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

Ragnahex · 20 Oct 2013 at 11:39

by fan stopped working was this by any chance you putting a screwdrivers in it then saying "nope it's broken damn now i need to upgrade what a shame"

Kaapstad · 20 Oct 2013 at 11:41

Booner! said:
I would imagine that mantle is something which will get better with time? like all things, takes a while for people to realise potential and work with what's available. Any gain is good in my eyes, just like a small overclocks adding a few FPS or new drivers bumping fps by 5...always welcomed, so stay sceptical and let's see what this brings to PC gaming.

I have been hanging out for a new GPU and my fan just stopped working on my SLI setup, it's pushed me over the edge and I'll be getting one of these (any excuse!). Shame I missed the deposit reserve thingy, guess it will be late November to get my hands on this?

Keep an eye on the GTX 780ti when it launches next month, it will be moving into the GTX 780s price point and could be a good alternative to the R9 290X.

oldestgregg · 20 Oct 2013 at 11:47

ICDP said:
Yeah, all AIBs do this for their cards. I suppose it takes up a bit more of the empty space on the box

Lmao Between that and bullet physics engine which,and I may be well of here,I dont think Ive ever seen being used despite taking up 2/3s of the back of my old 7970 box!

oldestgregg · 20 Oct 2013 at 11:50

Kaapstad said:
I tried it the other day on my Asus Titan's but I hit a small problem.

I ran out of overclocking adjustment on GPU Tweak before my cards ran out of overclocking headroom lol.

Thats where the additional GPU tweak-tweaker comes in Kaap. Sold in all good stores -#BigRoyfrom AMD

dave_beast · 20 Oct 2013 at 11:54

I think AMD will wait and see what Nvidia's 780ti's performance is like before lifting their NDA, just to allow for tweaks. They got burned with the 680's performance at release being just that little bit faster out the box.

Buckster · 20 Oct 2013 at 11:55

780ti isn't out for many weeks though ?

I'm frustrated wanted to upgrade GPU this coming week - but if any chance of an older discounted 780 I want to wait it out I think

570 will have to last a bit lionger ..

Bodom · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:16

If Mantle works I think it could make a real difference especially in the MMO market where the CPU is normally a massive bottleneck.

If you look at games like WoW GW2 and SWTOR the CPU is a massive choke point if your on a high pop server or in a 25 man raid even if you have a 4770k your fps will really drop down a lot on some fights and it losers most MMO games a lot of players because they struggle to run the games at playable FPS in dungeons and raids if you could eliminate a lot of that CPU bottleneck by using something like Mantle.

LtMatt · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:18

Kaapstad said:
The thing is if you are not going to go all in at 4K you may as well save your money and use a 1600p monitor.

Not maxing out a 4k monitor is a bit like doing the shopping in a Ferrari.

Uncle Petey said:
I don't agree with that mate
What's the point of running a massive resolution if you still need to max out AA?

Yes i don't agree with Kaap there either. That's like saying no point moving up to 1440p from 1080p because you can't use AA.

Gregster · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:27

LtMatt said:
Yes i don't agree with Kaap there either. That's like saying no point moving up to 1440p from 1080p because you can't use AA.

1440P is affordable for most but 4K is out of reach for most of us. I think Kaap is saying if you can afford 4K, at that price, you would want all the bells and whistles (I would anyway).

For sure, when 4K is affordable for the masses, a notch down on AA is fine.

Randomface74 · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:29

I'd hate to get 4K and have it look worse than 1080p.

The thing I'm not sure about is whether it would actually look worse.

straxusii · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:30

dave_beast said:
I think AMD will wait and see what Nvidia's 780ti's performance is like before lifting their NDA, just to allow for tweaks. They got burned with the 680's performance at release being just that little bit faster out the box.

I don't think AMD got burned by the 680s performance, it came out months after the 7970, AMD very clearly won that round not least because they then released the Ghz edition to take back the crown.

dave_beast · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:33

straxusii said:
I don't think AMD got burned by the 680s performance, it came out months after the 7970, AMD very clearly won that round not least because they then released the Ghz edition to take back the crown.

Ok they're little pinky got a bit warm

I defintely think they're holding off though to see what Nvidia brings to the table.

ICDP · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:34

dave_beast said:
I think AMD will wait and see what Nvidia's 780ti's performance is like before lifting their NDA, just to allow for tweaks. They got burned with the 680's performance at release being just that little bit faster out the box.

That would be idiotic for AMD.

LtMatt · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:36

Gregster said:
1440P is affordable for most but 4K is out of reach for most of us. I think Kaap is saying if you can afford 4K, at that price, you would want all the bells and whistles (I would anyway).

For sure, when 4K is affordable for the masses, a notch down on AA is fine.

I bet high details on 4k will look better than ultra details on 1440p.

Some people might want 4k just to add have the massively improved resolution. I expect not everyone who buys one will only have four titans. Sometimes its worth sacrificing a bit of image quality to get a much higher resolution.

straxusii · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:39

dave_beast said:
Ok they're little pinky got a bit warm I defintely think they're holding off though to see what Nvidia brings to the table.

I think Nvidia were very lucky AMD hadn't released the 7970 at it's true potential at launch as then the 680 wouldn't be able to match it.

Agree quite likely they will hold off to see what the 780ti's performance is, trouble is one of them has to go first

I suspect AMD will not wait though beyond seeing the 780ti's specs, making a good estimate of it's performance and then releasing a price competitive 290x that should at least ~match it and probably beat it hands down on price/performance ratio.

LtMatt · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:43

The 7970 is such a quality card that even today, two years on its still going strong. I know people will moan about lack of progress and thats fair enough. Either way you shake it though a single 7970 is still a great card for 1080p/1440p or higher with its 3gb buffer, 384bit bus and amazing overclock performance which at 1250/1823 adds 25%+ more performance to the card according to my benchmarks.

GoogalyMoogaly · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:45

Gregster said:
free for those on the 7 series.

Not exactly true. It doesn't work on all 7 series cards, but does on the ones that matter (i.e. ones that will probably be used for gaming).

Gregster said:
1440P is affordable for most but 4K is out of reach for most of us. I think Kaap is saying if you can afford 4K, at that price, you would want all the bells and whistles (I would anyway).

For sure, when 4K is affordable for the masses, a notch down on AA is fine.

Yeah, it'd be annoying spending £1500 (?) on a monitor and then however much on graphics cards and not being able to run every setting (AA etc.) at max settings.

bru · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:46

LtMatt said:
The 7970 is such a quality card that even today, two years on its still going strong. I know people will moan about lack of progress and thats fair enough. Either way you shake it though single 7970 is still a great card for 1080p/1440p or higher with its 3gb buffer, 384bit bus and amazing overclock performance which at 1250/1823 adds 25%+ more performance to the card according to my benchmarks.

Quite correct, it is a chip that has really matched the G92 in its longlevity and usefulness, maybe even more so because it hasn't really seen the performance curve move on too much it its long lifetime.

Gregster · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:49

LtMatt said:
I bet high details on 4k will look better than ultra details on 1440p.

Some people might want 4k just to add have the massively improved resolution. I expect not everyone who buys one will only have four titans. Sometimes its worth sacrificing a bit of image quality to get a much higher resolution.

Fair points and we all think differently, which is great. For me, if I was chuffing up for a 4K monitor, I would want to show it off in its full glory and get the wow factor. And going from Ryan at PCper, he said you still need AA to remove the jaggies (which surprised me).

Gregster · 20 Oct 2013 at 12:53

GoogalyMoogaly said:
Not exactly true. It doesn't work on all 7 series cards, but does on the ones that matter (i.e. ones that will probably be used for gaming).

You know what I meant but you are spot on.

Yeah, it'd be annoying spending £1500 (?) on a monitor and then however much on graphics cards and not being able to run every setting (AA etc.) at max settings.

There is a 27" Eizo (not heard of them before) for £1500 and an Asus 31.5" for 3 grand.