AMD R9 290X Review

[Zoot]

I'd be curious why it's "silly", charts like that don't look "silly" to me. They're pretty clear in what they're saying.

Also the dominant trend is a direct comparison to the Titan. I'll just leave these here, because we're devolving into semantics now.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-review/20

So seeing AMD performance competitive with GTX Titan and GTX 780 with their own single-GPU card is absolutely a breath of fresh air.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...s/63742-amd-radeon-r9-290x-4gb-review-18.html

AMD may have taken a while to get to this point but with the R9 290X, they finally have a viable competitor against NVIDIA’s GTX 780 and TITAN.

http://techreport.com/review/25509/amd-radeon-r9-290x-graphics-card-reviewed/13

he Radeon R9 290X is a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 780 and costs a hundred bucks less. Beats the Titan for nearly half the price, too. So yeah. AMD has substantially reduced the cost of graphics processing power in this category, and it has grabbed the overall performance crown from Nvidia in the process.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/1...0x-piledrives-nvidias-high-end-product-line/4

And with that, it’s game, set, and match for the GTX Titan. To be fair, Titan itself was mostly undercut by the GTX 780, which offered about 85% of the performance for 70% of the price, but with the R9 290X coming in at $549 — a full $100 less than the GTX 780 — the Titan’s reign is finished.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290x-hawaii-review,3650-35.html

But when it comes to gaming performance, this card has little trouble trouncing its primary competition, GeForce GTX 780, and even Nvidia’s GeForce GTX Titan in a number of cases—both of which are substantially more expensive boards.

http://www.techspot.com/review/727-radeon-r9-290x/page11.html

Some thought it was impossible, but there's no doubt the Radeon R9 290X is every bit as fast as the mighty GeForce GTX Titan.

Etc. Etc.

 

[looz]

It is silly since 780 is trading blows with Titan and costs little more than half of Titan's price.

Basically when people go "OMFG TITAN FOR HALF THE PRICE"... We already had that.

 

[SeekaX]

6 months is some arbitrary figure you've pulled out of the air. Is nVidia's next GPU coming in 6 months? If you're privy to nVidia's internal schedules ala Tape-Out, 1st Silicon, Final Silicon dates etc. for their "Maxwell" architecture, not to mention TSMC's 20nm Planar Process schedule, lets hear it, because that would be quite interesting.

Also the whole "nVidia will crush.. blah... blah..." is just an opinion on your part, you've no evidence to back up those claims.

And yes, you can directly compare the R9 290X to the Titan. It performs largely similar (even better at times) according to the vast majority of reviewers. Example:

(Notice how the 290X slightly out-performs the Titan in this chart, while costing significantly less)

[Source]

6 months late. not 6 months till next series, even though that is likely as well. and if you are seriously still comparing the 290x with the titan then you should probably watch TTL's vid on it because it makes no sense.
notice how the 780 outperforms both the titan and the 290x.

 

[Kaapstad]

I'd be curious why it's "silly", charts like that don't look "silly" to me. They're pretty clear in what they're saying.

Also the dominant trend is a direct comparison to the Titan. I'll just leave these here, because we're devolving into semantics now.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-review/20
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...s/63742-amd-radeon-r9-290x-4gb-review-18.html
http://techreport.com/review/25509/amd-radeon-r9-290x-graphics-card-reviewed/13
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/1...0x-piledrives-nvidias-high-end-product-line/4
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290x-hawaii-review,3650-35.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/727-radeon-r9-290x/page11.html


Etc. Etc.

I don't take any of these sites seriously when doing comparisons between the Titan and the R9 290X. Most of them have not seen a Titan since it's launch day and that was a long time ago. If you are going to compare cards you need to have them both available at the same time under the same conditions.

 

[SieB]

I don't take any of these sites seriously when doing comparisons between the Titan and the R9 290X. Most of them have not seen a Titan since it's launch day and that was a long time ago. If you are going to compare cards you need to have them both available at the same time under the same conditions.

Anandtech is one of the most repitable and trust worthy sites on the net. Hardwarecanucks and Tomshardware are very repitable and trustworthy also.

