R260/270/280/290/290x Review thread

[SlowSpyder]

Titan performance for less than GTX780 pricing. I am very confident a few posters will find a way to spin this part in a negative light.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I have no idea how you use that Lucid Virtu garbage. I tried both 1.0 and 2.0 and it didn't work with literally the majority of my games. It works with a select few like BF3 but for the most part, it is horrible.

It sounds good on paper, but in practice it doesn't work right with new releases. BSOD and crash city last I tried in many games. Thank goodness for adaptive vsync with NV. (speaking of which, this is something that AMD needs in CCC if the 290X doesn't have this) Isn't that essentially the same thing without dealing with Lucid's horrible compatibility?

I dunno, it just works for me.

I never used it with my SB system because I got it in January the day SB was released (only p67).

It even works in games like SWTOR which have no support for it.

What I like to do is cap at say 50 FPS, then use virtual vsync and not get tearing but still enjoy 130w~ draw and smooth/tear free gaming in a title where I don't need to rock out with my fps out.

A major problem for me though is it doesn't work with CrossFire, which is one of the reasons why 90% of the time I don't even have my second card installed. Unless I'm playing something like Crysis 3 or the BF4 Beta with 200% res scaling (awesome), it just sits on my desk.

With G-Sync there seems to be less compromise with what has become basically a must have feature for me personally. Screen tearing is for the birds.

 

[el etro]

As fast as titan by [H]. So faster than Titan in real world.😵

And will consume much less too.

 

[Silverforce11]

$549 would be decent. Hopefully the R290 is $449 or thereabouts.

 

[Grooveriding]

$549 would be decent. Hopefully the R290 is $449 or thereabouts.

I'd like to see the 290 for $399. I know the price for 290X, but not 290. I think it's only the 290X releasing tonight though.

 

[blackened23]

I dunno, it just works for me.

I never used it with my SB system because I got it in January the day SB was released (only p67).

Ah, virtual vsync. I actually tried the hybrid graphics thing which combined iGPU + discrete and the results were disastrous. Beyond disastrous. Sounds like they got virtual vsync working okay, though.

Are there any motherboards still shipping with it? I do believe Asus dropped it with Z87.

 

[Bateluer]

Smart money would be on $599. With the latest round of greedflation $549 would be a surprise. People thinking $499 are just dreaming IMO.

A 499 MSRP on the 290X would be a heavy blow to Nvidia's entire premium product line, 770, 780, 780Ti, and Titan. Would also put a lot of stress on them since their other ventures aren't exactly doing well.

 

[flopper]

Titan performance for less than GTX780 pricing. I am very confident a few posters will find a way to spin this part in a negative light.

amd pulled the rug under nvidias feet if they price it this way.

 

[DooKey]

A 499 MSRP on the 290X would be a heavy blow to Nvidia's entire premium product line, 770, 780, 780Ti, and Titan. Would also put a lot of stress on them since their other ventures aren't exactly doing well.

Kinda like the stress AMD is under since their CPU venture isn't exactly doing well.

 

[Keysplayr]

amd pulled the rug under nvidias feet if they price it this way.

If so, it's perfect payback for the GTX680 launch.

 

[DooKey]

amd pulled the rug under nvidias feet if they price it this way.

Really? Nvidia has been selling Titan's and 780's for months. AMD is taking the loss if they significantly undercut Nvidia on pricing. AMD needs to move cards at the maximum margin possible. 28nm cards have been out for almost 2 years and both companies need to milk as much out of them as they can because 20nm isn't going to be pretty.

 

[blackened23]

Really? Nvidia has been selling Titan's and 780's for months. AMD is taking the loss if they significantly undercut Nvidia on pricing. AMD needs to move cards at the maximum margin possible. 28nm cards have been out for almost 2 years and both companies need to milk as much out of them as they can because 20nm isn't going to be pretty.

Why would any of us actually want this as consumers.... I say 499$ 290X, i'd love for AMD to do it.

Besides which, the 290X isn't as huge of a die as is the GK110, and it's pretty much a certainty that they get more usable chips per wafer given the smaller die size. I'm sure someone can figure out the math but they basically get many more chips per wafer at the same cost due to the size alone.. I personally think the Hawaii chip is much cheaper to produce, and if AMD wants to pass the savings along go for it IMHO. I certainly don't think they will make inroads with a 700$ GPU because at the extreme high end, NV has better software. So AMD can't do any type of price parity with NV until that is rectified really.

