So the entire R9 300 series is rebrands?

[baseline bum]

Amazing how quickly changes. A few months ago AMD was a no-brainer for every budget less than $330. But now the 200 series cards that were such values are basically gone. No more $250 R9 290 except for a couple of models only available at newegg, otherwise you're looking at $300 R9 290 or $330 R9 390, which don't compare favorably at all to $315 GTX 970. No more $200 R9 280x, that ship has sailed and you can't find them anymore except at inflated prices. The R9 280 is finally going out too, no more $160 R9 280 unless you get one of the last in stock at newegg right now.

In the ultra high end the Fury X is getting pretty soundly beat by aftermarket GTX 980 Ti, even by reference 980 Ti. In the high end the R9 390x is only $70 cheaper than the GTX 980 despite having no overclocking headroom and still losing to reference 980, while the 980 still has pretty large overclocking headroom. R9 390 can't beat GTX 970 and costs $15 more. R9 380 is more expensive than the GTX 960 for the same performance with an i5 or better CPU, and much worse with any lower CPU than that.

Any lower than R9 380/GTX 960 and you're looking at real budget stuff, which means you're likely running a budget CPU like Pentium/i3/FX-6300/FX-4300/Athlon 860k/A10 APU/etc. In which case Nvidia smashes AMD due to DirectX 11 driver overhead. So essentially AMD screwed themselves out of the low end market by creating Mantle, which forced Nvidia to greatly improve their DirectX 11 driver overhead while AMD ignored it in favor of their new API. Now R7 370 and R7 360 make no sense over GTX 750 Ti, and will really make no sense when Nvidia releases the GTX 950 Ti soon as a cut down 960 to fill that $150 price point.

AMD's graphics lineup is truly ed for 2H 2015, I can't think of a single card that makes any sense to recommend unless Nano gets a really compe ive price when it launches.

[TDMVPDPOY]

so what card do you recommend? in these price brackets?

150-250?
250-350?

[baseline bum]

so what card do you recommend? in these price brackets?

150-250?
250-350?

At $150 I'd advise you to go your mother some more.

[DJR210]

At $150 I'd advise you to go your mother some more.

[Cry Havoc]

https://youtu.be/k9cKZiJw6Pk

Pretty impressive. Looks like AMD's 390 is the real deal.

[baseline bum]

https://youtu.be/k9cKZiJw6Pk

Pretty impressive. Looks like AMD's 390 is the real deal.

Nice that it outperforms a 970, but I suspect it will keep the $300 price crown for only 3 months or so and then Nvidia will rebrand the 980 as an X70 and take that price point back.

[baseline bum]

Holy , ElNono followed through with his youtube hardware channel, and also reviewed the 300 series.

[ElNono]

Holy , ElNono followed through with his youtube hardware channel, and also reviewed the 300 series.

damn, he looks like he's gonna pull some bbq wings at any time...

[Cry Havoc]

Holy , ElNono followed through with his youtube hardware channel, and also reviewed the 300 series.

[DJR210]

Holy , ElNono followed through with his youtube hardware channel, and also reviewed the 300 series.

Manu shrine in the background

[baseline bum]

Looks like the $500 AMD Fury is indeed a 980 killer. Time for Nvidia to drop the 980 to $430 or so.

[Cry Havoc]

So, I was dead set on a 390 or 390x.


Then on Amazon I saw an aftermarket R290 from Asus for... $203.

Needless to say, that card will be here on Friday.

[baseline bum]

So, I was dead set on a 390 or 390x.


Then on Amazon I saw an aftermarket R290 from Asus for... $203.

Needless to say, that card will be here on Friday.

Dude, you might try to cancel that order. There's a reason the Asus is so cheap, the DirectCU II cooler is terrible on the R9 290. Supposedly some of the heatpipes don't make contact with the core, like the original EVGA ACX on the 970. The difference is it doesn't limit the 970 since the cooler is way overbuilt for it, but it can be a problem with Hawaii which needs all the heat dissipation it can get. I read tons of complaints with that hitting 94C like the reference models, the 290s to get are the Sapphire Tri-X, the Sapphire Vapor X, or the PowerColor PCS+.

