** SAPPHIRE R290 PRO REVIEW & 1000+ IN STOCK!! **

[dwykes23]

Thank you Gibbo, much appreciated!

Decided on the Be Quiet Power Zone 850w!

Thanks for the great deal on the Sapphire! will keep tuned on how to Overclock it!

 

[4737Joker]

290pro + waterblock is cheaper than the slower 780. Interested to see what Nvidia do with pricing now.............

We can only hope a price war is coming

 

[Alexcy]

This^

Dont forget the 94C degrees. You are gonna need some cooling for sure. Or just set the temp at 80C from the amd catalyst center. 80C is still high though. I live in cyprus and in summer, outside is like 40C. This card in cyprus during summer it will just become toasted!

 

[wolvers]

290pro + MK-26 is still cheaper and faster than a 780.

 

[Alexcy]

Any idea how many degrees in Celsius the card will run with a decent cooler?

 

[Gregster]

I'm guessing when he says sub £400 he means more than 5p to £5 less than £400. Maybe at least £20 or £30 less.

A week ago, you would have done well to find one at sub £500, so these sub £400 cards are welcome. Nvidia are not known for being cheap either. They are more your M&S with AMD being the Lidl of GPU's

 

[Dumah]

well after nearly a year with Nvidia it may appear I may be heading back to a Radeon again (only got rid of my 5850 a year ago!).

Just checked gibbos uniengine valley benchmark. My SLI 660 ti's only get 64.5 fps in the exact same test and our systems are pretty much identical.

Sell my 660 ti's and get a 290 pro and then add another one next month I think is the plan. However I'm pondering waiting for the non reference coolers as having two cards at 95 degrees Celsius in my Fractal R2 case might get a little bit toasty!

 

[smaudioz]

A week ago, you would have done well to find one at sub £500, so these sub £400 cards are welcome. Nvidia are not known for being cheap either. They are more your M&S with AMD being the Lidl of GPU's

Lidl of GPU's lol, bit harsh maybe heh.

 

[vUNREALv]

well after nearly a year with Nvidia it may appear I may be heading back to a Radeon again (only got rid of my 5850 a year ago!).

Just checked gibbos uniengine valley benchmark. My SLI 660 ti's only get 64.5 fps in the exact same test and our systems are pretty much identical.

Sell my 660 ti's and get a 290 pro and then add another one next month I think is the plan. However I'm pondering waiting for the non reference coolers as having two cards at 95 degrees Celsius in my Fractal R2 case might get a little bit toasty!

I would consider getting a new case, my r2 didn't do well at all with crossfire 6950's which were blower type fans like these 290's are, infact it did terrible with everything temp wise.

 

[LtMatt]

A week ago, you would have done well to find one at sub £500, so these sub £400 cards are welcome. Nvidia are not known for being cheap either. They are more your M&S with AMD being the Lidl of GPU's

My two £360 7950's from Lidl sure hammer your one £800 Titan from Harrods in fps terms.

 

[Dumah]

Honestly I have been rather surprised with the R2. my i7 3770k under full load never has gone about 62 degrees Celcius (fan isn't on 100% either might i add) and both graphics cards playing a game like BF3 or Crysis 3 hover around the 70 degree mark. Granted I added a couple more fans but in all it's been pretty cool and quiet.

Obviously adding a couple of 290's to the mix might probably change things. But I'm hoping non reference coolers could sort out the heat problem at least a little bit. We can hope right?

 

[BubbySoup]

A week ago, you would have done well to find one at sub £500, so these sub £400 cards are welcome. Nvidia are not known for being cheap either. They are more your M&S with AMD being the Lidl of GPU's

Enjoy your overpriced junk, I'll stick with Lidl thanks

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

For those who want unlocked voltages, here is the Asus R290 BIOS download:-
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/LP/firmware/Asus290ROM.zip

 

[Arcane]

So basically 6% faster than a 780 for £70 less. Great stuff if you don't care about noise and heat, this seems very much like the gtx470 launch really. Looks like they'll need to go under water to really get them under control, especially if you want to get some nice clocks out of them 24/7. Hopefully more nvidia price cuts are imminent.

 

[Gibbo]

So basically 6% faster than a 780 for £70 less. Great stuff if you don't care about noise and heat, this seems very much like the gtx470 launch really. Looks like they'll need to go under water to really get them under control, especially if you want to get some nice clocks out of them 24/7. Hopefully more nvidia price cuts are imminent.

NVIDIA won't be budging on price, their cards are flying now and NVIDIA never price match AMD, because they are quieter, have PhysX, 3D Vision and soon G-Sync.

NV prices are now set for the festive period.

 

[Uncle Petey]

Where would my OC'd 7970 sit in those charts in the OP Gibbo? About the same as the 280 TOP?

Clock for clock, yes.

 

[Darujhistan]

Thank you Gibbo, much appreciated!

del

 

[Alghazanth]

So basically 6% faster than a 780 for £70 less. Great stuff if you don't care about noise and heat, this seems very much like the gtx470 launch really.

Yeah, it's a real shame the non-reference coolers weren't available from day 1, I'd never want that terrible reference cooler. Ah well, more waiting.

 

[Darujhistan]

I'm gonna leave it until after Christmas now, I want all the non ref cards on all models available to me and whatever NV's response is.

I would never spend a ton of money on a ref card either.

 

[Arcane]

In a funny sort of way I quite enjoyed the challenge of taming the 470s. MK13s were a bit "lego" for my liking so added a WC loop and they absolutely flew after that. Funny really, I swapped from a pair of 5850s and was utterly shocked by how loud they were in comparison, funny how thing's change.