The AMD Radeon R9 290 Review
by Ryan Smith on November 5, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Hawaii
- Radeon 200
Synthetics
As always we’ll also take a quick look at synthetic performance. The 290X shouldn’t pack any great surprises here since it’s still GCN, and as such bound to the same general rules for efficiency, but we do have the additional geometry processors and additional ROPs to occupy our attention.
Hawaii performance on TessMark continues to underwhelm. 290 should have plenty of performance to create triangles, but it’s apparently having a problem fully utilizing them, a problem NVIDIA does not have.
Moving on, we have our 3DMark Vantage texture and pixel fillrate tests, which present our cards with massive amounts of texturing and color blending work. These aren’t results we suggest comparing across different vendors, but they’re good for tracking improvements and changes within a single product family.
3DMark’s texel fill test is one of a handful of tests where the 290 and 290X are actually separated by as much as the theoretical performance difference implies they should be. Clocked lower and with fewer CUs than 290X, 290 delivers 87% of the texturing performance.
Meanwhile the pixel fill rates show just how close the 290 and 290X can be even under best case circumstances for each card, due to the fact that they have an equal number of ROPs and equal memory bandwidth. Consequently the 290 loses almost nothing for pixel pushing power as compared to its bigger sibling.
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Pierreso - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Amazing indeed! $400 for a card up there with Titan often and leaving behind the 780. This is really great!Jimminycricket - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Was waiting patiently for 290 reviews all night and read several. What a read this is.This here is THE card to get. The value and performance is off the charts. AMD 290 performs better than nvidia Gtx780 in almost every case and you can overclock it for even more coming up towards 290X numbers. The new review AMD drivers made performance through the roof. AMD 290 also is right there with $1000 wallet-buster Titan.
And $400! Finally we get amazing value and beastly performance at a good pricepoint.I was considering the Gtx780 but with this beast from AMD nvidia needs another $150 pricecut on GTX780 down to $350 otherwise it is $400 AMD 290 in my rig allday. $400 Beast!
jerkchickens - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
no doubt, nvidia, time for another price cut GTX780=$350 value now. R9 290 $400 and kicks its buttSamus - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
I'm surprised AMD isn't selling a first-party solution for this if the cooling benefit is so substantial with GCN 1.1Water cooling kit = volume solved.
holdingitdown - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Custom cards will be here in no time. Per reviewers comments elsewhere AMD is waiting for 780ti to release then they drop the custom 290x and 290 cards and crush that card too.So much for nvidia trying to charge $699 fir 780ti. Propaply that card will be $599 oi instead.
crispyitchy - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
290 is the best card to release on 28nm.Wicked fast and priced right $400.
With these new AMD cards and their aggressive pricing and top tier performance, nvidia's entire lineup is irrelevant until they do some serious price drops.
290 is indeed a beast!
crispyitchy - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Take a look at this reviewIt really paints how amazing the card is.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/04/amd_rade...
Notmyusualid - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
440W.designerfx - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
It's definitely refreshing to know AMD is definitely going for direct competition with Nvidia with the 290.Sabresiberian - Friday, November 8, 2013 - link
And, water cooling bumps the price up at least $75 for the block, assuming you have an existing pump and radiator that will take the added load.It is the only card to get IF you don't care about noise or are willing to spend a significant amount of money to get rid of the noise, don't care about G-sync, don't care about PhysX, and don't care about Shield compatibility. Me, I'd rather spend $500 on a card that doesn't give up those things and doesn't force me to change the cooling solution.