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

[Firestorm007]

Hearing Loss?...seriously...That's the stupidest thing I've heard in a while.
Anyway, looks like a great card with some muscles match. I can't wait to see the MSI Lightning version...

 

[Erenhardt]

Then there is the whole performance aspect. Getting better cooling doesn`t make it perform better.

I hope you are trolling. Explain to me why ACX GTX780 was such a success and Titan killer?

Explain how watercooling card is pointless and leads to no performance increase with heat-sink bottlenecked gpu.
Stage is yours!

 

[thilanliyan]

Then there is the whole performance aspect. Getting better cooling doesn`t make it perform better.

It will now that nVidia and AMD have this ridiculous (IMO) boost feature based on temps, power, etc.

 

[Ajay]

RIP Titan.

Yep, unless you are doing some low budget reasearcher looking for some relatively 'cheap' DP FP compute power.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I know I said that AMD was unable to match Titan with this architecture. I didn`t expect AMD to go all mongo and cook the card to do it.

This is what you actually said:

...7970 will be their single GPU greatest of GCN. AMD said it themselves.

The 290x is an unbelievable improvement of the 7970, and does it at the same launch price point. You can harp all day long about power consumption, but you were dead wrong and were spreading nonsense and FUD as usual, like this:

AMD is incapable of producing a big die GPU.

Wrong, again.

 

[Silverforce11]

Posting valid arguments which happens to be against your card of choice, doesn`t make it trolling.

Its still only 7% faster than GTX 780. Really disappointing. So there we have the reason why Nvidia only decided to bump up the core count by measly 192 from GTX 780. They don`t really need more.

MEH

1. You are late to the party and missed all the informative posts. Clearly if you read them you would know the R290X average clock speed is ~850mhz due to the crap cooler throttling on temps. At these speeds, its already matching or beating Titan.

2. Linking a relative "ALL resolution" chart is pointless when said chart includes low res which nobody cares about when they folk out massive $$ for cards like these.

3. If you have a tiny bit of logic, relating to #1, once AIBs get to slap on their twin fans, big heatpipe coolers, the card is not going to have any heat issues and its going to sustain 1ghz in games. Going from 850mhz -> 1ghz is a large performance leap, just for going with a better cooler.

4. We already said all this multiple times, great GPU, crap cooler is holding it back. WAIT FOR CUSTOM MODELS. Stop [redacted] troll[ing] on the same points again and again.

Inappropriate language for this forum.
-- stahlhart

 

[GaiaHunter]

i dont like this card at all. All I wanted was a 7970 with significantly better shader performance. I can do without the rop and geometry improvements, that wasn't an issue with tahiti imo. They use this big 512 bit bus for seemingly no reason, getting barely more bandwidth than previous designs. And the power usage got ridiculous. Oh, and trueaudio is one of the most useless gpu features I have ever heard of.

For your information the 512bit bus is smaller than the tahiti 384 bit bus.

The power consumption increased 18% compared to the 7970 GHz for over 35% performance increase.

I'm sure hawaii will also get shrunk, so I don't see why the alternative is 7970 or mid range maxwell.

 

[Centauri]

Yeah I agree. I don't know how people can be so accepting of a gpu that operates near boiling temperatures and runs loud enough to cause hearing loss.

I really hope you're saying that tongue in cheek, because I guarantee there is more than one person on this board who knows enough to explain what's necessary for hearing damage to occur.

 

[Final8ty]

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/msi-r9-290x-388-28-dabs-1689718

 

[badb0y]

wrong thread. sorry

 

[Erenhardt]

Can someone try to explain to me the outcry about reference cooler?Why people are comparing 290X cooler to nvidia reference titan cooler?

 

[chimaxi83]

I really hope you're saying that tongue in cheek, because I guarantee there is more than one person on this board who knows enough to explain what's necessary for hearing damage to occur.

He's not the only one in this thread displaying that level of ignorance. Hearing loss... what next? Global warming and holes in the ozone layer caused by Hawaii?

Can someone try to explain to me the outcry about reference cooler?Why people are comparing 290X cooler to nvidia reference titan cooler?

The 290x reference cooler seems to not be enough to keep the card cool and at a steady clock speed due to throttling. It also seems to be loud as F based on some reviewers Youtube videos.

The Titan cooler is all the opposite... for another $450.

 

[chimaxi83]

dp

 

[FalconHorse]

The 290x reference cooler seems to not be enough to keep the card cool and at a steady clock speed due to throttling. It also seems to be loud as F based on some reviewers Youtube videos.

The Titan cooler is all the opposite... for another $450.

Imagine how amazing a cooler you could buy for $450.

 

[Elfear]

3DCenter's review compilation is up.

Looks like overall results put the 290X on par with the Titan and 9% faster than the 780 in "Quiet" mode. Here is how they factored in the two bios modes:

"In the sum of things we arrange the Radeon R9 290X on an equal performance to the GeForce GTX titanium, ergo a performance index of 480%. That refers to the default moderate Quiet mode because that is the factory setting of the card. By Uber mode, the Radeon 290X R9 then raised under the guarantee as stated by 9.2% to outperform again - which, given the consequent much higher noise levels, however, is a rather bad exchange."

Power consumption was 50W higher than the 780 and 36W higher than the Titan in "Quiet" mode. That changes to 90W and 76W respectively in "Uber" mode.

 

[Erenhardt]

The 290x reference cooler seems to not be enough to keep the card cool and at a steady clock speed due to throttling. It also seems to be loud as F based on some reviewers Youtube videos.

The Titan cooler is all the opposite... for another $450.

But why titan cooler? I don't understand the reason for titan cooler

 

[rgallant]

I bet the total user base of PC gaming for 4k is closer to 0% than .3%.

about the same that buy $650-$1000 gpu's that can't beat a $550.00 gpu.

 

[DigDog]

everyone is ignoring the 280x, which is cheaper than a 7970Ghz (in europe, at least), and is much better value @ performance per dollar;
and you can actually hear the game you are playing.

some 280x noise tests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDu8tRgJ2Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhevbZwgYlI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hv_LQvNdCU

 

[Makaveli]

wow this has to be a record for the most amount of pages created in a thread in such a short period. Can a mod confirm this lol.

i'm gonna go back to page one and start reading. I read the review last night about 20 mins after it was posted and this looks to be a great card for the price.

I'm really curious to see what the refresh product will look like at the lower nm with the same arch.

 

[ocre]

There is no reason to be hurt. This AMD achievement is great for everyone. AMD fans have titan class performance. And Nvidia fans......
Just think, Nvidia will respond. GTX780s will be cheaper. There will be a 780ti. The landscape is shaping before our very eyes.
For those in the middle, they now have great options for the top end. More than ever.
The only issue really is the 290x seems to be sold out everywhere. Is it from limited supply or is the card an unexpected hit? We need these cards available or Nvidia will drag their feet on dropping prices. The sooner the better.
Regardless, they will have to lower prices because of the 290x. I have absolutely nothing but smiles for that.

 

[rgallant]

again power consumption is crazy bananas when you oc though. at least according to TDP review.

just have to ask how many were you thinking of buying before you saw the power use graphs ?

 

[toyota]

just have to ask how many were you thinking of buying before you saw the power use graphs ?

what difference does that make? this is a discussion thread about the reviews.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

about the same that buy $650-$1000 gpu's that can't beat a $550.00 gpu.

I don't think you thought that one through very well.

 

[sandorski]

RE: Reference cooler being crappy

AMD uses an adequate cooler to keep the card working. Card Manufacturers will add their own better coolers. This allows the Manufacturers a way to differentiate themselves from each other, a way to compete.

 

[parvadomus]

This card is as fast as Titan clock for clock, better than I expected really. With a decent cooler, this GPU will fly. NV was buttkicked nicely 🙂
Cons: if stock cooler would have been good enough to keep temperatures under control and prevent throttling for the given powertune target, AMD could have charged more for this card.
PS: 780Ti launch will be funny.