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

[Arkanius]

So, for 1080p, should I go for a 7970 Ghz or a 280X?
280X are being sold for 300€ here in Europe, not sure if they are a good deal or not

 

[OCGuy]

So, for 1080p, should I go for a 7970 Ghz or a 280X?
280X are being sold for 300€ here in Europe, not sure if they are a good deal or not

They are the same thing....get whatever is cheaper. It is a rebrand.

 

[taq8ojh]

So, for 1080p, should I go for a 7970 Ghz or a 280X?
280X are being sold for 300€ here in Europe, not sure if they are a good deal or not

I am hoping to get lucky with used 7970, but man they are expensive here. Cheapest new 7970 cost €311 here, while cheapest R9 280X runs for 270. Like, WTF.

 

[el etro]

No Way Furmark reflects gaming power consumption. 290X will still consume less than Titan in gaming.

 

[Silverforce11]

I just hope they let AIBs do fancy custom coolers, because AMD's reference design is trash for so many generations already and they are still trying.. seriously, just let AIBs do it, they do a better job.

 

[blackened23]

I just hope they let AIBs do fancy custom coolers, because AMD's reference design is trash for so many generations already and they are still trying.. seriously, just let AIBs do it, they do a better job.

They could do the Nvidia approach with the Titan ref cooler. That cooler costs them 82$ in BOM, (wholesaler cost to NVIDIA), per Linus of linustechtips. It's ridiculously expensive, and is why you dont see many 770s using it. But it's actually the first reference cooler I've ever known that people actually REALLY like (even though it is still worse than aftermarket for cooling and noise).

..or maybe AMD doesn't want to plunk 80$ and change for a ref cooler. Speaking of which, I saw 1 reference 280X review (just one) and that new ref cooler seemed fine and better than the 7970 ref cooler. I dunno. I do prefer aftermarket in nearly every situation, and generally always have. So this is where i'm going to wait and see what's up with the ref cooler, outside of furmark.

 

[PPB]

I dont think you need $82 BOM to make a half decent blower type cooler. Sacrifice a little space a la HiS with their IceQ cooler, and you are already halfway there.*


* I know that design still throws some hot air into the case, but still, way better than current bricks.... errr reference coolers from AMD.

 

[AlNasty]

"When your radiator, is larger than your MB... You may be an overclocking redneck"

I don't care who ya are, that's funny right there.

 

[Grooveriding]

$82 for Titan cooler ? Ridiculous waste of coin imo. No wonder you hardly see any 780s that even use it.

 

[blackened23]

$82 for Titan cooler ? Ridiculous waste of coin imo. No wonder you hardly see any 780s that even use it.

Well you can't deny that it's the only reference cooler in history that people actually like.

Being honest, I can't think of any ref cooler that I liked. Ever. Not the 680, 580, 480, 7970, 6970, (list goes WAY on here..) etc. Whereas, that Titan/690/etc ref cooler looks nice! <first one in history> That said, I would certainly rather have an aftermarket cooler. The Titan is the best ref cooler but still not as good as aftermarket in terms of OC ability, temperatures, and noise.

And yeah, the 82$ BOM for the Titan ref cooler was an eye-opener to me. Anyway, I don't think AMD will follow the "cost be damned" approach to building a ref cooler for the 290X, not by a long shot.

 

[dmoney1980]

Just wanted to chime in to post my brief experience with the MSI 280x Gaming series card. I just took delivery today, popped it in and played BF3 for about 20 minutes. The card was VERY QUIET while gaming, with temps in the high 60's. This is with the computer inside a closet, pretty impressive in my opinion.

@1440p, Ultra presets, no AA, no blur - FPS were in the low 70's
@1440p, Ultra presets, 4x MSAA, no blur - FPS were in the low to mid 50's.

CPU is a Xeon L5639 OC'd to around 3.5GHZ, 6GB RAM, W7 x64

I'll play around with it some more this weekend, and I'll post my OC results as well.

Overall, I would say it's a good purchase.

 

[Will Robinson]

Hey thanks for the update....those results look pretty good.:thumbsup:

 

[tviceman]

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

You are always good for a page full of these types of comments around every new major release. Did AMD ever get multi-threaded functionality yet, or is that still considered an nvidia cheat in your book? LOL.

 

[Rvenger]

You are always good for a page full of these types of comments around every new major release. Did AMD ever get multi-threaded functionality yet, or is that still considered an nvidia cheat in your book? LOL.

Wow, real mature to make another jab from a jab. Walk away.

 

[MrK6]

You are always good for a page full of these types of comments around every new major release. Did AMD ever get multi-threaded functionality yet, or is that still considered an nvidia cheat in your book? LOL.

Nice desperate grab at rewriting history. Let's get back on topic which isn't you crying, thanks.

Just wanted to chime in to post my brief experience with the MSI 280x Gaming series card. I just took delivery today, popped it in and played BF3 for about 20 minutes. The card was VERY QUIET while gaming, with temps in the high 60's. This is with the computer inside a closet, pretty impressive in my opinion.

