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Last week AMD launched their flagship R9 290X and our review concluded that this was the new king of the high end graphics cards. The only issue we had was the somewhat shoddy AMD reference cooling system. We are confident however that Sapphire and other partners will fix this with custom cooled solutions over the coming months.
As promised, today we follow up with the second part of our review, highlighting 4K (3840×2160) test results on KitGuru's new Asus PQ321QE monitor.
The first part of our R9 290X article focused on primarily a 2560×1600 resolution – because many wealthy enthusiast users will still be using a traditional 30 inch monitor.
Today we supplement our initial tests by analysing performance at 3840×2160 (4k HD) on the Asus PQ321QE. We recently acquired one of these screens for all future high end graphics card reviews. Sure, the £2999.99 asking price will mean very few can afford the upgrade right now, but in the next year we expect the cost to drop.
Setting up this monitor is simple with both AMD and Nvidia hardware (via DisplayPort cable) and we didn't experience any issues. To achieve a refresh rate of 60hz after the Forceware or Catalyst drivers were installed we enable the Multi Stream Transport mode within a submenu of the Asus PQ321QE.
This review today will feature comparisons against the fastest R280X card available today – the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition. We also include results from a reference clocked GTX780, a GTX Titan and the class leading MSI GTX780 Lightning – all of which we have reviewed in the past.
All cards on test today have been tested using the latest Catalyst and Forceware drivers (13.11 beta6 and 331.65 respectively).
On paper there is no doubt that the R9 290X is a monster, clocked at 1GHZ. The Hawaii GPU is built on the 28nm process and the card comprises 6.2 billion transistors. The R9 290X has 64 ROP’s, 176 TMU’s and 2,816 unifed shaders. The 4GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 1,250mhz (5Gbps effective) and is connected via an ultra wide 512 bit memory interface.
The R9 290X, along with the R7 260X features a programmable audio pipeline. The R9 270X and R9 280X don’t. This new TrueAudio technology is designed for game audio artists and engineers, so they can ‘bring their artistic vision beyond sound production into the realm of sound processing’. This technology is intended to transform game audio as programmable shaders transformed graphics in the following ways:
- Programmable audio pipeline grants artistic freedom to game audio engineers for sound processing.
- Easy to access through popular audio libraries used by top game developers.
- Fundamentally redefines the nature of a modern PC graphics card.
- Spatialization, reverb, mastering limiters and simultaneous voices are only the beginning.
The R9 290X also brings bridgeless Crossfire to the table as well. We will present some Crossfire test results next week.
The AMD R9 290X reference card is a two slot design, featuring the traditional small red AMD fan at one side of the cooler, forcing air in and across the length of the PCB. As this is a reference sample direct from AMD we don’t have any accessories with the card.
We should be reviewing some partner cards in the coming month and it will be interesting to see if any of them bundle some new games with the hardware.
The AMD R9 290X reference card is built around a black and red accented plastic shroud, housing the cooler underneath. The PCB is black.
The card has a DVI-I, DVI-D, full sized HDMI and DisplayPort connectors.
R9 Series graphics cards can now support up to three HDMI/DVI displays for use with AMD Eyefinity technology. A set of displays which support identical timings is required to enable this feature. The display clocks and timing for this feature are configured at boot time.
As such, display hot‐plugging is not supported for the third HDMI/DVI connection. A reboot is required to enable three HDMI/DVI displays.
The R9 290X reference card takes power from a single 6 pin and a single 8 pin PCI connector.
There is no Crossfire connector on the R9 290X. This is the first AMD card to offer Bridgeless Crossfire.
There is a dual bios switch on the card – as you can see in the image above. This switch toggles between ‘Quiet Mode’ and ‘Uber Mode’.
This BIOS switch doesn’t actually adjust core clock or memory speeds. It changes the maximum fan speed from 40% to 55% (Quiet Mode to Uber Mode) while holding a maximum default temperature of 95c.
Catalyst Control Center has been redesigned to accommodate the new PowerTune functionality in the AMD R9 290 solution.
Overclocking and Power are now linked into a ’2 dimensional heatmap’. AMD claim that this new heat map interface will make it more intuitive for the end user to adjust product performance. The R9 290X uses a dynamic engine clock and overdriving the core speed works on a percentage.
