Gigabyte R9 290 3x Windforce 4GB Review

[Dude]

Hey guys,

I have found this graphics card to be a mixed bag of wonders. I appreciate my ability to destroy any game at 1080p on ultra. What I don't appreciate are the shitty drivers and the power consumption and heat.

I haven't recorded any actual benchmarks for two reasons. One, no benchmarking software. Two, benchmarks aren't representative of real-world gameplay.

My PC Specs are as follows...

i5 3570k

8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz DDR3

R9 290

120GB Samsung 840 EVO

1TB Seagate Barracuda

MSI Z77A-GD55

Now, the graphics card itself is absolutely huge. It is the longest graphics card I have ever owned. Unfortunately despite having the large fans it still draws a lot of heat. My case had a fair amount of airflow and on games such as Far Cry 3 I would manage to hit the 70 degrees celsius range which is terrible. Just terrible.

Actual performance seems to be very consistent though, 60 FPS or more in every well-optimised game I have played. This is without Mantle. With Mantle, I get around the same frame rates but every now and then my frames will actually drop. So in games such as Battlefield 4 I will use the D3D11 API.

The card isn't exactly efficient either, asking for at least 500W or so to run it. Might sound exaggerated but this card when overclocked consumes power like a fat chick consumes cake. Again, not very impressive. But the card is at least quiet. It was actually quieter than my Twin Frozr IV which came with my 660ti and that got loud under heavy load. But my 660ti was also more efficient, so yeah.

This review is very dumbed down and basic but I will skip straight to the point. This card is a cupcake with barbed wire in it. The cupcake starts to taste really nice, that is until you cut your face with the barbed wire and become frustrated at the fact that the cupcake actually looked really nice.

Oh, and the drivers suck major balls.

[LemonSpice]

Hey guys,

Oh, and the drivers suck major balls.

great and yea amd drivers tend to suck

[EzioSan]

i was about to get the r9 290 sapphire tri-x 6 weeks ago. lucky me nvidia released the gtx 970

silent, cool card which performs better

i blast bf 4 on ultra 100fps+ with my little i5 4460

[Interfectorem]

Uhh, 70C is not at all "terrible" for an R9 290.

[Hatsune Miku 「 」]

AMD Drivers are the equivalent of Ubisoft digging.

[Dude]

Uhh, 70C is not at all "terrible" for an R9 290.

I used to OC the shit outta my 660ti and it never went higher than 60C.

[Totally-A-Hero]

All i hear is shit about drivers, i have amd all i have ever owned is AMD and i havent had any problems, EVER. 

[Interfectorem]

I used to OC the shit outta my 660ti and it never went higher than 60C.

Well what did you expect, it's completely obvious. You should've seen higher temperatures coming, as it's a higher TDP (275W vs 150W) card than the 660Ti and different calibers. 

[PC-NOOB]

i was about to get the r9 290 sapphire tri-x 6 weeks ago. lucky me nvidia released the gtx 970

silent, cool card which performs better

i blast bf 4 on ultra 100fps+ with my little i5 4460

 

Well the 970 is about 75-100 dollars more than the tri-x that you were going to buy.....

[EzioSan]

Well the 970 is about 75-100 dollars more than the tri-x that you were going to buy.....

in germany the  lowest price for r9 290 tri-x oc from sapphire was at that time 349€ , so was the msi gtx 970

but now its 279€...

[Shroomster]

I used to OC the shit outta my 660ti and it never went higher than 60C.

That is comparing a Ferrari to a Prius and complaining about the Ferrari being louder. But a nice review nonetheless.

[BurgerBum]

The card isn't exactly efficient either, asking for at least 500W or so to run it. Might sound exaggerated but this card when overclocked consumes power like a fat chick consumes cake. Again, not very impressive. 

knowing me.

that is pretty impressive.

we should have a cake eating contest me and that card.

LETS DO THIS

[BurgerBum]

AMD Drivers are the equivalent of Ubisoft digging.

yeah, but thier hardware is cheeeeeeeep AF right now.

[Rekx]

This driver debate is so dumb... I have owned multiple AMD/Nvidia cards and they both have driver problems. Great review by the way, the Windorce coolers are freaking awesome.

[MrTomnus]

I have the MSI 290. I haven't overclocked it but I do want to. I play at 1440p and I'd like a max fps of about 90 when I play to make sure it doesn't dip below 60 in intensive sections of games. The R9 290 manages to get me about 70-80 in most games at 1440p (with the exception of easy to run games like Borderlands 2 which I get about 150fps and in Dead Space 3 I get 223fps)

 

It's a great card, I love it. But yes, the drivers are sometimes annoying. Catalyst keeps telling me there's a driver update even though I have the latest version. Pressing update does absolutely nothing as well.

 

Nice review by the way, but 70C is a perfectly normal temperature for a GPU to be running at under load.

[dalekphalm]

Hey guys,

I have found this graphics card to be a mixed bag of wonders. I appreciate my ability to destroy any game at 1080p on ultra. What I don't appreciate are the shitty drivers and the power consumption and heat.

I haven't recorded any actual benchmarks for two reasons. One, no benchmarking software. Two, benchmarks aren't representative of real-world gameplay.

My PC Specs are as follows...

i5 3570k

8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz DDR3

R9 290

120GB Samsung 840 EVO

1TB Seagate Barracuda

MSI Z77A-GD55

Now, the graphics card itself is absolutely huge. It is the longest graphics card I have ever owned. Unfortunately despite having the large fans it still draws a lot of heat. My case had a fair amount of airflow and on games such as Far Cry 3 I would manage to hit the 70 degrees celsius range which is terrible. Just terrible.

