[tweaktown] AMD cuts 290x by $150

[Fastx]

Just had the cards on the default auto setting, no fan profile. The top card was reaching 90C, bottom card was a little cooler, hovered around 80-83C.

I have a Corsair 650D, 2x Corsair SP120 Quiet fans (exhaust) at the top, another SP120 as a rear exhaust, and Bitfinex 200mm fan as intake at the front. So it's not like my airflow is bad or anything. As I said ambient temps here are high though, around 80 F right now... probably higher than most.

Pic of my case, now with the 980s: http://i.picpar.com/teeb.jpg

Ok your gpu's were hitting higher temps than what I expected, I was wondering if you had a fan custom profile at +10% fan speed over temps forcing that 80% percentage.

I was overclocking my 290 game testing temps when I first got it (oc 1175/1550/1.23v) and used a custom fan profile under load gaming GPU temps hit 73F max and with my fan profile +9 of course fan percent was at around 81% then. So I decided to start lower my fan % speed setting in 5% increments to test it out for a lower fan % vers temps that same day. To my surprise (believe it or not) I was able to lower to a final setting 65% (per fan profile) and still retain a 73-74 max gpu temp under gaming load vs the custom 81% setting at 73F. So I was thinking maybe you had a custom fan profile setup forcing the fan speed % higher than you needed. So definitely not case for you and sorry to waste your time on this.

So one last question, have you run your 290 CFX setup in around 74F ambient temp (or AC on) stock and overclocked (around 1075?) and what was your GPU temps in around 74F ambient temps.

TIA

 

[ultimatebob]

The 290X competes more with the GTX970. The GTX980 is simply in a league of its own.

The 290X needs another 100$ cut really. Specially with its 100W higher powerdraw and lack of features.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1355

Looking at those charts, it looks like the original Titan cards selling on eBay for $650 need a $300 price cut as well

 

[SimianR]

Ok your gpu's were hitting higher temps than what I expected, I was wondering if you had a fan custom profile at +10% fan speed over temps forcing that 80% percentage.

I was overclocking my 290 game testing temps when I first got it (oc 1175/1550/1.23v) and used a custom fan profile under load gaming GPU temps hit 73F max and with my fan profile +9 of course fan percent was at around 81% then. So I decided to start lower my fan % speed setting in 5% increments to test it out for a lower fan % vers temps that same day. To my surprise (believe it or not) I was able to lower to a final setting 65% (per fan profile) and still retain a 73-74 max gpu temp under gaming load vs the custom 81% setting at 73F. So I was thinking maybe you had a custom fan profile setup forcing the fan speed % higher than you needed. So definitely not case for you and sorry to waste your time on this.

So one last question, have you run your 290 CFX setup in around 74F ambient temp (or AC on) stock and overclocked (around 1075?) and what was your GPU temps in around 74F ambient temps.

TIA

I think it's more the fact that he was running 2 open air coolers in crossfire. I'll be the first to admit that the 290/290X are probably not the best cards for overclocking in crossfire setups. When I was running a single tri-x 290 I could overclock very well with low temps.

 

[RaistlinZ]

These price drops are still not low enough, R9 290 should be $200 and 290X $250.

Will be interesting to see how the 960 stacks up against the R9 290.

You have zero clue what you're talking about.

WHY would AMD price the 290 $20.00 lower than the 760, when it grossly outperforms the 760?

 

[Headfoot]

I agree and I am thinking in the next month around $150.00 -$175.00 for AIB 290's on e-bay and was pricing some PS's today. But I want to try to wait for the 980Ti and 390 just to see pricing/performance at this point and I wouldn't need a PS.

Tri-X 290 sold $200.00 starting
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sapphire-Tr...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

EVGA G2 1000W $139.00 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817438010

Rosewill Bronze 1000w $89.00 on sale AR on the lower end of the price range does have quite a few decent reviews for a lower end PS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182188

Excellent post. I'm looking for 900-1000w supplies so I can get a second 290 given the prices now, so this was very helpful. Thanks!

 

[KaRLiToS]

You have zero clue what you're talking about.

WHY would AMD price the 290 $20.00 lower than the 760, when it grossly outperforms the 760?

Don't try to understand what is going on here. :\

I agree and I am thinking in the next month around $150.00 -$175.00 for AIB 290's on e-bay and was pricing some PS's today. But I want to try to wait for the 980Ti and 390 just to see pricing/performance at this point and I wouldn't need a PS.

