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

[Rroff]

First post, been lurking for weeks as I peruse the posts in aid of picking out my new GFX card but thios thread has both made me laugh my arse off and annoyed me. Namely the nVidia fanboys strutting around and rubbing in the rumoured temps from a single benchmark that means sod-all in the grand scheme of things.

Assuming your not an alt...

I think your missing that a lot of it is tongue in cheek referring back to the days of the GTX480 and the big deal that was made about its temperatures by certain AMD fans - so most of its now a bit of ribbing in kind rather than meant as seriously as your taking it.

Very few people in either camp actually care much about temperatures on a high end card - the hardcore enthusiasts will dunk em under water or atleast replace the heatsink with an aftermarket jobbie and focus will be on performance and overclocking.

 

[nicnik]

"There’s not much more I can say at this point, except that I have several cards tested at 3840x2160, and R9 290X doesn’t just do well against the GeForce GTX 780…"

I think this statement means it does well in comparison to Titan as well.

The 780 surely is struggling on VRAM at those resolutions @3gb

 

[jamiehavok]

ooh

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-r9-290x-benchmark-performance,24732.html#xtor=RSS-999

ok so from this it looks like it will be on par with the titan but quite a bit cheaper, about what i was expecting, now i guess nvidia will drop the titan price a tad and release a "titan ultra" card that's faster

The 780 surely is struggling on VRAM at those resolutions @3gb

if it was struggling with vram i'd think it would be quite a bit slower than what it was benchmarking on those games. This detailed review of 4k gaming http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pq321q-4k-gaming,3620.html shows sli 770s do surprisingly well at 4k despite only having 2gb! vram needed is overrated.

 

[Buckster]

Assuming your not an alt...

I think your missing that a lot of it is tongue in cheek referring back to the days of the GTX480 and the big deal that was made about its temperatures by certain AMD fans - so most of its now a bit of ribbing in kind rather than meant as seriously as your taking it.

Very few people in either camp actually care much about temperatures on a high end card - the hardcore enthusiasts will dunk em under water or atleast replace the heatsink with an aftermarket jobbie and focus will be on performance and overclocking.

don't care about temps - but do care about noise - my 480 got quite hot but at least had the Windforce fans - much quieter than my 4890 with reference cooler

that said - high temps did heat my room up though !

 

[etched Chaos]

Fair play for having the balls to say what a lot of us think. Its going to make you public enemy No.1 for a while though.

I've no problem at being a public enemy, I'm a Spurs fan and support Philly teams, I'm used to having all the people I know want to bitchslap me .

But I'll not hold my tongue about something that annoys me. I understand the nVidia guys have damn good cards, but trolling the AMD guys in their own thread? Come on guys, that's just not cricket.

 

[Rusty0611]

The 780 surely is struggling on VRAM at those resolutions @3gb

I don't think it would be - Tomb Raider and Bioshock are not really notorious VRAM hoggers.

It could just be the memory bandwidth helping at 4k resolution. It wouldn't be a surprise to be honest. It's kind of an extrapolation of what I saw myself comparing 7950s and 680s at 1080p and 5760x1080. The 680s were obviously about 10% faster (back then) at 1080p but that was reversed completely and then some at triple screen resolution where the 7950s were considerably quicker. The only difference being the memory bandwidth factoring in.

Until normal - unbiased - benchmarks are released, it's difficult to tell really.

I do find the point scoring in this thread a little childish though. Come on lads. Group hug.

 

[Jono8]

Why would they disable TressFX and enable DDOF? Me thinks AMD are going easy on the 780 here.

Because then it would probably not be able to put out more than 30fps...

 

[etched Chaos]

Assuming your not an alt...

I think your missing that a lot of it is tongue in cheek referring back to the days of the GTX480 and the big deal that was made about its temperatures by certain AMD fans - so most of its now a bit of ribbing in kind rather than meant as seriously as your taking it.

Very few people in either camp actually care much about temperatures on a high end card - the hardcore enthusiasts will dunk em under water or atleast replace the heatsink with an aftermarket jobbie and focus will be on performance and overclocking.

Yea, I've no clue about past-disputes and private jokes, all I see is trolling from the nVidia boys and with no context it's hard for it not to annoy me. Especially as even I a relative newbie could see that the Chinese benchmarks were all types of dodgy.

Also, felt Matt needed some back-up, you nVidia boys are relentless.

 

[banjoted]

Selective benchmarking at what can safely be described as 'unusual' settings = me being suspicious

 

[Kaapstad]

Yea, I've no clue about past-disputes and private jokes, all I see is trolling from the nVidia boys and with no context it's hard for it not to annoy me. Especially as even I a relative newbie could see that the Chinese benchmarks were all types of dodgy.

Also, felt Matt needed some back-up, you nVidia boys are relentless.

It is a bit difficult to troll myself lol.

 

[Jono8]

First post, been lurking for weeks as I peruse the posts in aid of picking out my new GFX card but thios thread has both made me laugh my arse off and annoyed me. Namely the nVidia fanboys strutting around and rubbing in the rumoured temps from a single benchmark that means sod-all in the grand scheme of things.

Thanks to them I'm now firmly in the AMD corner, I'm a sucker for a good underdog and also the Radeon cards are just better at what I require them for (£ per perf (I'm a skint bugger) and Lux renderer performance). But this thread was important as if I ever have the cash a 290 looks like the card for me, I'm not doing 4k gaming and would be nice to have a AMD beast to brag about .

Now to the point I wanted to make, it's about Kaapstad and his comment on them picking a 780 because of it's vram shortage in comparison. He's having a dig at AMD, but why wouldn't they pick a 780? It's the card in direct competition with them for the price-range they might sell at and the vram comparisons are much better than using a Titan (33% adv over a 50% disadv). So not only are they pointing out that you can get superior 4k performance, but you can get that for around the same price (yes i know the prices aren't released yet but there's no way in hell they'll price it in the Titan range).

Now, the fact that 4k comparisons are pointless right now means little, both companies are hitching their wagons to the 4k train and there's no point in them picking a Titan because if you have no budget, the Titan will be king if you're wanting 4k gaming (that 50% extra vram).

Perhaps the smug nVidia fanboys should hold their tongues until legitimate benchmarks and temp figures come out, lest they end-up having to consume tons of humble pie for rubbing it in for weeks on end. But of course they'll still have Batman smoke...

Lol. Internet...serious business

 

[Gregster]

Well the way I see it is "Well done AMD". Those early results regardless of selective settings make the 290X look very good. It is quite easily beating the 780 in both those games. I would have liked max settings but it doesn't matter.

The 290X is looking very good and with Gibbo still hinting at a fair price, This could work out to be a nice investment (not in monetary but gaming sense).

Good work. Now tell us release dates.....

 

[nicnik]

I don't think it would be - Tomb Raider and Bioshock are not really notorious VRAM hoggers.

It could just be the memory bandwidth helping at 4k resolution. It wouldn't be a surprise to be honest. It's kind of an extrapolation of what I saw myself comparing 7950s and 680s at 1080p and 5760x1080. The 680s were obviously about 10% faster (back then) at 1080p but that was reversed completely and then some at triple screen resolution where the 7950s were considerably quicker. The only difference being the memory bandwidth factoring in.

Until normal - unbiased - benchmarks are released, it's difficult to tell really.

I do find the point scoring in this thread a little childish though. Come on lads. Group hug.

yeah I would prefer to see the 290x in realistic benches being better, we'll then see a proper competition

 

[Orangey]

Quiet mode? Surely it's the same as what we have on cards already, a LN2 switch / dual BIOS. I suspect they are using it to claim a certain TDP, that's all.

 

[Gregster]

Yea, I've no clue about past-disputes and private jokes, all I see is trolling from the nVidia boys and with no context it's hard for it not to annoy me. Especially as even I a relative newbie could see that the Chinese benchmarks were all types of dodgy.

Also, felt Matt needed some back-up, you nVidia boys are relentless.

Doesn't this make you an AMD boy then? Welcome back Spoffle

 

[Besty]

4K benchies are fine, at least we know the bench is not CPU limited.

 

[Rusty0611]

Yea, I've no clue about past-disputes and private jokes, all I see is trolling from the nVidia boys and with no context it's hard for it not to annoy me. Especially as even I a relative newbie could see that the Chinese benchmarks were all types of dodgy.

Also, felt Matt needed some back-up, you nVidia boys are relentless.

You see this is half the problem with the GPU forum. There's so much unnecessary tribalism and the need to put people in one camp or the other. You can criticise or praise something from one of the companies without being a fanboy or troll.

 

[Jono8]

It is odd just how much AMD are pushing the 4k thing. I presume that this is because the only real advantage this will have over the gk110 chips is the memory bandwidth so they have got to play to it's strengths. However it is quite pointless for 99% of people as you will need 3 or 4 of these to play next gen games at 4k.

Fair play, these probably will be the cards to get for 4k /multi monitor hi res set ups. Still wish they would do some 1080p/1440p benches though seen as that is what most people have :/

 

[nicnik]

On reddit an hour ago, more info on same benches at 4k:

"tomshardware_chris

GeForce GTX 780
BioShock
Min: 41
Max: 51
Tomb Raider
Min: 14
Max: 36

R9 290X
BioShock
Min: 47
Max: 61
Tomb Raider
Min: 15
Max: 40

That's info that didn't even go up on Tom's "

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1onv1y/official_r9_290x_benchmarks/

 

[FrenchTart]

It is odd just how much AMD are pushing the 4k thing. I presume that this is because the only real advantage this will have over the gk110 chips is the memory bandwidth so they have got to play to it's strengths.

Fair play, these probably will be the cards to get for 4k /multi monitor hi res set ups. Still wish they would do some 1080p/1440p benches though seen as that is what most people have :/

I'm guessing that for anything upcoming both AMD and Nvidia will push the idea of 4k as that's the next 'big thing' to sell more powerful hardware and more expensive monitors. It's not rocket surgery.

You see this is half the problem with the GPU forum. There's so much unnecessary tribalism and the need to put people in one camp or the other. You can criticise or praise something from one of the companies without being a fanboy or troll.

Well put. It's why I generally try to avoid it.