AMD Radeon R9 290X with Hawaii GPU pictured, has 512-bit 4GB Memory

[Gregster]

People actually thought the Titan wasnt going to be beaten in 2 years?

lol

In my defence, I was looking at it from AMD doing a refresh on 28nm (which they are doing) and the refresh not being quite as fast as a Titan. I predicted the next round of GPU's on 20nm being released in Q4 of 2014 and this is the reason I said 2 years.

If the 290X doesn't beat Titan, and I am not sold on those early charts in honesty, I might not be too far away but time will tell.

Nice to see you back Gregster

Haha quality and cheers Jezzer

 

[Suarez7]

Ummm, thats quite a short time and also if picking high-end hardware I care how it compares with other high-end hardware, not how old it is. Yes, generally new stuff is faster than old, but only when taken over longer time-scales and even then you have to make sure you're comparing within performance brackets.

Over half a year isn't short time in the tech world. Either way you look at it AMD have had long enough to beat a Titan/780 so for me it wouldn't be a surprise if they did, it would be more of a shock if they didn't no matter what price bracket the card is set at.

 

[LtMatt]

This card has ruffled Nvidia's feathers. The smear campaign is already in full effect. Check out pcper for more info on that.

Anyway i see the 512bit bus giving this card the edge over the 780/titan, just like the 7970/50 hold the edge over the 770/680/670 with the extra 128bit bus width. Assuming that we'll see typical GCN core overclock performance. If we do i can see this card pulling clear until Nvidia can bring something out to beat it 6+ months down the line.

 

[Gripen90]

I can't really get all that excited because it's the same everytime - was so with GTX Titan, HD7990, GTX 780 - speculations and rumours until the product finally hits the shelf.

For once I hope the R9-290X will beat the 780/Titan, and the prices can get shuffled a bit. Also because AMD need to get some profit because they can't keep up having low priced high-end cards and extreme game bundles without cost inflicting negative numbers in the long run... you can do this for a while but not long term if you want to make profit.

Time to get cheap nVidia cards with hughe game bundles

 

[Buckster]

I can't really get all that excited because it's the same everytime - was so with GTX Titan, HD7990, GTX 780 - speculations and rumours until the product finally hits the shelf.

For once I hope the R9-290X will beat the 780/Titan, and the prices can get shuffled a bit. Also because AMD need to get some profit because they can't keep up having low priced high-end cards and extreme game bundles without cost inflicting negative numbers in the long run.

need some profit ? you mean like with the XBOX One and PS4 - thats some sheer volume right there

 

[Rusty0611]

need some profit ? you mean like with the XBOX One and PS4 - thats some sheer volume right there

The margins will be tiny on those parts. It'll be a large enough contract with each but it's not like they're going to make considerably more money if an extra few hundred thousand units go out .

 

[Tonester0011]

This card has ruffled Nvidia's feathers. The smear campaign is already in full effect. Check out pcper for more info on that.

Anyway i see the 512bit bus giving this card the edge over the 780/titan, just like the 7970/50 hold the edge over the 770/680/670 with the extra 128bit bus width. Assuming that we'll see typical GCN core overclock performance. If we do i can see this card pulling clear until Nvidia can bring something out to beat it 6+ months down the line.

The memory bandwidth is the same though, because of the slower rated memory (if it really is only 1125mhz?)

Edit: Welcome back Rusty!

 

[Suarez7]

I could only see the 512bit making a difference at 1600p and above, maybe 1440 in some games.

 

[Gregster]

Exactly, they've been running next gen performance for 7 months, the only other way to get that was multi GPU which still has problems in certain games for both sides and had even more problems especially with AMD back then.

Welcome back Greg

Thanks and good to be back

 

[Diagro]

Sitting here waiting for the news. (more laying down, damn my broken backness)
Tomorrow is a big day, I get my note 3 and i find out about next gen cards

 

[Rusty0611]

The memory bandwidth is the same though, because of the slower rated memory (if it really is only 1125mhz?)

Edit: Welcome back Rusty!

Indeed. It's the bandwidth that's important.

Thanks - was I away somewhere?

 

[LtMatt]

The memory bandwidth is the same though, because of the slower rated memory (if it really is only 1125mhz?)

Edit: Welcome back Rusty!

Its 1250mhz i believe tone. That should work out at around 320 gb of bandwidth vs 288gb on the 7970 ghz.

If the memory is Hynix as we all expect you will get crazy bandwidth with overclocking.

I could only see the 512bit making a difference at 1600p and above, maybe 1440 in some games.

It will make less of a difference at low res obviously. But high levels of AA and high resolution it will definitely make a difference. Just look at 670/680/770 vs 7950/7970 results at high AA levels or high res/multi monitor to confirm that. There is a drop off, assuming you have the core grunt to power it.

 

[Suarez7]

Sitting here waiting for the news. (more laying down, damn my broken backness)
Tomorrow is a big day, I get my note 3 and i find out about next gen cards

You have a 7990 the only way you'll be topping that is 2 of the new ones which will cost you a pretty penny

 

[David Bisset]

Over half a year isn't short time in the tech world. Either way you look at it AMD have had long enough to beat a Titan/780 so for me it wouldn't be a surprise if they did, it would be more of a shock if they didn't no matter what price bracket the card is set at.

In that case surely we should think the 780 is poor as it didn't beat the titan? Even though its much cheaper so has a role to play.

Performance and price are both important. If it beats the titan but costs too much then it's pretty pointless (Basically confirmed at this point that it won't cost that much). If it doesn't beat the titan but is close & cheaper then is good regardless of how they've had time to do better.... similar performance for cheaper IS doing better.
Whatever happens will happen. I hope its a great card at a great price, though to me it matters little as I'm not likely to upgrade soon. In a year or two I'll be looking at getting whichever card, AMD or nVidia (or other?) that offers the best performance/price for me, regardless of how many months old it is... unlikely to be one of the cards announced tomorrow!

 

[Rusty0611]

It will make less of a difference at low res obviously. But high levels of AA and high resolution it will definitely make a difference. Just look at 670/680/770 vs 7950/7970 results at high AA levels or high res to confirm that. There is a drop off. Assuming you have the core grunt to power it.

But that's different as it's been shown that a 256 bit bus can be slightly limiting in some games at 1080p. It might be that the 384 bit bus on the 7970s/780s has enough headroom for more (especially when clocked) so the 512 bit bus just increases that headroom further and as such has no discernible benefit.

There's no evidence of the 384 bit bus cards really being bandwidth limited.

In that case surely we should think the 780 is poor as it didn't beat the titan? Even though its much cheaper so has a role to play.

No not really because the 780s are just failed Titans lol.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Very sensible Dave.

 

[Suarez7]

In that case surely we should think the 780 is poor as it didn't beat the titan? Even though its much cheaper so has a role to play.

Not sure if serious.

 

[LtMatt]

But that's different as it's been shown that a 256 bit bus can be slightly limiting in some games at 1080p. It might be that the 384 bit bus on the 7970s/780s has enough headroom for more (especially when clocked) so the 512 bit bus just increases that headroom further and as such has no discernible benefit.

There's no evidence of the 384 bit bus cards really being bandwidth limited.

Its sill going to give the 512bit bus an fps advantage. I'm not saying that 384bit performance will necessary suffer like a 256 bit bus though as i agree that's unlikely.

 

[Rusty0611]

Its sill going to give the 512bit bus an fps advantage. I'm not saying that 384bit performance will necessary suffer like a 256 bit bus though as i agree that's unlikely.

How will it though if the memory bandwidth on the 384 bit cards is not saturated?

 

[Suarez7]

I think we should drop the memory thing already, we'll find out when the benchmarks are out, I've seen the bus, bit and bandwidth discussion spiral out of control already in another thread.