150$ for R9 290?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

How come do you think R9 290 will be 150$ when the HD 6970 are still around 150$?

The GTX 770 is 230$ on Ebay, heck the GTX 780 is still 400$.

 

[Subyman]

Everyone that didn't get out of their 290's/780's a few weeks ago are taking a huge hit on the used market. I squeaked through and got ~$340 for my 780. They are now going for high $200's. Time to sell has passed, may as well just pick another one up and SLI.

 

[Keysplayr]

Looking at those charts, it looks like the original Titan cards selling on eBay for $650 need a $300 price cut as well

Mmmmm no Titans are a bit of a different animal though. Yes, you can game on them extremely well. But they are also heavily geared for computation and Double precision computation. Specialized, sure, but it's there. 780/780Ti on the other hand, different story.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Mmmmm no Titans are a bit of a different animal though. Yes, you can game on them extremely well. But they are Nvidia

Fixed that for you.

But honestly, don't expect to see a Titan at 350$.


Karlitos, let's not start misquoting others. Please...


-Rvenger

 

[Fastx]

Don't try to understand what is going on here. :\




150$ for R9 290?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

How come do you think R9 290 will be 150$ when the HD 6970 are still around 150$?

The GTX 770 is 230$ on Ebay, heck the GTX 780 is still 400$.

LOL ^

Kar, if you read my post I said a used Trix -X 290 for $150-$175.00 on e-bay in a month or so, a used Tri-X 290 just sold for $200 a few days ago. LOL, I know I could be pushing it a little but do think we will start to see used ones in the next month or so for under $200.00

Tri-X 290 sold $200.00
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sapphire-Tr...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[SimianR]

Don't try to understand what is going on here. :\




150$ for R9 290?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

How come do you think R9 290 will be 150$ when the HD 6970 are still around 150$?

The GTX 770 is 230$ on Ebay, heck the GTX 780 is still 400$.

I don't think he's saying the 290 isn't worth more than $150. But you have to understand that early this year there was a flood of purchases mainly for mining. Since mining has died off, 290's have been hitting ebay for dirt cheap prices, with the release of the 970 at $329, that drove the prices down and now with the price cut from AMD it will drive down the prices even further. It's just that the PC gaming market is already a niche market, when you have an external influence driving sales that suddenly isn't viable, all those cards hitting ebay drives the price down and there isn't enough demand from gamers to buy them all up. At some point it will probably even out again but for now it's possible they could drop below $200.

 

[x3sphere]

So one last question, have you run your 290 CFX setup in around 74F ambient temp (or AC on) stock and overclocked (around 1075?) and what was your GPU temps in around 74F ambient temps.

TIA

No I haven't, I never even bothered trying to OC while in CF as they ran so hot at stock.

I think it's more the fact that he was running 2 open air coolers in crossfire. I'll be the first to admit that the 290/290X are probably not the best cards for overclocking in crossfire setups. When I was running a single tri-x 290 I could overclock very well with low temps.

Yeah, I ran single card for a few days while I was waiting for the second to come in and temps were manageable. I was getting around 75 C load and had room for overclocking then, so what I'm talking about only applies for running in Crossfire.

And of course I prefer blower-style cards for multi-GPU but AMD has no good option there, the reference 290 design isn't very effective and runs loud.

You have zero clue what you're talking about.

WHY would AMD price the 290 $20.00 lower than the 760, when it grossly outperforms the 760?

760 is vastly overpriced, obviously. It's about to become irrelevant once Nvidia releases the 960, supposedly later this month.

But anyway I am looking at it from a segment perspective, anyone in the market for a high-end GPU will likely have the extra funds to spring for the GTX 970. If AMD cut the 290 to $200, that attracts a whole different segment (mid range). I'd consider anything $250 and above "high-end".

 

[Grooveriding]

Overall the 970 is under 10% faster overall than the 290. So even a $300 290 could be reasonable.

http://www.computerbase.de/2014-09/...vidia/6/#diagramm-rating-2560-1600-4xaa-16xaf

It has the shiny new penny advantage though and it released and was reviewed at that price, giving it momentum. After close to two years of that performance costing $1000 then $650 and then $500, the 970 opened up a huge market coming in for $330.

 

[Fastx]

Overall the 970 is under 10% faster overall than the 290. So even a $300 290 could be reasonable.

http://www.computerbase.de/2014-09/...vidia/6/#diagramm-rating-2560-1600-4xaa-16xaf

It has the shiny new penny advantage though and it released and was reviewed at that price, giving it momentum. After close to two years of that performance costing $1000 then $650 and then $500, the 970 opened up a huge market coming in for $330.

