*blinks*
You're looking at a review that compares factory overclocked aftermarket models to the reference model. OF COURSE they have higher clockspeeds, sometimes factory OC'ed models have up to 200mhz higher boost clocks than the reference. Of course factory OC'ed models perform better with higher boosts than reference.
Do note. None of those cards dip below the guaranteed base clock. In fact, none of them dip below the guaranteed boost clock. Conversely, the 290 and 290X do not have a guaranteed base clock. The boost clock on the 290/290X is also not guaranteed, it's an "up to" speed which it struggles to even hit at factory defaults.
Look closely at this chart:
I've told you this before. Kepler GPUs generally throttle 1-2 bins at most which is 13-26mhz. If you look at that chart, they are throttling 13-26mhz. 13-26MHz does not cause a meaningful difference in perceptible performance.
Meanwhile, here's 290X throttling:
You see a difference here? Kepler throttling by 13-26mhz over a course of 6 minutes. R9-290X throttling by 100-200 or more MHz in a period of 1 minute and 20 seconds. There's a pretty BIG difference. Kepler delivers consistent performance with 100% performance potential at factory defaults and auto fan. R9-290X just isn't delivering consistent performance at factory defaults due to excessive throttling, and apparently something was fundamentally different with press cards performing even higher than retail cards. I'm still at a loss to explain why that is, other than the press cards having a different BIOS.
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter