AMD R9 290X Review

[barnsley]

I've tried to not sound like a fanboy thus far, although I'm pretty sure some people have considered me a AMD fanboy for some time due to some reason or another... I've just felt that most people in this thread denounced the card before it had a chance and at the end of the day if AMD do nothing with it I won't be best pleased but somehow I feel like they won't do what they've done to the FX processors, aka give up and release a few overpriced practical jokes (9590 and the 9370).


Also, I do kind of feel glad not preordering the card. I actually had one in my basket on overclockers for a while but decided against it, now at this rate i'll probably buy the 7990 around december/january time if they don't announce anything about aftermarket coolers for the 290x. Heck if they have a decent price reduction on the particular 780 I want (gainward phantom 780) I'll snap one up . Man that card looks good.

 

[Kaapstad]

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.

Why stop at one v one on water when you can do four v four on water.

I hope no one thinks I am a fanboy either.:lol:

 

[Bartacus]

Why stop at one v one on water when you can do four v four on water.

I hope no one thinks I am a fanboy either.:lol:

If you don't PM me a link to your build log when that crap goes down, I will hunt you down!!! EK quad-290x bridge is already out, along with some very nice looking blocks to go with them.

 

[Kaapstad]

If you don't PM me a link to your build log when that crap goes down, I will hunt you down!!! EK quad-290x bridge is already out, along with some very nice looking blocks to go with them.

The blocks, bridge, rads etc are all on order along with a RIVE black edition. Will also be using two corsair 1200i PSUs.

 

[NeverBackDown]

If you don't PM me a link to your build log when that crap goes down, I will hunt you down!!! EK quad-290x bridge is already out, along with some very nice looking blocks to go with them.

EK is getting serious about the 290x lol..
Wonder if XSPC,AlphaCool,Koolance, Heatkiller, etc. are bringing out any?

The blocks, bridge, rads etc are all on order along with a RIVE black edition. Will also be using two corsair 1200i PSUs.

Is that sarcasm? If not then i seriously want to see that!

 

[Bartacus]

The blocks, bridge, rads etc are all on order along with a RIVE black edition. Will also be using two corsair 1200i PSUs.

Holy crap dude, you do realize that is PSU overkill right? I run 2 7950s, 2 D5 pumps at full speed, 4 HDDs, 2 SSDs, a dozen fans, lots of LEDs, all on a single Corsair AX750, and my PSU fan doesn't even turn unless I'm gaming.

I'm assuming you know all about this and are just going for crazy overkill though. In that regard, I salute you sir.

 

[SeekaX]

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.

it is pointless because the 780 outperforms the titan! so nvidia has a better card for less money than the titan as well, the 780 is the competitor, not the god damn titan. we've gone over this at least 10 times in this threat and TTL dedicated a whole damn video to it.
i really don't see what's to argue about the 290x release being a failure, i am not saying that the chip can't perform, it's AMD holding it back with the cooler which is terrible as every reviewer agrees, if they wouldn't keep the release reference cooler only then i would have nothing bad to say but the huge delay they had, but at the moment buying a 290x is madness if you aren't going to watercool it which the majority of people won't do and which kills the "it's cheaper" argument.

 

[Kaapstad]

Holy crap dude, you do realize that is PSU overkill right? I run 2 7950s, 2 D5 pumps at full speed, 4 HDDs, 2 SSDs, a dozen fans, lots of LEDs, all on a single Corsair AX750, and my PSU fan doesn't even turn unless I'm gaming.

I'm assuming you know all about this and are just going for crazy overkill though. In that regard, I salute you sir.

The power draw on four R9 290Xs all overvolted and overclocked will be over 1400watts plus an i7 hexcore that can use about 350watts on it's own overclocked, the only option is to use two PSUs.

The PSU on my Titan rig can handle peaks of 1650watts but when running Vantage it sounds like it is in pain.

 

[Bartacus]

The power draw on four R9 290Xs all overvolted and overclocked will be over 1400watts plus an i7 hexcore that can use about 350watts on it's own overclocked, the only option is to use two PSUs.

The PSU on my Titan rig can handle peaks of 1650watts but when running Vantage it sounds like it is in pain.

LOL! I had no idea the draw was that severe. I stand corrected!

 

[Zoot]

it is pointless because the 780 outperforms the titan! so nvidia has a better card for less money than the titan as well, the 780 is the competitor, not the god damn titan.

That bolded part isn't true.

I agree that some overclocked 780 custom versions do better the Titan. However, the stock standard 780 is slightly behind the stock standard reference Titan, not by a massive margin, but there is margin all the same.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/827?vs=764 (Notice how the Titan is ahead in everything)

So according to the vast majority of the Hardware enthsiast community, who all can't be lying or using illegitimate reviewing practise:
R9 290X > GTX Titan > GTX 780

Anyway, enough semantics, believe what you like.

 

[barnsley]

At the end of the day guys, we can all agree that the Titan is the ultimate E-peen 'card and no matter how much you like Nvidia/AMD you have to admit it is a waste of money. We should all be encouraging both AMD and Nvidia to do this, make excellent bang for buck cards so that we all win and can work on overclocking the eff out of our cards and then argue over the results then. At the moment two 760s (I think) and 2 270x s can out perform one of these cards for less, surely we should all be getting those? I also saw a 690 going for around £450 on overclockers as well.

