Radeon R9 290X Sees Price Cuts

[Kaapstad]

AMD is apparently working with its add-in board manufacturers and retailers to bring down prices of its flagship single-GPU graphics card, the Radeon R9 290X. The card can now be had for as low as $449, non-reference design, factory-overclocked cards starting at a $50 premium. Prices could settle down somewhere between $450 and $500. This closely follows AMD's move to bring down price of its dual-GPU flagship Radeon R9 295X by a whopping 34 percent, down to $999, offering performance competitive to the $2999 GeForce GTX TITAN-Z. NVIDIA is preparing two new graphics cards competitive in performance to the Radeon R9 290 series, the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980. The two are based on the company's new 28 nm "GM204" silicon, implementing the "Maxwell" GPU architecture.

http://www.techpowerup.com/205218/radeon-r9-290x-sees-price-cuts.html

Now there are no excuses not to join me in the 290X owners thread.

Who wants a Maxwell card with a puny 256bit bus when you can get a card with a man sized 512bit bus.

 

[RavenXXX2]

MSI Radeon R9 290X TWIN FROZR IV for 336, bargain. Let's hope Nvidia price their new cards with the puny bus competitively.

 

[snips86x]

This is soooo depressing. I own a 290 but cannot use it as its going back to Powercolour for an RMA. Still waiting 25+ days later!

For the money this is where its at. While nVidia offer something different, the R9's are at the top!

 

[4737Joker]

don't you get a full refund if they don't sort it out within 28 days?

Think it might nearly be time for me to dive in and grab a second card and block, then put my wallet away for a couple of years

 

[Panos]

http://www.techpowerup.com/205218/radeon-r9-290x-sees-price-cuts.html

Now there are no excuses not to join me in the 290X owners thread.

Who wants a Maxwell card with a puny 256bit bus when you can get a card with a man sized 512bit bus.

If there is any stock of reference ones by end of October possibly. For Tri-Fire after I fully watercooled the system though.

However aren't the upcoming range of AMD cards with smaller bus according to rumours? Only the big 390X going to have 512 bus. The rest 384. (rumours still..)

 

[Silent_Scone]

Why are people so caught up with the bus size when the card is faster regardless? having a large bus alone is a paper tiger when paired with RAM that won't do 1500mhz typically

 

[Jokester]

Why are people so caught up with the bus size when the card is faster regardless? having a large bus alone is a paper tiger when paired with RAM that won't do 1500mhz typically

Yeah could never understand it, it's like the old MHz wars. Completely meaningless.

 

[~>Dg<~]

haha i said this no more price drops ehhh

 

[Jono8]

haha i said this no more price drops ehhh

There will always be price drops

 

[Panos]

Why are people so caught up with the bus size when the card is faster regardless? having a large bus alone is a paper tiger when paired with RAM that won't do 1500mhz typically

We shall see when time comes, and they try to beat the current gen at 4K resolutions.
Is not that AMD aren't lowering the bus either.

According to rumours, all next 3xx series going to be on 384bit but, except the 390X which will keep the full fat 512.

 

[Nutella33]

Yeah could never understand it, it's like the old MHz wars. Completely meaningless.

would have thought its because a larger bus size might be more future proof if in a year or so if you get into a situation where you need the potential bandwidth (4k etc)

 

[Jokester]

would have thought its because a larger bus size might be more future proof if in a year or so if you get into a situation where you need the potential bandwidth (4k etc)

But that's the thing, bus width isn't the same thing as bandwidth, what you should be looking for is actually... bandwidth oddly enough.

 

[Jono8]

would have thought its because a larger bus size might be more future proof if in a year or so if you get into a situation where you need the potential bandwidth (4k etc)

Didnt the 2900xt have a 512 bit bus?

 

[~>Dg<~]

had very similar issues aswell with heat

 

[_Alatar_]

But that's the thing, bus width isn't the same thing as bandwidth, what you should be looking for is actually... bandwidth oddly enough.

Even bandwidth isn't the thing you should be looking at. In the end it's just performance. At whatever resolution / settings you're after.

Problem with looking at bandwidth is that different architectures utilize the bandwidth available to them differently. And even the AMD guys should know this by know after they've had a look at the Tonga PR slides, a lot of which were dedicated to explaining how they've reduced the need for bandwidth.

In this sense I'd say the new "Bus-width myth" is even worse than the old "GHz-myth".

tl;dr bus width is only one part of the equation when it comes to bandwidth and how efficiently the bandwidth is used varies wildly between different architectures.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Just let the fanboys play Top Trumps with whichever paper technical statistic they choose that favours their Top Trump brand of choice.

Everyone else will just be sensible and buy what they want.

would have thought its because a larger bus size might be more future proof if in a year or so if you get into a situation where you need the potential bandwidth (4k etc)

By the time 4K adoption is anything other than tiny in the gaming sector, a 290X or whatever other "omgawzums 512bit" card bought this year will be so ancient it will be laughable.

4K adoption will not be anything other than tiny in 12 months as far as gamers are concerned. When single card solutions run fresh AAA titles at acceptable rates at 4K without turning everything down 4K adoption might increase. Until then, buying a card now with the hope of running 4K in the future, some time, is absolutely foolish.

 

[Orangey]

So you lot don't want HBM then? That's good, I'll be sitting pretty at the top of the benchmark leaderboards.

 

[Kaapstad]

AMD with 512bit Bus and slow VRAM

V

Titan with 384bit Bus and fast VRAM

@4K the AMD cards trump the NVidia cards right up to the point when the red team run of of VRAM.

You pays your money and takes your chance.

 

[Disco_P]

These 290 prices are getting ridiculous. Shame I will never ever use a 290 card again. The heat is just stupid, even if I were to put it under water.

This is soooo depressing. I own a 290 but cannot use it as its going back to Powercolour for an RMA. Still waiting 25+ days later!

For the money this is where its at. While nVidia offer something different, the R9's are at the top!

You might want to poke them and remind them about it. When I RMA'd my MPower Mobo I asked Bailey for the status and he told me that his email to them caused them to get their act together and deal with it and I got a replacement within days.

 

[Disco_P]

Also after seeing what AMD can do with a 256 bit bus, who cares about the numbers.