An update on Radeon R9 290X variance

LtMatt · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:22

I hate to say i told you so, but for god sake people. Don't be pillocks!

TL : DR

Uber Mode = Max Performance at the cost of a bit of extra fan noise ( having used amd reference cards i don't consider up to 55% fan speed that loud - no louder than my 7950 Ice-Q cards on high speed)
Quiet Mode = Sacrifices some performance for silence

At AMD's request, I ran our HIS retail 290X card and our original review sample through our 30-minute Skyrim test three times each and then through our MSI Kombustor worst-case torture test. The results are straightforward enough that I don't need to plot them for you. Cranking up the blower speed limit allows both the 290X press sample and the HIS retail card to run at a constant 1GHz in Skryim. There are virtually no clock speed reductions via PowerTune. Consequently, both cards perform the same in "uber" mode, averaging about 83 FPS during the duration of the test.

The results from Kombustor are similar. The press sample stays pretty much glued to 1GHz. The HIS retail card's GPU clock dips intermittently to as low as 978MHz in this peak thermal workload, but it spends the majority of its time at 1GHz, as well.

This is an important point to the folks at AMD, because it means the card-to-card performance variance we've cataloged can be eliminated quite literally at the flip of a switch. Owners of retail R9 290X cards will have to be willing to put up a non-default configuration that produces substantially more noise, but their cards should should be able to obtain the same performance that the 290X review sample achieved in "uber" mode in our review.

Source
http://techreport.com/blog/25751/an-update-on-radeon-r9-290x-variance

TheRealDeal · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:28

Yea this was exactly my point in the deleted thread. It was pretty obvious in uber mode there would be no difference between the retail and press cards. Thats why i basically thought it was not news worthy as i think the majority of us knew it would be the case.

Davedree · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:34

As humbug and owners of 290 have said too. I'm glad the other thread got taken down, it was just ignorance to the fact that in quiet mode the cards will run slower than in uber mode.
The first tech report was based upon quiet mode testing without uber mode and using the his as a basis of all their findings. It had an 1800 rpm for gods sake

Yes if you plug in a r9 290x and just run it then it'll run slower than it could. Yes there's more potential if you switch the bios over, and yes the r9 290 pro has a permanent uber mode now. Yes the cooler is crap and yes aftermarket versions will help sort most of the issues out.

Rusty0611 · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:35

So is this allowed to be news but not the other thread?

Only kidding but you know...

I think most people don't really care either way to be honest. Owners don't care as they know what they're getting and people who don't have one are not likely to care either.

But OK we'll have another thread clarifying

Sorry not having a go if it seems like that.

LtMatt · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:39

Rusty0611 said:
So is this allowed to be news but not the other thread?

Only kidding but you know...

I think most people don't really care either way to be honest. Owners don't care as they know what they're getting and people who don't have one are not likely to care either.

But OK we'll have another thread clarifying

Sorry not having a go if it seems like that.

I don't know what happened to the other thread so...

Anyway just wanted to clear up the matter really. I explained this before the other thread degenerated into tit for tat. I'm surprised people do not understand the difference between Quiet and Uber mode, especially a Tech site like Tech Report. Its even more disturbing when you realise Nvidia bought the cards for them and went to them to write the article.

Davedree · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:40

Its allowed to be news because its new news that was updated would you believe it today rusty
And it proved what we were saying in the other thread was actually factual and evidential, despite it being rejected. Frosty made honest contributions and hit the nail on the head with his summary

bru · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:41

Oh for gods sake, it was news worthy because AMD released a press release about it, regardless of the original reasons for the article. Maybe Greg was wrong to put his thoughts in the opening post but it was definitely news worthy.

Rusty0611 · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:43

Davedree said:
Its allowed to be news because its new news that was updated would you believe it today rusty
And it proved what we were saying in the other thread was actually factual and evidential, despite it being rejected. Frosty made honest contributions and hit the nail on the head with his summary

Was more on about the pages of "this is not news" that Gregster got, as opposed to the reasonable debate dotted around in the same thread...

TheRealDeal · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:46

Rusty0611 said:
Was more on about the pages of "this is not news" that Gregster got, as opposed to the reasonable debate dotted around in the same thread...