 

[SeekaX]

At the end of the day guys, we can all agree that the Titan is the ultimate E-peen 'card and no matter how much you like Nvidia/AMD you have to admit it is a waste of money. We should all be encouraging both AMD and Nvidia to do this, make excellent bang for buck cards so that we all win and can work on overclocking the eff out of our cards and then argue over the results then. At the moment two 760s (I think) and 2 270x s can out perform one of these cards for less, surely we should all be getting those? I also saw a 690 going for around £450 on overclockers as well.

yea the titan is mad money, those extra 400 quid or whatever the difference between the 780 and the titan is these days are only there for the titan badge. but i'd still rather have a single GPU card than a dual GPU card or two mid range cards in SLi, mainly because i got to really dig matx builds.

 

[barnsley]

yea the titan is mad money, those extra 400 quid or whatever the difference between the 780 and the titan is these days are only there for the titan badge. but i'd still rather have a single GPU card than a dual GPU card or two mid range cards in SLi, mainly because i got to really dig matx builds.

+1 on matx builds, there is something damn cool about having a tiny pc that is more powerful than most PCs. Also you can kind of get away with using dual GPU cads in matx builds, its just the heat can be a real issue.

 

[SeekaX]

+1 on matx builds, there is something damn cool about having a tiny pc that is more powerful than most PCs. Also you can kind of get away with using dual GPU cads in matx builds, its just the heat can be a real issue.

SLi shouldn't be a problem as soon as you got a waterloop going, even though watercooling 2x gpu + cpu in an matx case is kinda borderline. but i wouldn't do it anyways, if i had 1000 euros for GPUs i'd rather buy a single card this year and a new one next year than two cards now, less issues, a card like a 780/290x performs well enough for pretty much everything and the matx rig looks cleaner.

 

[Greenback]

I don't understand all the fuss over Tom's review he says this card performs just as good as the 780 which he also says can out perform the titan.
His only reason as far as I can tell for recommending the 780 over this card is the overclock capabilities (which other reviews that have been linked here say the same) and the lack of 3rd part coolers because the reference 1 is loud which again another review linked here said sounds like a jet turbine.
So all in all it's a good card up there with anything NVidia has to offer, But depending on preferences you may want to watercool it or wait for 3rd party coolers. just my 2 peneth

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Is that sarcasm? If not then i seriously want to see that!

You've not met Kaapstad before have you?

This is the guy with 4 watercooled Titans on a RIVE with watercooled 3930K/3960X/3970X (I think he has all 3 not sure which is in his Titan rig).
I believe he also has an X79 rig with 2 690s and another rig (also x79?) with 2 or 3 7970s in.

Frankly I'd think he's being sarcastic if he said he was only getting 2 290Xs...

Most of the review sites stick these card in an existing system, Kaap just builds a new system for each card (or set of 4 cards).

And this is one reason I like Kaap, he usually gives his opinion based on his experience, where as so many people give their opinions based on information they've read off a website. Is Kaap as scientific as all the review sites, maybe not, but at least he gives information obtained 1st hand rather than reconstituted 2nd hand information passed off as his own.
(I'm not having a go at anyone in particular here, just forum users in general, myself included)

 

[Bartacus]

The power draw on four R9 290Xs all overvolted and overclocked will be over 1400watts plus an i7 hexcore that can use about 350watts on it's own overclocked, the only option is to use two PSUs.

The PSU on my Titan rig can handle peaks of 1650watts but when running Vantage it sounds like it is in pain.

I'm not a religious man at all, but I think you just became my new god.

+1 on matx builds, there is something damn cool about having a tiny pc that is more powerful than most PCs. Also you can kind of get away with using dual GPU cads in matx builds, its just the heat can be a real issue.

My mATX board is in a Case Labs M8. Who you calling tiny?!?! With an Asus ROG board, you can more than "get away" with dual GPUs. That platform is actually PERFECT for it. It makes no sense to spend more on the bigger boards if you only want 2 GPUs. Asus Gene boards suite the task perfectly.

 

[NeverBackDown]

You've not met Kaapstad before have you?

This is the guy with 4 watercooled Titans on a RIVE with watercooled 3930K/3960X/3970X (I think he has all 3 not sure which is in his Titan rig).
I believe he also has an X79 rig with 2 690s and another rig (also x79?) with 2 or 3 7970s in.

Frankly I'd think he's being sarcastic if he said he was only getting 2 290Xs...

Most of the review sites stick these card in an existing system, Kaap just builds a new system for each card (or set of 4 cards).

And this is one reason I like Kaap, he usually gives his opinion based on his experience, where as so many people give their opinions based on information they've read off a website. Is Kaap as scientific as all the review sites, maybe not, but at least he gives information obtained 1st hand rather than reconstituted 2nd hand information passed off as his own.
(I'm not having a go at anyone in particular here, just forum users in general, myself included)

How does one afford all that hardware? That's insane

 

[Zaim]

Non-Reference R9 290X Graphics Card Coming Late November

 

[SieB]

Non-Reference R9 290X Graphics Card Coming Late November

Very interesting, lets hope they do come in Nov.

Nice to OverpricersUK living up to rep as well, charging £100 more more for a £50 cooler :lol: