AMD Radeon R9 290 reviews

[Heinz68]

Custom built cards by the AMD AIB partners
HardwareCanucks - Sapphire R9 290 4GB TRI-X OC January 22, 2014
PCPerspective - VisionTek Liquid Cooled CryoVenom R9 290 (0nly Preview) Jan. 10, 2014
AnandTech - Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC December 24, 2013
KitGuru - Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC (1600p, Ultra HD 4K) Dec. 19th, 2013
heXus - Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC Dec. 20th, 2013

Below are the the launch day reviews (Nov 5th, 2013)
HardwareCanucks
guru3D
AnandTech
[H]ard|OCP
TechReport
TomsHardware
HEXUS
TechPowerUp
KitGuru
TechSpot
bit-tech
expertReviews
overclockers
PCPerspective
extremetech
LegitReviews
PCgamer
maximumPC
PCWorld
JPR (Jon Peddie Research) - "AMD?s R9 290 series drives 4K monitors well"
Forbes

Forbes - AMD Disrupts GPU Market Again With $399 Radeon R9 290
If you thought the GPU wars couldn?t get any more intense, think again.

AMD Radeon? R9 Series Graphics
Features and Specifications

AMD Graphics Drivers and Software Downloads



EK Water Blocks for AMD Radeon R9 290X also Support R9 290


Gelid VGA Cooler Rev. 2 ICY VISION


Accelero Xtreme III

[figuretti]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290/

[GoldenTiger]

Impressive price. Not so impressive noise level, in fact downright bad at the same as a 680 sli setup. Performance is a mixed bag, some games/resolution it beats the 780 in some it loses... overall it's a good value proposition particularly once custom-cooled ones hit the market I'd say. For now, when compared even to the $499 custom 780 cards with the 3 games you can sell for $70+ in pocket, it's not quite as great, but that'll change soon enough when that promo expires and when the custom-cooled R9 290 non-X models hit the market.

[Andi64]

I didn't expect that price. Excellent.

Maybe is time to sell my HD7950
I couldn't care less about the noise level

[ajaidev]

Impressive overall package liked the price a lot as for the GTX 780 free games no one around here buys things they already have, For $400 its a very good card much better vfm than the 290x or the 780.

[Zloyd]

400$

I can dream of 2 .... I think 290x will be 500$ when they can meet demand more easily. This card comes across as a 290x for 400$ to me ... insane.

[Heinz68]

Looks like NV is taking another blow before they can strike back. Not sure what they have ready to compete in the $399 price range.

[tajoh111]

Strange but smart move from AMD from a marketing stand point. However, I am starting to think by AMD launching cards this way, we could see the end of tradition game testing.

AMD cards are the opposite of Nvidia's where they guarantee a minimum level of performance by ensuring a minimum base clocks that closer to real clocks. AMD reviews advertise a maximum or at least above average level of performance out of the box and the noise levels are too much you lower the fan profile yourself. However unless your like Anandtech and mention how much the performance drops with slower fan profiles, you don't know how much performance you will lose by lower your fan profile(a drop of 7% fan speed led to a drop of 12% in performance). In addition, many of the test benches I saw used open cases which are sure to help a card the relys on cool air coming in for its performance.

If AMD continues to release the cards at loudest setting possible(not talking about 100% fan speed, but 2.5DB louder than a gtx 480 is loud) and basically leave it to people to reduce the fan profiles themselves, people will need to know even more(see the card in person) to see if the person could deal with the noise or actually know how much performance drops from lowering fan profile. People might not think a little drop in profile might not means much of a deviation from game performance from reviews but as anandtech showed.

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

A 7% change in fan profile can lead to up to a 30% decrease in GPU frequency in certain games. Also by clocking cards closer to the limit without, knowing overclocking limits of a card become even more important now.