 

[Meghan54]

Really? Nvidia has been selling Titan's and 780's for months. AMD is taking the loss if they significantly undercut Nvidia on pricing. AMD needs to move cards at the maximum margin possible. 28nm cards have been out for almost 2 years and both companies need to milk as much out of them as they can because 20nm isn't going to be pretty.

But the price/cost dynamic is always a balancing act, isn't it? What kind of margins would be acceptable to AMD these days? Will AMD try to blow the cards out the door with one price or sacrifice some sales to get a specific margin? Only time will tell....now, anyone want to buy a gently used 780? 😉

 

[blackened23]

^That as well. Keep in mind the consumer base expands exponentially as pricing lowers, all other things being equal. If they sell 50 cards out of a sample of 100 for 550$, they would sell maybe 10 cards out of a sample of 100 for 650$.

You can look up the economics of it, but sometimes a cheaper product can pull in more profit. That actually does happen a lot - It's all a delicate balancing act of potential buyers and profit per unit. I don't really care but I could see how AMD could still turn a healthy dime from this regardless - bring on the 499$ 290X's IMHO (although it won't happen i'm sure).

 

[DooKey]

Why would any of us actually want this as consumers.... I say 499$ 290X, do it.

Besides which, the 290X isn't a huge die as is the GK110 so it's pretty plausible that it's much cheaper to produce, it's pretty much a certainty that they get more usable chips per wafer given the smaller die size.

As a consumer we all want prices as low as possible. As a company that needs to maximize profit not so much.

The bottom line is the bottom line is all I'm saying. Anyway, if 290x is really cheap I'll sell my 7990's and buy a couple.

 

[toyota]

If so, it's perfect payback for the GTX680 launch.

lol, the little GK104 which originally was going to be mid range at the half the price it launched at. Nvidia had tons of room to play with price on that.

 

[Vesku]

Pretty impressive for the 290X. Anyway, any predictions for the sure to ensue trolling and goal post shifting:

Stock price?

Financials?

290X uses (OH MY GOD) 9 more watts at load during gaming?

What?

Business financials will probably have a spike in posts.

Power, maybe not, since we don't know how efficient the 780 Ti is (if it's a bit power hungry Nvidia wouldn't want to focus on efficiency).

"Better drivers" might not come into play due to Nvidia having some dicey releases recently.

PhysX and Cuda have some validity so will definitely be cited. I expect G-sync to be added in to that grouping but will be mostly a garnish while still unreleased.

 

[tviceman]

lol, the little GK104 which originally was going to be mid range at the half the price it launched at. Nvidia had tons of room to play with price on that.

Are you saying AMD doesn't have tons of room to play with on pricing the R290x? Because I sure as hell think they do!

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

I eagerly await for Sontin and crew to post here 😀 how are they gonna spin it?

Warning issued for callout.
-- stahlhart

 

[toyota]

Are you saying AMD doesn't have tons of room to play with on pricing the R290x? Because I sure as hell think they do!

lol come on now you know damn well that GK104 had more pricing room than the 290x will have.

 

[YBS1]

Assuming it trades blows with the Titan in performance and comes in at a price below the 780, that's a win for everyone. We need some downward pricing pressure, it still pains me to no end to pay more for a high end gpu than a high end cpu. I just find far more value in paying top dollar for a cpu as it benefits everything, not just games. Even if I hadn't purchased a pair of 780's, I'm not sure the 290X would sway me, I'm just not comfortable with AMD's past handling of multi gpus. That being said I would have no reservations picking one for a single gpu system should it pan out as well as some expect if I was in need of a gpu. I may indeed end up with one should I end up building a 4770K mini-itx system (bought an M1 NCase...gotta put something in it) to replace my W3520.

To be honest, considering the length of time it's been since the 7970's release you'd just about have to expect it to be around or above Titan level, otherwise it would be rather disappointing. I'm really more interested to see how much headroom it has beyond stock though, as there are a few stock 780's above and beyond Titan performance.

