AMD Radeon R9 290X Battlefield 4 Edition – 8,000 and "No Specs" For Pre-Order

[Bubbleawsome]

You can't really preorder such an expensive item on some unsubstantiated benchmarks and a marketing slide from AMD. If they sell preorders well I will be disappointed with my fellow enthusiasts, that is purchasing a product with no idea whether its good or not. Marketing slides are not benchmarks, doesn't matter what they say.

While I agree for the average person, enthusiasts are enthusiasts. Dropping $600 on an unknown value to be first isn't that big of a deal. If I had a spare $600 on my computer budget I'd go for this, and I'm a bit frugal.

 

[Final8ty]

No chance.

 

[3DVagabond]

I called it in another thread that the NDA will lift on October 3rd with products being available 2 weeks later in time for bf4. Just watch.

Tahiti's NDA lifted on a Thursday too. They must be expecting reviews to be positive to drive the preorder hysteria.

It's only 8000 cards. There's not much money in it. It's just to raise awareness of the new cards.

 

[3DVagabond]

What is BF4 edition? A free BF4 copy?

Probably some custom cooler graphics too. Ooooo!

 

[Gloomy]

Who else is buying a bunch just to fleece people? :sneaky:

 

[Jacky60]

I actually foolishly pre-ordered a X1800XT from AMD before it was released and fortunately after seeing the benchmarks was able to cancel. That card had a lot of promise but very disappointing performance, I certainly wouldn't blindly order a card ever again.

 

[Subyman]

While I agree for the average person, enthusiasts are enthusiasts. Dropping $600 on an unknown value to be first isn't that big of a deal. If I had a spare $600 on my computer budget I'd go for this, and I'm a bit frugal.

You certainly aren't frugal if you would drop spare cash on an unknown GPU.

 

[RussianSensation]

I actually foolishly pre-ordered a X1800XT from AMD before it was released and fortunately after seeing the benchmarks was able to cancel. That card had a lot of promise but very disappointing performance, I certainly wouldn't blindly order a card ever again.

I agree that pre-ordering a GPU without seeing its actual performance, especially since this is only a reference design mode first, is only for the most hardcore fans.

A note on X1800XT, it wasn't actually a bad card. It ended up beating the much more expensive 7900GTX once modern games came out.
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2011/bericht-grafikkarten-evolution/3/

 

[lavaheadache]

I agree that pre-ordering a GPU without seeing its actual performance, especially since this is only a reference design mode first, is only for the most hardcore fans.

A note on X1800XT, it wasn't actually a bad card. It ended up beating the much more expensive 7900GTX once modern games came out.
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2011/bericht-grafikkarten-evolution/3/

I was actually going to try and defend the x1800 XT too but felt that it would turn into a flame war about ages old hardware so I refrained. For anyone that has these cards still... the X1k series cards will actually still play quite a few modernish games well. About 8 months ago I put my x1900 xtx through some games and had tons of fun. I should try out my x1800 xt too.

 

[lavaheadache]

Who else is buying a bunch just to fleece people? :sneaky:

=)


:ninja:


Can't say confidently that I don't have a plan brewing. :thumbsup:

 

[5150Joker]

I know this was buried in one of the threads.

Pre-order a card based on rumors? They are really going out on a limb here.



http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-r9-290x-battlefield-4-edition-8000-specs-pre-order_125224

Well the reasons for pre-ordering it are simple really..now repeat after me:

DEVELOPER DEVELOPER DEVELOPER <---not plural
MANTLE MANTLE MANTLE

 

[imaheadcase]

It would be so funny if it was just with BF4 codes and nothing else.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

It would be so funny if it was just with BF4 codes and nothing else.

As opposed to what? In game currency in a free to play turd?

 

[5150Joker]

As opposed to what? In game currency in a free to play turd?

Hey don't knock the turd, I sold my turd codes for $50. :thumbsup:

 

[badb0y]

I assume reviews will be up before the card ships and online retailers don't charge until the product is ready to be shipped therefore you can cancel it if you don't like what you see before getting the product. Still a stupid move but not as bad as it could be. In before review embargo is up after release LOL.

Right now I have both Xbox One and PS4 on pre-order from Amazon without paying a single penny and probably going to end up canceling the Xbox One preorder.

 

[zlejedi]

Well they got that guy who returned from Apple so this kind of bullshit doesn't look that suprising

 

[frozentundra123456]

I think they're gonna cost a bit more than that. These are limited edition, you always pay more for that and there might be some other BF4 stuff included.

I can see making a limited edition of a game, with extra content, but what would a "limited edition" of a card entail? I can't believe they would make a special hardware configuration or custom drivers. Maybe just a custom color scheme or something? Actually maybe you get some special in game item or something?

