Certainly the main take from these new products is the level of performance they offer. Regardless of what other factors for consideration everyone takes into account, it will always be about performance and price. In the case of the R9 290X, it certainly offers both. Let’s break down our scores for a clearer picture:
- Performance.รย Looking at all the average results, we can see the reference R9 290X card is playing 3rd best to an aftermarket-cooled 290X and its nemesis the 780Ti. Still, at 4K resolutions this card is still a beast and if you can tone down eye candy a bit, 4K is playable. You don’t even need AA at those large resolutions.
- Build Quality. AMDรย has had a lot of time to improve their cooling and they really dropped the ball here with the R9 290X reference cooler. As cool as it might look (I find it rather appealing) the amount of noise it produces to keep the cards cool is just unbearable. As for the GPU itself, the dynamic clocks may be a whole new ballgame but it offers up some new ways of maxing out the cards making it a definite treat when cooled properly.
- Functionality.รย The card offers a lot in terms of performance making it handle a lot of games easy even in 4K resolutions.
- Bundle.รย Select AMD vendors offer the Gaming Evolved bundle which bundles a couple of games with your graphic card purchase. This specific SKU does not include those but is priced according to AMD MSRP.
- Value.รย Coming in atรย รขโยฑ24,900, this is the cheapest R9 290X model around. For a bit of mark-up, some SKU bundle Battlefield 4 which is a $65 value which should really improve the value of the card.
In closing, the Sapphire Radeon R9 290X is a great step forward for AMD but design flaws and cost-reducing decisions hurt the final product. Simply put, as a reference product, the Radeon R9 290X sucks. Throttling and fan noise hurt the card more than it should take care of it by reducing the actual performance delivered by the product.
Don’t get us wrong, the Radeon R9 290X is an excellent performing card but with the stock cooler, its power is wasted. The only reason we can see the reference board 290X being relevant is if you are planning to watercool your cards. Then and only then can you really make the card shine by giving it a kick in the proverbial nuts and see just how much this card can do.
Regardless, if you are after performance on par with what the highest-end of NVIDIA’s stack can offer, the Radeon R9 290X is the card to get if you have some sort of vendetta against team green. With a lot of games getting made with the Gaming Evolved tag and with Mantle showing promising progress, the Radeon R9 290X becomes a logical choice should you want something that could keep your rig relevant for the next few cycles of AAA games.
Sapphire backs theรย Radeon R9 290Xรย with a 2-year warranty.
Thankfully have a custom-cooled version of the R9 290X ready and waiting. Head on over to our ASUS Radeon R9 290X review for overclocked results.
