PC gamers, rejoice, for the launch of AMD’s latest single GPU flagship has finally arrived! The AMD Radeon R9-290X was officially first teased back at last month's GPU14 event, but not until now have we known the the full details of what to expect from such a device.
It's immediately apparent that this could be a card that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd. The R9 290X represents an incredible value proposition for gamers, combining top notch performance with incredible build quality. So, let's take a look at what we can expect from AMD's flagship card...
Radeon R9 290X Specifications
The Radeon 290X specs pack in a 1000MHz Core Clock, 4GB of GDDR5 memory running at 1250 MHz on a huge 512-bit memory interface, accompanied by a massive collection of 2816 Stream Processors.
It uses a single PCIe X16 slot, one 8-pin and one 6-pin power connector to provide power to the card. The 290X also has two BIOS settings, a physical switch on the card that lets you switch between Quiet Mode and Uber Mode.
Quiet mode caps performance and fan speeds to produce a quieter experience, whereas Uber mode aims for optimal performance, regardless of noise.
However, it may be noted that the difference is minimal between the two modes, often only a difference of a couple of frames per second. Users report that in some instances at lower resolutions, quiet mode outperformed Uber mode by a small margin. But in either preset, we can observe that the 290X is a little to a lot faster than the monstrous GTX 780.
The reference design provides 2 DVI-I connectors, an HDMI port, and one DisplayPort on the mounting bracket. With EyeFinity you can connect 6 displays to a single card, and the R9 series now supports up to 3 HDMI/DVI displays, with the rest being connected via DisplayPort. In order to work the monitors must have the same refresh rate and timings.
GTX 780 vs. R9-290X
For those gaming at 2560x1600 you can’t really go wrong with either card at this point, as both average around 60FPS with all but two titles; Bioshock Infinite and Crysis 3. The 290X takes the lead in these two nonetheless, more specifically the 290X is notably faster than the GTX 780, with the exception of Grid 2, where the difference is too miniscule to be notable.
Now let's view the difference between the two juggernaut cards using the 3dMark Fire Strike benchmarking tools.
We can see that in synthetic benchmarks the 290X also outperforms the GTX 780, now this isn’t particularly notable, as synthetic benchmarks do not exactly translate into real world performance in many cases.
AMD has also released a 4K benchmark so we can see how AMD’s focus on 4K has developed
We can see that nearly every game ran at a comfortable 30FPS or better on Ultra quality, with the exception of the system melting Crysis 3.
Peripherals and Features
The Radeon R9 290X features a revamped OverDrive system in which you can increase the clock through percentages rather than actual clock speed, but the most notable addition is undoubtedly the heat map. Stating the maximum fan speeds and target temperatures, the heat map helps you overclock and obtain the balance between added performance and added heat.
However, on the subject of heat, the card runs at a less than stellar 95 degrees Celsius (203 degrees Fahrenheit). However, AMD has claimed that the card can run at this high temperature safely throughout the card's lifetime, and there is no technical reason to reduce the temperature (with the exception of factory OC’d cards.) AMD has stated those who wish to keep the temperature down should invest in an aftermarket cooler, not exactly the greatest customer service for pre-order customers but nevertheless...
Multi-GPU enthusiasts can bid a fond farewell to CrossFire bridges, since you can run two cards in CFX simply by installing them to the motherboard.
Audiophiles, will be happy to see that True Audio Technology will be included with the R9-290X, this technology lets programmers use Tensilica HiFi EP Audio DSP to process audio without utilizing the processor, it removes the possibility of the CPU bottlenecking the sound processing.
ZeroCore Power makes a reappearance, powering down the GPU when idle; the driver monitors tasks and display content to determine whether or not the GPU needs to process changes on-screen.
As well as this of course the upcoming Mantle API will be implemented in all GCN cards; this update will roll out in December giving a “pedal to the metal experience”.
Source: game-debate
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