AMD Radeon R9 290 reviews

[Tim]

December for third party coolers? That seems late. Might as well see by then when Maxwell is coming out.

[Heinz68]

December for third party coolers? That seems late. Might as well see by then when Maxwell is coming out.

You almost convinced me to also weight for Maxwell because December is so far away. On the other hand I want something for Christmas, well maybe I get Maxwell for 2014 Christmas.

[kromosto]

i was not planning to upgrade my 7970 lightning when all these started to release just sometimes tech freak itch made me think otherwise but my decision was nearly clear. after that an monitor upgrade to 2560*1440 and 780ti with bundles come to my mind but if 290 is unlockable to 290x at least for me there is nothing in the near future can beat 290 lightning.

[SubZero.it]

December for third party coolers? That seems late. Might as well see by then when Maxwell is coming out.

Uh...you are going to wait for maxwell

Sent from Nexus 5

[STaRGaZeR]

I'm ready to buy one 290 if they make it 7870 like length. Make it happen.

[spursindonesia]

I'm ready to buy one 290 if they make it 7870 like length. Make it happen.

512 bit card with such an electricity guzzling GPU chip, i think that is a very difficult requirement to behold. Not impossible, but unlikely feasible.

[Tim]

Uh...you are going to wait for maxwell

Sent from Nexus 5

Maybe. Maxwell on 28nm can launch as early as January 2014 if needed, so in December I'm sure there will be a little bit more info, more rumours. I'm in no rush.

[Heinz68]

I think it's about time to go back to the OP topic, before this thread gets completely hijacked into "Maxwell Rumors thread" or who is going to buy it.

Read videocardz article about "PowerColor Radeon R9 290 unlocked into R9 290X?"
Note the question mark, the article is based on one user experience, but claiming "So far only PowerColor 290 OC is said to be unlockable".

First from what i did read on few sites, shaders/texture units are laser cut on the 290 therefore they can't be unlocked. Second why are there not many more reports about this shaders unlocking with R9 290X BIOS.

There is always some possibility some chips god mixed up but I doubt this is going to be standard. I don't think AMD would like to see the R9 290 to be even more competitive with the R9 290X. Plus the R9 290 has such good performance/price ratio compared to few other cards there is not need for it.

[NEOAethyr]

People generally say laser cut when they don't know.
I have my doubts to anything being laser cut...
It's probably a bios flash, or hardware straps (resistors).

I think they would sell alot more if it was proven possible to unlock (some worse then others blah blah).
It's kind of a bummer no one offers the ability to unlock there parts these days (though I've personally never done so).

[BababooeyHTJ]

Second why are there not many more reports about this shaders unlocking with R9 290X BIOS.

Especially on a card with a dual bios on the same pcb as the 290x.

[Tim]

Xfx joins the unlocked party :

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/...-asus-r9-290x/

[AliG]

All I know is that I would love to see an R9 290 "brack friday bunduru" this thanksgiving

[Heinz68]

Tom's Hardware promoting Accelero Xtreme III for R9 290 with installation instructions. Don't know what they're talking about here:

Also, remember that applying heat sinks using thermal adhesive creates a fairly permanent bond. There is no changing your mind once you go down this path.

I replaced few heat sink on CPU with no problem, Don't think there should be any difference for GPU heatsink.

Anyway at this point is better to wait for custom build cards from the partners, unless somebody is working on the water cooling solution.

EDIT
Just noticed they talk about the memory heat sinks, didn't know they're so permanently glued.

[Heinz68]

EXCLUSIVE: Lichdom Demo featuring AMD TrueAudio
Make sure to use headphones, another plus using them, you wont need after market cooler

[tajoh111]

Tom's Hardware promoting Accelero Xtreme III for R9 290 with installation instructions. Don't know what they're talking about here:


I replaced few heat sink on CPU with no problem, Don't think there should be any difference for GPU heatsink.

Anyway at this point is better to wait for custom build cards from the partners, unless somebody is working on the water cooling solution.

EDIT
Just noticed they talk about the memory heat sinks, didn't know they're so permanently glued.

Thermal paste is different than thermal adhesive. When you put a heatsink on your CPU, it doesn't need to create a permanent bond because the heatsink will be locked or bolted to your board. Thus there is no need of glue to keep the CPU heatsink in place.

It should be obvious to anyone at this point why thermal adhesive is needed for the vrm and memory heatsinks. E.g Both these types of heatsinks are not held in place by anything. If you put thermal paste on, they would simply fall off due to gravity. So as a result, you either need thermal tape or adhesive to keep them on. The latter of which is particularly hard to remove because unlike most glue, thermal adhesive doesn't just come off with heat. It meant to tolerate high heat.

Thus if you use the thermal adhesive that comes with these aftermarket coolers, there is a good chance your voiding your warranty. Which is probably why its better to just wait for aftermarket if you are not satisfied with the stock solution.

[msimax]

Thermal paste is different than thermal adhesive. When you put a heatsink on your CPU, it doesn't need to create a permanent bond because the heatsink will be locked or bolted to your board. Thus there is no need of glue to keep the CPU heatsink in place.

It should be obvious to anyone at this point why thermal adhesive is needed for the vrm and memory heatsinks. E.g Both these types of heatsinks are not held in place by anything. If you put thermal paste on, they would simply fall off due to gravity. So as a result, you either need thermal tape or adhesive to keep them on. The latter of which is particularly hard to remove because unlike most glue, thermal adhesive doesn't just come off with heat. It meant to tolerate high heat.

Thus if you use the thermal adhesive that comes with these aftermarket coolers, there is a good chance your voiding your warranty. Which is probably why its better to just wait for aftermarket if you are not satisfied with the stock solution.

i have the artic hybrid and was concerned with this so i actually glued a sink onto something i dont use after it dried i was able to pop it off with ease and scrape the glue off with my nails so it should not be as worrisome as epoxy

[tbone8ty]

wait so u can unlock the 290 to a full 290x?

[blindbox]

EXCLUSIVE: Lichdom Demo featuring AMD TrueAudio
Make sure to use headphones, another plus using them, you wont need after market cooler

[/video=youtube;_6uUtf-lMQQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6uUtf-lMQQ[/video]

Unimpressive demo, to be quite frank. The sniper part, I didn't notice that big of a difference. The fireplace and the electric particle does show a difference between front and back at least. Maybe because it lacks a frame of reference with the sniper part.

[STEvil]

Unimpressive demo, to be quite frank. The sniper part, I didn't notice that big of a difference. The fireplace and the electric particle does show a difference between front and back at least. Maybe because it lacks a frame of reference with the sniper part.

I think people are taking trueaudio wrong (and its being marketed poorly, but this is partly because it will be more important for later generation cards rather than current gen). It can help positional audio in accuracy (which that demo shows poorly), but realisticly what it does is offload the audio stress from the CPU to enable better quality or more audio streams.

In a couple years it should become more important, but for the time being its just fancy audio polish.

[MaddMuppet]

I think people are taking trueaudio wrong (and its being marketed poorly, but this is partly because it will be more important for later generation cards rather than current gen). It can help positional audio in accuracy (which that demo shows poorly), but realisticly what it does is offload the audio stress from the CPU to enable better quality or more audio streams.

In a couple years it should become more important, but for the time being its just fancy audio polish.

It's a start. I'm just happy someone has taken the time to at least put some effort into PC Audio. Big ups to AMD for that.

[gojirasan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A3D

I always liked positional audio. Creative Labs killed it off when they killed off Aureal. I wonder if Creative will try to sue AMD now.

[Andi64]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A3D

I always liked positional audio. Creative Labs killed it off when they killed off Aureal. I wonder if Creative will try to sue AMD now.

The 3D positional audio on DirectSound games with EAX3+ on Creative adapters was incredible. I still play Call of Duty 2, with OpenAL on my X-Fi and it's WAY better than the positional audio used in most modern games, like Battlefield 4. In multiplayer with CMSS-3D the sound makes a huge difference.

I really like this TrueAudio stuff, at least the concept. It was the year 2006, I think, when I bought my X-Fi XtremeMusic. For me it was revolutionary, and as far as gaming sound effects I've never seen anything as impressive as that.

Good memories.

[blindbox]

I think people are taking trueaudio wrong (and its being marketed poorly, but this is partly because it will be more important for later generation cards rather than current gen). It can help positional audio in accuracy (which that demo shows poorly), but realisticly what it does is offload the audio stress from the CPU to enable better quality or more audio streams.

In a couple years it should become more important, but for the time being its just fancy audio polish.

Good point. It would definitely open up ways for future endeavours.

[Craftyman.]

I like that HardwareCanucks is the first review site One of my favs

[PatRaceTin]

In Thailand many people fun to flashing their 290 to 290x !!!!