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
GRID 2
The final game in our benchmark suite is also our racing entry, Codemasters’ GRID 2. Codemasters continues to set the bar for graphical fidelity in racing games, and with GRID 2 they’ve gone back to racing on the pavement, bringing to life cities and highways alike. Based on their in-house EGO engine, GRID 2 includes a DirectCompute based advanced lighting system in its highest quality settings, which incurs a significant performance penalty but does a good job of emulating more realistic lighting within the game world.
For as good looking as GRID 2 is, it continues to surprise us just how easy it is to run with everything cranked up, even the DirectCompute lighting system and MSAA (Forward Rendering for the win!). At 2560 the 290X has the performance advantage by 9%, but we are getting somewhat academic since it’s 80fps versus 74fps, placing both well above 60fps. Though 120Hz gamers may still find the gap of interest.
Moving up to 4K, we can still keep everything turned up including the MSAA, while pulling off respectable single-GPU framerates and great multi-GPU framerates. To no surprise at this point, the 290X further extends its lead at 4K to 21%, but as usually is the case you really want two GPUs here to get the best framerates. In which case the 290X CF is the runaway winner, achieving a scaling factor of 96% at 4K versus NVIDIA’s 47%, and 97% versus 57% at 2560. This means the GTX 780 SLI is going to fall just short of 60fps once more at 4K, leaving the 290X CF alone at 99fps.
Unfortunately for AMD their drivers coupled with GRID 2 currently blows a gasket when trying to use 4K @ 60Hz, as GRID 2 immediately crashes when trying to load with 4K/Eyefinity enabled. We can still test at 30Hz, but those stellar 4K framerates aren’t going to be usable for gaming until AMD and Codemasters get that bug sorted out.
Finally, it’s interesting to note that for the 290X this is the game where it gains the least on the 280X. The 290X performance advantage here is just 20%, 5% lower than any other game and 10% lower than the average. The framerates at 2560 are high enough that this isn’t quite as important as in other games, but it does show that the 290X isn’t always going to maintain that 30% lead over its predecessor.
Without any capturable 4K FCAT frametimes, we’re left with the delta percentages at 2560, which more so than any other game are simply not in AMD’s favor. The GTX 780 SLI is extremely consistent here, to the point of being almost absurdly so for a multi-GPU setup. 4% is the kind of variance we expect to find with a single-GPU setup, not something incorporating multiple GPUs. AMD on the other hand, though improving over the 280X by a few percent, is merely adequate at 17%. The low frame times will further reduce the real world impact of the difference between the GTX 780 SLI and 290X CF here, but this is another game AMD could stand some improvements, even if it costs AMD some of the 290X’s very strong CF scaling factor.
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Bob Todd - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
You honestly think only ~30% of the gaming market is at 1080p and ~70% is at >= 1440p?FuriousPop - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
look at what these cards are capable of.... if you want to spend +$500 when your running 1080p then im sorry but that is clearly overkill and you have too much money in your wallet!tbh i just guestimated from all the ppl i have read on numerous forums. could be more or less really! but seriously would u really want AMD for 1080p? me personally no, and i have cf 7970's but then again am running 1600p or eyefinity. so im the very little minority...
TheJian - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
98.75% use 1920x1200 or less. Most above that have TWO cards or more. No single card is overkill for 1080p if you like all your settings maxed. Every site that tested 1600p shows games that are turned down, never mind the quotes saying 4K is a DUAL CARD situation at best.Check steampowered survey for the data or even Ian's 2160P articles here. He has it in his 2nd article on that topic. He mentions 4% on 1920x1200 and up but neglects to say 1920x1200 and DOWN is 98.75. But even his numbers are bad including 1920x1200 in the high category. Even then it's less than 4% total all above. You don't even fit your own claim. You have two cards, that soundly beat a 290x. Your in the super duper puny tiny teeny weeny minority...LOL.
Shark321 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
I think 90% is at 1080p.jljaynes - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
steam hardware survey more or less agrees with your 90%Pantsu - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
On the other hand this is an enthusiast class card, and in this class 1080p probably doesn't have that big of a share. People buy these cards for 27", 30" and eyefinity/surround. Sure there is 120 Hz 1080p and S3D, but I don't think it's a bigger category.andrewaggb - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
exactly. If you're going high end you don't settle for a single 1080p monitor.... 90% of the people on stream don't have 290x's or titans either.Ryan Smith - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
2x in CF mode with Eyefinity would be 4K. On the PQ321 it technically operates as a pair of displays, and it's a higher resolution than 3x1080P.zeock9 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
This is simply incredible, almost hard to believe, news that AMD set its price at lower-than-expected $549.As much as I hated AMD for their marketing schemes of late, I'll have to applaud them for bringing this solution at such a price point.
Now I can't imagine what kind of a counter guys over at the green camp will bring to bear for us, since the faster 290x can be had for $100 less than the slower 780.
1. they won't want 780ti to overtake Titan in terms of performance at $650, or it will make the latter completely obsolete barring very special circumstances with pro-sumers,
which means they will have to introduce Titan Ultra at $1000, if they want to keep faster-than-Titan-780ti at $650 though I can't imagine even Titan Ultra being able to keep pace with 290x at 4k res due to lower ROP counts.
2. or they can simply match 290x's price point at $549 with their upcoming 780ti and make it slower than Titan.
It will really be interesting to see.
Shark321 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
GK110 taped out 2 years ago. Nvidia will have no problems matching the 290x with 780ti and beat it by 30% in Q1-Q2 2014. AMD is as always too late to the game.