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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blank001 - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Intense review, but I think the custom cooler will make it a solid buy ultimately.Samus - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
definitely needs a better cooler. ridiculous potential held back by an intel-esk cooler.piroroadkill - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
*esqueRagnarKon - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Sold. I am very impressed.Such a dramatic decrease in price makes me feel like that both AMD and Nvidia were essentially ripping us off with the previous generations. I'd like to know what their profit margins were, and what they are now. Either way, I appreciate the seemingly competative pricing coming from AMD this time around.
$550 for 290X was a little outside my price range, but I can do $400. I shall be waiting patiently by my phone for until I get a notification that it is in stock.
BPM - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
I think the profit margin for 290 is less than 290x percentage wise. We may have cheaper flagship amd next yearRagnarKon - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
You are probably right. Still just leaves a bad taste in my mouth knowing that I paid so much for the previous generation, and that they are willing to cut launch prices but so much.I re-read the review after my head cooled down a bit and am now a little more concerned about the noise level. It isn't a deal-breaker for me, but it is a concern. I may have to wait for the non-reference coolers to come out before I take the plunge.
Ananke - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Noise level is LESS than 5850/5870. I had such card, it was pretty normal to me. It is at least twice less noise than 4870...Sandcat - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
The 5850/70 didn't need to run their fans at 60%. In fact, at stock profiles, mine never went above 65c, unlike these furnaces.slickr - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
Just wait 2 weeks for custom cooler cards and this card is a beast. I mean it will probably be even faster with a natural OC on custom cooler cards, so add 4-5% more performance on top of the current one and lower noise levels at $400 and you have yourself a winner.I'll be waiting 2 weeks(hopefully less) and getting one with custom cooler and hopefully factory OC. I mean right now it pretty much beats Titan in half the games, with a factory OC and better cooler it going to come close to beating Titan at almost all the games.
So wait two weeks like me and get a custom cooled 290, for $400 its an amazing choice, I might consider getting a GTX 780 though if Nvidia lowers its price to $400 as well, so with 3 free games at $400 it may be better worth, but as of now the 290 is the king.
DMCalloway - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
You still have to dissipate the heat. Custom coolers are usually open design, so while it will be quieter all that heat is now going to be pumped into the case.