TTL's R9 290X Review.

[atrash]

I was expecting some sort of benchmark from the review but all I heard was him bitching on the cooler.And he's the only reviewer I've read so far that claimed the R9 290x barely just beats a 780. :nutkick:

[Wolfur]

I don't know about any of you, but I wouldn't want any video card running at 95c lol. I wonder if he could have just set a custom fan curve on it to make it run a bit cooler, but with those stock fan settings, eh.

 

Yea, he could...

 

[TheMissxu]

I think the card looks good. It's an invalid reason to compare the engine of your system based on looks (not only is that personal preference, most of the time you wont see the stock cooler [aftermarket, watercooling, or no window]).

 

Temps are more reasonable to compare. With the 100$ difference, grab a water block! Compare a watercooled OC'd 290x with a OC'd (non-watercooled) 780 please! That way the true DIY enthusiast will know what one will perform better.

[Humbug]

Tiny Tom Logan - here he is clarifying a few inconsitencies he made in his 290x review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OHKWMgBhvA&feature=c4-overview&list=UU_SN80_V2GymyCWM2oTYTeg

 

EDIT: fixed yet another typo

thanks

[atrash]

Wolfur, on 25 Oct 2013 - 12:38 AM, said:

 

Yea, he could...

 

 

Haha my room stand fan produce more noise than this card at 55%.

[ivhyn]

Yea, he could...

Holy mother of GPUs, that thing is freaking loud at 100% fanspeed.

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

I agree about the cooler and performance, not necessarily about asethetics. Based on how almost all computer cases are designed, you are not seeing that sexy polycarbonate botton, but just the GEFORCE logo and that ugly silver and black PCB on any reference card without a backplate. I don't care much about the shroud material because I am not touching the card everyday, just when installing it and I doubt I will care much about an aluminium finish unless it significantly alters temps or something else...

[punk2k6]

Holy mother of GPUs, that thing is freaking loud at 100% fanspeed.

 

lol tell me a fan that isn't loud at 100%

[afa7336]

lol tell me a fan that isn't loud at 100%

 

Noctua... okay, i had to.

[ivhyn]

Noctua... okay, i had to.

I have 2 NF-P12 and 2 NF-F12 and I find them annoying at 100%... I always turn them down to 7V and 70% fanspeed.

 

 

lol tell me a fan that isn't loud at 100%

Good point. However there's "annoying" and "how the hell can someone stand that noise?"-noise

[Krogoth]

Just imagine an after market Noctua GPU cooler. Near water-cooling performance and silence with none of the hassle.

[t0ps]

Honestly, why would you review a GPU reference cooler? Really? Worth paying 100$ or 450$ more for a slightly better cooler?

 

It really sounds like slander (possibly even paid off by nvidia bad). This is a huge assumption with no evidence, but based on the state of other reviews, like TechpowerUp, PCPerspective, TomsHardware,  HardwareCanucks, LegitReviews     KitGuru, Sweclockers, and TechReport, he is being unreasonable towards the 290x. And what reviewer blatantly recommends a different product (remember he is even saying to pay more money!) during a review?!

Well the whole point of a gpu with reference cooler reviews is that is the only thing that's available to consumers for the foreseeable future. Linus and TTL's findings were more or less similar (albeit TTL does his reviews in his own quirky way).

 

If you ever watched his reviews that's just how he is, he ripped on the titans for being a lackluster product compared to a 780 and basically said you have more money than sense if you buy titans. Also there was the whole ordeal with the Maximus Extreme VI. In other words he's all about the "real talk".

 

The evidence is in his review apparently (which I admittedly didn't look at), but it's also in LTT review.

[t0ps]

Just imagine an after market Noctua GPU cooler. Near water-cooling performance and silence with none of the hassle.

 

You missed one big aspect, something that doesn't stare at you in the face like a sore thumb when you put it in your system.

[t0ps]

As far as you can tell? more like you can't because there aren't any numbers for them and they aren't out. Remember the 7970 stock cooler? that thing was shit. Aftermarket coolers were where the 7970 shined.

Fair enough, that is my view, just like how I myself also speculated that this card would bitch slap the titan left, right and center, so colour me less hopeful regarding its OC performance. The 7970 was amazing from the get go. Yes the thing was hot as hell, but it was more or less better than a 680. What made the 7970 shine was the drivers which blew the 680 out of the water, the coolers just made their heat tolerable, i.e. the cherry on top.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Different system setups, different locations = varied ambient temps.

Results will always vary.

TTL lives in England. I also live in England I can can safely say that it's quite cold at the moment. It was probably about 10 C outside his house so 94 C is really high it will be more like 100 C in other palces. I can't even think what the temps will be during the summer.

