R9 290 *Complete* review list

[mindbomb]

i still can't believe that just one generation after the failure of the gtx 480, we're talking about a card that uses more power, runs hotter and louder, being praised just because it is a good value. Have we learned nothing?

 

[blackened23]

i still can't believe that just one generation after the failure of the gtx 480, we're talking about a card that uses more power, runs hotter and louder, being praised just because it is a good value. Have we learned nothing?

Wait, what? The GTX 480 wasn't a value GPU unlike the 290. It was priced substantially higher than the 5870. Besides which, I don't know how others feel but I think the cooler on the 290 basically is sub-par, no argument here - I think that AMD made the wrong decision in terms of cheaping out on the reference blower. I agree with you on this 100%. The GTX 480 noise situation was not acceptable in 2010, and the 290 noise situation isn't acceptable - I wouldn't personally buy one unless an aftermarket edition arrived, but a lot of people will be fine with the reference blower for 400$. For 400$ the price/perf is very good. And tons of people will buy it IMHO precisely because of that despite the cooler; most GTX 770 cards are in the 350$ or 380$ for 4GB range, and the 290 basically demolishes the 770 in terms of performance without any question, hands down. It's hard to overlook that even though the ref cooler is garbage.

 

[f1sherman]

i still can't believe that just one generation after the failure of the gtx 480, we're talking about a card that uses more power, runs hotter and louder, being praised just because it is a good value. Have we learned nothing?

I know... That was kinda my point; speaking from AMD's perspective and saying all they have is price.

But you see, there's a problem - you can't say "just a good value". Because from average buyer's perspective there's not too much LEFT.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

i still can't believe that just one generation after the failure of the gtx 480, we're talking about a card that uses more power, runs hotter and louder, being praised just because it is a good value. Have we learned nothing?

The gtx480 was up against a cheaper card that used far less power and had been out for an eternity. That was why the gtx480 got so much bad press.

 

[SimianR]

Most Geforce 770 2GB cards might be $350.. but not the 4GB cards; they are $400. The Geforce 770 4GB cards are in the same price bracket and are what we should actually be comparing to the R9 290. I think AMD was a bit too aggressive with the fan profile if they were going to stick with this specific cooler. They went after the 780/Titan, but they didn't really need to at $400. At $400 with a more conservative fan profile its still a much better buy than the 770.

 

[ams23]

GTX780 reference beating performance for $100 less

Actually when you equalize noise between R9 290 ref. and GTX 780 ref. (as Anandtech did in their review), the GTX 780 trounces the R9 290 in performance.

As for your fixation on Titan, that graphics card was beaten for a fraction of the price ages ago by GTX 780 SC's (without these alternatives being ridiculously loud or hot either).

Let's face it, until better after-market cards arrive, Anandtech cannot even recommend R9 290, and the only one to blame is AMD for designing such a loud and hot ref. card.

 

[chimaxi83]

Actually when you equalize noise between R9 290 ref. and GTX 780 ref. (as Anandtech did in their review), the GTX 780 trounces the R9 290 in performance.

As for your fixation on Titan, that graphics card was beaten for a fraction of the price ages ago by GTX 780 SC's (without these alternatives being ridiculously loud or hot either).

Let's face it, until better after-market cards arrive, Anandtech cannot even recommend R9 290, and the only one to blame is AMD for designing such a loud and hot ref. card.

Anandtech is pretty much the only site that "cannot even recommend" 290. I understand the need to grasp at straws to defend, but come on man. What will your defense be when aftermarket 290/X destroys the noise argument? Power draw and the increased pennies cost?

 

[ams23]

Most Geforce 770 2GB cards might be $350.. but not the 4GB cards; they are $400. The Geforce 770 4GB cards are in the same price bracket and are what we should actually be comparing to the R9 290. I think AMD was a bit too aggressive with the fan profile if they were going to stick with this specific cooler. They went after the 780/Titan, but they didn't really need to at $400. At $400 with a more conservative fan profile its still a much better buy than the 770.

At loudness levels similar to GTX 780, R9 290 loses up to 20% (!) performance. In the low $300's, one can get GTX 770 SC's (with game bundle) and R9 280X OC's (no game bundle) that are arguably much better balanced cards than R9 290 ref.

As for RAM, in the overwhelming majority of scenarios, GTX 770 will not stand to benefit to any significant degree with 4GB RAM, and a GTX 780 will not stand to benefit to any significant degree with 6GB RAM, especially at 19x12 and 25x16 resolutions most people use for these cards.