The fan speed slider has also been reworked. Previous versions of Overdrive would set the fan to a specific RPM. This new system sets an upper limit on the fan RPM but otherwise allows the fan to be managed based on demand and graphics load. At default, the R9 290X fan maxes out based on the current settings of the video BIOS that was booted. Adjusting the maximum fan slider will allow the user to select a different limit.
How does this work in practice?
At the default BIOS setting -’quiet’, the fan speed is limited to a maximum of 40 percent while the software simultaneously holds a maximum default temperature of 95c. We noticed that to maintain the temperature of 95c running the synthetic load test Furmark that the software would actively downclock the core. The image above shows the core running at 727mhz – while holding the temperature at 95c.
At the other ‘Uber’ BIOS setting, the fan speed is limited to a maximum of 55 percent while the software holds a maximum temperature of 95c. Sadly Catalyst Control Center will not switch from 40% to 55% fan settings automatically – even with the BIOS switch in the correct place. We need to manually click ‘default’ in the Performance Overdrive tab – to reset the max speed to 55%. We are hoping that future revisions of the driver will automatically adjust this.
As the fan is more active at this setting, the card isn’t actively downclocking as much as it does when tasked with the synthetic Furmark test. We noticed the core speed would often drop from 1000mhz to around 900mhz.
AMD have clearly had to work out a rather sophisticated set of parameters to try and maintain a maximum default core temperature of 95c, which already seems very high in our opinion.
We discussed this with AMD and we were told ‘R9 290X GPU running at 95C is absolutely normal and intentional.’
I strongly believe if AMD had improved the reference cooler on the 290X that the core speed could have held at 1,000mhz at all times, without the need for this active downclocking based on a set threshold temperature parameter.
On a more positive note, the software does allow the user to adjust settings and drop the maximum temperature to say 85c. Setting the maximum fan speed percentage to (for example) 70% would ensure the temperatures would drop – at the expense of a lot of fan noise. We need to add, that if you moved the temperature slider from 95c to 85c and left the maximum fan setting on 40% then the core would downclock even further to compensate, subsequently losing performance.
It is worth pointing out that Furmark is a synthetic stress test – more intensive than any game we test today, but it does show a potential ‘worst case’ scenario. For the 4K review today, we are using UBER mode with fan speed set at a maximum of 55%.
The R9 290X card is built to quite a high standard, although the reference cooler could have been much better. Take a look at the cooler on the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition for instance which features monster 10mm heatpipes – we can only hope Sapphire will bring out a heavily customised version of the R9 290X in the coming weeks.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.
This is the first 4K/Ultra HD resolution monitor that Kitguru has looked at. It is based around a Sharp IGZO panel and measures 31.5 inches. The PQ321QE is a plain looking monitor, comprising a black matte plastic body and it seemed to attract dust quite easily over the last week in our labs. For those interested, the screen weighs a whopping 13.5 kg.
In the flesh, this screen is noticeably bigger than the Dell 3011U or Apple Cinema HD screens which normally grace our testing equipment. Adjusting to the 3840×2160 resolution took me a little time, even though I was regularly using a 30 inch 2560×1600 panel.
The Asus PQ321QE also features a pair of tiny speakers which are handy if you have nothing else at hand. The sound is weedy and lacking in bass although surprisingly they do reproduce voices rather well.
Along the side of the panel are the menu buttons which are traditional mechanical switches, rather than touch sensitive flat panels. ASUS supply a little sticker which you can attach to the front of the screen on the bezel. This is optional, if you feel it ruins the appearance. Just be prepared to fumble around regularly if you are adjusting the screen.
The monitor stand took me around 5 minutes to assemble, not because it was difficult, but ASUS are using little ALLEN head screws for connection to the base and then to the monitor. These are really awkward to bolt in place, especially as ASUS only supply a tiny little driver with the screen. Once assembled however it feels as if it could withstand some serious abuse. It is height adjustable and can be rotated left and right. If you want to use it in portrait mode then you need to bolt the stand to the screen at a 90 degree angle.
On the left side of the screen is the power connector alongside a power switch. This cable shown in the image above connects to an external power supply.
For those of you expecting multiple inputs, such as HDMI and DVI then you may be disappointed. The PQ321QE is DisplayPort only, although this is the only connector that supports the native 3840×2160 resolution. Alongside this are an audio in and out connector.
We wanted to show you how easy it is to read the menus, even with white windows and text behind the onscreen interface. We actually found that most of the default settings were spot on, which is very uncommon.
