Lava and lightning? R9 290x lightning PCB pictured, dual 8 pin and single 6pin power!

[Ace123]

During particularly nasty volcanic eruptions, particles escaping the earths crust can create a magnetic field with polarized particles traveling upwards against particles traveling back down. These particles pass each other and sometimes become momentarily bonded magnetically but are separated. The friction between these particles only charges them more. The cloud of particles can become so charged that i can no longer contain the electric charge and then........Snap.

One of these lightning strikes seems to have hit Amd's R9 290X at MSI's office.

The boys at www.videocardz.com have managed to come up with some pictures of the outcome

More here
http://videocardz.com/48270/msi-rade...g-pcb-pictured

[tool_462]

Should be a monster!

Hopefully these 22 wires will get rid of the "cool trend" of single sleeving PCI-e power cables

[tajoh111]

Should be a monster!

Hopefully these 22 wires will get rid of the "cool trend" of single sleeving PCI-e power cables

Finally something. Its good to see this have dual 8 pin along with a 6 pin. Could be the first card that needs it when this thing is overclocked near 1300. This cards would be really nice if it came standard with a waterblock.

If they could nail down it down at a $650 price point with a waterblock, it would make for a pretty sweet card.

[aussie-revhead]

That's my next vid card right there, now to decide whether to get one or two ...

Based on what MSI told me I expect MSI R9 290X Lightning to be released early next year

Bring it on MSI !!!

[PedantOne]

it will be available in end of january/start of february 2014

[alpha0ne]

Just looking @ those PCB's gave me a boner........................am I a sicko

[Andrew LB]

That's my next vid card right there, now to decide whether to get one or two ...



Bring it on MSI !!!

Don't forget to get fire insurance for your home first.

[Ace123]

trolls just cant help themselves

Don't forget to get fire insurance for your home first.

[aussie-revhead]

Don't forget to get fire insurance for your home first.

Nup, water blocks will keep the fire under control and the frames pumping out at alarming rates.

[K404]

If they could nail down it down at a $650 price point with a waterblock, it would make for a pretty sweet card.

What are you smoking? A PROPER aftermarket PCB, the best MHz/performance and thermals of any R9 290X and a performance waterblock for only $100 more than the cheapest ref card?





As for the Lightning.... VERY glad to know it's coming, MSI are gonna have a good quarter with this and....rival Lightning.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Reference 290x is overpriced in comparison to whats on the market at the moment. I bought a pair of 290x at launch and after the 790 price drop and especially 290 non-x + BF4 release I feel gouged.

[K404]

Really? :/ In the UK, the 780Ti is 30% more expensive than an R9 290X. If it weren't for (what I found to be) shocking drivers, i'd be all over the 290X

[tajoh111]

What are you smoking? A PROPER aftermarket PCB, the best MHz/performance and thermals of any R9 290X and a performance waterblock for only $100 more than the cheapest ref card?





As for the Lightning.... VERY glad to know it's coming, MSI are gonna have a good quarter with this and....rival Lightning.

I think the 290x is overpriced slightly by about 50 dollars. Not so much because of competition from Nvidia, but their own cards. With a 5 or 6% difference between them, the 290 is priced much better than the 290x as 150 dollars is too big of a gap. If the 290x was $499 it would effect Nvidia's sales more.

What I didn't like about most stock waterblock cards in general and particularly because of the cost associated with the 780ti series stock cooler, is they never subtract the cost of the stock cooler after adding the waterblock. The cost of the gtx 780 stock cooler is quite significant from what i hear and they should subtract it from the cost of the card itself.

[mars]

I dont see how anyone not involved in any of these companies would know whether they subtracted the cost of the stock block from the increased retail price... markups alone would make it tough to guesstimate how much profit they earn per card. though it would make sense to me that the manufacturer contracted to providing the hsf would markup a stock reference 780gtx cooler more than a stock reference 650ti cooler... I am really just speculating here.

[Zaxx]

Man what a card. With 2 x 8 pin + 6 pin that thing would eat my PSU for lunch...lol As much as I'd lurve these high end cards, I just can't justify the price since I'm pretty much a 'casual' gamer...but I am considering a 260X and then use my 7770 as the daughter card for a CF setup. Depends whether my psu can handle it or not.

[tajoh111]

I dont see how anyone not involved in any of these companies would know whether they subtracted the cost of the stock block from the increased retail price... markups alone would make it tough to guesstimate how much profit they earn per card. though it would make sense to me that the manufacturer contracted to providing the hsf would markup a stock reference 780gtx cooler more than a stock reference 650ti cooler... I am really just speculating here.

When stock waterblock version of the cards are typically 120-150 dollars more than none waterblocked version, its safe to say they didn't subtract anything from the initial cost considering the cost of waterblocks are between 100-130 dollars. Look up the price of water blocks of the EK variety(which is around the quality you get) and you will see what I am talking about.

Gk110 based cards have the most expensive reference cooler of all time. Some of the BOM estimates are ridiculous(semiaccurate says $150). I don't believe it is this high but I could see it being half of this. If there was any time we should had seen savings between a reference solution and a card with a waterblock by subtracting the cost of removing the stock solution, it should have been gk110 water cooling cards.

But back to the matter at hand, if the 290x falls to 499, I could optimistically see this cards 550 dollars and with a waterblock version falling at minimum 650 dollars or max 700 dollars.

[jvc]

When stock waterblock version of the cards are typically 120-150 dollars more than none waterblocked version, its safe to say they didn't subtract anything from the initial cost considering the cost of waterblocks are between 100-130 dollars. Look up the price of water blocks of the EK variety(which is around the quality you get) and you will see what I am talking about.

Gk110 based cards have the most expensive reference cooler of all time. Some of the BOM estimates are ridiculous(semiaccurate says $150). I don't believe it is this high but I could see it being half of this. If there was any time we should had seen savings between a reference solution and a card with a waterblock by subtracting the cost of removing the stock solution, it should have been gk110 water cooling cards.

But back to the matter at hand, if the 290x falls to 499, I could optimistically see this cards 550 dollars and with a waterblock version falling at minimum 650 dollars or max 700 dollars.

You know it's getting ridiculous when the reference HSF costs more than the GPU itself.

[madmaxx]

R9 290/x is overpriced? You fokin kidding me? The only reason they are $550 is because of nVidias smooth move with Titan @ $1k, which the 290x performs better... Go figure! AMD giving us more, for less. Again!

I knew this forum favoured nVidia products but these threads are verging on libel with some of the things being tossed about.

[Heinz68]

+ 1

[Dimitriman]

I'm really interested to see what heatsink will be used on that card...

[[XC] Oj101]

the manufacturer contracted to providing the hsf

To the best of my knowledge, that would be Cooler Master.

[tajoh111]

R9 290/x is overpriced? You fokin kidding me? The only reason they are $550 is because of nVidias smooth move with Titan @ $1k, which the 290x performs better... Go figure! AMD giving us more, for less. Again!

I knew this forum favoured nVidia products but these threads are verging on libel with some of the things being tossed about.

As I said its not overpriced so much because of Nvidia's products. Its primarily overpriced because of AMD's own. In the past there was typically a larger performance difference between a the x970 and x950. Somewhere around 10% or more. The price difference between the two cards was around $100.

With the 290 vs 290x, you have somewhere around a 5% difference between the two and a 150 dollar price difference. This makes it a tough sell, even for AMD fans. I remember a lot of people, after seeing 290 reviews saying they wish they waited and bought a 290 instead of a 290x.

In regards to competition from Nvidia, it's a matter of marketing rather than performance/dollar metrics. The nvidia brand helps make up for the performance difference as well as the bundle and the $50 price difference(among the noise concerns). Even for the enthusiast, overclocking headroom on both cards, equalizes things, so even without the brand, its easy to make a case for the gtx 780 purchase over the 290x purchase.

However the r290 is what really mucks up pricing schemes. Its better than Nvidias card(branding is the only things that letting them still charge $100 dollars more) and it makes the 290x overpriced.

The bottom line is if AMD wants to sell more higher margin r290x, I think it will need a drop on the 290x. Doing this will increase sales of the card(and make up for the $50 difference in volume) and hurt Nvidia even more than they are already doing. Looking at new forum purchases, the ability of some 290's being unlocked to 290x and 290x now being more than readily available, I suspect the r290 killed the demand for the 290x.

[Heinz68]

To make the long story short, the bottom line is the R9 290 is under-priced, it would easy sell even at $450. Bad AMD prized the R9 290 way too low, at least much lower than expected and speculated.
Just maybe (my speculation) the GTX 780 $150 price reduction plus new game bundle had something to do with it, so it's all bad Nvidia fault.

It all boils down to, competition is great.

Good news, the first R9 290X on sale by Sapphire at Newegg, 'See price in cart' $499.99 "BattleField 4 game included, limited offer".

Another edit.
In the latest (12/02/2013) review by GURU3D the Gigabyte Radeon R9-290X competed well against Titan and in some games even against GTX 780 Ti, also note the R9 290X was tested in 'Quiet Mode'

I don't think the extra cost for the GTX 780 Ti is worth the brand name, well maybe for few Nvidia enthusiast. Most people are looking at performance/price ratio plus for many $700 is more than they budget for graphic card. I can only speculate the sales volumes would confirm that.

[tajoh111]

To make the long story short, the bottom line is the R9 290 is under-priced, it would easy sell even at $450. Bad AMD prized the R9 290 way too low, at least much lower than expected and speculated.
Just maybe (my speculation) the GTX 780 $150 price reduction plus new game bundle had something to do with it, so it's all bad Nvidia fault.

It all boils down to, competition is great.

