The AMD Radeon R9 290 Review
by Ryan Smith on November 5, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Hawaii
- Radeon 200
Battlefield 3
Our major multiplayer action game of our benchmark suite is Battlefield 3, DICE’s 2011 multiplayer military shooter. Its ability to pose a significant challenge to GPUs has been dulled some by time and drivers, but it’s still a challenge if you want to hit the highest settings at the highest resolutions at the highest anti-aliasing levels. Furthermore while we can crack 60fps in single player mode, our rule of thumb here is that multiplayer framerates will dip to half our single player framerates, so hitting high framerates here may not be high enough.
With Battlefield 3 generally favoring NVIDIA GPUs the 290X fell just short of the GTX 780, and consequently the 290 will fall back a bit further. As such the 290 trails the GTX 780 by 7% while trailing the 290X by a narrower 5%. Furthermore in this case the 290 just hits the cutoff for a 60fps average at 2560, which means the card should have no problem sustaining minimum framerates above 30fps in even the most hectic firefights.
Elsewhere the 290 doesn’t get to enjoy quite the massive performance advantages over the 280X and GTX 770 that it enjoyed earlier, but it’s still ahead of its cheaper competitors. Against the 280X the 290 is 23% faster, while against the GTX 770 it’s a narrower 12%.
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RussianSensation - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Spot on. People continue to focus on reference GPU performance but unless you have a cramped case (which you shouldn't really have with such premium components) or are going quad-fire, using a reference cooler is almost always inferior to open-air dual slot designs with heatpipes and larger 80-100mm fans.hoboville - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Yup, there have been some cards (EVGA 780 w/ ACX cooler) that have benefited tremendously from special dual-slot coolers. That card was highly overclocked, ran cooler than reference, and was 95%+ of Titan performance. It was also only $10 more than the base 780.It just makes no sense that AMD has to flash around their reference cooler for 2 months with a shoddy card before we, as consumers, can buy a decent card that isn't just for looks (cooler shroud, anyone?).
aznjoka - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
This makes Nvidia's price drop, well looked over. The price/performance ratio of the 290, is quite well and back down at practical levels. AMD has done us all a great doing, saving our pockets from being emptied by the hungry Green men.Homeles - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
The same AMD that charged us out of our rears for the newly-launched 7000 series, mind you.Spunjji - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
They're both as guilty as each other on that one.techkitsune - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
" we cannot in good faith recommend a card this loud when any other card is going to be significantly quieter."That's nothing at all. Try throwing that against my 3 9000RPM Delta fans, each at -65dBA. -57dBA? Hah!
I could put four of these 290 GPUs in my tower and my three Deltas would still scream louder.
jljaynes - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Agreed - I consider myself an old school PC builder. If my rig doesn't sound like a prop plane taking off when I press the power button I am doing something wrong. I come from an era where a nerd's worth is measured by the number of case fans he has on his PC. I thought builders that put fan controls on their rigs were sissies. It's all or nothing - on or off, don't you turn down the speed.That, and any self respecting gamer uses a good set of headphones => noise is pretty much irrelevant, at least IMO.
techkitsune - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
That's right. Hunt with your ears as your FOV is very limited. Headphones are the only way to go in this regard with the super-power of Delta in your case.HisDivineOrder - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
It must be nice thinking everyone is talking low, but your hearing damage causes you not to notice what you're missing. When you're asking everyone to speak up, don't be surprised.jljaynes - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Go look up "noise isolation" or "noise canceling"