Groove at $299 for the AIB 290, the 970 at $329-$349 imo is the card to go with. To me it is no contest imo.

 

[tviceman]

Groove at $299 for the AIB 290, the 970 at $329-$349 imo is the card to go with. To me it is no contest imo.

It really is. The performance delta, lower power consumption, lower temps, extra AA options, and extra DX12 features, and overclocking capability make it easily worth the price premium.

The only people who should be considering r9 290's at $300 looking to crossfire with an already existing card and have an adequate power supply, or are dead set on getting the game bundle because they want those games now.

 

[Silverforce11]

R290X should be ~$299 and R290 at $259-269, because there is so little performance difference between them with many custom R290 models running at 1ghz.

The R290X has never justified its premium TBH, and it definitely should not now given how competitive the 970 is to its performance at less wattage.

R290 at $259 would be a killer card, no doubts about it. But at that price, it would obsolete everything below it, ie. 770, 760, R285, R280X etc. Since NV is refreshing with 960, they are OK for that to occur, but AMD would certainly don't want more pressure on their Tonga lineup and below.

 

[Silverforce11]

It really is. The performance delta, lower power consumption, lower temps, extra AA options, and extra DX12 features, and overclocking capability make it easily worth the price premium.

DX12 is a non-stater, let's not pretend. Its still years away from being common in games. OC wise, 970 seems to have a ~<20% headroom, since they boost out of box at ~1.3ghz for custom models.

The only real justification IMO is lower power use. Temps are cooling dependent, and there's good custom R290 models that run as cool, cooler or quieter (TriX, PCS+, DD).

The thing is the power use delta is large enough to make it a major factor, for me, it would be a main reason to pay a bit extra for the 970. But certainly not worth more than $50 extra. Saying that, a nice (esp Tri-X & PCS+) R290 for $279-289 would be a good deal for the current market. Anything more and it will lose its competitive edge, less and AMD bleeds money. There's no way I believe they are profitable at $200 like some crazy suggestions here, its a 512 bus card with a complex pcb AND 4GB vram.

 

[Grooveriding]

Groove at $299 for the AIB 290, the 970 at $329-$349 imo is the card to go with. To me it is no contest imo.

It's always going to be a subjective choice. I bought a 970 to replace a 7950 in a machine and still would have over a $299 290, but that was exactly because of the new penny characteristic. The trouble the Hawaii cards have is they were all reviewed with that crappy stock cooler, performing lower than the aftermarket cards and loud. An aftermarket 290 at $299 is pretty reasonable, doesn't mean everyone would pick that over the 970, but I think enough would that the price works. I think the key would be the the 290 actually selling for the $299 MSRP, the 970 is mostly never at the $329 MSRP, costing more.

Every 970 is aftermarket and was reviewed as such, my guess is the aftermarket 290s probably perform about the same as 970, closing that 5-10% performance delta.

970 really makes a lot of cards look like a tough sell with its low price. Even though Maxwell did hardly anything to shift absolute performance in the 980, the 980/970 have made huge shifts in price/perf. Silverforce makes a good point as well that with the huge price drops down into the sub $300 spot, what happens to all the lower tier cards, they need to go down into under $200 territory. A 290 at $260 or so and you're going to see the 960 release for $199 ? I don't think either of them want to drop prices that much.

 

[Silverforce11]

Aftermarket R290 perform like R290X in uber mode, since the reference R290 had lower clocks and suffer from throttling.

Running R290 at 1ghz gives me similar numbers to R290X at 1ghz in reviews, I am only seeing ~4% lower scores. There's custom R290 with 1040 or 1050mhz etc.

Thats why if they sell them for around $289 it would still be a good deal.

 

[x3sphere]

DX12 is a non-stater, let's not pretend. Its still years away from being common in games. OC wise, 970 seems to have a ~<20% headroom, since they boost out of box at ~1.3ghz for custom models.

The only real justification IMO is lower power use. Temps are cooling dependent, and there's good custom R290 models that run as cool, cooler or quieter (TriX, PCS+, DD).

The thing is the power use delta is large enough to make it a major factor, for me, it would be a main reason to pay a bit extra for the 970. But certainly not worth more than $50 extra. Saying that, a nice (esp Tri-X & PCS+) R290 for $279-289 would be a good deal for the current market. Anything more and it will lose its competitive edge, less and AMD bleeds money. There's no way I believe they are profitable at $200 like some crazy suggestions here, its a 512 bus card with a complex pcb AND 4GB vram.

