Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X OC & R9 290 OC Review: Immense potential lost to GPU shortages...
- Thread starter Steve
- Start date
St1ckM4n
Posts: 2,887 +628
That's hilarious. AMD really hit the ball out of the park on price/performance for these, especially R9 290. The inflated prices and lackluster cooler means people are forced to custom solutions as above.... yet an NVIDIA card is better value? Gg, thank you for playing.
G
Guest
We'll see how this reflects on the roll-out of Mantle. Game studio's aren't going to be jumping on the bandwagon if most of the hardware is going to be used for non-gaming purposes.
G
Guest
Was really looking forward to this. Litecoin and bitcoin miners buying all these cards smh. At least AMD is making money from that.
G
Guest
"Gigabyte has slightly shortened the PCB by 1cm (0.3in) but with the WindForce cooler the card is actually slightly longer at 28cm (11.0in)."
Uhm, are you sure? They are listed as 294 mm on the Gigabyte website:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=43&p=52,53@53@53@53,62&v=2,8@6@1@2,26
Uhm, are you sure? They are listed as 294 mm on the Gigabyte website:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=43&p=52,53@53@53@53,62&v=2,8@6@1@2,26
Uhm, yes we are its 28cm long. Not sure why the Gigabyte website lists 29.4cm but that's wrong.
They hit the ball out of the park with a suggested retail price that we are yet to see. The inflated prices affect all R9 290 cards so it shouldn't be a surprise that the board partner cards are expensive as well.
Peter Farkas
Posts: 654 +530
No more starcraft 2 benchmarks? 
No more starcraft 2 benchmarks?
Not for at least a year no. It hardly tests modern graphics cards.
theBest11778
Posts: 298 +127
I got lucky enough to pickup an R9 290 around Thanksgiving for $400, and free BF4 which I wanted anyway. So to me I paid $340 for it. Once I saw the crazy prices on eBay I had to sell it. I've never bought a PC component, used it, benchmarked it, and sold it at a profit. I figured I'd wait for the aftermarket cards, but with these ridiculous prices I just ended up getting an MSI GTX 780 Lightning for $400 after rebate and selling free games.
I know it's not AMD's fault, but I was really excited to Crossfire 2x R9 290's, and pickup a 4K/UHD monitor in a few months. At this point I might just wait till later this year and get a next gen GPU.
I know it's not AMD's fault, but I was really excited to Crossfire 2x R9 290's, and pickup a 4K/UHD monitor in a few months. At this point I might just wait till later this year and get a next gen GPU.
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
Why don't they release a card specifically designed for Bitcoin processing? A card that wouldn't be of much use elsewhere. I mean obviously there is a market for such a card.
amstech
Posts: 2,662 +1,825
AMD's ace in the hole is price for performance, without this there isn't much reason to go red. If your spending that much money you must as well get the best and buy a GTX 780/780Ti. (Damn I hate that name, the 780Ti should be called a GTX 785!)
But to anyone who isn't sure, the Windforce cooler is awesome and one of the best available for a stock air cooler IMO.
But to anyone who isn't sure, the Windforce cooler is awesome and one of the best available for a stock air cooler IMO.
GhostRyder
Posts: 2,151 +588
They do, its called Asic miners, the problem is there are only asicminers available for bitcoins right now and the asic miners for litecoin/dogecoin/etc are not to be out till march.
At this point, the prices have started to drop finally though retailers like amazon maintained the 550 and 400 price points of the reference cards. Newegg was one of the primary retailers jumping the price up on these cards because of the demand and right now because the mining hit to high because everyone jumped on that stupid bandwagon thinking ZOMG IZZ GOING TO GEIT RIIIIIICH. In reality, the only people who got rich were the retailers and electric company. You can actually grab peoples mining rigs on ebay now for retail price.
Great Review as always, @Steve how far were you able to push the 290X overclocks on that cooler?
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G
Guest
Price hike is hurting gaming now -- for example a 280x at launch was $329 here where I live, now it's $429 or more money then a 770... so effectively more money for less performance.
GhostRyder
Posts: 2,151 +588
I know right, I love backplates and I cant understand why at this day and age when GPU (At least at the top end) weigh this much why we don't get a backplate to reinforce the card.
Jad Chaar
Posts: 6,481 +976
Yeah not just that, but for the price you should be getting a nice backplate to protect your investment. This came as a shock to me when nVidia released the Titan without a backplate. Come on, you pay $1000 to get a GPU that doesnt even have a protected PCB.
GhostRyder
Posts: 2,151 +588
Especially when you count that the only difference between a 780 and a 780ti is that they dont use a laser to cut the GPU same as the 290 to 290X. If your charging a premium for the GPU, for 150 bucks more (Or more), then I want a 5-10 dollar backplate free.
G
Guest
Or you can buy a 290, mine LTC to pay off for it in full and keep the card that compares to 780 Ti. Then game away (difficulty rise will make this loophole profitable only so long). That's what I'm doing anyway, so far so good. 25LTC and counting in just two weeks. Do the math.
As far as temps, 290s were made to be water cooled. With WC you'll get no more than 50C at full throttle.
As far as temps, 290s were made to be water cooled. With WC you'll get no more than 50C at full throttle.
shm0wie
Posts: 38 +51
I don't understand how you can review the AMD reference cards and score them 91 and 92 when these Gigabyte cards out-perform and out-cool those cards and you only scored them an 80.
I understand that this is because the price due to miners snatching them up and retailers taking advantage.. but the price will go back down eventually, and it's not Gigabyte's fault for the price increase, is it?
I understand that this is because the price due to miners snatching them up and retailers taking advantage.. but the price will go back down eventually, and it's not Gigabyte's fault for the price increase, is it?
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