AMD, in a counter-event to NVIDIA's GeForce event has also set up a brief demonstration of their upcoming Radeon R9 290X graphic card and let most of the tech sites post benchmark tests at 4K resolution. We already got to see a full review of the card a few days back but the card is truly meant to be tested at 4K (3840x2160) where it shows its true graphical potential.
AMD Radeon R9 290X Graphic Card 4K Performance Previewed
So we are looking at a Hawaii chip that measure at 438mm2 which is larger than its predecessor and houses 2816 stream processors. You can check out our other articles for specification overview of the Hawaii chip so we will keep this article focused on the performance of the graphics card itself.
We heard from some manufacturer’s that most of the AIC partners would only have reference models of the card at launch, we did saw some early listings of non-reference models such as the ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II but i don’t believe we would get them at launch which itself is a mystery. The reference design is the same thing we saw at the Volcanic Islands launch event held in Hawaii.
The card features a long cooler shroud that features a blower fan which pushes air towards the internal heatsink equipped with aluminum fins. The aluminum fin heatsink block is featured on top of a large copper vapor heatsink block. Display outputs include Dual-Link DVI, HDMI and a display port while power is provided through an 8+6 Pin connector.
The PCB features a 5+1+1 phase (5 Phase Core/ 1 Phase Memory/ 1 Phase PLL) VRM design featuring the Copper MOSFETs, CPL chokes and the IR 3567B PWM chip. The memory modules featured as SK Hynix built labeled with the H5GQ2H24AFR-R0C part with a maximum data rate of 6 Gbps. There are 6 modules in total which represent a 512-bit/4 GB GDDR5 memory.
There’s more information about the Radeon R9 290X which is yet to be revealed along with the much anticipated performance numbers. Stay tuned for more information over this week.
| AMD Radeon R9 290X | AMD Radeon R9 290 | GeForce GTX 780 | GeForce GTX Titan | |
| GPU Codename | Hawaii | Hawaii | GK110 | GK110 |
| GPU Process | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Stream Processors | 2816 | 2560 | 2304 | 2668 |
| Base Clock | 800 MHz | 900 MHz | 863 MHz | 837 MHz |
| Turbo Clock | 1000 MHz | 947 MHz | 902 MHz | 876 MHz |
| VRAM | 4 GB | 4 GB | 3 GB | 6 GB |
| Memory Bus | 512-Bit | 512-Bit | 384-Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory Clock | 5 GHz (effective) | 5 GHz (effective) |
6 GHz (effective) | 6 GHz (effective) |
| Power Configuration | 8+6 Pin | 8+6 Pin | 8+6 Pin | 8+6 Pin |
| PCB VRM | 5+1+1 | 5+1+1 | 6+2 | 6+2 |
| Die Size | ~438mm2 | 438mm2 | 551mm2 | 551mm2 |
| Launch Date | 24 th October 2013 | October 2013 | 23rd June 2013 | 21st February 2013 |
| Launch Price | $649 | $499 | $649 | $999 |
Reviewers were allowed to publish test results of the card in only two games which include Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite. Both the games are part of the gaming evolved program and the results show the Radeon R9 290X easily outpaces the GeForce GTX 780 delivering overall better performance and playable frame rates of above 30 and also 60 FPS in a few cases depending on the settings used.
NVIDIA just fired their guns at AMD's Never Settle bundle by announcing their GeForce Holiday bundle which adds upto $250 in value on their GeForce 700 and GeForce 600 series cards while AMD is yet to plan when to launch their next edition of the Never Settle bundle. AMD is offering the Battlefield 4 bundle to anyone who pre-orders their cards at a price of $729.99 US but aside of that you don't get any additional game unless AMD announces their bundle.
Following charts are courtesy of Tomshardware, AnandTech and LegitReviews!