I do think $279 is a good value however at the same time I can't see it stealing much thunder away from the 970.

Many folks picking up the 970s are coming from the 680 and 670 generation, so they've been waiting over 2 years for a new GPU. I think an extra $50 isn't going to give them pause, especially with the new features + lower power consumption + new architecture.

On second thought maybe a drop to $200 is overboard but $229, a $100 difference, would make the 970 far less tempting at least in my eyes. However as you suggest, it may not be profitable for them.

 

[Silverforce11]

I got a R290 from a 7950 and it was a good upgrade, as I've said, custom R290 models that come with 1ghz or 1050mhz while running cool and quiet is basically close to 780ti level of performance (recall Tri-X R290 reviewed on launch at Computerbase.de, matching 780ti). If its selling at $289, its a great deal.

I mean it wasn't that long ago where 780/ti class performance at that price would be considered a damn steal. The 970 is indeed excellent, kudos to NV for pricing it very aggressively, it's only good for consumers to shake up the entire lineup on both sides.

 

[Fastx]

So one last question, have you run your 290 CFX setup in around 74F ambient temp (or AC on) stock and overclocked (around 1075?) and what was your GPU temps in around 74F ambient temps.

TIA

No I haven't, I never even bothered trying to OC while in CF as they ran so hot at stock.

Ok I researched a little for AIB custom 290 cards running crossfire for temps with decent ambient temps and this the only AIB 290 CF review I have found so far with GPU temps. The thing is he doesn't mention ambient temps but of course I would assume for sure is lower than your ambient temps were from reading your post so hence the lower GPU temps in this review and these cards are dual fans and came/tested with stock clocks at 947/1250. So not to bad at stock clocks with a decent ambient temp ( lower than yours for sure I am assuming) and this is with dual fan cooler.

XFX 290 Crossfire GPU temps BF4/C3 30 minutes gaming.
http://www.legitreviews.com/xfx-radeon-r9-290-crossfire-video-card-review-at-4k-ultra-hd_139418/10

 

[Pia]

I'll personally buy Nvidia for the features (better low-level graphics programming support, some consumer facing features like G-Sync) but the AMD cards look reasonable. The feature sets and hardware priorities for both companies are different enough that I don't see how you could say the AMD cards are priced objectively wrong after the price cut.

One thing is for sure - it's a great time to be a consumer in the GPU market, and it'll only keep getting better. I think we'll see ridiculous value at the $200-250 price point when the 960 hits and AMD either responds with price cuts or pre-empts it with a new product.

 

[DominionSeraph]

You have zero clue what you're talking about.

WHY would AMD price the 290 $20.00 lower than the 760, when it grossly outperforms the 760?

You have zero clue what you're talking about, since 760's have been down at $180.
$185 right now.

 

[krumme]

DX12 is a non-stater, let's not pretend. Its still years away from being common in games. OC wise, 970 seems to have a ~<20% headroom, since they boost out of box at ~1.3ghz for custom models.

The only real justification IMO is lower power use. Temps are cooling dependent, and there's good custom R290 models that run as cool, cooler or quieter (TriX, PCS+, DD).

The thing is the power use delta is large enough to make it a major factor, for me, it would be a main reason to pay a bit extra for the 970. But certainly not worth more than $50 extra. Saying that, a nice (esp Tri-X & PCS+) R290 for $279-289 would be a good deal for the current market. Anything more and it will lose its competitive edge, less and AMD bleeds money. There's no way I believe they are profitable at $200 like some crazy suggestions here, its a 512 bus card with a complex pcb AND 4GB vram.

Nonsense. Amd loses a lot on big cores and apus not gfx and embedded. At the end its about marginal production cost. And for a 290 its even below 100usd. Clearly ther is more to it but we havnt remotely seen how low those old cards on 28nm can go. We will see in 5 months when 290 for sure is sub 250 and probably sub 200 before the new cards enter. Plenty of profit in it and far more than a new 390 for the few.
As for the complex pcb this is not 2006 any more. Its dirt cheap and so is eg high perf digital vrm. Slow 4g ddr5 comes cheap to. And 3 years after 3g entered! Lol. Things have been extremely slow evolving and both nv and amd have been milking the market for financing their failures in eg apu and tegra line.