 

[tigersty1e]

wow, anandtech's review was brutal against amd.

sounds like they were more pissed off at the revised fan curve and took it out on the review.

 

[ams23]

Anandtech is pretty much the only site that "cannot even recommend" 290. I understand the need to grasp at straws to defend, but come on man. What will your defense be when aftermarket 290/X destroys the noise argument? Power draw and the increased pennies cost?

Maybe you are missing the point. R9 290 can be recommended when better after-market designs come out. Until then, AMD is giving consumers no choice but to accept a noisy and hot card. And knowing that better after-market designs are coming soon (?), it makes little sense to recommend R9 290 reference design.

Note that it would be hard to recommend a R9 290X under any circumstances now, after-market or not.

 

[SimianR]

At loudness levels similar to GTX 780, R9 290 loses up to 20% (!) performance. In the low $300's, one can get GTX 770 SC's (with game bundle) and R9 280X OC's (no game bundle) that are arguably much better balanced cards than R9 290 ref.

As for RAM, in the overwhelming majority of scenarios, GTX 770 will not stand to benefit to any significant degree with 4GB RAM, and a GTX 780 will not stand to benefit to any significant degree with 6GB RAM, especially at 19x12 and 25x16 resolutions most people use for these cards.

I don't think you can compare 2GB to 4GB cards, not really apples to apples. BF4 and Bioshock Infinite are pushing and sometimes exceeding 2GB @ 1080P, what do you think the situation will be like early next year when more next gen console titles start hitting the PC? I dunno, if people are are going to start arguing that the 770 is the better buy because of the games.. I don't know what to say.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Maybe you are missing the point. R9 290 can be recommended when better after-market designs come out. Until then, AMD is giving consumers no choice but to accept a noisy and hot card.

Note that it would be hard to recommend a R9 290X under any circumstances now, after-market or not.

How is AMD giving consumers no choice with the R9 290? You can lower the fan speed if you'd like and have very good performance. You can put it in quiet mode and have slightly better than GTX780 performance for slightly more noise than a GTX780. Put it in uber mode and have near Titan/780OC performance, the trade off is a fan that is louder yet.

 

[ams23]

@ SimianR: you are overstating the benefits of doubling RAM on GTX 7xx cards. In the overwhelming majority of scenarios, the bottleneck on these cards will lie elsewhere and not framebuffer size.

 

[ams23]

How is AMD giving consumers no choice with the R9 290? You can lower the fan speed if you'd like and have very good performance. You can put it in quiet mode and have slightly better than GTX780 performance for slightly more noise than a GTX780. Put it in uber mode and have near Titan/780OC performance, the trade off is a fan that is louder yet.

Read Anandtech's review. R9 290 (non-X) has a default fan profile that is already similar in loudness to ubermode on 290X. If you decrease fan speed to match GTX 780 noise levels, performance falls off a cliff due to thermal throttling. This is precisely why Anandtech did not recommend this reference card.

 

[SimianR]

Read Anandtech's review. R9 290 (non-X) has a default fan profile that is already similar in loudness to ubermode on 290X. If you decrease fan speed to match GTX 780 noise levels, performance falls off a cliff due to thermal throttling. This is precisely why Anandtech did not recommend this reference card.

I think you're making a mistake in assuming that it has to match the sound levels though. The noise levels don't have to be exactly the same, the noise level just has to be reasonable, and to some people at 47% the fan is annoying. Ryan said this:

Had the 290 shipped in its original 40% fan configuration, it wouldn’t be knocking on the GTX 780’s door any longer, but it would have been in a spot where its balance of price, performance, and noise would have made for an attractive product. Instead AMD has shipped the 290 with the equivalent of uber mode as the default, and in the process has failed to meet the needs of the majority of their customers.

I think 40% fan profile would have been fine too, because in most cases it would have been between the 770 and 780 - and thats exactly where its priced (if you're counting the 2gb 770's - which I'm not ). You would still have the option to move the fan speed up and have a card that outperforms both and will scale pretty damn well above 1080P.

 

[iiiankiii]

@ SimianR: you are overstating the benefits of doubling RAM on GTX 7xx cards. In the overwhelming majority of scenarios, the bottleneck on these cards will lie elsewhere and not framebuffer size.

I think there are benefits of having more RAM. Games will continue to require more RAM. While it's true that the bottleneck will be shifted elsewhere, if SLI/Crossfire is to be considered, the bottleneck will shifted to the RAM. Something to consider.

