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
Hitman: Absolution
The second-to-last game in our lineup is Hitman: Absolution. The latest game in Square Enix’s stealth-action series, Hitman: Absolution is a DirectX 11 based title that though a bit heavy on the CPU, can give most GPUs a run for their money. Furthermore it has a built-in benchmark, which gives it a level of standardization that fewer and fewer benchmarks possess.
Hitman is another game that makes the 290X shine, with the 290X taking a 16% lead over the GTX 780. In fact we’re getting very close to being CPU limited here, which may be limiting just how far ahead the 290X can pull. However this also means there’s plenty of GPU headroom for enabling MSAA, which we don’t use in this benchmark.
Moving on to 4K, the 290X once again extends its lead, this time by among the largest such leads to 30% over the GTX 780. This is actually good enough for 43fps even at Ultra quality, but for better than that you’ll need multiple GPUs.
To that end we’re CPU limited at 2560, though for some reason the GTX 780 SLI fares a bit better regardless. Otherwise at 4K the GTX 780 SLI achieves better scaling than the 290X CF – 64% versus 56% –so while it can’t take the lead it does at least close the gap some. Though enough of a gap remains that the GTX 780 SLI will still come a bit short of 60fps at 4K Ultra settings, which makes the 290X CF the only setup capable of achieving that goal.
When it comes to minimum framerates the 290X is able to build on its lead just a bit more here at both 2560 and 4K. In both cases the performance advantage over the GTX 780 grows by a further 3%.
Finally, for our delta percentages we can see that unfortunately for AMD they are regressing a bit here. The variance for the 290X CF at 2560 is 24%, which is greater than what the 280X CF was already seeing, and significantly greater than the GTX 780 SLI. Consequently Hitman is a good example of how although AMD’s CF frame pacing situation is generally quite good, there are going to be games where they need to buckle down a bit more and get it under control, as evidenced by what NVIDIA has been able to achieve. Though it is interesting to note that AMD’s frame pacing at 4K improves over 2K, by over 8%. AMD would seem to have an easier time keeping frame times under control when they’re outright longer, which isn’t wholly surprising since it means there’s more absolute time to resolve the matter.
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jljaynes - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
to be fair, he says it's expected to be - he doesn't call out price explicitly.and i am not making this up - i skipped ahead in the video because he was annoying me - and he was still talking about the looks of the card. to me the reviews seem more like an nvidia commercial. i clicked around the entire video - he spends the entire tests talking about specs and thermals.
looncraz - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
I've read a few reviews and noticed a trend you can verify:While gaming, the 290x only draws about the same amount as the 780, while putting out 10% or better average performance. It is only when you REALLY push the 290x that it draws its highest power - and to do that requires special tweaks from the reviewers, negating reality.
The noise is a problem, the heat is a problem, the performance and power draw really are not. An overclocking a video card is about the dumbest thing ever... yeah, let's risk damaging a $500+ part for an extra 5% higher frame rate... It isn't like a $200 CPU where you go from 3.2GHz to 5GHz...
No, we're talking about going from 1GHz to 1.1GHz.... and spending a premium for better cooling on top of it all...
siliconwizard - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Sure does and an amazing price that is. RIP Titanchizow - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Article chart says $550, Newegg has them in stock now for $580 which may just be BF4 bundle premium: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...Noble07 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Yup. The bundled version will cost $580. If you look at the newegg page, you'll see is manufacturer has two products up, one with bf4 and one without.patrioteagle07 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Newegg normally charges $20+ over msrp launch week... MSRP is $549 ...PCboy - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
And the Titan is $1000. Just face the facts, Nvidia got rolled.dragonsqrrl - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Rolled? Price drops sir. 8 months on, price drops.tuklap - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
but will they drop to the same level as r9 290x? seems to me that 290x is a great buy. take note. that is just the reference performer. What more for the AIB partners ^_^ PRICE DROPS PLEASE!!Shark321 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Titan is a compute card. In 3 weeks there will be 780Ti for $599, about 5-10% faster than 290X.