Anandtech 290x review, 780 killer, Titan's Rival, for $549

[AraSarkisyan]

I am on green team still for my rigs and my personal title will tell you all you need to know about why I stick with them. I would want the GTX 780 or the GTX 780 Ti.

I would just get a dedicated PhysX card but each to his own. Also g-sync looks fantastic and so does GRID, so I have to give creds to the green team

[AraSarkisyan]

Considering that this is just reference...

Ns amd, ns.

Ik i sound stupid but what does ns mean?

[CyberneticTitan]

Waiting for R9 290X Lightning..................

 

Will definitely sell my 770 Lightning for it.

[MasterJV]

Wow, and its only $549

Hurry, someone get me a $1000 build with this card.

[CoffeeBlack]

I chose 780 based solely on reference cards. Sound and temps matter to me more than a few frames and $100. When non-reference cards are released, it'll be a completely different story.

[LancerBG]

When I buy a car with balls I want it to fast, run hot, be loud, put others to shame....none of this pansy crap. well done AMD. 

[AraSarkisyan]

When I buy a car with balls I want it to fast, run hot, be loud, put others to shame....none of this pansy crap. well done AMD.

but no one wants to pour water over the engine every quarter mile.

[LancerBG]

but no one wants to pour water over the engine every quarter mile.

 

I do! thats what a custom loop is for!  B) In all honestly I am still waiting to see what the 780ti has to offer and price then decide which to get. this thing sure is damn temping, that price!

[NinjaStyle013]

Ik i sound stupid but what does ns mean?

Nice shot

[afa7336]

So its what I thought, more power, hotter, but isn't the Titan killer. AMD did good, but imo just not good enough. 4k results? Lets be honest, at this moment they mean really nothing. Not many of us are ever going to be 4k gaming within the next 6 months to a year. Basically AMD had to follow its tried and true standard of pushing their chips to the max to match/beat the competition.

[MetEishYa]

It looks like an amazing card and $100 cheaper than the 780. Can't wait to see the price and performance of the R9 290 now. Noise lvls is only 6 dB loader than the 780 and 3 dB which in sound terms is not a lot considering a whisper is about 15 dB. Temperatures are high but on newegg they said that the gpu is designed to run at 95 degrees, they say they confirmed this with AMD. 

[Tall Gora]

i have a PC with Nvidia and a PC with AMD. 7950 owner, and gtx 670 owner.

 

I have been commenting on a few price release/promo threads since the NDA was lifted tonight. I am in no way a diehard FaNbOi of either side, i was looking forward to reviews of this card and i try to reason with people by lowering their expectations because hype will always win, hype always gets the best of our minds. I was expecting more from this card but when i saw the numbers, i thought "shouldve known".

 

Im not "blown away" by 290X, BUT IM HAPPY that Nvidia is having an 'oh shit' moment and yes wccftech mentioned a 780 price drop and we all can use common sense to know its coming. 780 Ti is supposed to be the new 650 dollar model. So Nvidia has an answer to this, no one knows if its a 'good enough' answer. Im assuming nvidia can be on par with 290X via 780 Ti. But for a hundred dollars more at reference design price? I guess your paying for the better cooling/acoustics at that point and thats it. So it will be an easy decision for some, harder for others.

 

My biggest gripe with these AMD lovers is that they compare the 290X to the titan, i hate that. Titan has never been a gaming card in my eyes, its a budget tesla and thats all i will ever see it as. When it released for 1k i was like wtf nvidia.................. the ONLY competitor is the 780, stop saying its 450 cheaper than nvidia's top gaming card, if you use common sense you will see that behind whatever marketing nvidia uses by calling the titan a GTX gaming card, the true competitor is the 780, so its 100 dollars cheaper than what i see as nvidias "top MEANT FOR GAMING" card.

 

So yea.... my titan comparison gripe is really my only problem. Bravo AMD for making price drops happen, we can all agree that was much needed. I said it once before, that GK110 is a more expensive chip to produce than Hawaii, but even so im sure Nvidias margins have been "healthy"

[AraSarkisyan]

So its what I thought, more power, hotter, but isn't the Titan killer. AMD did good, but imo just not good enough. 4k results? Lets be honest, at this moment they mean really nothing. Not many of us are ever going to be 4k gaming within the next 6 months to a year. Basically AMD had to follow its tried and true standard of pushing their chips to the max to match/beat the competition.

we have to wait till 3rd party cards and better drivers but yeah I see where you are coming from

[MetEishYa]

So its what I thought, more power, hotter, but isn't the Titan killer. AMD did good, but imo just not good enough. 4k results? Lets be honest, at this moment they mean really nothing. Not many of us are ever going to be 4k gaming within the next 6 months to a year. Basically AMD had to follow its tried and true standard of pushing their chips to the max to match/beat the competition.

You mean like NVIDIA did with the gtx 770 and the Titan? when they wanted to beat the 7970.

[AraSarkisyan]

i have a PC with Nvidia and a PC with AMD. 7950 owner, and gtx 670 owner.

I have been commenting on a few price release/promo threads since the NDA was lifted tonight. I am in no way a diehard FaNbOi of either side, i was looking forward to reviews of this card and i try to reason with people by lowering their expectations because hype will always win, hype always gets the best of our minds. I was expecting more from this card but when i saw the numbers, i thought "shouldve known".

