Radeon R9 290 (non-X) Launch Pushed Back a Week

[everything count to life]

Launch of AMD's Radeon R9 290 (non-X) is reportedly pushed back by a week, to Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The card was expected to launch on October 31, 2013. The reason for this delay? AMD reportedly developed a new driver that significantly improves performance on the R9 290. AMD pushed this driver onto reviewers at the last minute, and asked them to re-bench their R9 290 samples from scratch, extending their NDA till the 5th. The driver reportedly makes the R9 290 extremely competitive with GeForce GTX 780. A side-effect of that would be that the recently launched Radeon R9 290X could be rendered unattractive. It remains to be seen if the driver also proportionately improves performance on the R9 290X, and how AMD ends up pricing the R9 290.

Source: http://www.techpowerup.com/193497/radeon-r9-290-non-x-launch-pushed-back-a-week.html

I think this is rather good news then bad news.

[MbV93]

Awesome news!

[hehehehhehehehe]

If this improves 290X   :wub:

[TechFan@ic]

I was literally about to post this, good job.

[Imabigmac]

I guess its good news that AMD isn't going to release something that's not ready, but I believe the 290 has only about there is 50mhz less on its core clock (can't find much on memory clock) so I don't see how a driver the works the 290x would affect the 290. Also the 290 may be a better value once oc'ed, like the 7950 vs 7970 there might not be a real winner again.  

[JupiteL]

$100 cheaper than gtx 780 yet perform almost the same. I think this will have my attention more than 290x

[JoshM]

So what is the difference between the 290 and 290x is it just that one is OCed like Ghz edition?

[Glenwing]

So what is the difference between the 290 and 290x is it just that one is OCed like Ghz edition?

 

They are different graphics cards.  The 290X is one level above the 290.  The fact that they are both "290" does not mean they are the same and the X is some kind of special edition.  They both use a Hawaii based GPU, the 290 will likely have less stream processors to make use of their lower grade Hawaii chips.

[EChondo]

So what is the difference between the 290 and 290x is it just that one is OCed like Ghz edition?

No one knows, so we will have to see when it is released.

 

I'm going to say yes, and it's just a bit lower end 290x, but has great performance for less(kind of like the 780 vs. Titan).

 

I hate when things are delayed but this is oh so sweet!

[TechFan@ic]

I guess its good news that AMD isn't going to release something that's not ready, but I believe the 290 has only about there is 50mhz less on its core clock (can't find much on memory clock) so I don't see how a driver the works the 290x would affect the 290. Also the 290 may be a better value once oc'ed, like the 7950 vs 7970 there might not be a real winner again.  

So what is the difference between the 290 and 290x is it just that one is OCed like Ghz edition?

They are different graphics cards.  The 290X is one level above the 290.  The fact that they are both "290" does not mean they are the same and the X is some kind of special edition.  They both use a Hawaii based GPU, the 290 will likely have less stream processors to make use of their lower grade Hawaii chips.

It's what the HD 7950 was to the HD 7970, same GPU with two CUs (256 GCN cores) disabled.

 

[lhikary]

They are different graphics cards.  The 290X is one level above the 290.  The fact that they are both "290" does not mean they are the same and the X is some kind of special edition.  They both use a Hawaii based GPU, the 290 will likely have less stream processors to make use of their lower grade Hawaii chips.

one level? more like a jet engine to a car engine

\\the JET WILL BLOW your ears out

[TechFan@ic]

one level? more like a jet engine to a car engine

\\the JET WILL BLOW your ears out

The jet jokes are getting kind of old & confusing.

[Humbug]

I'm no expert on graphics cards but I don't understand how a driver which boosts the 290 would not boost the 290x. Since they are both on the same architecture.

 

I understand why they would push back the launch, they need the best out of the 290 since Nvidia cut pricing on the 780. But still the entire Hawai launch has been a frustratingly long drawn out affair.

[lhikary]

The jet jokes are getting kind of old & confusing.

nothing confusing anymore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQhqOKKAq7o

[xAcid9]

nothing confusing anymore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQhqOKKAq7o

 

Even my 7950 Vapor-X sound like jet engine when the fan is over 70% but in real heavy load it barely go over 50% fan speed and pretty silent. My CPU fan is louder.

[TechFan@ic]

nothing confusing anymore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQhqOKKAq7o

Any card sounds like a jet-engine at 100% fan speed, which makes this video completely irrelevant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrcj7waJWTk

[That Norwegian Guy]

This is so transparent. They obviously are panicking over the 780 price drops and want to revise their samples to beat the 780 on price. Or at least matching it's new price/performance ratio if the 290 is slightly better.

[lhikary]

Any card sounds like a jet-engine at 100% fan speed, which makes this video completely irrelevant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrcj7waJWTk

not to mention at %100 it sounds like someone yelling unlike the TITAN

[Humbug]

The rumours were that AMD was planning to release the 290 at $499. However that does seem to leave too much of a gap between the 280X and the 290. A 200 dollar gap is a bit too much they would have needed another product to fill that. So hopefully the 290 will be less than $450. This would also allow them to beat the 780 in price/performance.

[maximilian4o]

I think that this is AMD's take on NVidia's price drops. Still, good move AMD.

[hiyayhi]

Awesome!

Looks like this could be my new baby!

Thanks for the update.

[Nicktrance]

Any news on whether this will be able to get custom coolers at launch? Seems like this would make much more sense than a 780 (after the price drop) if that allows it to have some decent OC headroom.

[Lukiose]

Will this set of drivers improve the 290X's performance as well? Things look very highly promising with aftermarket coolers & driver updates looming over the horizon

[Gunjob]

If this improves 290X   :wub:

Agreed, I had to roll back from 13.11Betav7 due to DX errors, Betav6 is running fine though.

[hehehehhehehehe]

Agreed, I had to roll back from 13.11Betav7 due to DX errors, Betav6 is running fine though.

yeah, a few people have had issues although they did just release 13.11 beta 8 which is meet to fix some of the issues along with BSODS when BF4 rotated maps.