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

mmj_uk said:
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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mine sits at 1000mhz without overclocking or messing with the fan in every game and i wouldnt say its very lound. certainly cant hear it over my headphone anyway.
 
Honestly don't know what benches the OP is looking at!

Martini.... would be interesting to know what you do bud (getting replacement etc).
 
Marine-RX179 said:
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:
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I'm shocked the OP has been allowed to stand. I mean come on, everyone has an opinion but he's clearly set out to troll here and should be given a holiday.
 
Yup, I'm a very happy 290 owner.

£300 whats not to like?

I've overclocked mine to 1100Mhz on core (stock cooler forced @ 55%) and its sweet.

Can't wait to get a waterblock on this bad boy!
 
OP fail, well done everyone for keeping this from being another flamefest, a lot of sensible posts and little or no fanboy stuff. There is still hope. Particular mention to Drunkenmaster for his early epic post which showed everyone the nuts and bolts of the situation. :D
 
Well I was all set to go with AMD this round and even joined in with the pre-order madness. With the high profile game tie-ins, the potential of Mantle and domination of the console market, it was looking like a great come back for the underdog. Then the leaked temperature screenshots started to hit the net...

Needless to say I got cold feet, cancelled my 290X pre-order and waited for both sides to lay all their cards on the table. Nvidia showed once again exactly how you should design, bundle and launch an enthusiasts card. OK their pricing leaves a lot to be desired, but they did enough to convince me to give them my money again.

Maybe next time AMD.
 
Really?

To be honest both stock coolers a re loud and with an overclocked 670 you should have waited for the third party designs for either card.
 
IceWind said:
mine sits at 1000mhz without overclocking or messing with the fan in every game and i wouldnt say its very lound. certainly cant hear it over my headphone anyway.
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You must have got a very good low leakage GPU then...

The fact remains there will be many much poorer high leakage GPU's out there, just take a look at Toms review of the 'fixed' drivers:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-driver-fix,3666-4.html

...the retail card fan is running nearly 100RPM faster than the review sample and yet the card still runs 40mhz slower.

Even with all cards now running at a fixed RPM it does not fix the variance in GPU quality, with AMD dropping the 'base clock' which was effectively a benchmark of quality it means they can ship very leaky/hot running chips, whereas before these chips would have not made the grade.
 
If recordings of sound were anything like what they sound in person I would record mine in my corsair 540 or raven rv02 its fine the noise has been blown out of all proportions, and you know what if you run a card like these in a tiny case or a case with crap airflow you get what you deserve.
 
IT Troll said:
Well I was all set to go with AMD this round and even joined in with the pre-order madness. With the high profile game tie-ins, the potential of Mantle and domination of the console market, it was looking like a great come back for the underdog. Then the leaked temperature screenshots started to hit the net...

Needless to say I got cold feet, cancelled my 290X pre-order and waited for both sides to lay all their cards on the table. Nvidia showed once again exactly how you should design, bundle and launch an enthusiasts card. OK their pricing leaves a lot to be desired, but they did enough to convince me to give them my money again.

Maybe next time AMD.
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Their pricing does leave a lot to be desired. AMD could have ramped up the speeds on the 290x, stuck a far better cooler on and released it at the same price as the 780ti where both cards would have traded blows evenly. Then we would all be stuck paying £500+ for a card.

At this point, both camps would have settled into 2 arguments. Green would be scoffing at Red's power consumption, drivers & Aldi-like brand, whilst Red would have been laughing at Green's 3GB vs their 4GB and somehow equating it to lack of penis size.

At least now people have a choice not to spend £500, can get similar performance with some drawbacks.

I'd be very interested to know if someone could tell in a blind test which card was which whilst gaming - I very much doubt it.
 
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