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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AtwaterFS - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Nice, Nvidia has two choices, drop prices substantially, or drop trou.I certainly hope its the former, as I have no interest in seeing Jen-Hsun's pig in a blanket...
Wreckage - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Not really the Titan slayer we were hoping for.After all this wait and hype it's not surpassing last years GK110. I guess we don't look for big gains in new chips anymore.
The Von Matrices - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
This is on the same process node as Titan. Big advances don't happen without process node shrinks, regardless of manufacturer.ninjaquick - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
A million times this... GCN is superior to Kepler, and probably Maxwell as well. It doesn't waste tons of die-space on large cache/special decoders/legacy bullshit. Game creators want massive arrays of simple math units that can voraciously crunch numbers, and that is what GCN delivers.EJS1980 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
"GCN is superior to Kepler, and probably Maxwell as well"...HEHEH..... THIS IS PRETTY FUNNY, MAN......THANKS.....I NEEDED THAT! :PWill Robinson - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Yeah right Wreckage...only slayed Titan by about $500 LOLIdiot.
chizow - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Great price and performance from AMD without a doubt, it's not quite a clean sweep but it is certainly a convincing victory for R9 290X, especially at higher resolutions. 780Ti may come close or even exceed 290X, but the damage to Nvidia's product stack has been done.The symmetrical irony here is that this generation's price escalation that began at $550 with AMD's first 28nm part, Tahiti, has come full circle and brought back to balance with AMD's last 28nm part, Hawaii, again at that $550 price point.
I'm happy to see some balance back in the GPU market though, I stated this month's ago at 690 and Titan launch, that this $1K pricing model was an unsustainable business strategy for Nvidia. Now it's going to bite them squarely in the ass. They'll now reap what they sow and have to deal with the angst and anger from all of their most loyal fans who will undoubtedly feel as if they were cheated by the 690, Titan and even 780.
chizow - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
I guess it couldn't be all good news though, it looks like the leaked thermals, power consumption and acoustics weren't exaggerated. Definitely loud and hot, with high operating temps. I guess AMD really pushed the GPU to the max, I doubt there will be much more OC headroom, at least with the reference cooler.If Nvidia wasn't so greedy with 690/Titan/780 pricing 290X might've been the next Fermi with mixed reactions, but I'm sure the price and performance will overshadow heat/power concerns.
t41nt3d - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
NVIDIA won't be bitten in the ass at all due to the prices of the 690s and Titan. A god awful amount of people have paid $1000 (Including me) for one or more of these cards, and it's taken /8 Months/ for AMD to release a card that goes back and forth with the Titan - Doesn't outright beat it in some games, can go either way.NVIDIA have made a crapload of money from their two overpriced cards and have been reaping off this for a long time now, all they need to do is lower prices and no money lost. It's AMD who's been letting them get away with those prices for so long.
It seems a perfectly viable business strategy for them to have done what they've done and to be so successful at it.
chizow - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
I guess we will see, their job just got that much harder to try to sustain this $1000 pricing model now that a $550 card now matches and sometimes outperforms their $1000 card. What kind of performance do you think they're going to need next time to try and justify a $1000 pricetag?Again, Nvidia went down the path of an unsustainable business model predicated on the fact they would be an entire ASIC ahead of AMD. That lead was clearly short-lived due to Kepler's excellent overall performance, but Hawaii brought that dream back down to reality. Sure a bit late, but still in time to crash Nvidia's $1K parade.