[TheMissxu]

TTL lives in England. I also live in England I can can safely say that it's quite cold at the moment. It was probably about 10 C outside his house so 94 C is really high it will be more like 100 C in other palces. I can't even think what the temps will be during the summer.

Actually edit: Well not actually, speculatively, I bet CCC limits the GPU (exactly like GPU Boost 2.0) to 95c... Just about every other reviewer had the same temp. So maybe his heater was turned up and that's why his card didn't perform well...

[leipero]

I'm sorry, but OC3D are known "AMD haters", i watched few videos by them long time ago, did few dislikes, and moved on, not worth my time.

[CoffeeBlack]

Their results compare overclocked to overlocked results, they really should have compared stock to stock (or both.

they didn't even specify what clocks were used for each card, IMHO that isn't good data to go by.

They make their overclock numbers available to everyone with a link. And most a huge majority of people who buy high-end cards will overclock them so why is that bad data to go by. IMO it is the most accurate data you could go by because they test all of their grahpics cards in real-world scenarios.

[CoffeeBlack]

I know how GPU boost works, i have a gtx 670, and the reason i don't like the way Linus and Slick benchmark is the fact that they do not use custom fan profiles, Nvidia kepler cards start to decrease boost after 70°C by 13 mhz every 5°C , and every card they tested did pass 80°C so count how much boost was lost. the only "right" way to test Kepler gpu-s  is not letting them pass 70°C, do your own test and you will see...

 

Chance to get 1,2 ghz out of every 780 out there is slim, i mean my gtx 670 max boost is 1150 overclocked, over 1200 in furmark, but it crashes in unigine after i pass 1150, the reviews of my card said it can go higher, i can do a bios hack to get more voltage, but the card is still on warranty , i can see you got a 670 that can OC better, well that is just my point, not every chip can oc to the same level...

 

The 780 wins in 1080p and 2,5K, but other benchmarks show the 290x beats the Kepler cards at 4k, not to mention these are early drivers, so this might be early driver AMD curse, those will improve.

 

I am not saying anyone who tested is wrong with the cards they have, but that is my point, since not every card can OC to the same level the only fair comparison is to test them on stock, this is fair for both sides, they should give us both stock and oc benchmarks.

GPU boost 2.0 on 780's is way different than it is on your 670.

[Inkz]

There should be more 4k tests as that is were it really shines with that 512bit bus.

[Physc]

seems like water cooling is the only answer to 290X for those people like me who cant stand loud fan noises.

[Saladin]

I think you mean TTL's review. And no one really is going to buy the reference cooler (unless s/he really must have the card RIGHT NOWW!!). Asus, Gigabyte and MSI will have their coolers out soon.

From what TTL and others are saying there are ONLY reference coolers for the time being, today in his follow up TTL mentions that Asus will not have a DCU II version until sometime in 2014.

[Saladin]

In my opinion Tiny Tom Logan gave a fair review and is taking a lot of flak for it (in the interest of openness I currently have a 660 ti and was planing on possibly upgrading to the 290x, though I will now be at least waiting until the 780 ti comes out to see if there are any price drops on either side). His review points out what other reviewers are pointing out:

1. The 290x is stupid hot (in my opinion 95c with 10+ min to cool down to idle temps is unacceptable)

2. The 290x is essentially overclocked out of the box

3. The 290x is on par with the reference non-overclocked 780 (slightly better in some games/benches, slightly worse in others)(an overclocked/non-reference 780 destroys the 290x)

4. The 4K numbers AMD has shown are essentially pointless given 1) the cost of 4K monitors pared with the low usage 2) the low frame rates at 4K resolutions

5. Mantle is fine but we have no games with it yet and no idea what the performance increases will be or what the adoption rates will be

I agree with TTL that this card performs well and is a decent price to performance, however TTL as with many (myself included) hoped/expected the 290x to smoke the 780, that isn't the case. Given that 1) the 290x is essentially on par with a year old piece of silicon (gk110 was originally planed as the 680) and 2) that there will be no non-reference cards at launch and 3) that Nvidia is coming out with the 780 ti (I'm hoping for a price drop of the 780 along with it) I view the 290x card as honestly underwhelming. Its good, but not great. We, the consumers, needed the 290x to smoke the 780 and scare Nvidia into innovating, this did not happen. Just my two cents.

[Eroda]

i want to see 3rd party cards  and how much cooler they can make them run, good news next gen GPU's should run noticeably colder so all these new coolers will be overkill

[Saladin]

i want to see 3rd party cards  and how much cooler they can make them run, good news next gen GPU's should run noticeably colder so all these new coolers will be overkill

Sadly it doesn't look like those will becoming anytime soon, Tiny Tom Logan mentioned today in his followup video to the 290x review that Asus doesn't have a DCU II planned until sometime in 2014 and that this is the same across the board. AMD is doing a reference only launch.