MSI R9 290 OC Gaming Edition Review (1600p, Ultra HD 4K)

Allan 'Zardon' Campbell February 27, 2014 Featured Announcement, Graphics

Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset.

A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
Multicore CPU support
Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
Powerful C++ API
Comprehensive performance profiling system
Flexible XML-based data structures

We use the settings shown above at 2560×1600.

Performance is good in this Direct X 11 benchmark, with the MSI R9 290 OC Gaming Edition averaging around 51 frames per second.

Become a Patron!

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Ghost of Yotei announces surprise ‘Echoes of Sekigahara’ Expansion

Sucker Punch Productions found a strong formula with the release of 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima, updating the title with new, free content and eventually a paid expansion. Following in its footsteps, the team have now announced that 2025’s Ghost of Yotei will be getting its own dedicated expansion – with ‘Echoes of Sekigahara’ arriving in just a few weeks’ time.

8 comments

Ian
February 27, 2014 at 10:06 am

Great card, but Sapphire are miles ahead and ive been reading some problems with the fans on these MSI cards long term. failures etc.

No votes yet.
EsOne
February 27, 2014 at 10:07 am

I have had an MSI twin frozr card for years and never had a problem with it. I think some people don’t clean their fans and coolers fairly regularly and the dust kills them. nothing to do with a bad design.

No votes yet.
Wilker
February 27, 2014 at 10:08 am

The 290 is just so much more sensible than the 290x, they are mega money for very little extra gain. AMD dropped the ball with the pricing.

No votes yet.
Lewis
February 27, 2014 at 10:15 am

I bought one last week from OC when it was on sale for £330!
Excellent timing on the review though as now I have an idea of the headroom I have for overclocking.

No votes yet.
Martin
March 1, 2014 at 8:34 pm

This R9 290 is louder, hotter and has a lower clock speed than the gigabyte R9 290, so why does this have have a higher score?

Rating: 4.0/5. From 1 vote.
Alex4net
March 22, 2014 at 7:21 am

I try to configure that MSI R9 290 card for mining – problem is heat – when you ask for more than 650kH/s temperature is mre that 85 it turn off.
I find configuration with 840kH/s but iy’s working 7 minutes before turn off.
Any idea what to do?

No votes yet.
Phil
March 30, 2014 at 7:49 am

Something interesting , the card is actually mentioned to be over clocked to 1004mhz, but it needs the MSI Gaming App (could use afterburner as well). I wish they just overclocked it to 1004mhz without the need to use that app

No votes yet.