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

[myfriend]

i think AMD did good here maybe its time to upgrade to r9 280x OC

 

[Zanovar]

Anyways im out will wait 290/780 ti prices see how they settle.migh not wait at all*shrugs*.goodnight and goodluck.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

What should really concern Nvidia is the fact that non reference 290x's are coming. If this thing is beating titan when it can't even run at 1000mhz imagine if a decent cooler allows to to actually run faster than 1000mhz.

As for power consumption being high. Overclocked gtx780 that would likely match the the 290x consumes around 50 watts more.

That would put them at basically the exact same power usage.

I absolutely can't wait for non reference 290x's to be benchmarked. The 780Ti may be seeing some last minute clock speed adjustments, and I'm sure the "low power" claim from JHH will suffer for it.

I don't doubt the 780Ti will be faster, but it will suffer from the same issues the 290x does now to get there. Just wait though, it will be an engineering marvel and the best card ever.

 

[wand3r3r]

IMHO, a reference card should not routinely thermal throttle. Sure, when the aftermarket gets a hold of it there will be some interesting developments. For AMD though this looks like smoke and mirrors.:thumbsdown:

I agree entirely. The saving grace is the price, and the performance. It takes NV's rape job and puts a (slight) clamp on milking the consumers.

If this was priced differently the reference cooler would be more worthy of consideration, however even with that clearly weak cooler it fits very nicely pricewise after the recent hosing NV has been doing this year. If they fixed the cooler it would only increase the beating of the overpriced NV cards, however it already beats them handily. They can offer the card even if it's not running at full boost clocks since it doesn't even need the extra boost since it already delivers compared to the competition.

It's all about price. The complaints the troll.. er... NV "enthusiasts" keep whining about would be more valid if the price was higher.

I'd have to say price/performance is about most of my criteria. If that's not in line then nothing else really matters as much.

 

[Whelm]

Ocuk has a Prolimatech MK-26 cooler dropping temps by about 30 degrees C compared to the stock cooler.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=25177410

 

[Keysplayr]

The 290 has incredible potential. Give credit where it is due. But that cooler makes me just want to line up the AMD engineering staff and smack the dumb looks off their faces. To throw a cooler like that on an engineering feat like the 290? It's criminal. How does something like this get through? What are they thinking?

 

[TerryMathews]

Obviously also an nVidia hater. Since I first added focus to their problems between baseclock and boost. Since Hawaii is the first chip from AMD where you can actually read the boost clock and not just get no boost or all boost as result.

I find it amazing how diligent some people defend broken products to protect X/Y company.

Physician, heal thyself.

On topic, I'm interested to see if the quality of the die improves over time a la Haswell.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

The 290 has incredible potential. Give credit where it is due. But that cooler makes me just want to line up the AMD engineering staff and smack the dumb looks off their faces. To throw a cooler like that on an engineering feat like the 290? It's criminal. How does something like this get through? What are they thinking?

They are probably thinking that a week after the 780Ti drops they will release the reference R9 290x Ghz edition with an excellent cooler and take the performance crown back after the 780Ti wins it back in November.

I will laugh hysterically if they do this (it's funny because it would fleece customers by giving them what they should have got in the first place.) Just like the 7970 launch it's quite apparent that they have left a lot of performance on the table with this chip, and a better reference cooler would fix the problem.

 

[wand3r3r]

Ocuk has a Prolimatech MK-26 cooler dropping temps by about 30 degrees C compared to the stock cooler.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=25177410

Hopefully the custom cards can do something similar. Looks like an amazing card with that fan attached.

 

[dguy6789]

If only you could count on it staying at that speed longer than a couple minutes during gaming....

That's about as ridiculous as me implying the Titan is slower than the 7850 after a couple minutes of gaming.

AMD launches the best card they've launched since the 9700 and still people Nvidia people make up utter nonsense to bash it. It's so silly. The R9 290X is a Titan and 780 killer. Get over it. You guys will have your moment when Nvidia responds.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Ocuk has a Prolimatech MK-26 cooler dropping temps by about 30 degrees C compared to the stock cooler.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=25177410

Says 55C at 1.4v 1200mhz core?!?!? Probably dims the lights in the house under load.

