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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TheJian - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
LOL. Tell that to both their bottom lines. I see AMD making nothing while NV profits. People who bought titan got a $2500 Tesla for $1000. You don't buy a titan just to game (pretty dumb if you did) as it's for pro apps too (the compute part of the deal). It's a steal for gamers who make money on the card too. Saving $1500 is a great deal. So since you're hating on NV pricing, how do you feel about the 7990 at $1000. Nice to leave that out of your comment fanboy ;) Will AMD now reap what they sow and have to deal with all the angry people who bought those? ROFL. Is the 1K business model unsustainable for AMD too? Even the 6990 came in at $700 a ways back. Dual or single chip the $1000 price is alive and well from either side for those who want it.I'd bet money a titan ultra will be $1000 again shortly if they even bother as it's not a pure gamer card but much more already. If you fire up pro apps with Cuda you'll smoke that 290x daily (which covers just about all pro apps). Let me know when AMD makes money in a quarter that NVDA loses money. Then you can say NV pricing is biting them in the A$$. Until then, your comment is ridiculous. Don't forget even as ryan points out in this article (and he don't love NV...LOL), AMD still has driver problems (and has for ages) but he believes in AMD much like fools do in Obama still...LOL. For me, even as an 5850 owner, they have to PROVE themselves before I ponder another card from them at 20nm. The 290x is hot, noisy and uses far more watts and currently isn't coming with 3 AAA games either. NV isn't shaking in their boots. I'll be shocked if 780TI isn't $600 or above as it should match Titan which 290x doesn't do even with the heat, noise and watts.
And you're correct no OC room. Nobody has hit above 1125.
If NV was greedy, wouldn't they be making MORE money than in 2007? They haven't cracked 850mil in 5 years. Meanwhile, AMD's pricing which you seem to love, has cause their entire business to basically fail (no land, no fabs, gave up cpu race, 8 months to catch up with a hot noisy chip etc). They have lost over $6B in the last 10yrs. AMD has idiots managing their company and they are destroying what used to be a GREAT company with GREAT products. They should have priced this card $100 higher and all other cards rebadged should be $50 higher. They might make some actual money then every quarter right? Single digit margins on console chips (probably until 20nm shrink) won't get you rich either. Who made that deal? FIRE THAT GUY. That margin is why NV said it wasn't worth it.
chizow - Saturday, October 26, 2013 - link
AMD's non-profitability goes far beyond their GPU business, it's more due to their CPU business. People who got Titan didn't get a Tesla for $1000, they got a Tesla without ECC. Compute apps without ECC would be like second-guessing every result because you're unsure whether a value was stored/retrieved from memory correctly. Regard to 7990 pricing, you can surely look it up before pulling the fanboy card, just as you can look up my comments on 7970 launch pricing. And yes, AMD will absolutely have to deal with that backlash giving that card dropped even more precipitously than even Titan, going from $1K to $600 in only 4-5 months.I don't think Nvidia will make the same mistake with a Titan Ultra at $1K. I also don't think Nvidia fans who only bought Titan for gaming will fall for the same mistake 2x. If Maxwell comes out and Nvidia holds out on the big ASIC, I doubt anyone disinterested in compute will fall for the same trick if Nvidia launches a Titan 2 at $1K using a compute gimmick to justify the price. They will just point to Titan and say "wait 3 months and they'll release something that's 95% of it's performance at 65% of it's price". As they say, Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
And no, greed and profit don't go hand in hand. In 2007-2008, Nvidia posted record profits and revenue for multiple consecutive quarters as you stated on the back of a cheap $230-$270 8800GT. With Titan, they reversed course by setting record margins, but on reduced revenue and profits. They basically covet Intel's huge profit margins, but they clearly lack the revenue to grow their bottomline. Selling $1K GPUs certainly isn't going to get them there any faster.
FragKrag - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
great performance, but I'll wait until I see some better thermals/noise from aftermarket coolers :pShark321 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
As with the Titan in the beginning, no alternate coolers will be available for the time being (according to computerbase). This means even if the price is great, you will be stuck with a very noisy and hot card. 780Ti will outperform the 290x in 3 weeks. It remains to bee seen how it will be priced (I guess $599).The Von Matrices - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
This is the next GTX 480 or HD 2900 XT. It provides great performance for the price, that is if you can put up with the heat and noise.KaosFaction - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Work in Progress!!! Whhhhaaaattttt I want answers now!!masterpine - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Good to see something from AMD challenging the GK110's, I still find it fairly remarkable that in the fast moving world of GPU's it's taken 12 months for AMD to build something to compete. Hopefully this puts a swift end to the above $600 prices in the single GPU high end.More than a little concerned at the 95C target temp of these things. 80C is toasty enough already for the GTX780, actually had to point a small fan at the DVI cables coming out the back of my 780 SLI surround setup because the heat coming out the back of them was causing dramas. Not sure i could cope with the noise of a 290X either.
Anyhow, this is great for consumers. Hope to see some aftermarket coolers reign these things in a bit. If the end result is both AMD and Nvidia playing hard-ball at the $500 mark in a few weeks time, we all win.
valkyrie743 - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
HOLY TEMPS BATMAN. its the new gtx 480 in the temp's departmentkallogan - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
No overclocking headroom with stock cooler. That's for sure.FuriousPop - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
can we please see 2x in CF mode with eyefinity!? or am i asking for too much?also, Nvidia will always be better for those of you in the 30% department of having only max 1080p. for the rest of us in 1440p and 1600p and beyond (eyefinity) then AMD will be as stated by previous comments in this thread "King of the hill"....
but none the less, some more testing in the CF+3x monitor department would be great to see how far this puppy really goes...
i mean seriously whats the point of putting a 80 year old man behind the wheel of the worlds fastest car?!? please push the specs on gaming benchmarks pls (eg; higher res)