The AMD Radeon R9 290X Review
by Ryan Smith on October 24, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Hawaii
- Radeon 200
Battlefield 3
Our major multiplayer action game of our benchmark suite is Battlefield 3, DICE’s 2011 multiplayer military shooter. Its ability to pose a significant challenge to GPUs has been dulled some by time and drivers, but it’s still a challenge if you want to hit the highest settings at the highest resolutions at the highest anti-aliasing levels. Furthermore while we can crack 60fps in single player mode, our rule of thumb here is that multiplayer framerates will dip to half our single player framerates, so hitting high framerates here may not be high enough.
For our Battlefield 3 benchmark NVIDIA cards have consistently been the top performers over the years, and as a result this is one of the hardest fights for any AMD card. So how does the 290X fare? Very well, as it turns out. The slowest game for the 290X (relative to the GTX 780) has it losing to the GTX 780 by just 2%, effectively tying NVIDIA’s closest competitor. Not only is the 290X once again the first single-GPU AMD card that can break 60fps average on a game at 2560 – thereby ensuring good framerates even in heavy firefights – but it’s fully competitive with NVIDIA in doing so in what’s traditionally AMD’s worst game. At worst for AMD, they can’t claim to be competitive with GTX Titan in this one.
Moving on to 4K gaming, none of these single-GPU cards are going to cut it at Ultra quality; the averages are decent but the minimums will drop to 20fps and below. This means we either drop down to Medium quality, where 290X is now performance competitive with GTX Titan, or we double up on GPUs, which sees the 290X CF in uber mode take top honors. This game happens to be another good example of how the 290X is scaling into 4K better than the GTX 780 and other NVIDIA cards are, as not only does AMD’s relative positioning versus NVIDIA cards improve, but in heading to 4K AMD picks up a 13% lead over the GTX 780. The only weak spot here for AMD will be performance scaling for multiple GPUs, as while the 290X enjoys a 94% scaling factor at 2560, that drops to 60% at 4K, at a time where NVIDIA’s scaling factor is 76%. The 290X has enough of a performance lead for the 290X CF to hold out over the GTX 780 SLI, but the difference in scaling factors will make it cut close.
Meanwhile in an inter-AMD comparison, this is the first game in our benchmark suite where the 290X doesn’t beat the 280X by at least 30%. Falling just short at 29.5%, it’s a reminder that despite the similarities between 290X (Hawaii) and 280X (Tahiti), the performance differences between the two will not be consistent.
Looking at our delta percentages, this is another strong showing for the 290X CF, especially as compared to the 280X CF. AMD has once again halved their variance as compared to the 280X CF, bringing it down to sub-10% levels. This despite the theoretical advantage that the dedicated CFBI should give the 280X. However AMD can’t claim to have the lowest variance of any multi-GPU setup, as this is NVIDIA’s best game, with the GTX 780 SLI seeing a variance of only 6%. It’s a shame not all games can be like this (for either vendor) since there would be little reason not to go with a multi-GPU setup if this was the typical AFR experience as opposed to the best AFR experience.
Finally, looking at delta percentages under 4K shows that AMD’s variance has once again risen slightly compared to the variance at 2560x1440, but not significantly so. The 290X CF still holds under 10% here.
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TheJian - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
Wrong, Zotac price in cart $624. :) Personally I'd buy an OC card for $650 but that's just me.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
46andtool - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
your comment makes no sense, all I see are excuses and misinformation in your post." It doesn't cost less than a GTX780, it only has a lower MSRP." is just stupid, battlefield 4 edition 290xs are already on newegg for $579, the only cheap 780gtxs you will find will be used ones.chrnochime - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
What 549? Every 780 on NE goes for 649. I want some of the kool-aid you're drinking.HisDivineOrder - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
It IS loud. HardOCP have a tendency to be so "hard" they ignore the volume of the card. They aren't the most reliant of sites about the acoustics of a card. Not in the past and not today.JDG1980 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Regarding 1080p performance, so what? You don't need a $500+ video card to get acceptable frame rates at that resolution. A $200-$300 card will do just fine. $500+ video cards are for multi-monitor setups or high resolution (1440p+) displays.Regarding the noise, that's a problem - AMD clearly stretched things as far as they could go with GCN to reach the current performance level. I know that EK has already announced a 290X waterblock for those enthusiasts who use custom loops. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone come out with a self-contained closed-loop watercooler for the 290X, similar to those that have been available for CPUs for a couple years now. That might help fix the noise issues, especially if it used a dual 120mm/140mm radiator.
46andtool - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
we are just now breaking 60fps on 1080p on demanding games at max details, and even more demanding games are just around the corner so your telling people what exactly? And everybody knows AMD makes retarded reference coolers. So another moot point. Lets-try-and -discredit- AMDs- stellar -new product -anyway -we -can- but- the- only- way- we -know -how -is -by -grasping- at- straws.inighthawki - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
BS, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a high end card on a 1080p display. Just look at the benchmarks, Crysis 3 1080p on high, a 7970GE barely hits 60fps, and no doubt that will drop below 60 on many occasions (it's just an average). On top of that, not all games are nearly as well optimized as Crytek games, or are just far more complex. Total War: Rome 2, even the 290X doesn't barely hits 60fps on extreme with MEDIUM shadows. Or maybe look at Company of Heroes 2, and how even the 290X hits a min fps of 37fps on extreme.On top of all of that, high resolution IPS panels are super expensive, not everyone cares enough about that to spend the money. The difference between a quality 1080p and a quality 1440p panel can be almost as much as the video card itself.
patrioteagle07 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Not really... You can find refurbed ZR30s for under $600If you are going to spend 1k on gfx its rather short sighted to keep your TN panels...
inighthawki - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
That's at LEAST several hundred dollars more than the majority of people are willing to spend on a monitor. 1080p TN panels are fine for most people, including most gamers. What people care about is not monitor count, pixel count, or color accuracy. They want high quality shaded pixels and good framerate. This is where high end video cards on smaller monitors comes into play. There are plenty of reasons to do it. Do not confuse your own values as the same as what everyone else wants.ShieTar - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
Also, an increasing number of players is considering 120 FPS to be the acceptable framerate, not 60FPS.