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AMD 2xx series how did they get it so wrong?

Obvious troll is obvious. AMD haven't failed at all. They've produced an immensely powerful pair of cards at a price point significantly lower than their competitors. The 290 and 780 are pretty closely matched but the better coolers (esp the Windforce for example) and the game bundle makea it a tough call. If going under water the 290 is an excellent choice. Now if we get partner 290 Pro cards priced around £320 they're going to be the real standout ones similar to how the 7950's were.
 
A DM post I totally agree with. :eek:

People including the op trolling the 290 series WHEN YOU HAVE NEVER EVEN OWNED ONE!

Also funny how the PEOPLE WHO HAVE AND DO OWN ONE and owned the Nvidia equivalent say different.
 
R9 290 is NOT a failure. It is the first high-end card AMD have had for many years which is realistically able to slug it out with NVidia's top parts.

It may well consume (slightly) more power than it's counterparts for equivalent performance, but it is very very close and is priced noticeably better.

The one BIG FAILING is the cooler. If AMD had fitted a 780/Titan-like reference cooler there would be no real negatives. The 290 may well have run several degrees higher (given equal cooling performance), but certainly not 10-20deg over current 780 temps.

*R9 290 is a great card with a wholly inadequate cooler.
*GTX 780 is just a great card with a great cooler.
 
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Yep how did they get it so wrong a £300 card that equals the 780's performance, they must be holding their heads wondering where it all went wrong :D

Of course we all know the cooler is garbage but that will be fixed soon enough and most sales of the 290 will be over it's lifetime with aftermarket coolers.

Inflammatory thread, wonder how it hasn't been canned yet.
 
straxusii said:
Yep how did they get it so wrong a £300 card that equals the 780's performance, they must be holding their heads wondering where it all went wrong :D

Of course we all know the cooler is garbage but that will be fixed soon enough and most sales of the 290 will be over it's lifetime with aftermarket coolers.

Inflammatory thread, wonder how it hasn't been canned yet.
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Fully agree with the price point comment, but launch day reviews hang around forever. AMD should have supplied a better reference cooler irrespective of when 3rd Party coolers will arrive.

The 290 was launched with a reputation for being NOISY and running HOT. Every single review comments on this failure and sh** sticks. It plants seeds of doubt in buyers minds and hurts future sales, even if the problem is resolved.

How many Toyota's sales have been lost in the USA because of past problems which no longer exist? This still affects sales now and will take years to overcome. Everyone remembers the GTX480 as being a fire-breathing dragon. Third-party coolers did solve the problem but people still remember. NVidia learned from this lesson.
 
Well I hope AMD have learnt from this as Nvidia did with fermi.

Selling a £300 + GPU with sub standard cooling is not good PR even it has the performance, the damage is already done through the reviews and **** sticks. Nvidia cards look great, have great performance yet run quiet and not so hot unlike the 290, I would love for AMD to compete or even better Nvidia when it comes to reference cooling and design.

I don't care if AMD have to put the extra cost of a better cooler on the cost of the card, it needs to be done.
 
So many tears are shed in this thread, I couldn't be happier with my 290 under water.

New cards come with stock coolers, this is nothing new. There's a reason there are aftermarket coolers.

All that springs to mind is the impatience of people wanting aftermarket coolers at the click of their fingers!
 
IMO 290X (reference cards at least) should have been clocked at around 800mhz where the heat was more manageable, I think that AMD clocked it so high because they needed to beat/match NVidia and they've come up with this whole Powertune (fancy name for throttling) thing to prevent the card killing itself.

I'm still surprised shops like OCUK are advertising the cards as a fixed frequency 1000mhz etc even though AMD themselves only advertise them as "up to 1000mhz", unless you run with an aggressive fan profile you aren't going to get 1000mhz.
 
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If the performance/value of the 2xx cards is AMD getting it so wrong, NVidia must be terrified of what they'll come up with when they get it right!
 
Two things:
1. god awful cooler.
2. 290x BF4 edition more expensive than normal 290x. Not only You had to preorder one but you did not get anything special/free with the card. Could at lest give us dogtag or something :/
 
I think the only thing wrong with the 290/290X cards is the cooler. Even then I suspect it's not as bad as many make it out to be. It probably is a worse cooler than Nvidias reference cooler, but AMD always do this, it's nothing new. Once the 3rd party coolers come out reference coolers probably wont get much of a look in, except from people looking to replace the cooler anyway.

Isn't this largely the same problem and ensuing argument we have with each gneration at launch? Wasn't there a similar issue with the 680 and 7970 where the AMD cooler was louder and the card ran hotter? And again with the 6970 and 580?

Once the 3rd party coolers were released it wasn't such an issue. As I recall the AMD cards did still run hotter, but not so much it was a problem and the noise issue was eliminated.
 
ubersonic said:
I am quite impressed that instead of the supernova grade flame war I was expecting due to the first post, instead the forum has pretty much risen up as a whole (AMD/Nvidia/neutral fans) and slapped the OP down :)
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You got the mod who sent Suarez7 on holiday to thank for that :p

He's very good at baiting every topic into a warzone :rolleyes:
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Remember,Nvidia had to price drop its cards due to the R9 290 and R9 290X pricing,
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This.

The OP failed epically to realise that it's better for all consumers (who cares about camps?) that this actually drove the prices down for people buying nvidia cards too!

You are getting great bang for buck out of £300-450 from both parties.
 
AMD 2xx series how did they get it so wrong?
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