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
Crysis: Warhead
Up next is our legacy title for 2013/2014, Crysis: Warhead. The stand-alone expansion to 2007’s Crysis, at over 5 years old Crysis: Warhead can still beat most systems down. Crysis was intended to be future-looking as far as performance and visual quality goes, and it has clearly achieved that. We’ve only finally reached the point where single-GPU cards have come out that can hit 60fps at 1920 with 4xAA, never mind 2560 and beyond.
Unlike games such as Battlefield 3, AMD’s GCN cards have always excelled on Crysis: Warhead, and as a result it’s a good game for the 290 right off the bat. Furthermore because the 290X throttles so much here, coupled with this game’s love of ROP performance, the 290 actually beats the 290X, if only marginally so. .5fps is within our experimental variation (even though this benchmark is looped multiple times), but it just goes to show how close the 290 and 290X can be, and furthermore how powerful the higher average clockspeeds can be in ROP or geometry bound scenarios. Graphics rendering may be embarrassingly parallel in general, but sometimes a bit narrower and a bit higher clocked can be the path to better performance.
Meanwhile because the 290 does so well here, it makes for another sizable victory over the GTX 780, beating it by 16%. Further down the line the GTX 770 is beaten by 46%, and the 280X by 27%.
Moving on to our minimum framerates, the 290 actually extends its lead over the 290X. Now minimum framerates aren’t as reliable as average framerates, even in Crysis, so our experimental variation is going to be higher here, but it does once again show the advantages the 290 enjoys being clocked higher than the 290X under a sustained workload. Though on the other hand the GTX 780 catches up slightly, closing the gap to 10%.
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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.