If clockspeeds scale like Tahiti wouldn't that make this thing like 25% faster than Titan if they are about even when the 290x seems to average around 950mhz right now?

It is a 4 slot cooler apparently. Absolutely huge.

 

[Black Octagon]

Those OCUK results are very encouraging. I can't wait for ASUS and MSI to have their way with this GPU

 

[Grooveriding]

Now that both of the actual flagships are out on 28nm from nvidia and AMD, a lot of people when raging over their favourite side are missing the fact that we have gotten the best generational increases from node to node in a very long time. AMD has doubled the performance of the 6970 with the 290X and there is still room for more once we see custom cards. Nvidia has come close to doubling the GTX 580 and once they release the Titan WTFBBQ edition probably will double the performance of their last flagship on 40nm as well.

We haven't gotten leaps like this in a long time. The last card that did this was the 8800GTX. Nvidia has better thermals and efficiency and AMD has better overall performance. The only downsides to it all have been the pricing rape of nvidia for GK110 and the long wait to actually get these cards available.

I'm pretty impressed by AMD's card, thermals and all. The card is running at 850mhz under gaming load and matching Titan. Watercooling has this card running at 1200mhz.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1436596/...deon-r9-290x-makes-its-debut/80#post_21057174

If someone can get out an aftermarket card that holds 1100mhz, AMD may close out a node with the performance lead, something they haven't done since the ATI days. An EVGA Classified card with a full 2880 GK110 core would probably be what it would take to overtake that kind of 290X performance.

 

[GaiaHunter]

TBut that cooler makes me just want to line up the AMD engineering staff and smack the dumb looks off their faces. To throw a cooler like that on an engineering feat like the 290? It's criminal. How does something like this get through? What are they thinking?

All the good engineers (the 5 of them) were working on the chip itself, while the rest (the weird dude and the intern) designed the cooler.

 

[wand3r3r]

Says 55C at 1.4v 1200mhz core?!?!? Probably dims the lights in the house under load.

If clockspeeds scale like Tahiti wouldn't that make this thing like 25% faster than Titan if they are about even when the 290x seems to average around 950mhz right now?

It is a 4 slot cooler apparently. Absolutely huge.

According to TPU it scales extremely well with OCing. The best scaling they have ever seen to be precise.

AMD's Radeon R9 290X shows fantastic clock scaling with GPU voltage, better than any GPU I've previously reviewed. The clocks do not show any signs of diminishing returns, which leads me to believe that the GPU could clock even higher with more voltage and cooling.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X/31.html


This thing is probably going to wipe the floor once overclocked.

The 290 will be the card to watch though.

 

[stahlhart]

Stop the personal attacks immediately. If you can't show respect for other members when debating them, then don't post.
-- stahlhart

 

[wand3r3r]

Now that both of the actual flagships are out on 28nm from nvidia and AMD, a lot of people when raging over their favourite side are missing the fact that we have gotten the best generational increases from node to node in a very long time. AMD has doubled the performance of the 6970 with the 290X and there is still room for more once we see custom cards. Nvidia has come close to doubling the GTX 580 and once they release the Titan WTFBBQ edition probably will double the performance of their last flagship on 40nm as well.

We haven't gotten leaps like this in a long time. The last card that did this was the 8800GTX. Nvidia has better thermals and efficiency and AMD has better overall performance. The only downsides to it all have been the pricing rape of nvidia for GK110 and the long wait to actually get these cards available.

I'm pretty impressed by AMD's card, thermals and all. The card is running at 850mhz under gaming load and matching Titan. Watercooling has this card running at 1200mhz.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1436596/...deon-r9-290x-makes-its-debut/80#post_21057174

If someone can get out an aftermarket card that holds 1100mhz, AMD may close out a node with the performance lead, something they haven't done since the ATI days. An EVGA Classified card with a full 2880 GK110 core would probably be what it would take to overtake that kind of 290X performance.

