AMD Officially Releases The Radeon R9 290 Graphic Card – Enthusiast Level Gaming Performance At $399

AMD has officially launched their Radeon R9 290 graphic card today which is the second card to feature the GCN powered Hawaii GPU core. The Radeon R9 290 comes with the same Hawaii GPU which was featured on the R9 290X last month which currently dominates the $549 market range bringing absolutely stellar performance at a cheaper price range compared to its competition.

[Convas]

This is an excellent value for a higher end GPU.

4GBs of VRAM, TrueAudio support, 512-bit bus, 4.9TFLOPS, and 320GB/s bandwith.

I'm just waiting to see what the non-reference coolers look like because a lot of reviews are stating that the reference is VERY noisy.

[Cueil]

wonder if some of the 7xxx series liquid coolers will work on these cards

[The Killer]

the ps4 will produce probably better looking games with the price of only 399 USD, so why should i choose this expensive GPU over ps4?

i know in order to have a better pc than a ps4 i will need to spend at least 1000 USD.

[Hellbringer]

@The Killer
You can not compare this GPU with the PlayStation 4. This Radeon R9 290 GPU is a whole different level of power (4,9 Teraflops). The PlayStation 4 only has 1,84 Teraflops

The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were already outdated. I can build a better PC for only $500 to $600.

For $250 you can already buy an HD 7970Ghz (4,3 Teraflops. This is more than twice as strong as the PlayStation 4. That should be enough.

[Cueil]

wow... what a fool

[starchild]

@ The Killer

I'm sorry, but you don't have any idea what you are talking about. Even my PC with an i5 2500k and HD 7950 beats the PS4.

For example, I've got my card overclocked and I'm running Battlefield 4 at higher quality levels than the PS4 version. (mostly ultra settings and that's before the Mantle API update is even out).

There's simply no doubt that the consoles are already behind before they have even come out. And, no, it doesn't take a $1,000+ PC to do it.

[The Killer]

compare killzone snowfalls to the best current pc game and please show me the evidence that a PC shooting game looks better than KZ snowfalls.

yes, pc game can look sometimes better than console game do to the constant increase in pc throughput, but AAA console games and be optimized well that can make up the difference in power with the top end PCs.

talking is cheap, show me a game that looks and runs better than killzone snowfalls.

[Neonridr]

@Killer - so you really believe that a graphics card that is equivalent in specs to about a Radeon 7850 is going to look visually better than any PC games?

You honestly believe that just because KZ runs in 1080p that it's the best looking shooter game out there? No offense, but the complexity of some of these new game engines (UE4, FB3, CryEngine 3) are more advanced than the custom engine being used for Killzone.

If the PS4 could produce visuals better than the R290 graphics card, then games like BF4 would be running natively at 1080p with every setting cranked to max, not at 900p with the settings equivalent to Medium/High.

[Dasteru]

@The Killer:

First the game is called Shadowfall not Snowfalls, second, Crysis 3 blows it out of the water in every possible way.

[starchild]

@ The Killer

You guys overhype Killzone Shadowfall. I saw it first hand at PAX Prime and I have also watched lots of high quality gameplay videos and it is decent, but still behind games like Crysis 3 or Battlefield 4 maxed out on PC.

[ABizzel1]

Please everyone pay him no mind, he was born with an non-curable illness....Ignorance.

On topic, this is amazing. AMD has taken over the Mid - High range GPU area thanks to consumer friendly prices.

[Volkama]

Same here, buying one of these when the non-reference coolers hit and probably another when I get a 4K TV. Pending research on how to get 4k60 signal across.

[kneon]

You're going to have to wait for both cards and TVs that support hdmi 2, hdmi 1.4 won't cut it.

Few TVs support hdmi 2 yet, I don't know about the cards though.

[likeaboss302]

Actually most 4K Televisions are upgradable to HDMI 2.0 via a firmware update. Then you can get 60FPS instead of 24FPS over the cable.

[Volkama]

Thanks for the assist!

I've looked a little, Panasonic have a HDMI2 TV about. Samsung have an external box for the inputs so you can "upgrade" the connections rather than the TV. I think Sony claim a firmware update will do it.

I haven't seen any mention of HDMI 2 on the cards though, and i don't know if the TVs can take display port or any other input.

But that's the research that is pending :)

[sinjonezp]

This card is a great value. I would pick it up if had more trust in amd driver support. Will see what nvidia pricing look like post 780ti launch for 770's and 780's.

[starchild]

Yeah, it really does look like a fantastic card for the money. I'm not quite ready to replace my HD 7950 yet, but if I did I would probably go for this R9 290.

I'm sure there will be plenty of effective and quiet coolers from other vendors.

[mistertwoturbo]

Yup except that terrible power consumption, heat output, and noise output.

[likeaboss302]

Smoking hot card in more ways than one! It's the best card for the money hands down and I'm an NVIDIA guy. I love to see competition. Looking forward to see non-reference design coolers.

[hellvaguy]

Performance/price yes. Noise/heat level no. Very on par with the typical amd model. Has its pros and cons.

[The_Truth_24_7]

Nvid-a-who?

[Pintheshadows]

Hmmmm...that is food for thought. I spent a fair bit on a 770 quite recently and as good as that card is I wished I had waited for one of these. That is impressive performance for the price.

[MidnytRain]

For how much? The 770 is starting at $330 now.

[Pintheshadows]

£350 for the Gigabyte 4GB version.

I'm really happy with it for now to be honest, but in the future I may look elsewhere if I need to.

[jeffgoldwin]

Id choose the 770 over the 290 anyways. Both are overkill for only 1080p and you'll have a hard time maxing them out at that resolution ever. Nice thing about the 770 is the noise, low heat/power, but if u want to OC it u have it hotter and nosier (depending on your cooling solution).