Initially, we were only able to get 24hz or 30hz refresh on the monitor with both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. Within one of the submenus is a setting called ‘DisplayPort STREAM'. When changed, the PQ321QE has to reboot, taking a couple of seconds.
By changing this from SST (Single Stream Transport) to MST (Multiple Stream Transport) the refresh options changed to 50hz and 60hz.
The image above is a screenshot taken from a browser window opened to the full size of the screen. It will give you an idea of just how big the 4K resolution is.
Below is a video created by ASUS detailing how to set up the ASUS PQ312QE Monitor.
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B53D32q5m0′]
This review today will feature comparisons against the fastest R280X card available today – the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition. We also include results from a reference clocked GTX780, a GTX Titan and the class leading MSI GTX780 Lightning – all of which we have reviewed in the past.
All cards on test today have been tested using the latest Catalyst and Forceware drivers (13.11 beta6 and 331.65 respectively). The R9 290X is tested today in UBER mode (55% fan speed).
We are using one of our brand new test rigs supplied by PCSPECIALIST and built to our specifications. If you want to read more about this, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page.
We are featuring results today with an Asus PQ321QE 4K screen running at 4K 3840 x 2160 resolution.
We will publish AMD R9 290 Crossfire results next week.
Room ambient was held at 23c throughout testing.
Comparison cards:
Nvidia GTX Titan (837mhz core / 1,502 mhz memory)
Nvidia GTX780 (863mhz core / 1,502mhz memory)
MSI GTX780 Lightning (980mhz core / 1,502mhz memory)
Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition (1,150mhz core / 1,600mhz memory)
Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Valley Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
3DMark
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
Games:
Sleeping Dogs
Total War: Rome 2
Dirt Showdown
Tomb Raider
Metro Last Light
GRID 2
Splinter Cell Blacklist
Batman Arkham Origins
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.
Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.
To test the cards we use a 3840×2160 resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on.
The GTX Titan claims top spot in this test, supported by the 6GB of GDDR5 memory onboard. The AMD R9 290X takes second place, just a couple of frames behind. The minimum frame rates between these cards are identical.
Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights.
We used the ‘HIGH' graphics level setting at 4K- 3840×2160. This uses a mixture of high and extreme graphics settings, detailed above.
The AMD R9 290X is the only graphics card on test that can maintain a solid 25+ frame rate at these settings. A very impressive result for AMD. The MSI's GTX780 Lightning and the GTX Titan are very closely matched in second and third place respectively.
Total War ROME 2 is the eighth stand alone game in the Total War series, it is the successor to the successful Rome: Total War title.
The Warscape Engine powers the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time. Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles.
We test at 4K – 3840×2160 with the Very High Preset selected, as shown in the screenshots above.
A very demanding title at this ultra high resolution. The R9 290X in Uber Mode claims top spot, a couple of frames ahead of the GTX780 Lightning. These are the only two cards to keep the the frame rate at 25 or more at all times.
Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007.
Today we test with the ULTRA profile, at 4K 3840×2160 resolution and with 8 times Anti Aliasing.
This is a very strong engine on AMD hardware and the R9 290X in UBER mode claims top spot, by a clear margin. All of the cards are playable at these settings however, even the reference clocked GTX780.
After a delayed release from late 2012 to March 2013, the game received much anticipation and hype. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far.
We test at 4K 3840×2160 resolution with the ULTRA profile setting enabled – details in the images above.
The R9 290X in Uber Mode takes the top spot, two frames ahead of the Nvidia GTX Titan and MSI GTX780 Lightning.
Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools.
We test this game with the built in benchmark, with the settings detailed above. Direct X 11 mode, Quality is set at medium, 16 AF, normal Motion blur, Tessellation Normal, Advanced PhysX disabled and SSAA disabled.
At 4K resolution, the AMD R9 290X in UBER mode claims top spot, by around 5 frames per second. The MSI GTX780 Lightning and GTX Titan take joint second place.
Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility.
We select 4K 3840×2160 resolution and enabled the ULTRA profile with 8 times anti aliasing, as shown in the screenshots above.
