You have to read the reviews to see what great value this card brings PROVIDED you can put up with the Noise it makes while running. I don't think there's ever been such a powerful card offered at this price point.
Hopefully 3rd Party vendors will come up with some better cooling designs that are superior (read quieter) than AMD's reference cooler. Price has been revealed as $400!
Quotes about the card from various sites -
Anandtech -
To get the positive aspects covered first, with the Radeon R9 290 AMD has completely blown the roof off of the high-end video card market. The 290 is so fast and so cheap that on a pure price/performance basis you won’t find anything quite like it. At $400 AMD is delivering 106% of the $500 GeForce GTX 780’s performance, or 97% of the $550 Radeon R9 290X’s performance. The high-end market has never been for value seekers – the fastest cards have always commanded high premiums – but the 290 completely blows that model apart. On a pure price/performance basis the GTX 780 and even the 290X are rendered completely redundant by the 290, which delivers similar-to-better performance for $100 less if not more.
To get right to the point, because of AMD’s fan speed modification the 290 doesn’t throttle in any of our games, not even Metro or Crysis 3. The 290X in comparison sees significant throttling in both of those games, and as a result once fully warmed up the 290X is operating at clockspeeds well below its 1000MHz boost clock, or even the 290’s 947MHz boost clock. As a result rather than having a 5% clockspeed deficit as the official specs for these cards would indicate, the 290 for all intents and purposes clocks higher than the 290X. Which means that its clockspeed advantage is now offsetting the loss of shader/texturing performance due to the CU reduction, while providing a clockspeed greater than the 290X for the equally configured front-end and back-end. In practice this means that 290 has over 100% of 290X’s ROP/geometry performance, 100% of the memory bandwidth, and at least 91% of the shading performance.
The problem is that while the 290 is a fantastic card and a fantastic story on a price/performance basis, in chasing that victory AMD has thrown caution into the wind and thrown out any kind of balance between performance and noise. At 57.2dB the 290 is a loud card. A very loud card. An unreasonably loud card. AMD has quite simply prioritized performance over noise, and these high noise levels are the price of doing so.
Full Review -
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/the-amd-radeon-r9-290-review
Toms Hardware actually had some rather strange results with the R290 vs the R290X. Read on -
Toms Hardware-
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?
Second, I simply don’t trust the numbers I’m getting from the 290 we have on-hand to review. Even if it’s a total fluke that the R9 290X cards we have are so diametrically opposed, the mere existence of this much variance means Radeon R9 290 is either as fast as a GeForce GTX Titan and priced phenomenally or somewhere behind a retail R9 290X, just ahead of GeForce GTX 770, and priced to slot into the market (unspectacularly). I’m not comfortable making a recommendation one way or the other on 290 until we see some retail hardware.
So when can we expect the custom-built cards to address our concerns? We hear they’re being held back until more is known about GeForce GTX 780 Ti—and this is entirely plausible. After all, if AMD could just keep Hawaii running at 1 GHz without creating a racket, it’d have another shot at the high-end crown.
If anything deserves an award, it’s the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III third-party cooler that lets AMD's Hawaii-based boards realize their potential. This is how the card could, and should, perform. Why AMD persists with its sub-par cooling solution is really anyone’s guess, especially since these problems have been going on for years. Dumping the issue on its partners can’t really be the solution either, since a graphics card’s reputation is made, or lost, on launch day.
Full review -
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659.html
HardOCP-
The AMD Radeon R9 290 provides the same gameplay experience and performance as the GeForce GTX 780 in a single-display gaming environment. The R9 290 provided the same performance as the GTX 780, and sometimes was even faster in terms of raw framerates. It is also clear that the Radeon R9 290 is a big upgrade from the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and GeForce GTX 770.
Even if AMD had shipped the Radeon R9 290 with the originally intended 40% fan speed, performance would still be competitive. The fact that a new driver has stabilized the clock speed and provided more performance just shows how much potential the R9 290 has. It also shows how inefficient the reference cooler is. Once again, we look forward to retail custom cards with custom cooling which should run more efficiently.
The R9 290 is simply a beast. If you look at it compared to the R9 290X it is right on the heels of the 290X, for $150 cheaper. It is possible the R9 290X might have got a bump from the Beta V8 driver as well, we have to re-test it with Beta V8 driver to find out, which we are going to do in an upcoming review this week.
The performance we experienced leads us to believe, with an educated guess, that at Eyefinity resolutions and 4K the R9 290 will be faster than the GTX 780. The R9 290 series seems to excel at higher resolutions above the competition thanks to its architecture and memory subsystem. We see the R9 290 being a popular card for affordable Eyefinity gaming. If you want to get into Eyefinity gaming, and money is an issue, this is the perfect video card to start with.
We will be looking at the R9 290 in much more depth when retail custom cards hit. We feel this is the sweet-spot card for gamers, providing top-tier performance at an affordable price. The R9 290 is the new go-to card for gaming this year.
Performance-wise, the R9 290 is on par with the GeForce GTX 780. The R9 290 is a much better performer than the GTX 770 or Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. The R9 290 is providing the performance of GTX 780, at $100 less cost. The value favors the AMD Radeon R9 290 in an epic way.
The Radeon R9 290 provides the most value for single-display gaming on the market today.