 

[nOOky]

R290X is too "plasticky" and lacks the good in-hand feel of metal Titan, also NV cares about their consumers and don't want them to damage their expensive hardware so they incorporate their innovative OV protection program. Shame on AMD for not being so consumer friendly!

So you've held one in your hands and played with it? Post up some benchmarks already then!

Me, I only hold it in my hands until it's ready to go into the slot, then I lock it in and just fire it up and enjoy the experience.

 

[Imouto]

As a consumer we all want prices as low as possible. As a company that needs to maximize profit not so much.

As you said before Nv has been leeching the highest end for months already so throwing a card within a 15% at the same price won't move any stock. AMD isn't Nvidia and of course it isn't Intel to do such a thing.

If it needs to lower its margins to survive and that's the best for all. That way it's on both consoles and returning to green again so I don't think we will see a Nv equivalent from them at the same price or higher ever again unless they pull a miracle leading by a huge margin.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Are there any motherboards still shipping with it? I do believe Asus dropped it with Z87.

The MSI z87 GD65 Gaming has it for sure, I has it and newegg still lists it as a feature of the board.

Otherwise you can go get ripped off for $56~ and buy the software from Lucid directly :awe:

Weird if ASUS really did drop support, I know you can work around it a bit with Windows 8 (for quick sync), but not everyone uses Windows 8 to start with, and it isn't foolproof either a driver might screw it up.

The GD65 is $158 right now AMIR ()🙂

 

[ocre]

Some people are dieing for some drama.

I eagerly await for Sontin and crew to post here 😀 how are they gonna spin it?

post after post of people arguing pretty much with themselves:

R290X is too "plasticky" and lacks the good in-hand feel of metal Titan, also NV cares about their consumers and don't want them to damage their expensive hardware so they incorporate their innovative OV protection program. Shame on AMD for not being so consumer friendly!

Business financials will probably have a spike in posts.

Power, maybe not, since we don't know how efficient the 780 Ti is (if it's a bit power hungry Nvidia wouldn't want to focus on efficiency).

"Better drivers" might not come into play due to Nvidia having some dicey releases recently.

PhysX and Cuda have some validity so will definitely be cited. I expect G-sync to be added in to that grouping but will be mostly a garnish while still unreleased.

Hopefully they include the new smoothness per watt per transistor per mm^2 metric.

Pretty impressive for the 290X. Anyway, any predictions for the sure to ensue trolling and goal post shifting:

Stock price?

Financials?

290X uses (OH MY GOD) 9 more watts at load during gaming?

What?

If the rumored price and performance pans out, the focus will shift to heat and noise, at least until 3rd party cooler designs are available. After that, who knows. FUD never rests. This is true of both camps.

My bet is G-Sync and of course that 9 more
watts, that's going to be the deciding factor for the superiority of GK110 😀

But it doesn't go in as smoothly into the PCI-E socket as Titan does.

I'm going with AMD's red not being green enough.

Talk about a toxic environment. Take a little time to step out of your bubble. Its no wonder things dont go smooth around here. People actually cheer for drama and bickering. Is it not blatantly obvious? Please take some time to reflect on this.

I would like to say this:

Assuming it trades blows with the Titan in performance and comes in at a price below the 780, that's a win for everyone. We need some downward pricing pressure, it still pains me to no end to pay more for a high end gpu than a high end cpu. I just find far more value in paying top dollar for a cpu as it benefits everything, not just games. Even if I hadn't purchased a pair of 780's, I'm not sure the 290X would sway me, I'm just not comfortable with AMD's past handling of multi gpus. That being said I would have no reservations picking one for a single gpu system should it pan out as well as some expect if I was in need of a gpu. I may indeed end up with one should I end up building a 4770K mini-itx system (bought an M1 NCase...gotta put something in it) to replace my W3520.

To be honest, considering the length of time it's been since the 7970's release you'd just about have to expect it to be around or above Titan level, otherwise it would be rather disappointing. I'm really more interested to see how much headroom it has beyond stock though, as there are a few stock 780's above and beyond Titan performance.

is a good post. It is great to see things move forward and prices move down. I for one cannot wait for the reviews. It is what i live for. 😉

Too bad i have to work tonight cause i hate having to use my phone to look at reviews!!!!