If people continue to not care about noise because they only look for performance, it basically encourage AMD to continue to put crappy coolers on their cards and additionally, clocks their cards as high as they can and let people gamble with noise and performance themselves. I mention gamble because unless reviews test for it, they don't know how much of a drop they will see.

Reviewers will have to change their testing methodology to ensure consumers know what they are getting(in addition all reviewers need to be testing in cases now). The performance of 290 series in general can vary too much(30% difference in clocks).

The r9-290 great performance per dollar, but its a really a test for consumers. In its traditional state which was default 40% fan profile and 12 percent slower, it still would have been a good value for the dollar, but putting noise on the line, AMD is seeing if people want performance more than noise.

If AMD is successful with this, I expect to see the same with Nvidia where we see them clock their cards much higher, give a higher fan profile and throw noise out the window and leave decreasing noise to the consumer.

[bill_d]

The 290 at 47% fan speed wasn't loud. The fans on these cards really don't become loud until around 60-65%. At 47% the card was not throttling, so the full performance potential was there. The 290 was perfectly acceptable noise vs. performance wise.

Acoustics can only get better on custom cards as well.

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...5&postcount=52

[kromosto]

noise, heat, power consumption are all depends on the person.

for me power consumption and heat does not mean anything but sometimes while gaming even my 7970 lightning bothers me.

this morning when i woke up i checked my twitter and saw amd's tweet about 290 with 400$ price and i think congrats amd finally you get how you should play against nvidia. if nvidia couldn't adapt it's strategy in a short time this market will see very very interesting things.

[tajoh111]

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...5&postcount=52

I am starting to think Brent Justice deaf. They never complain about noise on any card anymore(the reference cooler 7970 ghz edition didn't get a mention of noise) and without using objective testing equipment there is no real way to see if the cards are noisy in their reviews or not.

[Ace123]

I predict a 290 that is easily flashable to 290x from a distributer like saphire. This will appear to be unintentional.

[kromosto]

I predict a 290 that is easily flashable to 290x from a distributer like saphire. This will appear to be unintentional.

do you think flashing will unlock steam processors?

[kadozer]

I am starting to think Brent Justice deaf. They never complain about noise on any card anymore(the reference cooler 7970 ghz edition didn't get a mention of noise) and without using objective testing equipment there is no real way to see if the cards are noisy in their reviews or not.

They said the 290x was loud. The fan %pct range he provided for the 290 where the fan got loud also sounds about where AMD cards in the past have been.

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...5&postcount=52

Also I believe they test these on an open bench setup.

[bill_d]

I am starting to think Brent Justice deaf. They never complain about noise on any card anymore(the reference cooler 7970 ghz edition didn't get a mention of noise) and without using objective testing equipment there is no real way to see if the cards are noisy in their reviews or not.

even with sound testing equipment everyone uses it differently, one guy sticks the probe up the cards a$$ and the next guy tests from 10 feet away

all refinance cards are to loud .

even my asus 7970/680 dc2's can be to loud sometimes

use it on air see if it works well and no coil whine then put a water block on it .

[Heinz68]

Strange but smart move from AMD from a marketing stand point. However, I am starting to think by AMD launching cards this way, we could see the end of tradition game testing.

AMD cards are the opposite of Nvidia's where they guarantee a minimum level of performance by ensuring a minimum base clocks that closer to real clocks. AMD reviews advertise a maximum or at least above average level of performance out of the box and the noise levels are too much you lower the fan profile yourself. However unless your like Anandtech and mention how much the performance drops with slower fan profiles, you don't know how much performance you will lose by lower your fan profile(a drop of 7% fan speed led to a drop of 12% in performance). In addition, many of the test benches I saw used open cases which are sure to help a card the relys on cool air coming in for its performance.

If AMD continues to release the cards at loudest setting possible(not talking about 100% fan speed, but 2.5DB louder than a gtx 480 is loud) and basically leave it to people to reduce the fan profiles themselves, people will need to know even more(see the card in person) to see if the person could deal with the noise or actually know how much performance drops from lowering fan profile. People might not think a little drop in profile might not means much of a deviation from game performance from reviews but as anandtech showed.

