AMD begins slashing the prices of its Radeon R9 290, R9 290X GPUs

Kaapstad · 6 Oct 2014 at 11:19

Gibbo said:
They are selling at current prices, so how wrong are you.........

I think the 290s are really good value now.

As to the extra power usage, it is not going to add up to a lot over a year.

I would take one of these every time over a 4gb 256bit bus 980

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-353-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Gibbo · 6 Oct 2014 at 11:23

Kaapstad said:
I think the 290s are really good value now.

As to the extra power usage, it is not going to add up to a lot over a year.

If we can achieve £199 that will make them even better value and very popular once again.

flopper · 6 Oct 2014 at 11:31

DX12 dont matter. Games will lag behind anyhow.
New generation will see its light that benefit existing games.
Buying a 970 etc..for dx12 features? right......

New die shrink is what is needed with new arc and cards.
current 28nm dont cut it then.

bru · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:02

290 for £199, then what of the 285, 280x,280,270x,270,265,260x, etc etc etc and we know that there is a 285x in the wings waiting to be squeezed in there somewhere.

Can AMD actually afford to do this?

Can they afford not too?

Silent_Scone · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:12

Taking the mickey out of someone for losing money on replacing graphics cards is just as irrationally backward as standing on the edge of a Ford forecourt and laughing at people driving out with their new car as they touch the road. Just as lame as well.

Wizzfizz · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:13

Even at the price Gibbo suggests, I couldn't bring myself to buy one of these cards again, for the sole reason that they are god damn noisy and hot (for me), even with a custom fine curve. I had nothing but issues with both of mine (MSI 290x/Gigabyte Windforce 290x) with the games that I played. The MSI fan was very noisy and kept hitting 94 degrees and bombing out, the latter use to black screen and bomb out and coil whine was horrendous on both, my PSU wasn't an issue as I run a Superflower 1000w Plat. I found my 290x experiences that bad, that, I RMAd my last card about 4 months ago and have recently (up until a week ago) gone with no GPU and have used my on board only.

I understand that there's two sides to the coin and that there are many people who have had no problems at all with their 290s, so the possibility of buying another and going Crossfire now, would be a good move for them. This was just merely my own experience of owing these cards.

SiDeards73 · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:20

Funny, i had a ref 290 which was loud, and a Tri-X OC which i use now and i dont even notice the noise on the Tri-X, will definitely look at buying a 2nd if the price drops down.

shankly1985 · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:22

Wizzfizz said:
Even at £199 as Gibbo suggests, I still couldn't bring myself to buy one again for the sole reason that they are god damn noisy and hot custom fine curve or not. I had nothing but issues with mine (MSI 290x/Gigabyte Windforce 290x). If I was buying new now I'd rather pay that little bit extra for a 970.

Just for the record, I found my 290x experiences that bad, that, I RMAd my last card about 4 months ago and have recently (up until a week ago) gone with no GPU and used my on board.

My msi are very quite, prob the most quite GPU i have owned.. My case fans give off more noise then the GPUs together.
Temps are stunning, BF4 full ultra no frame rate cap I never used to pass 84c
Now 14.9 driver has fixed the higher temp issue on msi am now not going over 77c on BF4

jwilliamson47 · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:31

I can see the 290s selling VERY well at £199 especially if they are non-reference. The reference maybe not so much as they have a terrible reputation.

Uncle Petey · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:32

Don't think there are any ref cards left to sell anyway.

JamesM · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:38

Happy I sold my 290s before this news came about.

Must admit i'm over the moon with my MSI 970

Wizzfizz · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:38

shankly1985 said:
My msi are very quite, prob the most quite GPU i have owned.. My case fans give off more noise then the GPUs together.
Temps are stunning, BF4 full ultra no frame rate cap I never used to pass 84c
Now 14.9 driver has fixed the higher temp issue on msi am now not going over 77c on BF4

The games that I played that caused the issues were Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution, both of these would sky rocket my cards temps and would either crash or black screen with ~94 degree temps. Maybe, like you say, the temp issue on the MSI has now been addressed, so this might not be a problem with those games anymore.

shankly1985 · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:47

Wizzfizz said:
The games that I played that caused the issues were Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution, both of these would sky rocket my cards temps and would either crash or black screen with ~94 degree temps. Maybe, like you say, the temp issue on the MSI has now been addressed, so this might not be a problem with those games anymore.

Completed TR with these cards not long ago and temps was fine in that. If i remember rightly never hit no where close to 94c

The time I had these two hit 94c well the top GPU was when I didn't have enough GPU spacing on my old MB.

Here 20mins playing BF4

mmj_uk · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:53

You're going to get lower temps with Crossfire because chances are you'll be CPU bottlenecked and the GPU's won't be working as hard.

shankly1985 · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:57

mmj_uk said:
You're going to get lower temps with Crossfire because chances are you'll be CPU bottlenecked and the GPU's won't be working as hard.

You be completely wrong, You will always get higher temps with Multi - GPUs

Here me running around TR for bit - Maxed out and no frame rate cap, If I was to use say Vsync I would get much lower temps in all my games because this would stop the GPU's working over time to push out more Frames.

Edit

And my GPUs always work to 100% no Bottleneck going on in my system.

Uncle Petey · 6 Oct 2014 at 12:59

TR generally runs at full usage with xfire in my experience. My basic setup is pretty much the same as Shankly's, so...

Given that he's on air, there's no way two cards are running cooler than one.

shankly1985 · 6 Oct 2014 at 13:02

Uncle Petey said:
TR generally runs at full usage with xfire in my experience. My basic setup is pretty much the same as Shankly's, so...

Given that he's on air, there's no way two cards are running cooler than one.

Agreed.. I can't believe he thinks Crossfire or even Sli would give you lower temps. lol

Its one of meny downsides people struggle to deal with for years. Higher temps

Bonjour · 6 Oct 2014 at 13:06

290 for £199 is an attractive proposition.

2nd hand 290s are a bargain IMO.

Rusty0611 · 6 Oct 2014 at 13:21

shankly1985 said:
Agreed.. I can't believe he thinks Crossfire or even Sli would give you lower temps. lol

Its one of meny downsides people struggle to deal with for years. Higher temps

The theory behind what he says is true but it relies on the assumption both cards aren't 99% in usage. If they are then they will be hotter of course.

jwilliamson47 · 6 Oct 2014 at 13:36

on that note, how do the 290s perform in crossfire? pretty good?