Actual performance seems to be very consistent though, 60 FPS or more in every well-optimised game I have played. This is without Mantle. With Mantle, I get around the same frame rates but every now and then my frames will actually drop. So in games such as Battlefield 4 I will use the D3D11 API.

The card isn't exactly efficient either, asking for at least 500W or so to run it. Might sound exaggerated but this card when overclocked consumes power like a fat chick consumes cake. Again, not very impressive. But the card is at least quiet. It was actually quieter than my Twin Frozr IV which came with my 660ti and that got loud under heavy load. But my 660ti was also more efficient, so yeah.

This review is very dumbed down and basic but I will skip straight to the point. This card is a cupcake with barbed wire in it. The cupcake starts to taste really nice, that is until you cut your face with the barbed wire and become frustrated at the fact that the cupcake actually looked really nice.

Oh, and the drivers suck major balls.

Hi, thanks for your review!

 

First, I'd like to note that 70c at load for a Video Card is... well... not terrible even in the slightest. That's actually decent - especially for a R9 290. Most high end video cards will not run much lower then that at load.

 

Second, can you please elaborate on why AMD drivers, and I quote "suck major balls"?

 

That's not really useful to anyone looking to purchase this card. Why do they "suck balls"? What are some of the issues you are having? Are you overclocking your GPU or any other component?

Third, while synthetic benchmarks are about as useful as diet coke, recording FPS benchmarks of the games you play is incredibly useful. You should consider downloading FRAPS or MSI Afterburner and running some FPS and Temp benchmarks of your favourite games, especially some newer/more demanding ones. You mentioned Far Cry 3 for example.

 

Otherwise, I really like your focus on "real world" performance. No one gives a shit how many scores someone won in Furmark or whatever.

 

Keep up the good work, and I hope you take my suggestions to heart as good-natured criticism to help you create better reviews!

[Briggsy]

All i hear is shit about drivers, i have amd all i have ever owned is AMD and i havent had any problems, EVER. 

 

talking about bad drivers is great ammunition in Fanboy Wars. claims of bad drivers cannot be dis-proven, especially if enough people repeat something again and again over time. 

[SkilledRebuilds]

I'm in a warm Aussie location.

72*c Max temp at stock.

Your temps are good. enjoy.

[Dude]

Hi, thanks for your review!

 

First, I'd like to note that 70c at load for a Video Card is... well... not terrible even in the slightest. That's actually decent - especially for a R9 290. Most high end video cards will not run much lower then that at load.

 

Second, can you please elaborate on why AMD drivers, and I quote "suck major balls"?

 

That's not really useful to anyone looking to purchase this card. Why do they "suck balls"? What are some of the issues you are having? Are you overclocking your GPU or any other component?

Third, while synthetic benchmarks are about as useful as diet coke, recording FPS benchmarks of the games you play is incredibly useful. You should consider downloading FRAPS or MSI Afterburner and running some FPS and Temp benchmarks of your favourite games, especially some newer/more demanding ones. You mentioned Far Cry 3 for example.

 

Otherwise, I really like your focus on "real world" performance. No one gives a shit how many scores someone won in Furmark or whatever.

 

Keep up the good work, and I hope you take my suggestions to heart as good-natured criticism to help you create better reviews!

 

I don't like the AMD drivers because apart from taking a decade to install, performance tends to be very "inconsistent". For example, before the last driver update I could run Advanced Warfare single player at 60FPS or higher. Now it can't run properly. Also, I hate the aesthetic of AMD Catalyst control center. Not entirely relevant but it just feels clunky. I haven't overclocked my card at all by the way. I could download some benchmarking software but with nothing that I can personally compare it against I don't really see much point unless I were to be the owner of multiple GPUs. I will happily mention the frame rates that I am getting though. I think the highest FPS I am achieving out of any game I have bothered to play is 120 FPS+ in CS:GO.

 

70c is alright for a card. But while playing Watch_Dogs, my card hit 82c which is pretty eyebrow raising by my standards.

[MrRavens]

AMD Drivers are the equivalent of Ubisoft digging.

The math behind that is stupendous! Good show! *claps*

[Luke]

All i hear is shit about drivers, i have amd all i have ever owned is AMD and i havent had any problems, EVER. 

 

 Seriously... "I don't appreciate are the shitty drivers" and then "Oh, and the drivers suck major balls."

 

OP do you mind explaining what is wrong with the drivers instead of just complaining about about them? I'm going to rate this review 3/10 to be completely honest. All you did emphasize the points that every AMD hater/Nvidia fanboy seems to love to point out (temps, power consumption and "shitty" drivers).

[Luke]

I used to OC the shit outta my 660ti and it never went higher than 60C.

 

That probably has something to do with the 660 ti being a much less powerful card and having a much smaller die size.

[Raudi_]

 Seriously... "I don't appreciate are the shitty drivers" and then "Oh, and the drivers suck major balls."

 

OP do you mind explaining what is wrong with the drivers instead of just complaining about about them? I'm going to rate this review 3/10 to be completely honest. All you did emphasize the points that every AMD hater/Nvidia fanboy seems to love to point out (temps, power consumption and "shitty" drivers).

Agreed. I can say the same thing about my 770's with shitty driver support for SLI, they have a custom TDP of 300W and draw 90% of that when gaming, Run real hot (90% fan speed keeps them at 85C underload) and not to mention my cards are loud as hell but all of that besides the driver is my own doing.