R260/270/280/290/290x Review thread

[Cloudfire777]

Oh, didnt notice that they shift the position of the GPUs.

11% faster in 1080p. That changes everything.

Now we are cooking. If 1600p is better than this, I say absolutely go for 290X instead of 780. Heck maybe even upgrade fom 780 if it reaches around +20% :thumbsup:
That 290X increase the lead by that much in Metro Last Light bodes well for higher res.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I agree, everything hinges on price. I'm a fanboy of neither company, I like value and performance. If it beats a 780 and is within a couple % of titan at sub $600, then it is clearly a winner, for everyone. Other cards will come down in price and we have a competitive market. If it's overpriced, most people will buy other cards. AMD/NV fans are gonna say whatever to support their camp, but this should be good for everyone.

Not really. Coming in at $600 and being a couple percent faster than a 780 means that gamers saved $50. Although I'm sure some sale has popped up at some point where 780 owners got a card for $600. If a $50 savings makes one jump for joy then I guess yes this is a "win for everyone".

 

[Skurge]

I wonder if 290X crossfire can run most games with SSAA...

 

[rgallant]

Not really. Coming in at $600 and being a couple percent faster than a 780 means that gamers saved $50. Although I'm sure some sale has popped up at some point where 780 owners got a card for $600. If a $50 savings makes one jump for joy then I guess yes this is a "win for everyone".

what about the non X , that might be even $100 less than that , putting a high end card with 4 gb of vram back to $500.00.
where most people might draw the line in the sand.

 

[exar333]

http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fg.pconline.com.cn%2Fx%2F363%2F3631256_all.html&sandbox=1

Splinter Cell - 290X is 4% faster (57/55)
Metro - 290X is 26% faster (78/62) *note the 290X is the RED BAR at the top*
Tomb Raider - 290X is 3% faster (78/76)
Crysis 3 - 290X is 5% faster (42/40)
Black Ops 2 - 290X is 5% faster (135/129)
Sleeping Dogs - 290X is 12% faster (57/51)
Farcry 3 - 290X is 31% faster (68/52)
Battlefield 3 - Draw (108/108)

8 games - Overall the 290X is 11% faster than the 780, and looking at most of the games where the 780 keeps up, it'll not be anything like as close at 1600p. It gets destroyed in the really tough games like Metro and FC3.

NV could easily drop the price of the 780 $100 and still make a nice profit. They could also drop it to $499 and really put AMD in a bind.

The 290x sounds great, but to me it's still pretty close to the price/perf of the 780. Better (most likely) but not a slam-dunk by any means...

 

[SimianR]

If the 290X is roughly 10% faster than the 780 overall, why would NVIDIA dropping the price of the 780 by $100 put AMD in a bind? At the high end, you pay a premium for even modest performance gains. So $100 extra for the 290X would actually make sense. Now on the other hand look at the price difference between the 290X and Titan and assuming the 290X launches at $599.. try to justify the price difference.

 

[tviceman]

power draw

temps

GTX780 needs a price drop and Titan needs to vanish, but power consumption and temps are way higher with 290x. Nvidia has plenty of TDP to wiggle with if they want to release an equal-TDP part and destroy the 290x in performance. They need to get over their better-than-thou pricing though, which will unfortunately probably not happen. This is probably the first time ever Nvidia played it safe on it's high end parts while simultaneously charging an absurd premium. Bring on the 290x slaying gtx785 so I can watch more of you people get your panties all knotted up and bicker some more.

 

[Face2Face]

I wonder if 290X crossfire can run most games with SSAA...

I would say depends on the native res and the games. What current games support SSAA other than Metro LL and BF4? Is there a way to force it in games that don't support it?


Also, 94c is really high.. I know it's furmark, but still doesn't seem promising..

 

[Elfear]

power draw

temps

GTX780 needs a price drop and Titan needs to vanish, but power consumption and temps are way higher with 290x. Nvidia has plenty of TDP to wiggle with if they want to release an equal-TDP part and destroy the 290x in performance. They need to get over their better-than-thou pricing though, which will unfortunately probably not happen. This is probably the first time ever Nvidia played it safe on it's high end parts while simultaneously charging an absurd premium. Bring on the 290x slaying gtx785 so I can watch more of you people get your panties all knotted up and bicker some more.

