Radeon R290X – – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards

Description AMD Radeon R290X

Well, we finally got a new video card from AMD Radeon R290X, which is located in the price segment between the GeForce GTX 780 and GeForce GTX 780 Ti and is positioned as the senior single-chip gaming flagship of the line AMD.

 

Technical characteristics of video cards AMD Radeon R290X 

Core frequency: up to 1000 MHz
Number of universal processors: 2816
Number of texture blocks: 176, blending blocks: 64
Effective memory frequency: 5000 MHz (4×1250 MHz)
Memory type: GDDR5
Memory capacity: 4 gigabytes
Memory bandwidth: 320 gigabytes per second.
Compute performance (FP32) 5,6 teraflops
Theoretical maximum fill rate: up to 64 gigapixels per second.
Theoretical texture sampling speed: up to 176 gigatexels per second.
PCI Express 3.0 bus
Two Dual Link DVI, one HDMI, one DisplayPort
Power consumption up to 275 W
One 8-pin and one 6-pin power connector; 

The new Hawaii graphics chip in the form of the AMD Radeon R9 290X is based on the well-known Graphics Core Next architecture, which was designed to fully support the capabilities of DirectX 11.2. New features of DirectX 11.2 include tile resources that take advantage of Hawaii’s hardware features for limiting virtual memory of the GPU.

The new graphics processor is divided into four parts, each of which contains 11 enlarged computational units, including texture modules, one geometry processor and rasterizer, as well as several ROP units.

The AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics chip includes 44 Compute Units containing 2816 stream processors, 64 ROP units and 176 TMUs. The video card has a 512-bit memory bus, consisting of eight 64-bit controllers, as well as 1 MB of L28 cache. The graphics chip is based on a 6.2 nm process technology and contains XNUMX billion transistors.

Video memory is accessed using eight 64-bit controllers, resulting in a total of 512-bit bus. The memory itself in the Radeon R9 290X operates at a frequency of 5.0 GHz, which results in a total memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s. 

Recommended price: $549

Overclocking AMD Radeon R290X

In the standard version, the video card can operate in two modes. The first is the Quiet mode, in which the turbine speed is maintained at an acceptable acoustic level, but as a result, as the temperature rises, the frequency of the chip decreases. The second Uber mode – in this case, the frequency of video cards remains, if possible, at 1000 MHz, but the noise characteristics increase significantly with increasing temperature.

Well, as for overclocking, there is nothing supernatural here. The video card was able to reach the 1100 MHz mark on the chip and improve its performance compared to Uber mode. 

Results nominal Quiet

 

Uber par results

 

Overclocking results

 

It would seem that the overclocking is quite good, but the result turned out to be less than we expected… Well, then we will move directly to the video cards testing itself.

The test is AMD Radeon R290X

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The minimum and average frame size is taken as the performance indicator. 

Our video cards were tested at different screen sizes of 1920×1080, 2560×1600 and 3840×2160 at the maximum graphics quality settings allowed by the games, and, of course, by the resources of the video cards. In this case, we took the latest gaming hits, which, at various quality settings, have the greatest impact on the drop in video card performance. 

Radeon HD 7990 tested at stock frequencies and overclocked Radeon HD 7990 OC – core 1100 MHz and memory 6500 MHz 

Radeon R9 290X tested at stock frequencies in modes Quiet и Uber with overclocking Radeon R9 290X OC – core 1100 MHz and memory 5500 MHz

GeForce GTX 690 tested at stock frequencies and overclocked GeForce GTX 690 OC – core 1020 MHz and memory 7000 MHz

GeForce GTX 780 tested at stock frequencies and overclocked GeForce GTX 780OC – core ~1150 MHz and memory 7000 MHz 

GEFORCE GTX TITAN tested at stock frequencies and overclocked GEFORCE GTX TITAN OC – core 1080~1180 MHz and memory 6700 MHz

GeForce GTX 780 Ti tested at stock frequencies and overclocked GeForce GTX 780 Ti OC – core ~1250 MHz and memory 7500 MHz

Crysis 3 

Crysis 3 was quite surprising and made us rehabilitate Crytek in our eyes as a leading developer of computer game graphics. We have made tremendous progress regarding the second part, and what appears before us is not a console porting product, but a very modern and technologically advanced project.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 SMAA 4X

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600 SMAA  4X 

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA   

 

In Crysis 3 The R9 290X felt a little strange at first, but with increasing resolution it feels more confident, although in 4K this advantage does not matter.

Total War ROME II 

The Total War series is PC exclusive, and this means that game graphics are one of the first places for developers in the process of implementing the next game. And Total War ROME II was no exception in this regard – the graphics in the game are simply stuffed with all sorts of bells and whistles and all sorts of details, from which we can say that the game will make any modern top-end hardware “boil”… 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600 

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160  

 

В ROME II R9 290X performed quite well, at the same level as the more expensive one  GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti.

Call of Duty Ghosts

 

The game will be released at the crossroads of several generations and will visit all modern and future gaming platforms. It is worth noting that in connection with the release of a new generation of consoles, the developers of Call of Duty Ghosts have made some visual improvements that should make the game more competitive in terms of graphics with Battlefield 4. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 MSAA 4X

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600 MSAA 4X 

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA   

 

In Call of Duty Ghosts the situation is similar – with increasing resolution the R9 290X feels more confident, and in 4K it shows quite competitive results.

Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 represents a significant improvement to the series, bringing impressive levels of graphics to modern games. You can safely put your hand on your heart and say that Battlefield 4 is one of the most beautiful games of our time, which has raised a new level of quality for games in this genre. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 MSAA 4X

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600 MSAA 4X 

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840×2160 no AA 

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 MSAA 4X 200%

  

In Battlefield 4 R9 290X lost GRFORCE GTX 780 Ti, but showed decent results compared to other older GRFORCE GTX solutions.

 

GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti – is currently the fastest graphics solution, which fully justifies its stated price; good overclocking potential gives the video card an incredible advantage over all other solutions, increasing its performance level to dual-chip solutions of the previous generation.

Radeon R9 290X – AMD’s long-awaited response to the release of NVIDIA video cards based on the GK110 chip. In most cases, this video card outperforms other solutions such as the GTX 780 and GTX TITAN, but is inferior to the GTX 780 Ti. But don’t forget – this solution is 25% cheaper than the GRFORCE GTX 780 Ti and appears to be an attractive solution in terms of price/performance. Another advantage of the R9 290X is the presence of a large number of TMU units and 4 GB of memory, which, with increasing resolution, has a positive effect on performance.