Guru3D is another one
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_review_benchmarks,1.html

 

[Kaapstad]

Anandtech is one of the most repitable and trust worthy sites on the net. Hardwarecanucks and Tomshardware are very repitable and trustworthy also.

Guru3D is another one
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_review_benchmarks,1.html

They are also totally useless for comparing cards as often the cards on there have used drivers that are a year or more out of date.

 

[SeekaX]

They are also totally useless for comparing cards as often the cards on there have used drivers that are a year or more out of date.

wasn't anandtech the site where the little kids call each other names on the forums?

 

[Kaapstad]

wasn't anandtech the site where the little kids call each other names on the forums?

I don't know about that, but I have seen plenty of them getting into heated debates after quoting benches from there and then finding out things have moved on in the last year or 18 months.:lol:

 

[SieB]

They are also totally useless for comparing cards as often the cards on there have used drivers that are a year or more out of date.

Well, that isn't true seen as the older cards are benched on recent games like Bioshock Infinite and the likes.

Look at the benchmarks for the cards, you can see that they have been run on recent games.

 

[Zoot]

6 months late. not 6 months till next series, even though that is likely as well. and if you are seriously still comparing the 290x with the titan then you should probably watch TTL's vid on it because it makes no sense.
notice how the 780 outperforms both the titan and the 290x.

You keep saying "It makes no sense", however you've yet to explain that claim or rather offer a proper counter-argument. Is that beyond you?

Anyway, I think I'm done replying to you in this thread. If you're willing to pointedly dismiss a whole plethora of extremely reputable PC hardware reviewers while just providing dismissive blank statements with no proper content or counter-argument, then there's no point even reading your posts, let alone replying to them.

I don't take any of these sites seriously when doing comparisons between the Titan and the R9 290X. Most of them have not seen a Titan since it's launch day and that was a long time ago. If you are going to compare cards you need to have them both available at the same time under the same conditions.

They are also totally useless for comparing cards as often the cards on there have used drivers that are a year or more out of date.

Actually, proper reviewing practice is to ensure the only thing that's different in the test systems is the component under review, which in this case is the GPU. I'm too lazy to go and check all the other R9 290X reviews, but if what you're saying is true, that invalidates the whole lot of them.

I find that very hard to believe. I think I'll trust all said authors, given their long standing track record rather than dismissive statements providing no examples/evidence of what they're claiming.

 

[barnsley]

yeah I love OC3D even though I lurk more than post for the unbiased and calm community. Too little of both of those going on in here.

Yeah this is a pretty rare occasion, don't take it to heart. OC3D as a whole is probably one of the most unbiast out there due to alot of us having differing opinions. If OC3D was bias we'd all be saying the same thing however we're all backing up our differing points with facts and figures (mostly).

Also, the majority of opinions in OC3D have been formed from experience, which is more than most people out there. It's quite hard to be positive about a company when you've had a bad experience (I never use anything by EVGA after my experience with their products).

 

[Kaapstad]

Actually, proper reviewing practice is to ensure the only thing that's different in the test systems is the component under review, which in this case is the GPU. I'm too lazy to go and check all the other R9 290X reviews, but if what you're saying is true, that invalidates the whole lot of them.

I find that very hard to believe. I think I'll trust all said authors, given their long standing track record rather than dismissive statements providing no examples/evidence of what they're claiming.

Ask any of these review sites how many of the cards they use for comparison they actually have to hand when they do a review and the answer is very few.

Even if they had the cards the amount of work required to constantly retest every time a new driver came out would be a nightmare.

 

[Zoot]

Ask any of these review sites how many of the cards they use for comparison they actually have to hand when they do a review and the answer is very few.

Even if they had the cards the amount of work required to constantly retest every time a new driver came out would be a nightmare.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-review/7

Video Drivers: NVIDIA Release 331.58
AMD Catalyst 13.11 Beta v1
AMD Catalyst 13.11 Beta v5

http://www.geforce.co.uk/drivers/results/68547

Version 331.58 - WHQL
Release Date Mon Oct 21, 2013

Anandtech used the latest nVidia driver, I'm willing to bet the others are the same too.

