r9 290 Now?

[Diljot]

Im looking into getting a new gpu for my rig, a r9 290 or an msi lightning gtx 780. Which one would be the better choice? Also will there be new gpu's released by august? If so I will just build a whole new rig then. My current specs are in the signature thing.

[miyabwah]

290 non reference would be better.

[Diljot]

290 non reference would be better.

When do you think we will see non reference 290's?

[joelthezombie15]

780 gets my vote even though no one else will agree with it.

 

also, GET A NEW PSU diablotek suck all the ass.

[Diljot]

780 gets my vote even though no one else will agree with it.

 

also, GET A NEW PSU diablotek suck all the ass.

Yeah I know lol, don't worry.

[miyabwah]

When do you think we will see non reference 290's?

a few years or so. Maybe months if we're lucky.

[Diljot]

a few years or so. Maybe months if we're lucky.

what's with the sarcasm?

[miyabwah]

what's with the sarcasm?

Sarcasm was banned and I want him I be remembered.

[Grape Guild]

Nothing against the 780, but I've heard bad things about MSI's customer service.

[SkilledRebuilds]

You'd think they'd be released before Xmas.

You know...to actually make some moneys, because most people don't spend the little if any they have left after Xmas celebrations not including New years.

The PPL's B Broke Yo!

[DudeWazap]

When do you think we will see non reference 290's?

I know Linus said that he will get sample Direct CU II R9 290 before the end of the year. So I believe we will start seeing non reference cards around January.

[nohuevos]

I know Linus said that he will get sample Direct CU II R9 290 before the end of the year. So I believe we will start seeing non reference cards around January.

That late? I'm waiting for one too

[SlaughterSmurf]

290 all the way

[LogicDeifying]

OR you can get a  ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid VGA Cooler with dat R9 290.

[TechFan@ic]

Non-reference R9 290s are coming by the end of the month.
I'd personally recommend the R9 290 over the GTX 780, it's slightly faster than the 780 at 1920x1080 and below, significantly faster at 2560x1440 and higher.
Has more memory & significantly higher memory bandwidth. It's also $100 less expensive, Mantle is just a plus.

[ChrisxIxCross]

Non-reference R9 290s are coming by the end of the month.

I'd personally recommend the R9 290 over the GTX 780, it's slightly faster than the 780 at 1920x1080 and below, significantly faster at 2560x1440 and higher.

Has more memory & significantly higher memory bandwidth. It's also $100 less expensive, Mantle is just a plus.

Theyre really cutting it close with this end of the month thing lol, also would you say 290x is pretty much irrelevant at this point with how it performs vs 290 and the 150$ price gap?

[Peacefulwarrior]

Theyre really cutting it close with this end of the month thing lol, also would you say 290x is pretty much irrelevant at this point with how it performs vs 290 and the 150$ price gap?

Pretty much. You can even flash the 290 to a 290X. I dont see the point getting a 290X now.

[TechFan@ic]

Theyre really cutting it close with this end of the month thing lol, also would you say 290x is pretty much irrelevant at this point with how it performs vs 290 and the 150$ price gap?

If you're willing to say that the 290X is irrelevant you have to say that the GTX 780 is irrelevant as well, since it's slower than the 290X and even the 290.

I really can't make a final decision on the R9 290X, in some benchmarks it's significantly faster than the 290 & in others it's almost slower.

Will have to wait for non-reference models to rule out all of the temperature related variables and get good sense of how well this card actually performs.

[Zeo2002]

If you're willing to say that the 290X is irrelevant you have to say that the GTX 780 is irrelevant as well, since it's slower than the 290X and on.

I really can't make a final decision on the R9 290X, in some benchmarks it's significantly faster than the 290 & in others it's almost slower.

Will have to wait to non-reference models to rule all of the temperature related variables.

I'd be willing to say the 290x is pretty irrelevant because it doesn't perform a lot better than the 290 for the $150 price difference AND it has been proven to be able to be flashed into a 290x (this part being the biggest reason).

 

However... they need to release those non-reference models! Perhaps AMD is stopping them because people found they could flash the 290 to the 290x and want to "solve that problem" before the masses are able to get non reference cards.

[TechFan@ic]

 AND it has been proven to be able to be flashed into a 290x (this part being the biggest reason).

 

Unfortunately that's not entirely true, less than 20% of XFX & Powercolor cards can be flashed, all 290s from other manufacturers can't.

And very soon you will not be able to flash any 290.

http://wccftech.com/unlocked-radeon-r9-290-graphic-cards-masses/

The actual reason for being able to flash some 290s to 290Xs is because AMD faced some shortages for laser-cut 290 chips, so it bios-locked 290X chips and sold them as 290s.

[eshbop]

I'd be willing to say the 290x is pretty irrelevant because it doesn't perform a lot better than the 290 for the $150 price difference AND it has been proven to be able to be flashed into a 290x (this part being the biggest reason).

 

Wait for the aftermarket cards when the GPU isn't being throttled to maintain 95C. The 290x should be about 10-15% faster than the 290. Still not worth the extra $, but the flagship cards never are.

[Zeo2002]

Unfortunately that's not entirely true, less than 20% of XFX & Powercolor cards can be flashed, all 290s from other manufacturers can't.