That's an excellent summary. The only problem with the whole situation is the fact that they have raised the prices (especially NV) and dragged it out over quite some time.

If I were sitting on 580/6970 it'd be pretty hard to pass these up.

I actually personally doubt we will see 20nm before Q3 or Q4 2014. I could be wrong though. If that's the case these cards will have to do for a year.

 

[Vesku]

Thats great for you, but where do that leave all the people with the unmodified reference product?

Gaming at higher fps than reference 780 owners, if we go by reviews.

 

[Daedalus685]

All the good engineers (the 5 of them) were working on the chip itself, while the rest (the weird dude and the intern) designed the cooler.

Manager: What a great card, good job team.

Engineer: Now if we just spend $3 per card and use this cooler here...

Manager: No, no, that's fine. We'll just use the same one we've used for the last three generations. You said the card has advanced temperature control right?

Engineer: Yes but the performance...

Manager: Uh huh, marketing even has new racing stripes planned! Help them set up the photo shoot would you.

 

[iiiankiii]

To me, I need to know how well it'll overclock with better cooling. We know the pricing is great. We know the stock cooler sucks. If the 290x overclocks and scales better than a 780gtx, I think we have a true winner.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

To me, I need to know how well it'll overclock with better cooling. We know the pricing is great. We know the stock cooler sucks. If the 290x overclocks and scales better than a 780gtx, I think we have a true winner.

There was a link a few posts up that shows an aftermarket cooler allowing the card to run at 1.4v and 1200mhz core on air.

I would imagine water would be even better.

 

[GaiaHunter]

To me, I need to know how well it'll overclock with better cooling. We know the pricing is great. We know the stock cooler sucks. If the 290x overclocks and scales better than a 780gtx, I think we have a true winner.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25175355&postcount=6

85'C in heaven on MK-26 cooler

55'C in heaven on MK-26 cooler


Overclocked at 1200 Core + 1.4V


stock cooler at 85'c with 100% fan speed

MK-26 cooler at 72'C with silent fans.

With AIB coolers it should probably get 1100-1150MHz at reasonable temperatures and fan noise. Will consume quite a lot though.

 

[Chumster]

If I were sitting on 580/6970 it'd be pretty hard to pass these up.

In my current setup I have a GTX 570. Served me well over the years but it's time to move up. And to me that's the most aggravating part of this launch. While the 290/290x haven't been "delayed" in the truest sense of the word, AMD has really botched the launch in regards to BF4 - a sequel to one of the most popular games on the PC.

I'm sitting here with a brand new i4770k with a gigantic hole where a high-end card should be sitting. Whether nVidia can bring the GTX780 price down to $500 or if aftermarket R9 290's show up, I doubt either will appear before mid-November - if at all. I still haven't seen a single link where nVidia has commented on price drops to their upper tier cards.

Why won't anyone step up and take my money??!

 

[VulgarDisplay]

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25175355&postcount=6


With AIB coolers it should probably get 1100-1150MHz at reasonable temperatures and fan noise. Will consume quite a lot though.

Won't the increased cooling ability reduce power consumption? I would hope that it would even out and consume roughly the same amount as a stock cooled card, or at least lower consumption to a point where it's not obscene.

 

[krumme]

That's an excellent summary. The only problem with the whole situation is the fact that they have raised the prices (especially NV) and dragged it out over quite some time.

If I were sitting on 580/6970 it'd be pretty hard to pass these up.

I actually personally doubt we will see 20nm before Q3 or Q4 2014. I could be wrong though. If that's the case these cards will have to do for a year.

Agree no big dies on 20nm before a year.
Nv will spend a year trailing amd on the high end for both perf and mm2 eff. But 104 is best mm2 perf vs tahiti for the performance segment.
Everyone and his phone brother will pay for 20nm for their a57 derivatives and i think nv and amd will slow down adoption of new nodes for economic reason for the big dies for tvat reason. Mobile could probably be different.
I dont think we will see the same pattern for 20nm that we have seen for prior nodes.