!! Great deal!

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I can't believe the 290s have lasted this long, I figured they'd be tough to find within a month and a half of the launch of the 300 series. How are people not just buying these out already?

 

[DeadFred]

I got in on the XFX 290x for $250 posted here a while back. Its great in games but it has plagued me with black screen crashes while doing simple tasks like web surfing. Ive been trying lots of different fixes Ive read about online and as of now I havent had a crash for about 24 hours......fingers crossed that Ive finally found a real fix.

 

[DeadFred]

Bah! 30 minutes after my last post^ it black screens again.

 

[eternalone]

Yeah Im runnning a R7 260x black screens all the time ATI's little secret google black screens and blue screens with R series cards. Thats why im jumping ship because ATI wont acknowledge the problem with the R series cards , its bad.

 

[RussianSensation]

I got in on the XFX 290x for $250 posted here a while back. Its great in games but it has plagued me with black screen crashes while doing simple tasks like web surfing. Ive been trying lots of different fixes Ive read about online and as of now I havent had a crash for about 24 hours......fingers crossed that Ive finally found a real fix.

It's possible your card's GDDR5 is flawed. Did you consider RMAing it? Also, what is the power supply that you are using?

Do you have Hibernation or sleep enabled?

Yeah Im runnning a R7 260x black screens all the time ATI's little secret google black screens and blue screens with R series cards. Thats why im jumping ship because ATI wont acknowledge the problem with the R series cards , its bad.

That is very strange since R7 260X is just HD7790 (Bonaire) and I do not recall reading about any black screen issues on HD7xxx series of cards. Same question as to DeadFred, did you consider RMAing the card since it's possible your memory is faulty. I am pretty sure you should still have warranty left on your card. Before completely blaming the issue on AMD's drivers/flawed ASIC design, I'd try RMAing it.

Also, do you have hibernation/sleep enabled in the OS?

The symptoms "Monitor enters sleep mode / black screen after reboot" has been an issue on many AMD and some NV cards, including GTX980. I basically disable all sleep functionality all my desktops, regardless if I own an NV or an AMD card. I've done this since I built my first gaming PC and never had any issues with black screens.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Bah! 30 minutes after my last post^ it black screens again.

I RMA'd my Sapphire 290x due to this issue and the new one hasn't had any issues 'yet', but I hear you - I was so rock stable in my last card this one gave me a bad taste. Crossing fingers the drivers get better.

As for the questions - no it is a very well known issue of voltage on the R cards. Most people underclock/undervolt the cards and set up 2D and 3D profiles. Annoying really. Again though, since I RMAd my card, I have had none of these issues. *crosses fingers*

 

[DeadFred]

It's possible your card's GDDR5 is flawed. Did you consider RMAing it? Also, what is the power supply that you are using?

Do you have Hibernation or sleep enabled?

I just got the card a week ago so Ive been trying fixes Ive read about in hopes that it just needs a little tweaking to solve, but Ill definitely RMA it if the black screens continue. Im running an XFX 850W Black Edition PSU so I dont think that is the problem, it handled my previous GTX670 SLI setup with ease. In games the card is a beast and I haven't had a single issue while playing demanding titles like BF4 or GTA5. The crashes only occur while idle or doing simple 2D stuff.

The latest fix Ive tried is upping the core voltage a tad which I read about here:https://www.reddit.com/r/AdvancedMi...ix_for_r9_290_black_screen_during_idle_issue/ So far so good, no crashes for another 24 hours. His theory about the memory controller while idle makes sense to me, time will tell if this works in my case.

I do have sleep enabled, but so far haven't had any issues with it waking up. The crashes are random and have always happened while surfing the web, watching youtube, reading PDFs, etc..

 

[DeadFred]

I RMA'd my Sapphire 290x due to this issue and the new one hasn't had any issues 'yet', but I hear you - I was so rock stable in my last card this one gave me a bad taste. Crossing fingers the drivers get better.

As for the questions - no it is a very well known issue of voltage on the R cards. Most people underclock/undervolt the cards and set up 2D and 3D profiles. Annoying really. Again though, since I RMAd my card, I have had none of these issues. *crosses fingers*

Yeah, Ive read about lots of people having the same issue even after 2 or more RMAs of their 290's. Makes me a little nervous about sending the card back, what if I get one that's even worse? :\

I hope yours continues to do well.

 

[RussianSensation]

I do have sleep enabled, but so far haven't had any issues with it waking up. The crashes are random and have always happened while surfing the web, watching youtube, reading PDFs, etc..

I would disable sleep just in case and see what happens. It doesn't hurt to try.

Let us know if upping the voltage on the GPU fixes the issue.

----------

BTW, another DX12 benchmark came out and R9 290X (~ after-market 290) beats GTX970 by 13% and smokes the 960 by 2X.

More reasons to step-up to the R9 290 and skip the horrid GTX960 2-4GB cards.

 

[DeadFred]

I would disable sleep just in case and see what happens. It doesn't hurt to try.

Let us know if upping the voltage on the GPU fixes the issue.

Two days now and no crashes since upping the voltage by 20mV. To soon to tell if it's a permanent fix or not, but this is the longest no crash streak Ive had, before I was cold booting at least 3-4 times a day to recover from crashes. I'll report back here in a few days if all goes well, or earlier if I experience another black screen.

 

[DeadFred]

Zero crashes five days after upping the core voltage. I really put it to the test over the weekend, very happy with the card now.

 

[RussianSensation]

Zero crashes five days after upping the core voltage. I really put it to the test over the weekend, very happy with the card now.

Nice, maybe you can update again in 30 days?

Glad it finally worked out for you. Hopefully these engineering mistakes are finally fixed in 2016 and beyond. You shouldn't have manually adjust the GPU voltage to get the product stable.

 

[DeadFred]

Nice, maybe you can update again in 30 days?

Glad it finally worked out for you. Hopefully these engineering mistakes are finally fixed in 2016 and beyond. You shouldn't have manually adjust the GPU voltage to get the product stable.

Yeah Ill definitely update again after more time has passed, I was just elated that I haven't had anymore blackscreens this past week and just had to tell someone. LOL! Having to reboot every few minutes while only web surfing was driving me insane.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That is very strange since R7 260X is just HD7790 (Bonaire) and I do not recall reading about any black screen issues on HD7xxx series of cards.

I'm surprised you didn't hear about that issue. There was and is a rash of reports, about the 7790 (Bonaire) having black screens, and not waking up from monitor idle. That was my problem, with my two 7790 HIS 1GB cards. It happened with both of them, and in multiple different PCs, both AMD and Intel platforms.

It was especially bad with the earlier drivers, around the time of the card's release.

There was a thread in VC&G about ATI / AMD black-screen issues too, surprised that you don't remember it. Plenty of complaints from people with 7xxx-series cards.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2322060&highlight=amd+black+screen+issue

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm surprised you didn't hear about that issue. There was and is a rash of reports, about the 7790 (Bonaire) having black screens, and not waking up from monitor idle. That was my problem, with my two 7790 HIS 1GB cards. It happened with both of them, and in multiple different PCs, both AMD and Intel platforms.

I know about the sleep issues bugs but if you read what's described in this thread, the R9 290X was black screening under normal operation, browsing, watching videos, not a black screen issue wrt to coming out of sleep/hibernation mode. I've personally never used sleep or hibernate on my desktop PC with a 7970 and I always run High Performance power management. When not gaming or using CPU/GPU intensive tasks, I use my laptop, iPad, or iPhone for basic internet/browsing needs. That's why I myself never encountered the black screens coming out of sleep desktop issues as I simply turn the desktop off when it's not used.

Did that issue get resolved with your 7790? What about your 7950? What card are you rocking right now?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Did that issue get resolved with your 7790? What about your 7950? What card are you rocking right now?

I sold off my 7790 cards to two different people. Haven't heard of any issues from them, though I don't talk to them on a regular basis either.

I'm still rocking my HIS 3GB 7950 cards in my G3258 machines. My primary machine runs Win7 64-bit and Linux Mint. Haven't had black-screen problems with either, thankfully.

Edit: And to add, you're right, a black screen while actively using the card isn't normal.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

I know about the sleep issues bugs but if you read what's described in this thread, the R9 290X was black screening under normal operation, browsing, watching videos, not a black screen issue wrt to coming out of sleep/hibernation mode. I've personally never used sleep or hibernate on my desktop PC with a 7970 and I always run High Performance power management. When not gaming or using CPU/GPU intensive tasks, I use my laptop, iPad, or iPhone for basic internet/browsing needs. That's why I myself never encountered the black screens coming out of sleep desktop issues as I simply turn the desktop off when it's not used.

Did that issue get resolved with your 7790? What about your 7950? What card are you rocking right now?

This is the kind of thing you should consider, though, when you make a blanket recommendation of a card product to someone else. Not everyone has your very peculiar habits. It might be worth a thought that some people don't stop using Sleep or only use their PC when using it for intensive tasks. Some want to use their PC every day, 24/7, for whatever.

For those people, you might give a care that AMD isn't the best solution. Just a thought.

 

[DeadFred]

Nice, maybe you can update again in 30 days?

Glad it finally worked out for you. Hopefully these engineering mistakes are finally fixed in 2016 and beyond. You shouldn't have manually adjust the GPU voltage to get the product stable.

Okay it has been a little over a month now and I can say with certainty that upping the core voltage fixes my issue. How do I know for certain you may ask? Because about a week ago for whatever reason, MSI's Afterburner reverted back to default voltage settings and my black screens came back. The first time it happened I was like "WTF, I thought I had this fixed!". I had 3 more crashes within an hour that required a hard reboot to recover from before I thought to check my voltage settings in Afterburner, and sure enough they were back to their default. After raising them back up by 20mv things are once again running fine.