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** SAPPHIRE R290 PRO REVIEW & 1000+ IN STOCK!! **
- Thread starter Gibbo
- Start date
That moment when you realise paying £480 for a 290x was a bit silly
Yes and no.
For me I'd buy 290X as I love a bit of competitive benchmarking, so for me I want the card which could give me the best possible results. But for someone who is soley gaming, then I do agree 290 is the better value card.
290X will still sell though, and very well, just like when 7950 and 7970 was out, 7950 was better value for money, but 7970 still flew out the door.
Well reference can hit 1300Mhz on water tops, at such speeds they are mentally quick.
I suspect a none reference design, with water-cooling would unleash a further 50-100Mhz from the core.
Memory never changes much, as it is simply down to what memory the board partner goes with.
Soldato
The memory clocks are pretty shocking to what they could be. Is this because of the memory controller or the chips?
Any chance of AIB cards using better memory chips.
Any chance of AIB cards using better memory chips.
Unknown, but 6800Mhz does not seem bad to me, it what a few of the Hynix 290X models have managed, which considering its on a 512-bit bus is damn impressive, mental bandwidth.
Yes.
Only read the anand review but it seems the cards have to be overvolted compared to 290X to achieve the speeds so it's actually hotter and louder than 290X. In Crysis 3 it is twice as loud as a 780. Checking out the techreport review seems in skyrim they report it twice as loud as 780.
Great price/performance though, just wish AMD could sort the stock cooler out. I also suspect that people without decent case cooling will see the cards throttle when into a gaming session.
Great price/performance though, just wish AMD could sort the stock cooler out. I also suspect that people without decent case cooling will see the cards throttle when into a gaming session.
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making the R290 Pro a bargain, especially when you consider the R290 Pro is beating overclocked GTX 780's and Titan by some margin.
I do trust/believe you, but is the any chance we could see one/some of those charts with OC GTX780/Titan scores added just for a comparison basis?
They are in this original post.
The 780 HOF is running 1300MHz core. But as the charts say, the rigs were changed.
When 780Ti launches on Thursday we shall have some new benchmarks to add of the 780Ti and hopefully 780GHz time permitting.
Associate
Gibbo - if the noise and heat bothers me when it arrives, what 3rd party aftermarket air cooler would you recommend?
MK26 with a couple of Zaward/OcUK Golf ball fans, will keep the card silent at sub 60c at stock. MK26 is also good for a mild overclock, for example 1100/5500, but is not recommended for maximum OC as the VRM/Memory runs a little hotter with this cooler.
But if you want a mild overclock and wish to game in silence, this is perfect cooler.
I would wait, the demand for custom cooled 290 series cards will be so great that the usual suspects will be falling over themselves to release them.
$400 is an extremely competitive price for AMD to launch at. They had to cut corners somewhere and from reviews it seems that the cooler and memory are the main shortfalls versus the 290X (the missing SP's make almost no difference). If you can put up with the noise grab one now, else wait a few weeks for custom cooled versions.
I cannot see NVidia allowing AMD to have it all their own way at the $400 price point so some bargain 780's (perhaps re badged to 770TI parts) should arrive soon.
I cannot see NVidia allowing AMD to have it all their own way at the $400 price point so some bargain 780's (perhaps re badged to 770TI parts) should arrive soon.
Soldato
Performance seems brilliant on the face of it, but the fan speed increase in the latest drivers is a bit of barrel scraping IMO in order to come out in front of the ever increasing bargain that is the 780 GTX.
Much like it's more expensive counterpart the 290X this thing needs water or a non reference cooler more so than ever. That said some of the review results are pretty staggering - with it edging the Titan in Eyefinity for example which is frankly awesome.
Much like it's more expensive counterpart the 290X this thing needs water or a non reference cooler more so than ever. That said some of the review results are pretty staggering - with it edging the Titan in Eyefinity for example which is frankly awesome.