Good news, the first R9 290X on sale by Sapphire at Newegg, 'See price in cart' $499.99 "BattleField 4 game included, limited offer".

Another edit.
In the latest (12/02/2013) review by GURU3D the Gigabyte Radeon R9-290X competed well against Titan and in some games even against GTX 780 Ti, also note the R9 290X was tested in 'Quiet Mode'

I don't think the extra cost for the GTX 780 Ti is worth the brand name, well maybe for few Nvidia enthusiast. Most people are looking at performance/price ratio plus for many $700 is more than they budget for graphic card. I can only speculate the sales volumes would confirm that.

I think your right about the price cut of the gtx 780 having an effect on AMD. But I don't think it changed the price of the r290, so much as the performance. The last minute bios revision from 40 to 47% seemed like a move aimed at the gtx 780. At its original 40% bios fan profile, it performed like a 400 dollar card. With the price drop of the gtx 780 which had quantity to boot, AMD probably felt they need valued and performance on their side and implemented a last minute change.

Although the 290x would be hurt in the collateral damage, Nvidia would be hurt more because they actually had product to sell and were not supply limited.

Below is a quote from the anandtech review.

"Based on this data it’s safe to say that the performance cost for using the fan control function to reduce the fan noise on the 290 will be moderate to severe. You can’t match GTX 780 or even GTX Titan, and doing so will reduce performance to that of a 280X. 40% on the other hand is more viable, but keep in mind we’re now at 290X noise levels for roughly 85% of the 290X’s performance, which isn’t a great outcome either."

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/t...-290-review/15

If the r290 kept its original fan profile, it would have been 15% slower than a 290x. At that performance, the $400 price makes alot more sense. However, with the price cut of the gtx 780 and the bundle, being 5-10% slower than a gtx 780 would make the car far less attractive in reviews and more importantly, far less attractive to potential customers.

What I have seen is at this level of performance, Nvidia can easily get away with a 100 dollar price premium because of their branding(it got away with it every single generation for the last 6 years). Nvidia charges a premium and the majority of consumers are willing to pay it. However with the price still set at 400 dollars and performance superior to a gtx 780 in reviews, all of a sudden you have a pretty good combination to counter Nvidia's branding advantage.

I think the latest drivers showed in the guru 3d link you just showed me actually showed the effect of the latest fan profile more than anything. If you look at the page that compares default quiet mode vs uber mode, they basically have the same performance. One of the reasons for the variance wasn't just bios differences, it was also a result of variance on what the fan speed is set at.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages...review,15.html

One reason why I want to see the results of the lightning cards is as is, the r290x doesn't have much overclocking headroom.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages...review,30.html

Compare this to the results of the gtx 780 ti overclocked

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages...review,28.html

And the gtx 780 starts to justify its price to an extent. Maybe not 150 dollars worth but from other reviews I have seen, 10-15% faster than an overclocked 290x plus being quieter to boot and some people can justify the price difference.

This could change with the release of the 290x lightning. If the air version of the lightning is 50 dollars more than the stock version of the card and has another 150mhz in the tank for overclocking headroom while remaining reasonably quiet(1200+mhz), it very well tread into the overclocking enthusiasts rigs, even for people that prefer Nvidia.

[bill_d]

I think your right about the price cut of the gtx 780 having an effect on AMD. But I don't think it changed the price of the r290, so much as the performance. The last minute bios revision from 40 to 47% seemed like a move aimed at the gtx 780. At its original 40% bios fan profile, it performed like a 400 dollar card. With the price drop of the gtx 780 which had quantity to boot, AMD probably felt they need valued and performance on their side and implemented a last minute change.

Although the 290x would be hurt in the collateral damage, Nvidia would be hurt more because they actually had product to sell and were not supply limited.

Below is a quote from the anandtech review.

"Based on this data it?s safe to say that the performance cost for using the fan control function to reduce the fan noise on the 290 will be moderate to severe. You can?t match GTX 780 or even GTX Titan, and doing so will reduce performance to that of a 280X. 40% on the other hand is more viable, but keep in mind we?re now at 290X noise levels for roughly 85% of the 290X?s performance, which isn?t a great outcome either."

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/t...-290-review/15

If the r290 kept its original fan profile, it would have been 15% slower than a 290x. At that performance, the $400 price makes alot more sense. However, with the price cut of the gtx 780 and the bundle, being 5-10% slower than a gtx 780 would make the car far less attractive in reviews and more importantly, far less attractive to potential customers.

What I have seen is at this level of performance, Nvidia can easily get away with a 100 dollar price premium because of their branding(it got away with it every single generation for the last 6 years). Nvidia charges a premium and the majority of consumers are willing to pay it. However with the price still set at 400 dollars and performance superior to a gtx 780 in reviews, all of a sudden you have a pretty good combination to counter Nvidia's branding advantage.

blah blah blah
and what has to do with a R9 290x lightning