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

Conclusion

This has been quite an interesting exploration for us in evaluating the $579 PowerColor R9 290X OC versus the $499 GTX 780 and the $649 GTX 780 Ti.  At Quiet and Uber reference and mildly overclocked 1030MHz speeds, the 290X did well performance-wise slotting above the reference GTX 780, but well below the GTX 780 Ti.

Comparing game bundles, the GeForce Holiday bundle including Assassin’s Creed IV–Black Flag, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and Batman: Arkham Origins offered with the GTX 780/Ti is a better deal for most gamers than paying $30 for an included copy of Battlefield 4 in our opinion.  AMD has confused the issue as only some editions of the 290X actually include the copy at $549, so the consumer has to be certain that they are even getting the BF4 bundle from the retailer when they buy it.

We see good overclockability when the PowerColor R9 280X is overclocked beyond 1030MHz, and it scales well in performance. Unfortunately, the trade off for successfully overclocking the 290X is a lot of fan noise.  For its $579 price, once overclocked, the PowerColor R9 290X gives good bang for buck compared to the performance of the GTX 780 Ti which is priced at $649. Unfortunately, they are a contrast – the GTX 780/Ti is quiet at maximum overclock while the Uber R9 290X is loud, nevermind overclocked.

The 4GB vRAM of the 290X over 4GB vRAM for the GTX 780/Ti may be valuable for gaming at multiple screen 4K resolutions using multi-GPU 290X CrossFire although we expect noise would again be a significant issue with more than one of these reference cards in any case.

Pros

• The PowerColor R9 290X OC BF4 edition provides good performance for a 4GB $579 card and it easily beats the $1000 GTX Titan when it is user overclocked and does well against the GTX 780.
• 4GB over 3GB of vRAM can be very useful in some 4K multiple display situations.
• Two or three of these cards in CrossFire (spacing the cards a slot apart) can be used together to increase performance far beyond a single card.
• 3-panel Eyefinity plus an accessory display can be driven off of a single R9 290X.
• PowerColor offers a 2-year warranty and good customer service.

Cons

• The PowerColor R9 290X Battlefield 4 game bundle (for $30 more than $549 for no bundle) is inferior to Nvidia’s 3-game Holiday bundle with every GTX 780/Ti.
• Noise.  Uber mode is loud and 100% fan required for a maximum overclock is completely intolerable.  The reference cooler is inadequate to keep the Hawaii GPU from throttling in Uber mode even in a cool room.

The Verdict:

• If you are looking for a $549 card, or $579 bundled with Battlefield 4, and don’t mind fan noise or are looking to watercool it, the R9 290X may be a good choice.  Unfortunately, the AMD reference cooler is simply inferior to Nvidia’s coolers.

We do not know what the future will bring, but we are certainly looking forward to the non-reference cooling for Hawaii and R9 290X. If you currently game on an older generation video card, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The competition is hot and Nvidia offers their own set of features including multi-display Surround and PhysX. They are also offering a holiday bundle of 3 games and a $100 discount on Shield with the GTX 780 or GTX 780 Ti.

Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT. You can expect an article on supercomputing later on today and a brand new game performance evaluation tomorrow! And don’t forget to check our Forums.  ABT forum tech discussions are among the best to be found anywhere!

Happy Gaming!