Full review -
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/04/amd_radeon_r9_290_video_card_review/
Specs (Courtesy Tom's Hardware) -
Hopefully 3rd Party vendors will come up with some better cooling designs that are superior (read quieter) than AMD's reference cooler. Price has been revealed as $400!
Quotes about the card from various sites -
Anandtech -
To get the positive aspects covered first, with the Radeon R9 290 AMD has completely blown the roof off of the high-end video card market. The 290 is so fast and so cheap that on a pure price/performance basis you won’t find anything quite like it. At $400 AMD is delivering 106% of the $500 GeForce GTX 780’s performance, or 97% of the $550 Radeon R9 290X’s performance. The high-end market has never been for value seekers – the fastest cards have always commanded high premiums – but the 290 completely blows that model apart. On a pure price/performance basis the GTX 780 and even the 290X are rendered completely redundant by the 290, which delivers similar-to-better performance for $100 less if not more.
To get right to the point, because of AMD’s fan speed modification the 290 doesn’t throttle in any of our games, not even Metro or Crysis 3. The 290X in comparison sees significant throttling in both of those games, and as a result once fully warmed up the 290X is operating at clockspeeds well below its 1000MHz boost clock, or even the 290’s 947MHz boost clock. As a result rather than having a 5% clockspeed deficit as the official specs for these cards would indicate, the 290 for all intents and purposes clocks higher than the 290X. Which means that its clockspeed advantage is now offsetting the loss of shader/texturing performance due to the CU reduction, while providing a clockspeed greater than the 290X for the equally configured front-end and back-end. In practice this means that 290 has over 100% of 290X’s ROP/geometry performance, 100% of the memory bandwidth, and at least 91% of the shading performance.
The problem is that while the 290 is a fantastic card and a fantastic story on a price/performance basis, in chasing that victory AMD has thrown caution into the wind and thrown out any kind of balance between performance and noise. At 57.2dB the 290 is a loud card. A very loud card. An unreasonably loud card. AMD has quite simply prioritized performance over noise, and these high noise levels are the price of doing so.
Full Review -
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/the-amd-radeon-r9-290-review
Toms Hardware actually had some rather strange results with the R290 vs the R290X. Read on -
Toms Hardware-
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?
Second, I simply don’t trust the numbers I’m getting from the 290 we have on-hand to review. Even if it’s a total fluke that the R9 290X cards we have are so diametrically opposed, the mere existence of this much variance means Radeon R9 290 is either as fast as a GeForce GTX Titan and priced phenomenally or somewhere behind a retail R9 290X, just ahead of GeForce GTX 770, and priced to slot into the market (unspectacularly). I’m not comfortable making a recommendation one way or the other on 290 until we see some retail hardware.
So when can we expect the custom-built cards to address our concerns? We hear they’re being held back until more is known about GeForce GTX 780 Ti—and this is entirely plausible. After all, if AMD could just keep Hawaii running at 1 GHz without creating a racket, it’d have another shot at the high-end crown.
If anything deserves an award, it’s the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III third-party cooler that lets AMD's Hawaii-based boards realize their potential. This is how the card could, and should, perform. Why AMD persists with its sub-par cooling solution is really anyone’s guess, especially since these problems have been going on for years. Dumping the issue on its partners can’t really be the solution either, since a graphics card’s reputation is made, or lost, on launch day.
Full review -
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659.html
HardOCP-
The AMD Radeon R9 290 provides the same gameplay experience and performance as the GeForce GTX 780 in a single-display gaming environment. The R9 290 provided the same performance as the GTX 780, and sometimes was even faster in terms of raw framerates. It is also clear that the Radeon R9 290 is a big upgrade from the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and GeForce GTX 770.
Even if AMD had shipped the Radeon R9 290 with the originally intended 40% fan speed, performance would still be competitive. The fact that a new driver has stabilized the clock speed and provided more performance just shows how much potential the R9 290 has. It also shows how inefficient the reference cooler is. Once again, we look forward to retail custom cards with custom cooling which should run more efficiently.
The R9 290 is simply a beast. If you look at it compared to the R9 290X it is right on the heels of the 290X, for $150 cheaper. It is possible the R9 290X might have got a bump from the Beta V8 driver as well, we have to re-test it with Beta V8 driver to find out, which we are going to do in an upcoming review this week.
The performance we experienced leads us to believe, with an educated guess, that at Eyefinity resolutions and 4K the R9 290 will be faster than the GTX 780. The R9 290 series seems to excel at higher resolutions above the competition thanks to its architecture and memory subsystem. We see the R9 290 being a popular card for affordable Eyefinity gaming. If you want to get into Eyefinity gaming, and money is an issue, this is the perfect video card to start with.
We will be looking at the R9 290 in much more depth when retail custom cards hit. We feel this is the sweet-spot card for gamers, providing top-tier performance at an affordable price. The R9 290 is the new go-to card for gaming this year.
Performance-wise, the R9 290 is on par with the GeForce GTX 780. The R9 290 is a much better performer than the GTX 770 or Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. The R9 290 is providing the performance of GTX 780, at $100 less cost. The value favors the AMD Radeon R9 290 in an epic way.
The Radeon R9 290 provides the most value for single-display gaming on the market today.
Full review -
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/04/amd_radeon_r9_290_video_card_review/
Specs (Courtesy Tom's Hardware) -
Last edited:
