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
Crysis 3
Still one of our most punishing benchmarks, Crysis 3 needs no introduction. With Crysis 3, Crytek has gone back to trying to kill computers and still holds “most punishing shooter” title in our benchmark suite. Only in a handful of setups can we even run Crysis 3 at its highest (Very High) settings, and that’s still without AA. Crysis 1 was an excellent template for the kind of performance required to drive games for the next few years, and Crysis 3 looks to be much the same for 2013.
Much like Battlefield 3, at 2560 it’s a neck and neck race between the 290X and the GTX 780. At 52fps neither card stands apart, and in traditional Crysis fashion neither card is fast enough to pull off 60fps here – never mind the fact that we’re not even at the highest quality levels.
Meanwhile if we bump up the resolution to 4K, things get ugly, both in the literal and figurative senses. Even at the game’s lowest quality settings neither card can get out of the 40s, though as usual the 290X pulls ahead in performance at this resolution.
As such, for 60fps+ on Crysis 3 we’ll have to resort to AFR, which gives us some interesting results depending on which resolution we’re looking at. For 2560 it’s actually the GTX 780 SLI that pulls ahead, beating the 290X in scaling. However at 4K it’s the 290X CF that pulls ahead, enjoying a 53% scaling factor to the GTX 780’s 40%. Interestingly both cards see a reduction in scaling factors here versus 2560, despite the fact that both cards are having no problem reaching full utilization. Something about Crysis 3, most likely the sheer workload the game throws out at our GPUs, is really bogging things down at 4K. Though to AMD’s credit despite the poorer scaling factor at 4K the 290X CF in uber mode is just fast enough to hit 60fps at Medium quality, and not a frame more.
Moving on to our look at delta percentages, all of our AFR setups are acceptable here, but nothing is doing well. 20-21% variance is the order of the day, a far cry from the 1-2% variance of single card setups. This is one of those games where both vendors need to do their homework, as we’re going to be seeing a lot more of CryEngine 3 over the coming years.
As for 4K, things are no better but at least they’re no worse.
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rituraj - Saturday, October 26, 2013 - link
So that "PROSUMER" cookie that nv tried to sell was just a grandma's cookie and it's proven now. I will buy the next maxwell flagship AND AT $600. (Lol.. I have to pay 20% more here in India)dazaj - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
why is there no titan sli in all these benches but there is 290x cfRyan Smith - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
Because we only have 1 Titan.just4U - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
They likely didn't have two on hand..dazaj - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
why is there no titan sli in any of these benchesdrinkperrier - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
Just 1 question.Can i have the possibility to buy this videocard from AMD brand and not asus, sapphir and etc??
Ryan Smith - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
Unfortunately no. AMD does not directly sell Radeon cards to consumers. They only directly sell Radeons to OEMs, while FirePros are directly sold to everyone.rituraj - Saturday, October 26, 2013 - link
The best thing I can get out of this release is that nVidia is not going to be able to charge $1000 for its next flagship or ultra-flagship. Because it's been proven that no matter what crazy performance it gives, it can be released at a 500-600 range by AMD and therefore by nVidia too. Even if they do, charge that much people will j7st wait for a few months for AMD to release an equally powerful card at 600 or 500. Good move AMD...SunLord - Saturday, October 26, 2013 - link
Saturday and I'm still not sure the reviews done or at least Anandtech has dropped making explaining and commenting on test resultspolaco - Saturday, October 26, 2013 - link
Origin PC will loose lots of possible sells by having dropped AMD. NVidia monopolistic friends pay the consequences...