Another strong engine for AMD from Codemasters. Still the results are impressive showing the AMD R9 290X way out in front at 3840×2160 resolution.Splinter Cell Blacklist is the sixth installment in the series. The game begins with Sam Fisher and his old friend Victor Coste who are about to depart from Andersen AFB in Guam when an unknown enemy force destroys the entire base. Assisted by hacker specialist Charlie Cole, Sam and Vic manage to escape, although Vic is injured after protecting Sam from a grenade. Soon after, a terrorist group calling itself “The Engineers” assumes responsibility for the attack and announce that it was the first of a deadly countdown of escalating attacks (called “The Blacklist”) on United States assets, declaring that they will halt the attacks only after the U.S. government accomplish the demand of calling back all American troops deployed abroad.
We selected 4K – 3840×2160 resolution and the ‘High' Graphics quality preset. Screenshots shown above.
A joint top position between the Nvidia GTX Titan and the AMD R9 290X in UBER mode. These are very impressive results.
Batman Arkham Origins moved development away from series creators Rocksteady Studios, and is written by Corey May and Dooma Wendschuh. The game's main storyline is set five years before that of 2009's Batman: Arkham Asylum and follows a younger and less refined Batman who has a bounty placed on his head by crime lord Black Mask, drawing eight of the world's greatest assassins to Gotham City on Christmas Eve.
The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in both combat and exploration. Arkham Origins is the first game in the series to feature multiplayer gameplay.
This engine is certainly very favourable to the Nvidia hardware. The R9 290X Uber still produces smooth frame rates, but is outperformed by the Nvidia hardware in this specific game.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes.Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature.
We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.
As we mentioned earlier in the review the BIOS switch on the R9 290X doesn't actually adjust core clock or memory speeds. It changes the maximum fan speed from 40% to 55% (Quiet Mode to Uber Mode) while holding a maximum default temperature of 95c. Running an intensive game (or Furmark as shown above) will load the GPU until it sits at a constant 95c. If the maximum fan speed can't hold 95c it will downclock the core clock speed.
At the default BIOS setting -‘quiet', the fan speed is limited to a maximum of 40 percent while the software simultaneously holds a maximum default temperature of 95c. We noticed that to maintain the temperature of 95c running the synthetic load test Furmark that the software would actively downclock the core. The image above shows the core running at 727mhz – while holding the temperature at 95c.
If you have been reading the review from the start then you will know that some game titles also push the fan speed to the limit at the Quiet BIOS setting. This means the core clock speed will downclock to compensate – reducing potential performance.
At the other ‘Uber' BIOS setting, the fan speed is limited to a maximum of 55 percent while the software holds a maximum temperature of 95c. Sadly Catalyst Control Center will not switch from 40% to 55% fan settings automatically – even with the BIOS switch in the correct place. We need to manually click ‘default' in the Performance Overdrive tab – to reset the max speed to 55%. We are hoping that future revisions of the driver will automatically adjust this as it is easy to forget if you are moving between BIOS configurations.
As the fan is more active at this setting, the card isn't actively downclocking as much as it does when tasked with the synthetic Furmark test. We noticed the core speed would often drop from 1000mhz to around 900mhz.
AMD have clearly had to work out a rather sophisticated set of parameters to try and maintain a maximum default core temperature of 95c, which seems very high in our opinion.
We discussed this with AMD and we were told ‘R9 290X GPU running at 95C is absolutely normal and intentional.'
I strongly believe if AMD had improved the reference cooler on the 290X that the core speed could have held at 1,000mhz at all times without the need for this active downclocking based on a set threshold temperature parameter.
On a more positive note, the software does allow the user to adjust settings and drop the maximum temperature to say 85c. Setting the maximum fan speed percentage to around 70% would ensure the temperatures would drop – at the expense of a lot of fan noise. We need to add, that if you moved the temperature slider from 95c to 85c and left the maximum fan setting on 40% then the core would downclock even further to compensate, subsequently losing even more performance.
For most people we suggest leaving the card set at UBER mode and to ensure that the correct 55% fan speed is set within Catalyst Control Center. If you can deal with additional fan noise, then by all means move the slider further up the scale.We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.
We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
I have been quite vocal in the past regarding my feelings about reference AMD coolers. Nvidia can build them well (the GTX Titan is proof of this), but AMD have always struggled.
The cooler on the AMD R9 290X is not too bad, but it really should have been better.
When Quiet mode is enabled, the card is audible under load, but it rates very closely against the GTX Titan cooler – which is commendable. The only problem is our testing has shown today that at this setting, the core clock speed downclocks when the cooler can't cope with the 95c default temperature settings.