And very soon you will not be able to flash any 290.

http://wccftech.com/unlocked-radeon-r9-290-graphic-cards-masses/

The actual reason for being able to flash some 290s to 290Xs is because AMD faced some shortages for laser-cut 290 chips, so it bios-locked 290X chips and sold them as 290s.

 

While I do not disagree with the sentiment that AMD would start laser-cutting all 290 chips so they can't be flashed over... This is already talked about on another thread (here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/80437-the-290-can-no-longer-be-flashed/). There appears to be a question as to how much reliability that Hassan Mujtaba really has.

 

As for "all 290s from other manufacturers can't [flash to 290x]" - I disagree.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/80170-so-i-flashed-asus-290-to-290x-guide/?hl=%2Basus+%2B290+%2Bflash

 

Time will ultimately tell, but the sooner the non reference cards are put out and tested, the sooner we'll know for sure. If AMD doesn't correct the mistake - it's good for knowledgeable consumers, bad for the company.

[TechFan@ic]

While I do not disagree with the sentiment that AMD would start laser-cutting all 290 chips so they can't be flashed over... This is already talked about on another thread (here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/80437-the-290-can-no-longer-be-flashed/). There appears to be a question as to how much reliability that Hassan Mujtaba really has.

 

As for "all 290s from other manufacturers can't [flash to 290x]" - I disagree.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/80170-so-i-flashed-asus-290-to-290x-guide/?hl=%2Basus+%2B290+%2Bflash

 

Time will ultimately tell, but the sooner the non reference cards are put out and tested, the sooner we'll know for sure. If AMD doesn't correct the mistake - it's good for knowledgeable consumers, bad for the company.

This has nothing to do with Hassan Mujtaba, numerous other sources have reported on this.

AMD is NOT going to start laser cutting 290Xs to 290s, because they have ALREADY started doing that since the 7000 series AMD have stopped shipping any chips which aren't explicitly laser seperated, the only reason why we currently have flashable 290s is because AMD simply had 290 shortages and so it simply shipped 290Xs branded as 290s and BIOS locked to 290s.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphics/display/20131121230059_AMD_Radeon_R9_290_Can_Be_Easily_Transformed_into_R9_290X_Report.html

 

 

A non-reference 290 will undoubtedly be much more overclockable than a reference 290 unlocked to a 290X and thus ultimately will run faster, so unlocking a reference 290 to a 290X does not interest me one bit, except if I was going to water-cool.

[delet my acc pls]

When do you think we will see non reference 290's?

early december

[Zeo2002]

This has nothing to do with Hassan Mujtaba, numerous other sources have reported on this.

AMD is NOT going to start laser cutting 290Xs to 290s, because they have ALREADY started doing that since the 7000 series AMD have stopped shipping any chips which aren't explicitly laser seperated, the only reason why we currently have flashable 290s is because AMD simply had 290 shortages and so it simply shipped 290Xs branded as 290s and BIOS locked to 290s.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphics/display/20131121230059_AMD_Radeon_R9_290_Can_Be_Easily_Transformed_into_R9_290X_Report.html

 

 

A non-reference 290 will undoubtedly be much more overclockable than a reference 290 unlocked to a 290X and thus ultimately will run faster, so unlocking a reference 290 to a 290X does not interest me one bit, except if I was going to water-cool.

That link only states that a poster said most cards do not flash. However and amusingly enough, their statistics are well off. The link they refer to goes to the second page, the information is on the first page of that thread.

 

 

I can attest that most 290's do not unlock. It seems that 20% of xfx cards do and most powercolor/club3d/vtx3d do. No other vendor cards unlock. The current theory is that these vendors weren't able to get their hands on 290 laser cut chips due to supply so they bios locked off a few. Source: www.overclock.net/t/1443242/the-r9-290-290x-unlock-thread/10

 

 

As to the content of that thread for unlocking (X unlocked/X attempted):

5/38 Sapphire

0/9 Gigabyte

27/33 PowerCooler

0/7 MSI

3/5 HIS

41/58 XFX

0/2 ASUS

2/4 VTX3D

3/3 Club3D

 

By my count (and not including the ASUS reported in these forums) that is 81/159 (flashed/tested) - far from the 20% number stated by the reader in the article and far from 20% (Actually, it's basically 51% overall reported). About 70% of XFX cards unlocked - compared to the "20% of xfx" cards the reader commented on. I don't 100% blame the article writer/editor - they just didn't vet the information provided to them or in 4 days time - a lot of cards have all come back as able to be flashed to 290x.

 

I have seen no proof to say that all future released cards are not able to be unlocked, especially since AMD has refused to comment, but there is a belief that they are not. This could be (I'm just hypothesizing) because most enthusiast who would dare to unlock them typically get one of the cards from the first batches, not typically waiting for later to get a card to attempt it. Granted, there is about 100 pages of that thread and I have only paid attention to the first couple which were pointed out and summarized. This could also be because AMD is actually stopping shipment of 290's that haven't been cut down in performance. I do believe at some point they will have fixed this whole flash issue, but I don't think they have fixed the issue this quickly.