AMD Radeon R9 290 Avis | 118 Données comparées

The TechPowerUp review of the AMD Radeon R9 290 4 GB highlights the card as a highly disruptive, high-end GPU launched at $399, offering exceptional price-to-performance that undercuts the NVIDIA GTX 780. Key advantages include stellar 2.5K and 4K performance, a 512-bit memory bus, and support for AMD Mantle and TrueAudio. However, the reference cooler is a significant drawback, engineered to run at 94°C under load, resulting in severe noise when the fan profile is adjusted to prevent thermal throttling. The review further notes high power consumption during non-gaming states as a negative factor.

The AMD Radeon R9 290 is a staggeringly quick graphics card built on a slightly cut-down version of the Hawaii XT GPU, delivering exceptional value at a launch price of £320 / $400. Structurally, it only trims away 256 Radeon cores and 16 texture units from its flagship sibling, the R9 290X, while preserving the full 4GB GDDR5 frame buffer, 64 ROPs, and a massive 512-bit memory bus. In real-world benchmarks—such as Bioshock Infinite (55 FPS), GRID 2 (77 FPS), and Total War: Rome II (34 FPS)—the card performs within 5% to 10% of the 290X. This marginal performance gap makes the frame rate differences virtually imperceptible during actual gameplay. Pros and Cons Pros: Unbeatable Value: Offers high-end performance at nearly half the price of competing luxury silicon. Flagship-Level Specs: Keeps the robust 4GB VRAM and 512-bit memory bus intact. Improved Acoustics: A pre-launch driver update restricts the max fan speed to 47%, rendering it noticeably quieter than the noisy 290X. Cons: High Thermals: The core architecture still runs quite hot during heavy gaming workloads. Sub-par Cooler Design: The plastic...