 

[barnsley]

So if they use the initial release drivers for the 780 and compare them to the initial release drivers of the 290x, surely that would be fair as both drivers have arguably been created for the same purpose (reviewing etc). While I know that would be unrealistic (the 780 is an older card thus the drivers are more mature) it surely gives the cards equal playing fields. Personally I'm all for using the current drivers as it could show the various comparisons if you went out and bought the card today I just suddenly thought of that and thought I should share it.



my final opinion on the matter of this card is it'll be like the 7970, it'll start off with poor drivers then a few months later be a fantastic card (heck, some 280x can trade blows with the 780, not bad for the price at all). If the 780 had a crap cooler and ran at very high temperatures it probably still would sell well, much like the 290x -suprisingly- has. I expect whichever company comes with an aftermarket cooler for it (as in one you buy separately) will do very well.

Personally I'd rather get a card that has more mature drivers now, hence why I am getting the 7990. I know some of you laughed when you saw the words "7990" and "drivers" but hey, laugh with me if it messes up ;P.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Here's a fact.

780 and Titan in nearly all of reviews are using latest and mature drivers.. AMD is using beta drivers that only support the R7/9 cards with no optimizations.
Agreed? Good! Not that you can't argue.. it is a fact.

Now you have the 2 kings of the world who are mature against some new guy on the block without any maturity and looking to top the 2 kings..

Next all cards are benched using latest and greatest drivers(290x being unmature again and also unoptimized. again) and in the vast reviews, the new guy, 290x, wins in vast majority of games. It beats a 780 or matches it. It beats a titan, matches it, and loses to it varying on game/software.

This is all true, 290x wins, and if you can make an argument i would be very surprised.

Many of you instantly took Toms side(which is understandable) as did i. I however looked more into the situation as i was baffled at toms results... I came up with my conclusion as stated above. Tom has his review. Tom's review is legit and are his results; I do not question him or argue against him. He can only go off by what he got... BUT from my point of view and many other review sites the 290x is the fastest card around give or take a few to a titan while maintaining a huge price to performance ratio advantage...

Edit: Linus said he is receiving a DCU2 from Asus in about 6 weeks in his last livestream.. Maybe aftermarket cards are not that far off? Then maybe that can prove to everyone how it can stretch its legs.

Also EK already has waterblocks which are available to consumers. Just buying one of those blocks would then be quite a Raw Power vs Raw Power vs a watercooled 780/Titan.

 

[CapitanoMal]

(I never use anything by EVGA after my experience with their products).

I know what you mean, it's just strange to see the normally calm forums so divided over something. I also know what you mean about EVGA products... I've never purchased ANYTHING EVGA, but I absolutely cringe at the idea of putting something of their's in my system because of the horror stories I've heard.

 

[Bartacus]

^ I agree with ALL of this (what NeverBackDown said). AMD boosts game performance with every driver release, so IMHO the 290x will only get better. If it can hang with a 780/Titan NOW, and that will improve will every driver revision, things will only get better as time goes on.

Some folks in here are writing the 290x off a bit too quickly I think.

 

[NeverBackDown]

I know what you mean, it's just strange to see the normally calm forums so divided over something.

I am trying to be constructive.. seems not to be working. Very unfortunate to be honest.

^ I agree with ALL of this (what NeverBackDown said). AMD boosts game performance with every driver release, so IMHO the 290x will only get better. If it can hang with a 780/Titan NOW, and that will improve will every driver revision, things will only get better as time goes on.

Some folks in here are writing the 290x off a bit too quickly I think.

I agree. After my last post i will probably get the fanboy status but to be honest i think anyone who took a side in this thread is being a fanboy.. Hopefully it will all simmer down into something constructive.

 

[Bartacus]

I agree. After my last post i will probably get the fanboy status but to be honest i think anyone who took a side in this thread is being a fanboy.. Hopefully it will all simmer down into something constructive.

EVERYONE in this thread will be labelled fan boy, if they haven't already. With these arguments, something constructive rarely comes out of them. If there's a lesson to be learned here it would be: NEVER jump on the latest offering from either side. ALWAYS have patience and wait, as things only get better after release. The major whiners are usually the people who pre-order this stuff (BAD IDEA imho). ALWAYS wait 2 months after a major hardware release, if not LONGER. It's in your best interests to have patience. Prices always drop. Drivers always get better. Patience is key.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Patience is a virtue after all.