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

A 7% change in fan profile can lead to up to a 30% decrease in GPU frequency in certain games. Also by clocking cards closer to the limit without, knowing overclocking limits of a card become even more important now.

If people continue to not care about noise because they only look for performance, it basically encourage AMD to continue to put crappy coolers on their cards and additionally, clocks their cards as high as they can and let people gamble with noise and performance themselves. I mention gamble because unless reviews test for it, they don't know how much of a drop they will see.

Reviewers will have to change their testing methodology to ensure consumers know what they are getting(in addition all reviewers need to be testing in cases now). The performance of 290 series in general can vary too much(30% difference in clocks).

The r9-290 great performance per dollar, but its a really a test for consumers. In its traditional state which was default 40% fan profile and 12 percent slower, it still would have been a good value for the dollar, but putting noise on the line, AMD is seeing if people want performance more than noise.

If AMD is successful with this, I expect to see the same with Nvidia where we see them clock their cards much higher, give a higher fan profile and throw noise out the window and leave decreasing noise to the consumer.

tahoj111
It should be happy day for every graphic card buyer regardles what color they prefer or if they can remain neutral. Have lil fan and relax, let the AMD engineer do the work, hope they know better than you what are they doing. Let reviewers run the reviews looks to me most know what are they talking about.

I can assure you from all the forums I read, people know what are they buying and most are getting much better performance than the reviews because they know what has to be done as most of as do. Now I'm talking about the R9 290X, the R9 290 owners are probably going to be even more happy.

[tajoh111]

They said the 290x was loud. The fan %pct range he provided for the 290 where the fan got loud also sounds about where AMD cards in the past have been.

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...5&postcount=52

Also I believe they test these on an open bench setup.

I don't remember anything about noise being a problem in the original 290x review, he suggesting turning on 100% profile so the card doesn't throttle. Plus the open bench helps the fan stay quieter in a way. Basically by constantly pulling in fresh air(not hot stale air in a case) from a open environment, the card stays cooler and requires less fan speed. The smaller more enclosed the space something is, the higher it fan needs move to compensate for the warm air it is using to cool the heatsink.

tahoj111
It should be happy day for every graphic card buyer regardles what color they prefer or if they can remain neutral. Have lil fan and relax, let the AMD engineer do the work, hope they know better than you what are they doing. Let reviewers run the reviews looks to me most know what are they talking about.

I can assure you from all the forums I read, people know what are they buying and most are getting much better performance than the reviews because they know what has to be done as most of as do. Now I'm talking about the R9 290X, the R9 290 owners are probably going to be even more happy.

This isn't about engineering as I am sure the card runs fine as long as the temperatures are cooler than 95Cs. Its a marketing question more than anything and AMD trying to put as positive a light on their cards as possibly while hoping people ignore other things.

They are testing if you give customers enough performance, will customer ignore noise warnings. Do customer care that these cards are being pushed to their limits for overclocking headroom. I.e if you pushed gtx 780 as hard as these cards, I am sure you would get a card faster than this and with Nvidia's cooler, it wouldn't be this noisy.

I have given this card praise for its value and been pretty negative of Nvidia recently if you read my post history.

If customers continue to ignore the heat and noise issue, it will just get worse and worse. From what i remember, x950's have been the sweet spot for performance and noise. This pushes in the opposite direction. If we continue to ignore the issue, it will just get worse and worse and worse. If both sides become like this and we get cards that have great performance because they are pushed to the max, but are so unbearably loud that everyone has to underclock or lower their fan profile, it has the potential to ruin consistency of cards and review performance.

I think the 290 can be a good card, a very good card, but i wouldn't touch a reference design and I am pretty sure this sentiment is shared more than a few reviewers.