Furmark isn't the best test of real-world power draw though as it seems Nvidia detects the program and limits the power consumption while Radeon's run wide open.

http://anandtech.com/show/7406/the-sapphire-r9-280x-toxic-review/4

 

[tviceman]

Furmark isn't the best test of real-world power draw though as it seems Nvidia detects the program and limits the power consumption while Radeon's run wide open.

http://anandtech.com/show/7406/the-sapphire-r9-280x-toxic-review/4

Ah I see. Yeah that isn't a particularly valid comparison, but I am under the impression that AMD still throttles to a certain degree with "power virus" programs.

 

[taq8ojh]

So is the NDA lifted or not? It's 16th, and I can't find any information about it anywhere.

 

[imaheadcase]

I think all those benchmarks posted are for the BF4 edition, that is the only pictures of it seen on the benchmarks page when shown cover of box. If that is the case it has voltages unlocked so could very well be overclocked for them as well. Not sure if all cards can have voltages unlocked though..

 

[3DVagabond]

Still blows my mind how people complained about the 7970 being 550$, but Titan being 1000$ is fine, lol

Never has the term, "consider the source(s)", been more applicable.

 

[Erenhardt]

Ah I see. Yeah that isn't a particularly valid comparison, but I am under the impression that AMD still throttles to a certain degree with "power virus" programs.

True, but only if there are drivers that do it. It is pretty early for 290X and I suspect drivers are not ready yet

 

[24601]

True, but only if there are drivers that do it. It is pretty early for 290X and I suspect drivers are not ready yet

AMD cards throttle at powertune limit as well. Don't forget that.

The reason why the powertune limit is so high is because the actual TDP of the card is so high. It's pretty obvious.

The powertune limit on the cards being tested are set because situations have been found where real performance will be limited if they were set lower.

The whole point of artificial wattage limits on cards is to be able to put higher wattage cards in a lower wattage envelope.

 

[Borealis7]

remember when we used to have GPU wars about the 300W power draw limit back when the GTX480 or the 6990 came out? whatever happened to that constraint? cards these days are just power hogs

 

[24601]

remember when we used to have GPU wars about the 300W power draw limit back when the GTX480 or the 6990 came out? whatever happened to that constraint? cards these days are just power hogs

People bought into the propaganda about "power viruses" that allows AIB and Nvidia/AMD/ATi to ship absolutely subpar power delivery and cooling solutions with their cards.

It's that simple.

As the immortal Steve Jobs would say, "You're using it wrong."

 

[imaheadcase]

remember when we used to have GPU wars about the 300W power draw limit back when the GTX480 or the 6990 came out? whatever happened to that constraint? cards these days are just power hogs

Because who cares about power when you are only spending hardly anything each year on it for a computer.

If you are worried about power, you are on the wrong website.

 

[Borealis7]

If you are worried about power, you are on the wrong website.

no, man, i just prefer efficiency to raw power. more power also means hotter cards and i live in the desert, i don't want my computer room to become a sauna.

 

[tviceman]

True, but only if there are drivers that do it. It is pretty early for 290X and I suspect drivers are not ready yet

"Pretty early" means a few days before launch and "not ready yet" is par for the course with AMD.

Warning issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart

 

[Rvenger]

Ah I see. Yeah that isn't a particularly valid comparison, but I am under the impression that AMD still throttles to a certain degree with "power virus" programs.

Furmark always run AMD cards at insanely high power consumption. The gaming power consumption tells a different story.

 

[imaheadcase]

no, man, i just prefer efficiency to raw power. more power also means hotter cards and i live in the desert, i don't want my computer room to become a sauna.

I would give you the "If you can't stand the heat get of of the desert" speech..but you should know that was coming.

 

[Erenhardt]

"Pretty early" means a few days before launch and "not ready yet" is par for the course with AMD.

apparently "few days before launch" means "2 weeks before launch" in your "How to bash AMD 101" books.
(Oct 25/26 release?)

 

[Rvenger]

apparently "few days before launch" means "2 weeks before launch" in your "How to bash AMD 101" books.
(Oct 25/26 release?)

Everyone believed the leaks, that's how this came about.

 

[MrK6]

"Pretty early" means a few days before launch and "not ready yet" is par for the course with AMD.

Man, your butthurt is pretty entertaining this time around, keep it up

Warning issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart