AMD reveals the Radeon R9 290X, their next-generation GPU

[Scorpus]

For the last few days, AMD has been throwing their GPU14 Tech Day event in Hawaii, gearing tech media up for the reveal of their next-generation graphics card. We've seen a few leaks surrounding this card, known as the Radeon R9 290X, and AMD has been pushing this announcement as the next big thing for PC gamers. But not until today have we officially heard the specifics relating to this graphics card, and what it will mean for the gaming market.

First up we have photos of the actual card, as seen at Tuesday's reception on the USS Missouri, accompanied by EA Dice for Battlefield 4. It's fairly standard in designs as far as we've seen recently for GPUs, with AMD once again opting for an air cooler at the end of the card that pushes air across the GPU core itself. The front panel sees dual-DVI ports, plus a HDMI port and a DisplayPort, and for power there's an 8+6pin PCIe power port.

Perhaps most interesting, though, is the lack of a CrossFire port a long the top of the card. Speculation at the event is that AMD will be using PCI Express 3.0 for connectivity between two GPUs, ditching their proprietary connector that added extra bandwidth. PCIe 3.0 is found already in many modern motherboards, and it supports 120 GT/s (15.8 GB/s) transfers in each direction through a 16x slot, compared to 80 GT/s (8 GB/s) through PCIe 2.0. This extra bandwidth should allow it to ditch the connector at the top, instead pushing the necessary frame information through PCIe 3.0.

There's 4GB of memory aboard this card, 5 TFLOPS of computer power, 300 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and the ability to process 4 billion triangles per second. The GPU itself packs a whopping 6 billion transistors, and is built to support 4K Ultra HD resolutions.

The R9 290X will be available alongside Battlefield 4 in an exclusive bundle, although prices and a launch window have yet to be announced.

AMD also launched new R7 and R9 card lines, right from low-budget cards to enthusiast GPUs at many price points. The R7 250 is a <$89 budget card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory, the R7 260X is a 2GB card for $139, the R9 270X is a 2GB card for $199, and there will also be an R9 280X with 3GB of memory for $299. We also heard about an R9 290 later in the demonstration, but this wasn't detailed.

To support 4K displays, AMD has proposed a new VESA standard that will be embedded in 4K displays, allowing them to work out of the box with various devices. It will be supported in the Catalyst Control Panel, and should resolve issues with screen tearing at high-resolutions.

AMD TrueAudio will be a major part of Graphics Core Next 2.0-based graphics cards, available in the R9 290X, R9 290 and R7 260X. AMD is calling this technology a revolution for audio designers and game developers, similar to programmable shaders. We listened an "AstoundSound" demo at the GPU14 tech day from GenAudio, and it sounded absolutely incredible in 7.1 surround sound.

TrueAudio appears to be dedicated DSP technology on AMD's latest chips, which plugins can access to reduce GPU and CPU load. It was mentioned that certain plugins, such as AstoundSound, will be available for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation developers, enhancing how we hear in-game sounds. TrueAudio will help greatly with reverberation technology - normally a CPU and memory intense task - as audio tasks can be offloaded to the DSP.

Also announced today at AMD's GPU14 Tech Day:
Revolutionary 'Mantle' API unveiled to optimize GPU performance

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/54124-amd-reveals-the-radeon-r9-290x-alongside-new-r7-and-r9-gpu-lines.html

 

[Razer]

..let the (price) war begin..

 

[Jad Chaar]

Cant wait for benchmarks. Leaked benchmarks showed that this GPU was faster than the Titan. Now we have to see the price.

 

[howzz1854]

Now they're just recycling all their old naming scheme. it seems like these two companies only know how to use two naming schemes. it's either three digit letter like 580/680/780. or the 8800/7900/8900. one of these days somebody who knows nothing about computers is going to pick up a old piece of hardware for some ridiculous price off ebay because the naming is so similar. I can just see some poor guy buying a radeon X780 thinking it's gtx780. or buying a 8800gt (almost 10 year old) thinking it's a HD8850.

 

[Scorpus]

Cant wait for benchmarks. Leaked benchmarks showed that this GPU was faster than the Titan. Now we have to see the price.

Leaked benchmarks are likely faked. Check back in October for the final benchmarks from the GPU we'll be receiving at the Tech Day here in Hawaii

 

[Jad Chaar]

Cant wait for benchmarks. Leaked benchmarks showed that this GPU was faster than the Titan. Now we have to see the price.

Leaked benchmarks are likely faked. Check back in October for the final benchmarks from the GPU we'll be receiving at the Tech Day here in Hawaii

True. The benchmarks were in percentages, so that was fishy.

Now they're just recycling all their old naming scheme. it seems like these two companies only know how to use two naming schemes. it's either three digit letter like 580/680/780. or the 8800/7900/8900. one of these days somebody who knows nothing about computers is going to pick up a old piece of hardware for some ridiculous price off ebay because the naming is so similar. I can just see some poor guy buying a radeon X780 thinking it's gtx780. or buying a 8800gt (almost 10 year old) thinking it's a HD8850.

Yeah I was thinking this also. Good point.

 

[oldikes]

Well theres only so many number sequences one can use. Id rather it be called a 290X then a HD 11750.

 

[dividebyzero]

Live stream of the event here:
http://www.pcper.com/live/

So far you haven't missed anything. One hour start delay, a rehash of TressFX, and a repeat of the unified gaming talk given a while ago

 

[Guest]

The name of the card should be based on their Crysis framerate Max settings at 4k resolution

 

[howzz1854]

There's more to the naming than just three and four digit scheme. how many cars do we have out there, and yet, we identify them all. I am not saying we start naming them Nvidia Panda, or that nature. but there're way more option than sticking to the two and recycling them. you can either add generation number after the model number, or use non numerical names.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I really like the look of the shroud. Is the R9 290 just a higher clocked 7970?