We therefore have to advise our readers to use the UBER setting with the fan speed increased from a maximum of 40% to 55%. When the single fan is spinning at 55% it emits almost 36 dBa of noise, which is perfectly audible. The pitching of the small AMD fan isn't pleasant either. When tasked with Furmark the fan spins up from 2,300 rpm to around 3,000 rpm.
I have to admit that AMD's strategy sometimes seems puzzling to me. They know that partners such as Sapphire can product fantastic heatpipe style coolers, but they force a reference launch featuring their own reference cooler. We really should be focusing on the incredible performance of the hardware today, not the cooler.
To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and the synthetic stress test Furmark and record both results.
When gaming the R9 290X consumes around 240 watts of power.
To overclock the R9 290X we used AMD Catalyst Control Center and had the BIOS set to the UBER mode.
If you have read the whole review from the start then you will already be aware of AMD OverDrive changes to accommodate the new R9 290X hardware. Our testing today has highlighted that the R9 290X is a hot running card – set by default by AMD to hold at 95c, even if this means downclocking the core speed.
The higher we set the ‘maximum fan speed' the better chance we have of holding the core clock speed at a constant 1,000mhz. We didn't reduce the 95c ‘target GPU temperature' as it means that the GPU core is more likely to downclock under any given circumstance.
To overclock we set the Maximum fan speed to 85% and the target GPU temperature at 95c.
We set the power limit settings to 15% and the GPU clock settings to a 10% increase (+100mhz to 1,100mhz). High Performance memory clock settings were also increased by 10.5%.
It is worth reiterating that the maximum fan speed needs to be increased to get any benefit from these overclocked settings – so we found 85% was a good position to ensure adequate cooling. Sadly, the noise levels were close to 44dBa under load which may not be bearable for many people. I would have a hard time living with it myself.
The clock increases deliver substantial benefits to the 3DMark 11 graphics score, increasing from 15,309 points to 16,670 points. This is around 2,600 points more than a GTX Titan at reference clock speeds.AMD's R9 290X is a powerhouse graphics card able to drive many of the latest Direct X 11 titles at the native UltraHD 4K resolution of 3840×2160, even with the eye candy at very high settings.
Part 1 of our review last week highlighted that the R9 290X was able to outperform the Nvidia GTX 780 and Nvidia GTX Titan at 2560×1600 and nothing has changed at 4K Ultra HD. The 2,816 Stream processors, 64 ROPS and 176 TMU's with 512 bit memory interface ensure it can outclass any of the other solutions on test today.
There is no doubt that the R9 290X is designed to deliver smooth frame rates at Ultra HD 4K resolutions. Buying a R9 290X to game at 1080p seems completely overkill to us.
Right now the cost of a good 4K monitor is prohibitive and very few people will be able to afford one, although prices will surely drop in 2014. We have recently added the £3,000 ASUS PQ321QE 31.5 inch 4K monitor into our labs and there is no doubt that gaming at this resolution is mindblowing.
The latest Direct X 11 titles such as Batman Arkham Origins really do look stunning at a 3840×2160 resolution. Having spent some time recently with the Playstation 3 title and moving to the PC version at 4K is such a dramatic improvement that you really do need to see it to appreciate the differences. Playing this title at 4K with a GTX Titan, GTX780 or R9 290X is almost a religious experience.
If you have been reading this article, without prior knowledge of ‘Part 1' published on KitGuru last week, then we do need to address R9 290X cooler concerns. AMD told us ‘Be assured, that 95C is a perfectly safe temperature at which the GPU can operate for its entire life. There is no technical reason to reduce the target temperature below 95C.’
Another week has passed but my opinion certainly hasn't changed. I doubt the hardware will fail anytime soon, but lower temperatures will certain help to prolong the life of the hardware. Having all that heat dumped into a case certainly won't help either, so good airflow and cable management is a must.
We appreciate that the end user can adjust settings within Catalyst Control Center, but the reference cooler can get very loud if you increase the fan speed significantly, so you are either going to be dealing with lower fan speeds and core clock reductions, or substantial fan noise with higher frame rate performance. In the default ‘Quiet mode’ with the fan limited to a maximum of 40%, we can see the AMD software downclocking the core in some games we tested, as well as benchmarks such as 3DMark. Furmark may be a synthetic stress test, but it was a good indication of how this algorithm is working – dropping the core clock speed by up to 300mhz. This is why we only tested today at 4K with the UBER bios setting.