@1440p, Ultra presets, no AA, no blur - FPS were in the low 70's
@1440p, Ultra presets, 4x MSAA, no blur - FPS were in the low to mid 50's.

CPU is a Xeon L5639 OC'd to around 3.5GHZ, 6GB RAM, W7 x64

I'll play around with it some more this weekend, and I'll post my OC results as well.

Overall, I would say it's a good purchase.

Glad you're happy with the purchase. What were you upgrading from?

 

[dmoney1980]

Glad you're happy with the purchase. What were you upgrading from?

Radeon 5870, quite the jump

 

[poohbear]

Well you can't deny that it's the only reference cooler in history that people actually like.

Being honest, I can't think of any ref cooler that I liked. Ever. Not the 680, 580, 480, 7970, 6970, (list goes WAY on here..) etc. Whereas, that Titan/690/etc ref cooler looks nice! <first one in history> That said, I would certainly rather have an aftermarket cooler. The Titan is the best ref cooler but still not as good as aftermarket in terms of OC ability, temperatures, and noise.

And yeah, the 82$ BOM for the Titan ref cooler was an eye-opener to me. Anyway, I don't think AMD will follow the "cost be damned" approach to building a ref cooler for the 290X, not by a long shot.

Gigabytes Windforce cooler is much better than most these coolers & its nearly silent....im pretty sure it didnt cost Gigabyte $80. Whys Nvidia getting ripped off?

 

[Rvenger]

Gigabytes Windforce cooler is much better than most these coolers & its nearly silent....im pretty sure it didnt cost Gigabyte $80. Whys Nvidia getting ripped off?

Nvidia probably added their 80% markup to their AIBs.

 

[24601]

Nvidia probably added their 80% markup to their AIBs.

Give us your inside scoop Mr. MSI.

This is interesting :O.

 

[crazzy.heartz]

These just in:

We’re only able to show you R9 290X compared to GeForce GTX 780, and only at 3840x2160.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-r9-290x-benchmark-performance,24732.html

 

[Creig]

Official AMD Radeon R9 290X 2160p performance in 17 games

• Radeon R9 290X

Yesterday AMD allowed reviewers to share benchmark results in two games: BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider. Today guys from PCTuning shared some results from other titles, only this time it is not exactly with AMD approval
Data is taken from Radeon R9 290X reviewers guide, these numbers are for reference only. You should probably take them with a grain of salt, but it won&#8217;t get anymore official than this.
So to make it short, the average R9 290X performance advantage over GeForce GTX 780 is 23,8%, and this is just 2160p resolution. Some games, like Sleeping Dogs, show 152% better performance than with NVIDIA&#8217;s card! Apparently there is no title on the list that would offer better experience with GeForce GTX 780, only Splinter Cell Blacklist is somehow limiting the performance of R9 290X and making it just 4% faster, well it&#8217;s NVIDIA&#8217;s game for a reason.
By the way, these benchmarks were performed in performance mode (it&#8217;s actually called UBER-mode), not in Quiet-mode you have seen yesterday with Bioshock and Tomb Raider benchmarks. In this mode graphics card&#8217;s clocks go slightly higher regardless of the noise generated by the fan.
Enough talking, let&#8217;s see the charts and the table.

Radeon R9 290X vs GeForce GTX 780 (2160p)

R9 290X GTX 780 R9 290X/GTX 780 Anno 2070 34,40 25,28 36,1%

Battlefield 3 36,89 31,09 18,7%
Bioshock Infinite 43,99 37,67 16,8%
Borderlands 2 76,25 62,48 22,0%
Company Of Heroes 2 34,81 26,66 30,6%
Crysis 3 32,21 27,52 17,0%
Dirt Showdown 31,72 21,20 49,6%
Far Cry 3 BD 37,21 30,14 23,5%
Grid 2 47,99 39,15 22,6%
Hitman: Absolution 35,94 32,14 11,8%
Max Payne 3 72,13 50,70 42,3%
Matro: Last Light 47,86 40,76 17,4%
Saints Row IV 34,04 30,38 12,0%
Skyrim 71,21 52,63 35,3%
Sleeping Dogs 46,19 18,32 152,1%
Splinter Cell: Blacklist 44,63 42,64 4,7%
Tomb Raider 40,30 34,50 16,8%
AVERAGE 23,8%


http://videocardz.com/46929/official-amd-radeon-r9-290x-2160p-performance-17-games



Obviously to be taken with a grain of salt until official benches are released.

 

[Will Robinson]

This is going to be interesting.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

It would be more amusing if we knew overclocking, because we know the 780 can easily make up the ~15% performance difference.

That said 4k results are mostly pointless.

 

[Creig]

This was at 4K resolution (3840x2160) which is probably going to show the R290X in the best light vs the 780. I'm guessing the framerates will get closer between the two cards as you drop from 2160 to 1440 to 1080.

 

[GaiaHunter]

This was at 4K resolution (3840x2160) which is probably going to show the R290X in the best light vs the 780. I'm guessing the framerates will get closer between the two cards as you drop from 2160 to 1440 to 1080.

Still means the R290X has more horsepower.