[TBG] R9 290 Tri-x review

[wand3r3r]

The R9 290 (Tri-x) gets reviewed by the Tech Buyers Guru.

It's hard not to be excited about the Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X. It's everything the R9 290 was supposed to be from the beginning, and then some. While it's not a budget card, it has an incredible cooler that maintains very reasonable temperatures while staying quiet, and it performs like no other card in this price range can.

The review:
http://www.techbuyersguru.com/sapphireR9290trix.php

The R9 290 is clearly the best value of 2014 so far, excellent performance near the top cards for considerably less money. It's hard to find a flaw in the tri-x. It's interesting that at stock it's faster than the 780 while using the equivalent power of a 780 or a bit more with 0.05v more, is cool and quiet, while costing around $100 less. It is definitely one of the top choices in my opinion out of the whole high end market.

I think the other thing it has going for it is the lack of info about 20nm cards. It may be 2015 before it even gets a competitor, and if the price gouging continues, they may also cost proportionally more.

 

[thilanliyan]

The R9 290 is clearly the best value of 2014 so far, excellent performance near the top cards for considerably less money.

It is NOW, but wasn't for a while due to mining.

 

[Wild Thing]

Stellar results for the Tri-X there,those OC numbers are quite impressive.:thumbsup:

 

[wand3r3r]

It is NOW, but wasn't for a while due to mining.

Even during the mining craze there was the occasional "close" to retail card, but I concur that in general pricing was bad in the US for several months. Gougegg got a bad reputation then.

Stellar results for the Tri-X there,those OC numbers are quite impressive.:thumbsup:

It's a heck of a card, and 1.07v is still low, it likely has some room to go with some more voltage (and power consumption, if you care).

 

[3DVagabond]

Even during the mining craze there was the occasional "close" to retail card, but I concur that in general pricing was bad in the US for several months. Gougegg got a bad reputation then.

Funny how forgiving (self involved?) people are though. If Newegg is $5.00 cheaper now all is forgotten. Remember that Amazon did offer reasonable pricing if you could wait. We hardly ever see Amazon recommended now though, unless they are the cheapest, of course.

 

[guskline]

Just picked up a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X to replace my PNY GTX680 in my AMD 8350 rig. Very nice video card.

 

[wand3r3r]

Just picked up a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X to replace my PNY GTX680 in my AMD 8350 rig. Very nice video card.

How do you like it compared to the classified?

 

[guskline]

How do you like it compared to the classified?

Different cards in different rigs.

The Sapphire R9-290 Tri-X is in my AMD 8350 rig. (Also have 2 GTX670FTWs in SLI in a 3770k rig).

I used to list all 3 rigs in the sig but restrictions on sig size limit the sig to my 3930k rig.

The R9 290 is with a Asus Sabertooth 990FX mb; 8350 FX @ 4 .6Ghz, 16G DDR3-1600; 120G/1TB WD Black2 hybid hdd; Antec TP II 750 PSU and 1920x1200 27" Hanns G monitor.

The 780 Classified scores a higher overall 3Dmark Firestrike score due to the Intel 3930k and the fact that I have the Classified water cooled and OC't to 1300 on the core. (11500). The R9 290 Oc'd to 1040 core, 1350 mem score 8500 in Firestrike. I suspect it would score much higher in a 3930k rig.

Suffice it to say the Sapphire R9-290 Tri-X is a SOLID card which performs magnificiently. Since my rig below is custom water cooled I don't want to replace the 780 Classified with the R9-290.

BTW the cooling on the Sapphire is Incredible.