 

[SimianR]

I think there are benefits of having more RAM. Games will continue to require more RAM. While it's true that the bottleneck will be shifted elsewhere, if SLI/Crossfire is to be considered, the bottleneck will shifted to the RAM. Something to consider.

The issue is if the bottleneck is VRAM you basically have no option left but to replace the card or turn down the game settings which none of us like to do

If you have plenty of VRAM but are running into performance issues you can consider other options like overclocking or SLI/Crossfire.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Read Anandtech's review. R9 290 (non-X) has a default fan profile that is already similar in loudness to ubermode on 290X. If you decrease fan speed to match GTX 780 noise levels, performance falls off a cliff due to thermal throttling. This is precisely why Anandtech did not recommend this reference card.

So the worst case scenario is the $400 card performs in line with what you'd expect vs. the $500 competition. If you don't mind more fan noise you can easily best the more expensive competition in performance.

 

[OCGuy]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/amd-stomps-nvidia-with-r9-290-at-least-in-reviews/

Another site recapping.

I agree anyone who went beyond kindergarten knows "one" isn't a sample size. But it should be investigated.

Judging by availability of the 290 chips which are salvaged from the X version, this is one leaky architecture.

 

[horza]

..

 

[piesquared]

Is this why AMD's inventory grew so high last quarter? I believe AMD did mention that they were stockpiling new chips. I bet AIB partners have a lot of chips ready for release.

 

[hyrule4927]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/amd-stomps-nvidia-with-r9-290-at-least-in-reviews/
Judging by availability of the 290 chips which are salvaged from the X version, this is one leaky architecture.

We also have to consider that in order to sell a 290X, you need a chip were all CUs are fully functional. Even Titan has a little more leeway there since it is a cut down chip.

 

[3DVagabond]

Two quick questions about Anandtech's sound measurements. First, maybe I'm just missing it, but do they say the location of measurement relative to the system? I don't see anything about it, and I would expect that information to be on the page about sound measurements. Maybe it's on another page?

Also in the Anandtech review, is the case closed? I'm guessing that it is, but I don't know for sure. I'm guessing it is so mundane of a detail it wasn't worth mentioning. I only bring it up because it seems like other sites, like TechPowerUp, tested with one side of the case open.

I just want some testimonials about what it's like in a closed, well-ventilated case, maybe under or next to a desk. I'm probably going to wait to make any purchases for a few months anyway, but it would be interesting to know now. It would also be nice to have more details as to the kind of sound, is it high frequency, "wobbly", or whatever. For some sounds my tolerance would be at a much lower dB than others. Sound files would be nice.

There should be a standard that is followed by everyone. Without that the results are too suggestive to simply take on face value.

Here is how tweaktown does it:

Pulling out the TES 1350A Sound Level Meter we find ourselves quickly yelling into the top of it to see how loud we can be.

After five minutes of that we get a bit more serious and place the device two CM away from the fan on the card to find the maximum noise level of the card when idle (2D mode) and in load (3D mode).

Hardware.fr measures at 60cm in a Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced

TechPowerUp does it at 1mtr with the side of the case off (Why with the side of the case off? It will reflect all of the sound that usually dissipates 360° in one direction.)

If they had a standard like they do with speaker sensitivity, for example, then we could compare results across different reviews. (Speaker sensitivity is measured on axis, with 1w of power, at 1mtr distance, in an anechoic environment.)

 

[Jaydip]

Have you guys seen the THG review? it was rather disturbing for sure.Looks like AMD wanted to shine in the review benches, I don't endorse that behavior either from AMD or NV.

 

[hyrule4927]

Have you guys seen the THG review? it was rather disturbing for sure.Looks like AMD wanted to shine in the review benches, I don't endorse that behavior either from AMD or NV.

This was discussed, beginning near the bottom of the third page of this thread.

Update: Based on your feedback, I took the IceQ X2 cooler off the HIS Radeon R9 280X and stuck it on our R9 290 sample. Cooling was dramatically improved. The FurMark stress test maxed out at 76 degrees while the card never exceeded 63 degrees in Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4. So it seems as expected the board partners will be able to solve the heat issues of the reference card.

They used a cooler from a 280X on a 290? Does that mean coolers built for the 280X, 7970, or 7950 should work on a 290/290X despite the 45 degree rotation of the die? If I could use my Accelero 7970 or the Twin Frozr off my 7950 on a 290, I'd be very tempted to order one now . . .