[Olivon]

I will wait 290 customs versions. Crappy cooler, no thanks

[Ace123]

do you think flashing will unlock steam processors?

hard to say, if they decide to look to the past ie radeon 9500, x800gto2, 6950 then there is something there. there was even a chinese company that released a 7950 that could by unlocked as well.

[STEvil]

here's the correct [H] 290 review link: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/...w#.UnidorTleqg

[AffenJack]

I'm pretty disappointed by this card. The only good thing about it is, that it's cheap. There might be good Custom Designs coming, but i don't understand why Amd isn't able to build a good cooler.
This card is just pushed to the absolute max in power and noise to somehow beat nvidia.

[kadozer]

I don't remember anything about noise being a problem in the original 290x review,

In the 290x crossfire review he goes into detail specifically on fan noise with a single card: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/...9#.UnifJhBnEsk

I'm pretty disappointed by this card. The only good thing about it is, that it's cheap. There might be good Custom Designs coming, but i don't understand why Amd isn't able to build a good cooler.
This card is just pushed to the absolute max in power and noise to somehow beat nvidia.

You are in the minority but we are all entitled to our opinions. AMD went cheap on the cooler to keep MSRP low.
Yes somehow managing to only beat a 1k priced card at half the price. How about forcing Nvidia to drop its prices on 780 and to respond with a 780ti? Is that also a good thing about it?

[kromosto]

hard to say, if they decide to look to the past ie radeon 9500, x800gto2, 6950 then there is something there. there was even a chinese company that released a 7950 that could by unlocked as well.

if flashing unlocks processors then it will be a huge win for amd. let's see.

[AffenJack]

You are in the minority but we are all entitled to our opinions. AMD went cheap on the cooler to keep MSRP low.
Yes somehow managing to only beat a 1k priced card at half the price. How about forcing Nvidia to drop its prices on 780 and to respond with a 780ti? Is that also a good thing about it?

It's about price, like i said. But i don't think it's a good way for amd to just play the price card. For a long time normal customers thought of Amd as cheap price, but with worse quality. In Last Years they pushed hard and people are now looking better at them. Going back to just beeing cheap doesn't sound too good for me. Nvidia is having cards priced way too high. I don't wanna support that by buying their card. But Amd is not giving me a card i want to buy, looks like i need to wait.

[tajoh111]

Just to add on why AMD might need to be tested more thoroughly as its current cards allow for boosting allows for far too much variability. Not saying AMD is cheating, but tomshardware did test two different retail cards. He also had one of the most positive 290x reviews when he put it out. His retails sample was at times 20 percent slower than his press sample. That is the huge difference.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rk,3659-2.html

The card that AMD sent to me is a stallion. Even if you get it nice and hot before running a test, bringing it down off of that 1000 MHz “wishful thinking” spec, it’s still faster than GeForce GTX 780, and oftentimes GeForce GTX Titan. But the Radeon R9 290X I bought from Newegg is a dud. It’ll drop to 727 MHz and stay there…and the reference cooler still can’t cool it fast enough. The result is that it violates its 40% fan speed ceiling as well. The craziness, then, is that my R9 290 press board is typically faster than my R9 290X retail card. In the benchmarks, you’re going to see numbers for all three.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,3659-20.html

However, the two retail Radeon R9 290X boards in our lab are both slower than the 290 tested today. They average lower clock rates over time, pushing frame rates down. Clearly there’s something wrong when the derivative card straight from AMD ends up on top of the just-purchased flagships. So who’s to say that retail 290s won’t follow suit, and when we start buying those cards, they prove to underperform GeForce GTX 780? We can only speculate at this point, though anecdotal evidence gleaned from our experience with R9 290X is suggestive.

When cards can vary this much. Far more than what was possible with Nvidia's boosting. Golden sample cards can really really skew a review. With Nvidia your looking at the very max 10%, these cards your looking at up to 20% increase in variability.