Here is a photo showing two of the heatpipes not contacting the core. They just slapped on a cooler made for larger die Nvidia chips.


Tom's Hardware confirms they just slapped their 780 Ti cooler on the R9 290.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...0x,3728-6.html

If you get a decently binned chip it should run in the 80s mostly, but if you get a lousy one out of the silicon lottery, that cooler can't handle it well.

I wouldn't buy any AMD card right now until the Fury (non X) releases, that thing slaughters the 980 for $50 more.

[Cry Havoc]

Dude, you might try to cancel that order. There's a reason the Asus is so cheap, the DirectCU II cooler is terrible on the R9 290. Supposedly some of the heatpipes don't make contact with the core, like the original EVGA ACX on the 970. The difference is it doesn't limit the 970 since the cooler is way overbuilt for it, but it can be a problem with Hawaii which needs all the heat dissipation it can get. I read tons of complaints with that hitting 94C like the reference models, the 290s to get are the Sapphire Tri-X, the Sapphire Vapor X, or the PowerColor PCS+.

Here is a photo showing two of the heatpipes not contacting the core. They just slapped on a cooler made for larger die Nvidia chips.


Tom's Hardware confirms they just slapped their 780 Ti cooler on the R9 290.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...0x,3728-6.html

If you get a decently binned chip it should run in the 80s mostly, but if you get a lousy one out of the silicon lottery, that cooler can't handle it well.

I wouldn't buy any AMD card right now until the Fury (non X) releases, that thing slaughters the 980 for $50 more.

Haha, I already cancelled the order but thanks for the info.


I found a Opened box/new AMD Sapphire 290x for $230 with prime shipping. ing sick.

[baseline bum]

Haha, I already cancelled the order but thanks for the info.


I found a Opened box/new AMD Sapphire 290x for $230 with prime shipping. ing sick.

Is it a Tri-X or Vapor-X? Those things are ing awesome. The only aftermarket cooler as good as those is probably the MSI Gaming one from the 390/390x.

[Cry Havoc]

Is it a Tri-X or Vapor-X? Those things are ing awesome. The only aftermarket cooler as good as those is probably the MSI Gaming one from the 390/390x.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeo...ywords=r9+290x

This is the exact card. Not a tri-x unfortunately but it has really good reviews on the 'zon.

[baseline bum]

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeo...ywords=r9+290x

This is the exact card. Not a tri-x unfortunately but it has really good reviews on the 'zon.

Ah man, you got a reference 290x??? I hope you're trolling man.

Reference 290/290x goes straight to 94C and throttles like . If you're planning on putting say an NZXT Kraken G10 with a watercooler then buying reference makes sense, but otherwise that's the worst performing 290x and it's really loud.

[baseline bum]

Don't get me wrong, even a reference 290x still performs like a ing monster. But that reference cooler was so bad AMD didn't even make reference 390/390x.

[Cry Havoc]

Don't get me wrong, even a reference 290x still performs like a ing monster. But that reference cooler was so bad AMD didn't even make reference 390/390x.

I read a bunch of reviews before ordering. I have excellent caseflow, and a lot of users said the temps never got near 90. We'll see how it fares. Even if I have to put a cooler on it, it's still a ridiculous deal.

[baseline bum]

I read a bunch of reviews before ordering. I have excellent caseflow, and a lot of users said the temps never got near 90. We'll see how it fares. Even if I have to put a cooler on it, it's still a ridiculous deal.

You might keep below 90 on the standard BIOS on stock clocks, but if you switch on the Uber BIOS it's most likely 94C all the way. But if you put a Kraken G10 block and a 120mm rad closed water loop that card will really be a ing monster. Hawaii is a pretty amazing GPU that should have seen much wider adoption if it wasn't for the ing mining craze driving Hawaii prices through the roof last year.

[Cry Havoc]

You might keep below 90 on the standard BIOS on stock clocks, but if you switch on the Uber BIOS it's most likely 94C all the way. But if you put a Kraken G10 block and a 120mm rad closed water loop that card will really be a ing monster. Hawaii is a pretty amazing GPU that should have seen much wider adoption if it wasn't for the ing mining craze driving Hawaii prices through the roof last year.

It's going to be a monster either way. Without the Kraken it's just a very very loud, hot monster.

Stock 290x's run every game @ 1080p on ultra settings. I don't anticipate OCing it for a year or more, so we'll see how my temperatures run on stock.

[baseline bum]

It's going to be a monster either way. Without the Kraken it's just a very very loud, hot monster.

Stock 290x's run every game @ 1080p on ultra settings. I don't anticipate OCing it for a year or more, so we'll see how my temperatures run on stock.

You can probably downsample from 1440p in quite a few games too. I put a lot of my games on 1440p and downsample to 1080p and still get a locked 60 fps with my 970, and the 970 and 290x perform pretty closely at 1080p and 1440p. Right off the top of my head, stuff like Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider, NBA 2k15, COD Advanced Warfare, Skyrim all easily run 1440p ultra downsampled to 1080p with DSR at 60 fps. Newer games like Dying Light, Far Cry 4, and GTA V I just have to run 1080p though, to get a locked 60 fps in 1440p would require dropping some settings.

It's crazy not to overclock GPUs from the beginning though. The first year you have it is by far the best year you'll get out of it, technology advances way faster in GPUs than say CPUs, and unlike with CPUs, overclocking your GPU gives pretty big benefits from the beginning.

[Cry Havoc]

You can probably downsample from 1440p in quite a few games too. I put a lot of my games on 1440p and downsample to 1080p and still get a locked 60 fps with my 970, and the 970 and 290x perform pretty closely at 1080p and 1440p. Right off the top of my head, stuff like Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider, NBA 2k15, COD Advanced Warfare, Skyrim all easily run 1440p ultra downsampled to 1080p with DSR at 60 fps. Newer games like Dying Light, Far Cry 4, and GTA V I just have to run 1080p though, to get a locked 60 fps in 1440p would require dropping some settings.

It's crazy not to overclock GPUs from the beginning though. The first year you have it is by far the best year you'll get out of it, technology advances way faster in GPUs than say CPUs, and unlike with CPUs, overclocking your GPU gives pretty big benefits from the beginning.

Well, as of now for $230 I got a massive step up in power. I could have spent more but the 290x is all the card I feel I'll need for a while. I'll probably replace it maybe in 18 months or 24 months down the road depending on how it does with the Oculus. As of now, there's nothing in that realm of pricing I can see that would give the 290x a run for it's money, OCed or not. So even if I bought a card for $250 with lots of OC potential, it would still get donked by the 290x at stock.

It does suck about the stock cooler though. We'll see how well it works on my setup.

[baseline bum]

Well, as of now for $230 I got a massive step up in power. I could have spent more but the 290x is all the card I feel I'll need for a while. I'll probably replace it maybe in 18 months or 24 months down the road depending on how it does with the Oculus. As of now, there's nothing in that realm of pricing I can see that would give the 290x a run for it's money, OCed or not. So even if I bought a card for $250 with lots of OC potential, it would still get donked by the 290x at stock.

It does suck about the stock cooler though. We'll see how well it works on my setup.

Aftermarket 290s like the Tri-X, Vapor-X, and PCS+ usually perform at the same level as a reference 290x. The thermal throttling definitely causes the reference cards to lose performance, but reference 290x performance is still enough to crush everything but Witcher 3 at 1080p veryhigh/ultra 60 fps. Three weeks ago you could have gotten the Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 for about $250 though, that was by far the best bang for the buck card I have seen this year. But I knew those wouldn't last long with the 300 series coming out.

[Cry Havoc]

Aftermarket 290s like the Tri-X, Vapor-X, and PCS+ usually perform at the same level as a reference 290x. The thermal throttling definitely causes the reference cards to lose performance, but reference 290x performance is still enough to crush everything but Witcher 3 at 1080p veryhigh/ultra 60 fps. Three weeks ago you could have gotten the Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 for about $250 though, that was by far the best bang for the buck card I have seen this year. But I knew those wouldn't last long with the 300 series coming out.

Yeah. But with a bit of investment I could get a cooler on the 290x and then really have a beast. I'm pretty psyched to have a top tier card for under 250.