From the reviews which were released today, the 290 has fantastic performance, but something that Tom's brought up makes me doubt the validity of the scores. They are getting much worse performance with a retail 290x than they got with the press released 290x that AMD handed them. It could be that it was cherry picked. It could be that they have a faulty unit. If anyone has or knows someone with a 290x of their own, I would love to see some benchmarks which came from a retail 290x.
Well I like the price tag of the 290 at $400 but i'm going to wait for more info on the 780 Ti.
Here's the specs of the 290X and 290 compared: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-290X-vs-Radeon-R9-290
$150-200 price difference for barely 1 FPS? I guess it's a similar situation to the 780 and Titan. Maybe the 290X is better for productivity? Looks like AMD is offering some healthy competition. Now if the cooling solution can be improved upon, we'll have a real winner. $400 for a card that competes with both the 780 and Titan is awesome.
It's freaking awesome. According to PCPer, AMD ramped the fan speed up 7% over the 290x (47% vs 40%), that gave it enough juice to beat the 780.
That also means the card is limited by the cooler. I've been saying with the 290x, just DIY your cooler!
That's an interesting observation (the retail vs sample), they'd have to get results from 100 290x and 780s for me to actually think the testing was scientific and representative of the 780 vs 290x battle.
That is what Tom's did with the 290, if you haven't read the article.
I have. I'm glad someone actually did it so I can back up my claims with data.
The only downside to a 290 is heat (and that isn't nearly as bad as people would make it out to be as well as no longer limits the overlocking of the card). There are some extra features you may want from Nvidia, but for the most part, you can get the same from AMD.
i really hope TEKSYNDICATE will teach us to make a way better cooler for the 290X !
AMD bumped up the fan speed on the R9 290 to make it perform well the down side is its louder than the R9 290X but becase of that extra fan speed keeping it cooler it performed better or on par with its bigger brother a card for $399 is tempting...but dat niose!
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-R9-290-4GB-Review-Trip-Hawaii-399
No arguing with all these price cuts. That's for sure.
3 months down the line don't people only buy reference cards for watercooling? Why does the sound level matter then?
It obviously does now, but in the big picture, it's just bad PR. Your experience with a 290(x) will hopefully be a watercooled reference or third party 290(x).
None reference cards are not comeing antill next year (why the hell amd made them all hold off makeing the aftermarket coolers is beond me)
+ A water block is £100 thats a lot of extra cash on a card that costs £315 (that actualy takes it up to a reference GTX780 here in the uk)
Because of the 780ti.
Nobody knows the true overclocking potential of these cores until than. It's an ace in the cards if you will.
I think there are non-reference cards coming at the end of the month, but no one knows for sure.
You're saying we should compare a water-cooled 290 vs a reference 780? That way, you'd know what card you should get for $500. Even if you compared a water-cooled 290 and a water-cooled 780, the 780 would cost 20% more.
Everyone sees to want to pay more for the 780 because it's quieter... Maybe CUDA, Shadowplay and other features do play a part in pricing, but when it comes down to it, you're paying $100 more for an effortless experience; I'm surprised so many PC enthusiast (who dislike Apple) are willing to pay for that.
With effort, you can have Shadowplay functionality, you can have CUDA alternatives; Physx is just a marketing thing (kinda like console exclusives), while GSync and Shield require even more money.
AMD has mantle, TrueAudio, and amazing GFLOPS.
It just comes down to fanboyism. If the 290(x) was 30% faster than the 780, there would be no question what one to get. It isn't, and there is no reason to side-grade from a 780. But while upgrading/building a new system, it would be foolish to not consider a 290(x).
Cuda is a gimmick and its nowhere faster than open cl Gsync youed have to have a loose screw in your head to buy a $400 TN 1080p moniror to use it and shadow play dosent realy apeall to me you can only record 20mins of video.
Adding a block is stage one then you have to buy a ress pipeing fitings a pump thats adding up way more than £550 now the GTX 780 you can slot in the computer and thats it job done its fast its much cooler and quieter.
The R9 290 is a good price point but you sacrifice so much more than your wallet takeing a hit.
I have a Asus VG248QE, 120hz really does make all the difference in competitive gaming.
Although I would like to have a nice high resolution monitor sitting next to it in the not to distant future for solo play experiences.
I agree with you on all points but this:
Adding a block is stage one then you have to buy a ress pipeing fitings a pump thats adding up way more than £550 now the GTX 780 you can slot in the computer and thats it job done its fast its much cooler and quieter.
As I've mentioned, when you get a reference GPU, you are most likely water-cooling (If you're not, you should be looking into non-reference cards, the reference 780 is also an option because of its better [and presumably more expensive] cooler). Therefore, if you are thinking about water cooling your whole rig, you have the choice between a water-cooled 290 or a water-cooled 780. The 290 will be cheaper while packing an equal punch.
The 290 might be hotter, but in a water-cooled system it will run faster and quieter than the 780.
Maybe you don't want to water-cool, then look into non-reference cards! They aren't out yet, so if you had to by a card now... Either grab a Arctic Accelero Extreme III + 290 + 25$ or a reference 780.
Anandtech's review has me thoroughly convinced that Ryan Smith is a dishonest piece of shit.
But that's just my opinion.
To me, the R9 290 is the trade-off card. On the one hand, you get similar, sometimes better performance than the stock GTX 780 for $100 less. On the other hand, you have a card that is loud, consumes a LOT of power, and gets super hot, could likely lead to thermal throttling, just like the R9 290X.
To me, having a card that sounds like a leaf blower and gets up to 95 Celsius is completely unacceptable, I don't care how fast it is. What I would do to correct this problem is to drop $75 and slap on an Arctic Accelero Xtreme III on it like Tom's Hardware did. So with that, the card's actual price is $475. With that, you have a cool, quiet, and now hopefully overclockable card that competes and sometimes beats the GTX 780 for $25 less. That's still a good value in my opinion. Here are the trade offs for getting the 290 w/ Xtreme III vs. 780:
Pros:
1. It's cooler and quieter thanks to the Xtreme III
2. It's $25 cheaper as stated earlier
3. It should be able to overclock now
4. It offers equal and often times better performance than the 780, especially at 1440p
5. Mantle with be huge if it doesn't turn out to be a fluke
Cons:
1. Not everybody wants to take apart a $400 GPU and put it back together
2. Disassembling the card voids the warranty, so if the card fails, you've just bought a $400 coaster
3. It still draws more power than the city of New York
So that's my opinion on the card. It's a great value, but it makes too many trade-offs to make me get all googly eyed about it. If AMD would get their heads out of their asses and let companies put aftermarket coolers on it, I would be getting googly eyed over it (idk why I suddenly feel the urge to say googly eyed).
In short, if you're willing to get your hands dirty, get the R9 290 with the Accelero Xtreme III.
If you want a card that performs well out of the box without getting hot and loud, get the 780.
I'm not claiming to be right, nor am I a fanboy, that's just my opinion.
It should be a pretty good card once aftermarket coolers are released. I am a bit hesitant about having so much heat dumped in my define r4 but I suppose I will just have to deal with it.
It would be nice if HIS did something like the IceQ turbo 7950s cooler.
I'm looking forward to the DCUII and Toxic renditions myself.