By news to me this ain't news either as it's really been a fact since the launch of the r9 290x but in the other thread people were disputing those well known facts. This thread is just simply dispelling some of the untruths from the other thread. Balance has been restored.

LtMatt · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:47

TheRealDeal said:
By news to me this ain't news either as it's really been a fact since the launch of the r290x but in the other thread people were disputing those well known facts. This thread is just simply dispelling some of the untruths from the other thread.

True dat.

Sacrifice · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:52

Davedree said:
Yes if you plug in a r9 290x and just run it then it'll run slower than it could. Yes there's more potential if you switch the bios over, and yes the r9 290 pro has a permanent uber mode now. Yes the cooler is crap and yes aftermarket versions will help sort most of the issues out.

Wait...what? Any more info on this? Does the bios switch do something now? Because I am pretty sure all reviews apart from one stated the same bios was on both switches.

Also, anyone who believes there is a more than shrug-worthy difference between the two profiles in day to day gaming operations need to hear for themselves. Honestly, describing 55% as loud seems like the reviewer just want something to moan about, or maybe cause Nvidia bought them for them to berate. Or perhaps they were using an open test bench, and so they don't have a case to dampen the sound (imho quietens them down more than you would expect.)

Another thing, you don't really need exceptional case cooling for these cards, literally there is no hot air going into the case from this card, its good at putting it out the back. (There's a great crossfire review where someone uses a thermal camera.)

So temps, not really an issue, and noise, they were most likely using a test bench, or seriously finding something to complain over.

Using uber mode is NOT making a compromise for performance and noise. The fan profiles are pretty good, I suddenly remind myself to listen to the fan, and realise it is louder than it was, not whilst it is 'ramping up'. The difference between quiet and uber I would say literally nothing, IMHO. Rant over. :rolleyes:

I want to see what you guys who do, and don't have 290/x's think.

Davedree · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:53

What if the other thread was still active and matt slapped this update in there?
The reference to the latest tech report is news to me as only just read it, but I already knew the reasons why in their previous report. Anyway I don't have much more to say except can't wait til the aftermarket coolers come out.

Rusty0611 · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:55

TheRealDeal said:
By news to me this ain't news either as it's really been a fact since the launch of the r9 290x but in the other thread people were disputing those well known facts. This thread is just simply dispelling some of the untruths from the other thread. Balance has been restored.

While that is true I expect to see about 2 pages of "this is not news", "zzzzz", "delete" as well

.

That was my point. I was playing Devil's Advocate.

Davedree · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:57

Zzzzzz.

TheRealDeal · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:57

Rusty0611 said:
While that is true I expect to see about 2 pages of "this is not news", "zzzzz", "delete" as well .

That was my point. I was playing Devil's Advocate.

Yea i already got mine in there but the op agrees with me so no need for more from me lol.

Davedree · 10 Dec 2013 at 19:59

Sacrifice said:
Wait...what? Any more info on this? Does the bios switch do something now? Because I am pretty sure all reviews apart from one stated the same bios was on both switches.

Nothing much fella just later revised 290 pros have a 47 percent fan in the bios instead of relying on cat drivers

K1LaW8tt5 · 10 Dec 2013 at 20:06

So the performance in uber mode was so close they didnt even have to plot them. So why post the original tripe on there website in the first place when they surely knew that already.
I think the real issue is the fact that people dont seem to understand the workings of the new powertune or the bios switch.

TheRealDeal · 10 Dec 2013 at 20:08

weldon855 said:
So the performance in uber mode was so close they didnt even have to plot them. So why post the original tripe on there website in the first place when they surely knew that already.
I think the real issue is the fact that people dont seem to understand the workings of the new powertune or the bios switch.

Nvidia bought them some 290x's to test which was probably enough of a bribe.

Sacrifice · 10 Dec 2013 at 20:09

Davedree said:
Nothing much fella just later revised 290 pros have a 47 percent fan in the bios instead of relying on cat drivers

Realised what you meant, I thought you meant they put an uber mode on one of the switches. :L

Davedree · 10 Dec 2013 at 20:13

Weldon, as you know the old 79 series had basic power regulation, and this is amd's first go at full dynamic. So it's like people not adapting to the new tech, for example people always disabled cool and quiet back in the socket A socket 754 days, but for Phenom II you didn't need to as they had a few p-states that the processor could fall into.