 

[GhostRyder]

Been waiting for this for awhile, now we will see the competition start to stiffen up!

 

[Scorpus]

I really like the look of the shroud. Is the R9 290 just a higher clocked 7970?

No details on this card yet at the event

 

[dividebyzero]

No details on this card yet at the event

The R9 290 is the salvage part of Hawaii (Hawaii Pro- 2560 shaders seems a popular number based on the internal architecture).
The missing R8 series seem to be a straight up rebrand of the 7970GE with possibly a 20MHz clock bump (970 core, 1070 boost)

 

[hahahanoobs]

Now they're just recycling all their old naming scheme. it seems like these two companies only know how to use two naming schemes. it's either three digit letter like 580/680/780. or the 8800/7900/8900. one of these days somebody who knows nothing about computers is going to pick up a old piece of hardware for some ridiculous price off ebay because the naming is so similar. I can just see some poor guy buying a radeon X780 thinking it's gtx780. or buying a 8800gt (almost 10 year old) thinking it's a HD8850.

Intel CPU's with IGP's are more of a concern to the masses, and no one is writing articles about them being confused about what an i3, i5 and i7 are, so why would GPU's be the straw that breaks the camels' back? Anyone buying a discrete card for upwards of $150, know what they are buying, before they buy it. Period.

 

[amstech]

I like the name redirection and proposed specifications, the cards look nice; can't wait to see them perform.
The 4K hookup is sweet.

 

[GhostRyder]

I think im in love with that cooler design, the Titan/780 and the R90X GPU coolers are the best we have seen in years. Though me personally, if I grab some of those, im tearing it off for a waterblock .

 

[howzz1854]

Now they're just recycling all their old naming scheme. it seems like these two companies only know how to use two naming schemes. it's either three digit letter like 580/680/780. or the 8800/7900/8900. one of these days somebody who knows nothing about computers is going to pick up a old piece of hardware for some ridiculous price off ebay because the naming is so similar. I can just see some poor guy buying a radeon X780 thinking it's gtx780. or buying a 8800gt (almost 10 year old) thinking it's a HD8850.

Intel CPU's with IGP's are more of a concern to the masses, and no one is writing articles about them being confused about what an i3, i5 and i7 are, so why would GPU's be the straw that breaks the camels' back? Anyone buying a discrete card for upwards of $150, know what they are buying, before they buy it. Period.

if it makes you feel better. Intel's naming scheme is confusing too. just think Core 2 Duo (dual core, vs Core Duo (dual core) VS Core 2 Solo, which is not dual core but single core , VS Core 2 quad,which is quad core 2nd gen..... whew... hope I got that right.. these guys really gotta learn how to name better.

and you don't need to be an expert to drop $150 on a video card. anyone who is looking to replace their old dell or busted HP comp with their graphic card went up in smoke because of poor cooling design will be looking at getting a card that's way beyond $150. **** I have my own customized water cooling rig with custom paint job, that's overclocked from 2.4ghz to 4ghz, and a HD7970 that's clocked at 1.2ghz even I am confused sometime.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I think im in love with that cooler design, the Titan/780 and the R90X GPU coolers are the best we have seen in years. Though me personally, if I grab some of those, im tearing it off for a waterblock .

Too bad it is a blower . The ones on the 7000 series were really loud.

 

[GhostRyder]

Too bad it is a blower . The ones on the 7000 series were really loud.

Talk about a blower, I bet 3 of those cards will still be quieter than one of my HD 6990s. Talk about a Jet taking off lol, 2 of those just were horrible in noise.

 

[howzz1854]

The dual card Nvidia 9800GX2 I had was loud as a window AC.

 

[GhostRyder]

The dual card Nvidia 9800GX2 I had was loud as a window AC.

You had one of those no way, ive only actually ever met one person in real life who had one of those cards and he has it sitting on his desk as we speak lol.

 

[howzz1854]

You had one of those no way, ive only actually ever met one person in real life who had one of those cards and he has it sitting on his desk as we speak lol.

I did indeed. the thing was so loud and hot that you could cook a full meal in the case. I remember 120 celsius was normal for that card during gaming. too bad that thing didn't last. but that's not the biggest problem. the biggest problem was SLi wasn't optimized for the games you play until a year after the games are already out. so you would be playing most games at a single 9800gt speed until they come out with proper optimization a year later anyway.

that was a waste of money.

 

[Guest]

The "OUR most powerful GPU ever" statement says a lot to me... Then, there's the FireStrike benchmark graph itself. The R9 290X is leveled up to a 7k score. Well, a GTX 780 already 8k.
Finally, Plus, if the R9 290 Series would be "killing" the TITAN - or the GTX 780 for that matter -, I don't doubt AMD would have said it quite clearly.

 

[Burty117]

The "OUR most powerful GPU ever" statement says a lot to me... Then, there's the FireStrike benchmark graph itself. The R9 290X is leveled up to a 7k score. Well, a GTX 780 already 8k.
Finally, Plus, if the R9 290 Series would be "killing" the TITAN - or the GTX 780 for that matter -, I don't doubt AMD would have said it quite clearly.

I was thinking the same thing however, they don't state what settings they used, if it's 4k on extreme settings they are awesome scores, if default 1080p though, these are not very impressive?

DivideByZero, what do think about these benchmark scores?