PowerColor R9 290X OC vs GTX 780 Ti – the overclocking gloves come off!

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7 3770K (overclocked to 4.5GHz); Turbo is on. Supplied by Intel.
• EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (Intel Z77 chipset, latest beta 03-12-13 BIOS, PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x using Plex chip), supplied by EVGA.
• 16GB Kingston DDR3 Kingston RAM (8x2GB, dual-channel at 2133MHz; supplied by Kingston)
• Noctua NH-DH14 CPU cooler plus 7 case fans, supplied by Noctua.
• GTX 780 Ti 3GB at reference speeds and also overclocked, supplied by Nvidia
• EVGA GTX 780 3GB, reference speeds and overclocked; on loan from EVGA
• GTX Titan 6GB at reference speeds, supplied by Nvidia
• GTX 690 4GB at reference speeds, supplied by Nvidia
• Nvidia GeForce 770, 2GB, reference clocks, supplied by Nvidia
• PowerColor R9 290X OC 4GB at PowerColor’s +30MHz overclock speeds in Uber mode (1030MHz) and also at stock speeds (1000MHz) and user overclocked to 1150MHz.  Memory clocks are 1250MHz, also overclocked to 1450MHz
• VisionTek R9 280X 3GB, reference speeds; supplied by VisionTek
• VisionTek HD 7970 3GB at reference speeds; on loan from VisionTek
• PowerColor HD 7970 3GB at GHz Edition Boost speeds
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• Genius SP-D150 speakers
• Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers
• Two Kingston 240GB HyperX SSDs configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers; supplied by Kingston
• Cooler Master Platinum Pro 1000W PSU, supplied by Cooler Master
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I full tower case, supplied by Thermaltake
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD
• Three 23″ ASUS VG236 3D Vision-ready 120Hz displays, supplied by Nvidia/ASUS.

Test Configuration – Software

• WHQL Catalyst 13.11 Beta7 (7970/280X), Beta8, and Beta9.2 (R9 290X); application controlled, Surface optimizations off, High Quality, Vsync off
• Nvidia GeForce WHQL 331.58 for GTX 770/780 ; 331.70 for all other GeForce cards; High Quality; Single-display Performance mode; Prefer Maximum Performance, Vsync off
• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• Latest DirectX
• All games are patched to their latest versions.
• Vsync is forced off in the control panels.
• Varying AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
• All results show average frame rates
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
• Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.

The Benchmarks

• Synthetic
  • 3DMark 11
  • Heaven 4.0
  • Valley 1.0
  • FireStrike/FireStrike Extreme

• DX9
  • Serious Sam 3 BFE
  • Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare
  • The Witcher 2
  • Borderlands 2
  DX10
  • Crysis
  DX11
  • Alien vs. Predator
  • STALKER, Call of Pripyat
  • Lost Planet 2
  • Civilization V
  • Total War: Shogun II
  • Crysis 2
  • DiRT 3
  • DiRT: ShowDown
  • Batman: Arkham City
  • Battlefield 3
  • Max Payne 3
  • the Secret World
  • Sleeping Dogs
  • Sniper Elite V2
  • Hitman: Absolution
  • Far Cry 3
  • Tomb Raider: 2013
  • Assassin’s Creed 3
  • Crysis 3
  • BioShock: Infinite
  • Metro: Last Light
  • GRID 2
  • Splinter Cell: Blacklist
  • Batman: Arkham Origins

Above is our test bench. Batman: Arkham Origins is ABT’s latest benchmark and it has replaced the recently shutdown Battleforge as game benchmark number thirty.

Before we get to the performance charts, let’s look at overclocking, noise, and temperatures.

Overclocking, Noise and Temperatures

Overclocking the R9 290X is different than overclocking other Radeons.  Here the Hawaii GPU runs so hot, that the fan speed plays a critical role in reaching the maximum overclock without throttling. 94C is the thermal limit that AMD has imposed, and the clocks drop when it is reached.

The following chart shows our results of testing Quiet mode where the fan is locked to a maximum of 40%.  R9 290X Quiet mode is actually louder than an overclocked GTX 780 Ti under full load with 70% fan profile.

Uber mode is much louder and it allows a fan speed of 55% which keeps the Hawaii GPU from throttling.  We always test all of our video cards after being “warmed up” because as you can see from the chart, cold benching in Quiet mode unfairly overstates performance close to Uber mode.To get the highest performance from our PowerColor 290X manual overclock, we set the fan speed to 100% and we then look for the highest performance across our benchmark suite that does not throttle the GPU.  We found that adding +150MHz to the core speed of the 290X kept our GPU mostly in the 1150MHz range with minimal throttling at 100% fan.  We needed MSI’s latest beta 17 of Afterburner to add +.1mV to stabilize it completely and we also needed cool ambient temperatures of 72-75F to maintain our highest clocks.

The Hawaii core was actually stable beyond our +150MHz offset to over 1160MHz, but 100% fan was not enough to keep the hot-running GPU from throttling and performance was generally less overall than with trying to maintain 1150MHz.  We also managed +200MHz on the memory, to raise the clocks from 1250MHz to 1450MHz.  We lost stability at 1500MHz and 1450MHz provided the best overall performance for the memory.

Noise

Benching the R9 290X at 100% fan is irritating.  It is very much like gaming with a nearby hairdryer running non-stop on high.  No closed headphones will block it completely, and you can easily hear the card running in the next room even with a door shut.  In contrast, the fan of the GTX 780 Ti at 100% is acceptable; it is about as loud as the 290X running at 60%.  The GTX 780 Ti fan frequencies are much less irritating even at 100%, it is more a “whoosh” of air instead of the droning noise of the 290X.

AMD has brought an amazing GPU to the market but crippled it with a inadequate cooler for even Uber speeds.  Overclocking brings very difficult tradeoffs to the gamer for 290X the reference version.  It will be interesting to see what cooling solutions AMD’s partners bring to the market next month, as a completely open design will probably overwhelm many cases unequipped to handle Hawaii’s extreme heat.

Let’s head to the performance charts to see how the overclocked $579 PowerColor R9 290X OC compares with the overclocked $499 GTX 780 at stock, as well as against the overclocked $649 GTX 780 Ti.