Im not "blown away" by 290X, BUT IM HAPPY that Nvidia is having an 'oh shit' moment and yes wccftech mentioned a 780 price drop and we all can use common sense to know its coming. 780 Ti is supposed to be the new 650 dollar model. So Nvidia has an answer to this, no one knows if its a 'good enough' answer. Im assuming nvidia can be on par with 290X via 780 Ti. But for a hundred dollars more at reference design price? I guess your paying for the better cooling/acoustics at that point and thats it. So it will be an easy decision for some, harder for others.

My biggest gripe with these AMD lovers is that they compare the 290X to the titan, i hate that. Titan has never been a gaming card in my eyes, its a budget tesla and thats all i will ever see it as. When it released for 1k i was like wtf nvidia.................. the ONLY competitor is the 780, stop saying its 450 cheaper than nvidia's top gaming card, if you use common sense you will see that behind whatever marketing nvidia uses by calling the titan a GTX gaming card, the true competitor is the 780, so its 100 dollars cheaper than what i see as nvidias "top MEANT FOR GAMING" card.

So yea.... my titan comparison gripe is really my only problem. Bravo AMD for making price drops happen, we can all agree that was much needed. I said it once before, that GK110 is a more expensive chip to produce than Hawaii, but even so im sure Nvidias margins have been "healthy"

but if we wanted a workstation card we would get a quadro......., it had no other use than gaming

[CoffeeBlack]

It looks like an amazing card and $100 cheaper than the 780. Can't wait to see the price and performance of the R9 290 now. Noise lvls is only 6 dB loader than the 780 and 3 dB which in sound terms is not a lot considering a whisper is about 15 dB. Temperatures are high but on newegg they said that the gpu is designed to run at 95 degrees, they say they confirmed this with AMD. 

You, my friend, do not understand sound measurements. Sound isn't measured on a straight line, it rises exponentially.

[AraSarkisyan]

You, my friend, do not understand sound measurements. Sound isn't measured on a straight line, it rises exponentially.

it doubles every 4 decibels right?

[DaftBehemoth]

It's a great release for the market and owners on both sides. The only people sour about this should be those that just paid full price for 780's or bought a titan recently.

Last I checked, I have 670's in my PC, not 780's or Titans lol. That said, I do like where these prices are going. 

[beebskadoo]

It's cheaper! YAY

It's a lot hotter! BOO

It doesn't overclock at all with the stock cooler! BOO

It's faster than the 780! YAY

It doesn't look as good as the 780! BOO

 

I am happy and disappointed at the same time

[afa7336]

we have to wait till 3rd party cards and better drivers but yeah I see where you are coming from

 

Better drivers yes, this probably will help, 3rd party cards maybe. The Titan well, thats going to be hard since there are no 3rd party cards. Its not a scientific test really, unless they throw that optional cooler on (I can't remember who made it, tbh off the top of my head.) Now the 780s in 3rd party, that would be a good test and something I would want to see. Right now, though just going by reference, this isn't the big leap that AMD and others wanted.

 

You mean like NVIDIA did with the gtx 770 and the Titan? when they wanted to beat the 7970.

 

So the GTX Titan was overclocked and pushed? Where did you read this, because you are wrong. Same with the 770 sorta, again you are wrong. Yes the 770 was a refresh and it was maxed out a little more, but again refresh is DIFFERENT then a new card. A new card shouldn't have to be pushed this hard, just to match something. Honestly, its a poor way to present a product imo. You are producing a product that produces more heat, sound, and uses more power just to match your competitor. I was really hoping this wasn't the case, and that AMD could actually match it on every front. It'd show true competition. We see this on AMDs CPU side as well, just to eek out a higher cpu to compete with Intel.

[MetEishYa]

You, my friend, do not understand sound measurements. Sound isn't measured on a straight line, it rises exponentially.

I know that, ever 10 dB increase is a perceived doubling of the loudness which mean in terms of sound its only about 1.23 times louder than the titan or 1.53 times louder than a Titan. And the thing that u dont under stand is that u can still buy a waterblock for $100 which would make it quieter, cooler and perform better than a 780 by a large margin. This is still reference design wait for non-reference, amd has most been loud and hot with reference coolers.

[CoffeeBlack]

It's cheaper! YAY

It's a lot hotter! BOO

It doesn't overclock at all with the stock cooler! BOO

It's faster than the 780! YAY

It doesn't look as good as the 780! BOO

 

I am happy and disappointed at the same time

That is essentially a textual roller coaster!

[afa7336]

It's cheaper! YAY

It's a lot hotter! BOO

It doesn't overclock at all with the stock cooler! BOO

It's faster than the 780! YAY

It doesn't look as good as the 780! BOO

 

I am happy and disappointed at the same time

 

I can't help but chuckle.

[DaftBehemoth]

 

Yup. This is the most concerning part. I can understand a card that goes to 94C in FurMark, but 94C in gaming?! I would be sweating if I saw those temps. The price and performance we see in the benchmarks is great though. I'm sure non-reference coolers will keep this card to more reasonable levels.

 

The really scary part is that Tom at OC3D got his 290X up to 95C in 15 minutes of running Unigine Valley. Worse than that, it took the card 12 minutes to get within 3 degrees of regular ambient temps after gaming. I seriously fear for people expecting to run this card in the summer or, god forbid, in crossfire. According to Guru3d, a single 290X ran 3-4 degrees hotter than crossfire 6990's (previously the hottest config out there). 

[beebskadoo]

That is essentially a textual roller coaster!

Yeah, to be honest I am disappointed...

The Heat output is just too damn much for no reason!