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

[Silverforce11]

This card is going to scream on water. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I'll be happy with an open air custom cooled from Asus, Sapphire, MSI or Powercolor! This reference cooling AMD keeps failing at needs to die.

 

[jackstar7]

Very nice to see a competitive part without the price-splosion.

Let's see how prices go and what happens should some etailer try something for black friday. But even right now, $580 including BF4 makes this a remarkable deal for a high-end product.

Nice work AMD. Hopefully nV fights back on price and the 780ti actually offers something.

 

[Grooveriding]

I didn't see anyone use more voltage to overclock and I'm guessing there is no means of doing it without an afterburner update, but the max attainable with stock voltage appears to be about 100mhz. With that reference cooler performance you're going to need water cooling or a beefy aftermarket cooler to start adding volts.

Hopefully the 290s turn up on launch day in aftermarket varieties. I think I remember the 7970 launching as reference only and a week later 7950s launching with reference and non-reference.

 

[Qianglong]

For you young unhip ones...

Is is some kind of 60s thing?

Btw..now looking at the price of the Titan...looks like the nvidia tax is worst than the French tax....

 

[Stuka87]

yeah major kudos to AMD for pricing this at $550, that is a game changer for sure!

Hell for $579 you can get the card with BF4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202058

Overclocking the 290x per TS

source: http://www.techspot.com/review/727-radeon-r9-290x/page9.html

Yeah, its basically the opposite of the 7950/7970. They were way underclocked, so they OC like crazy. The 290X is already pushing it because AMD had a target. The only target for the 7970 was the GTX580.

 

[Silverforce11]

I didn't see anyone use more voltage to overclock and I'm guessing there is no means of doing it without an afterburner update, but the max attainable with stock voltage appears to be about 100mhz. With that reference cooler performance you're going to need water cooling or a beefy aftermarket cooler to start adding volts.

Hopefully the 290s turn up on launch day in aftermarket varieties. I think I remember the 7970 launching as reference only and a week later 7950s launching with reference and non-reference.

TPU squeezed 1140mhz out of it, but it was throttling due to temps (i assume from reading how the new hardware powertune works), hit 94C+ and it will throttle so performance gains is meh.

This means there's no way in hell would anybody touch the reference model unless they plan on water cooling it. Reference cooling will hold back its OC potential and essentially its GIMPed.

 

[jackstar7]

Also, I have to say that this really adds to the excitement about the 290 (non-X) as a potential price-performance king for this gen, given that the 290X is already in a great position on that metric, the 290 might be a dang delight.

 

[Silverforce11]

Yeah, its basically the opposite of the 7950/7970. They were way underclocked, so they OC like crazy. The 290X is already pushing it because AMD had a target. The only target for the 7970 was the GTX580.

Don't think so, they are pushing it because they essentially use the SAME cooling as the 7970 Ghz ed, for a card that uses 50W extra that is a sin. All they did was slap on the same copper block and add a hardware throttle once 94C is reached and call a day.

The engineers in charge of the cooling solution for AMD GPUs need to be fired.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

It also went up like a rocket on power.

It's going to take a really good aftermarket card to keep it cool and not loud at the same time.

Card screams water, would be a beast if you could cool it considering it allows up to 1.35v from what I heard previously.

 

[blackened23]

Kinda disappointed in the "new" reference cooler. I was hoping for a better than 7970 dust buster, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Still a good value for 550$ beating Titan in uber mode....

Hopefully AIBs will get some better coolers for this thing stat.

 

[PCboy]

Did you guys see the crossfire scaling? This card is insane.

 

[BrightCandle]

This monster needs watercooling. Its thermally limited out of the box on a lot of games. It leaves as much as 20% of its performance sometimes because it can't fit its power budget and that is really bad. Its not a very efficient design, takes some 25% more power than NVidia's Titan to achieve similar performance, and the Titan isn't exactly efficient compared to the GK104 and Tahiti cards. Watercooling is going to be the way to unlock this cards full potential.

Performance wise its very good for the price, can't argue with that!

 

[HurleyBird]

What the heck happened to the anadtech review? Considering how much time they've had to write it, seems pretty embarrassing.

 

[badb0y]

What the heck happened to the anadtech review? Considering how much time they've had to write it, seems pretty embarrassing.

They apparently got a second card for CF late or something and wanted to put it all up at once.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

$550 for a card that's slightly faster than the $1000 Titan. AMD, I doth my hat to you.

 

[Centauri]

I'm not a high-end GPU person, but this is exciting as all hell nevertheless. There's gonna be a lot of performance available in the $200 range within the next 6 months or so.

 

[lavaheadache]

What planet am I living on that I'm seeing these numbers?

Normally it's like amid range card giving the best Price per Performance?

If you spend Titan type money on this setup.... I envy anyone setting up a Crossfire Rig of the 290x lol.

used 780 prices are great right now... It's very easy to get a card for $500. No denying about the price/performance about the 290x vs. new Nvidia cards though. Awesome

 

[Teizo]

Are a few decibels and 10 degrees worth $500?

Not to anyone I know.

You are forgetting that is a stock 780 used in reviews. Aftermarket 780s are as fast as Titans and once the prices drop are going to increase in value.

Also, the new 780Ti is going to run much cooler and quieter for similar performance, though it will likely cost a bit more.

Not to rain on the parade, the 290X is a good card, but you really do have to factor in heat and noise in cards these days.

Do I want a 95c dust buster in my comp screwing up my cpu and ram overclock? Not a chance. But, not everyone has the same purchasing criteria I do. I'd happily pay a premium for card that runs cooler and quieter.

But, like I say...I'm not here to down the 290X. It is obviously a very good performing card if you have a system capable of handling it.

 

[5150Joker]

This card is built for people using extreme cooling. Those on air will need to get ear plugs when running this card in uber mode and crossfire uber mode will probably result in bleeding ears :biggrin:. Here is part of TPU's conclusion:

Pure performance is not everything. Nowadays, modern graphics cards are more limited by power, heat, and noise than anything else, and the R9 290X certainly cannot impress here. We measured typical gaming power consumption in the 240W-250W range, which is a good deal higher than the GTX Titan (210W) or GTX 690 (230W). Non-gaming power consumption is very high, too, and higher than previous products from AMD, far beyond what NVIDIA has to offer. Blu-ray power consumption, for example, is 78W! Comparable NVIDIA cards handle Blu-ray tasks with under 20W. Multi-monitor power consumption is similar, negatively affecting office users with multiple screens.

With such high power consumption, it comes as no surprise that the card ends up being quite noisy too. While I could describe the "Quiet" BIOS as "acceptable" given performance, the "Uber" BIOS just is not something you could seriously use every day. AMD picked a scorching 94°C temperature target for their card, which shows that they are aware of the noise issues, but couldn't do much about it. It looks to me like the card was initially designed to operate with what is now called the "Uber" BIOS, but AMD then realized that the card was simply too noisy and added the "Quiet" BIOS option. The new PowerTune will do its best at keeping the card from overheating by clocking it down, which results in reduced performance. In "Quiet" mode, the card will basically always sit at the temperature limit, hoping for 3D load in-game to go down so it can increase clocks again. Short benchmark runs will show impressive numbers while the card is cool, though. Once you start gaming for extended periods of time, the card will get progressively slower as it heats up, and you'll be hit with a 30% performance penalty in the long run. We then made sure the card was at constantly realistic long-term-use temperatures for our benchmarks. AMD does give you some dials in Catalyst Control Center to adjust PowerTune, but you can really only make it noisier. AMD should have invested some time and money into developing their own high-end cooler, like NVIDIA did for the GTX Titan. The noise figures of this reference card only go on to show that AMD should urgently allow its board partners to launch cards with non-reference air coolers that can handle the heat at saner noise levels.

Apart from the price, I'd call this card an engineering train wreck.

 

[Ieat]

3.5 years later and people no longer care about a ridiculously loud card running in the mid 90's? Where are all the "its a good thing winter is coming" and "it doubles as a space heater". How about someone try cooking an egg on one? Instead we get "it just needs a good aftermarket cooler or "this beast screams water". Gtx 480 and Gtx 470 are rolling over in their grave. lol

 

[toyota]

heat and noise will not be an issue with a good non reference cooler. the power consumption will still be high and absolutely through the roof when overclocking according to TPU.

 

[Teizo]

heat and noise will not be an issue with a good non reference cooler. the power consumption will still be high and absolutely through the roof when overclocking according to TPU.

Those are the reviews I want to see before the final verdict is made. I imagine Gigabyte, MSI, and Asus will have nice aftermarket coolers available if allowed. But, are they going to be allowed? The TPU review kind of left that in the air. He said specifically 'AMD should urgently allow its board partners to launch cards with non-reference air coolers that can handle the heat at saner noise levels...'

That sounds like there is a bit of a hang up. I had heard at one time it wasn't going to be allowed...then heard it was. Then I read that which leaves me wondering.

 

[YBS1]

Performance wise its very good for the price, can't argue with that!

Yes, aggressive move by AMD there. I suspect they kinda had to given the "nVidia premium" and being late to the game. Still, we consumers needed that. Only was able to glance over Anandtech and [H], I guess we'll get a better picture as more filter in. It looks like a killer on Anandtech and not so much on [H]. The temperatures and (early) overclocking results are a bit disconcerting, 95 is hot, hot. Not that I'm implying it can't necessarily live indefinitely there, but it would concern me (pretty sure heat is what got my 4850). Plus, more robust cooling solutions may rectify that.

 

[SimianR]

95 C. lol good grief. 50db compared to 38db for the 780/Titan. yeah for the price it makes the Titan look stupid but I still cant believe how much more power it uses. the Titan and 780 are so damn efficient, quiet and cool running for being the size they are. nothing they can do about power consumption but AMD has once again proved they cant make reference cooler that is worth a crap.

Is power use really a huge concern for someone buying a high end GPU? The value it offers more than makes up for it IMHO.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Apart from the price, I'd call this card an engineering train wreck.

I don't think that's quite fair, AMD got whoops at the start of 28nm, and this seems more fit for 20nm so if anything I think it took balls for AMD to go to 250w to beat a 206w card.

Is power use really a huge concern for someone buying a high end GPU? The value it offers more than makes up for it IMHO.

Does having more money also mean higher tolerance to high heat output?