Cutting through all the spin its easy to work out that if the reference cooler can’t maintain a 95c load limit at a specific fan speed, the core clock will drop and performance penalties will occur. Switching to UBER mode does negate many of the issues, as the fan speed increases to a 55% max threshold and therefore gives the software a wider scope to maintain the full 1GHZ core clock speed.
If AMD had spent less time developing software settings and more time creating a new, better reference cooler. This could have meant a constant 1GHZ clock speed, even at lower fan settings. We think Sapphire are leading the way right now, with their class leading Tri cooler featured on the superb R9 280X Toxic Edition. This cooler incorporates massive 10mm heatpipes and holds a gaming load temperature of 64C.
The somewhat disappointing cooler is the only reason that the AMD R9 290X doesn't earn our ‘MUST HAVE' award. We are confident that partners such as Sapphire, MSI and ASUS will release much improved custom versions of the 290X in the coming months, but until then we can only hope that the improved coolers mean that fan noise will be reduced, while a constant core clock of 1GHZ is held at all times.
There is no doubt that if you are in the market for a graphics card to game at Ultra HD 4k resolutions then AMD's R9 290X is simply the best that money can buy. While 290X stocks have yet to filter into the UK en masse, the competitive pricing between £400 and £450 is very tempting. We would still wait on the custom cooled partner cards however, which hopefully will be released within the next month.
Pros:
- Amazing 4K gaming performance.
- Outclasses the Nvidia parts
- very competitive pricing.
Cons:
- Reference cooler is not impressive.
- temperatures of 95c are high.
- QUIET mode will inflict performance penalties.
Kitguru says: AMDs R9 290X is the market leader for 4K gaming.
You seem to have put dBa rating on power consumption by mistake 😛
Awesome, thanks – very very interesting!
Just an amazing card, can’t wait for the custom coolers + OC editions
Impressive performance, I can’t even get that at 1080p with my system :p
I want a 4K monitor badly, but I can only stretch to £2,000 savings. waiting patiently for this one to drop next year. fingers crossed!
Nice review, very interesting to see how things go in the future. I prefer gaming on consoles recently, but PC’s are miles ahead, lets be honest about it.
£3k for a monitor? holy crap on a stick. awesome though to drool over. I think this makes more sense long term for people as using three monitors needs such a massive desk it isn’t practical. a single monitor with super high resolution is the way forward.
Do you find some of the textures on older games look really nasty though? I bet only the latest games with tight afflliation with AMD or NVIDIA look great. Which reminds me, I need to get that batman game soon!
Did you really put 6 expensive pieces of hardware on your carpet? ..for photo purposes?
That’s fairly outrageous. Your negligence puts me at a loss for words.
@ jjj – the cards with the slot directly on the ground are actually resting on a small clear plastic sheet. The other cards are side ways on the floor, and as you might imagine the plastic coolers won’t self destruct if they touch a carpet. We appreciate your concern, but we weren’t going to bill you, don’t panic.
I was actually looking for a review on this and its just what Ineed
Amazing to see such a useful article and some idiot complaining about negligence (probably owns a HD7770 and has some serious jealousy issues!), Shame his loss for words didnt translate into his hands moving away from the keyboard.
Good review, got a lot of useful info from the results. GTX Titan is very good at this res, im sure the 6GB of memory helps in some games too.
Lovely indeed, want that monitor for sure!
well that was a great read, thanks. Wish I could afford the 290X, any news on the 290 pricing or release date yet? please?
Wow, even the 280x outperforms the GTX780 in many of the tests. It’s still early days for 4K gaming though, but definitely something I look forward to.
all the benchmarks i’ve seen so far Nvidia outperform Amd in low resolution, but as resolution increases beyond 1920×1080 ,AMD GCN outperforms Nvidia , even R7-280x pulls close to gtx 780 ,so $300 amd card matching $650 Nvidia card, wow.seems like AMD GCN is why superior to NVIDIA kepler.
just a 7970 GHz edition card notting more!
I did not take jjj comment too seriously. Provided me with a nice dose of laughter.
I’m not 100% on this but I’m pretty sure these aren’t the first AMD cards to offer crossfire without bridges… The bridges are almost an achilles’ heel anyways.