 

[ValidUsername]

I'm completely satisfied with the updated Never Settle Forever bundle.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I can see making a limited edition of a game, with extra content, but what would a "limited edition" of a card entail? I can't believe they would make a special hardware configuration or custom drivers. Maybe just a custom color scheme or something? Actually maybe you get some special in game item or something?

Maybe a light up cooler?

 

[yacoub]

While I agree for the average person, enthusiasts are enthusiasts. Dropping $600 on an unknown value to be first isn't that big of a deal.

That's not the definition of an enthusiast. Marketing has twisted that term to try to get people to think that if you spend way too much money on an unknown quantity, that's when you're an "enthusiast". No, at that stage a person is simply a risk-taker or a fool. Which one is an individual case-by-case basis.

To the contrary, most of us here are gpu enthusiasts. We are enthusiastic about performance enough to spend money on a specific peripheral, a gpu, regardless of the price point, to enhance the ability of our machines to perform certain tasks. We're also sitting here discussing and debating the latest GPU release information. Most people don't do that. Most people buy pre-built computers and many of them couldn't even point to the gpu inside it if asked.

The point is this: We here are pretty much all "enthusiasts" regardless of the price point of the gpus we buy.

"Enthusiasts" is the label on the big circle that encompasses most people here. Within that large circle are smaller circles, which include "Budget-conscious" or "conservative", as well as other groups including the aforementioned "Risk-taker". No one should be so easily led by marketing hype trying to push them into a more expensive card than they really need simply to confirm to themselves that they're somehow then an "enthusiast".

 

[krumme]

Ha - we are dinos !
Mobile fans happily preorder in the millions without knowing specs. And when specs arive after preorder they dont care the slightest. Hell - they dont even know what specs is.
Its a growing market.
Its the future. Lol.

 

[Kenmitch]

I can see making a limited edition of a game, with extra content, but what would a "limited edition" of a card entail? I can't believe they would make a special hardware configuration or custom drivers. Maybe just a custom color scheme or something? Actually maybe you get some special in game item or something?

It's hard to say....With what looks like the new AMD these days one can expect nothing more than a sticker on the fan shrowd to a couple of xtra games, all the way up to the unexpected.

I might poke around and see the terms of the pre-orders to see if it's worth the risk/gamble for one.

 

[Saylick]

Apparently, NDA expires on Oct. 15th.

The NDA for the Radeon R9 290X specifications officially ends on October 15th and that’s basically when the card would either hit retail or final specifications for the card would be unveiled.

 

[Fox5]

I was actually going to try and defend the x1800 XT too but felt that it would turn into a flame war about ages old hardware so I refrained. For anyone that has these cards still... the X1k series cards will actually still play quite a few modernish games well. About 8 months ago I put my x1900 xtx through some games and had tons of fun. I should try out my x1800 xt too.

Hardware wise, AMD cards have frequently been ahead of Nvidia cards in longevity.
Driver wise, AMD drops support after 3 years, which is a death dealer to a graphics card. I had an X1950XT, and the thing couldn't play Team Fortress 2 on any settings. More recently, my friend's Radeon 4650 suffered horrible performance and frequent crashes in Company of Heroes 2.

And the situation on Linux is even worse, after 3 years you're forced into using the way inferior open source driver.

However, for the bleeding edge enthusiast, they'll be buying a new card in 3 years anyway. Plus, it looks like GCN will be a long lived architecture given that it's the realization of AMD's Mantle/HSA/console/APU dreams.

 

[Stuka87]

Hardware wise, AMD cards have frequently been ahead of Nvidia cards in longevity.
Driver wise, AMD drops support after 3 years, which is a death dealer to a graphics card. I had an X1950XT, and the thing couldn't play Team Fortress 2 on any settings. More recently, my friend's Radeon 4650 suffered horrible performance and frequent crashes in Company of Heroes 2.

And the situation on Linux is even worse, after 3 years you're forced into using the way inferior open source driver.

However, for the bleeding edge enthusiast, they'll be buying a new card in 3 years anyway. Plus, it looks like GCN will be a long lived architecture given that it's the realization of AMD's Mantle/HSA/console/APU dreams.

I think you are confused on timing. The 5000 series came out in September four years ago and is still fully supported. The 4000 series came out in June of 2008. The last drivers for the 4000 series was 13.1 (Released Jan 2013). Which was 4.5 years after the 4000 series was released.

And honestly I don't see any reason for AMD to make sure 5 year old cards can run the latest games. Because even if they ran bug free, they don't have the horse power to run them at anything more than minimum settings.