AMD Releases 'Affordable' Radeon R9 290 for US$399
Following AMD's most extravagant GPU launch in a long time, the company has released a slightly pared down edition of the Radeon R9 290X in the form of the Radeon R9 290 and made it much more affordable.
Following AMD's most extravagant GPU launch in a long time, the company has launched a slightly pared down edition of the Radeon R9 290X in the form of the Radeon R9 290. With a suggested retail price of just US$399, it's quite a bit more affordable than the company's top offering at US$549, the AMD Radeon R9 290X.
Fortunately, it retains much of the processing prowess and features that the Radeon R9 290X boasted, including AMD TrueAudio technology, AMD Mantle API, 4K gaming and ribbon-less XDMA based AMD CrossFire among others like the improved GCN core. What's different from the "X" edition is a slightly reduced number of stream processing units and a tad lowered clock speeds. This sounds like a great option for those who can't reach for the R9 290X variant.
Model | AMD Radeon R9 290X | AMD Radeon R9 290 |
Core Code | Hawaii | Hawaii |
Transistor Count | > 6 billion | > 6 billion |
Manufacturing Process | 28nm | 28nm |
Core Clock | Up to 1000MHz | Up to 947MHz |
Compute Performance | 5.6 TFLOPS | 4.9 TFLOPS |
Stream Processors | 2816 | 2560 |
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) | 176 | 160 |
Raster Operator units (ROP) | 64 | 64 |
Onboard Memory | 4GB GDDR5 | 4GB GDDR5 |
Memory Clock | 5000MHz | 5000MHz |
DDR Memory Bus | 512-bit | 512-bit |
Memory Bandwidth | 320GB/s | 320GB/s |
PCI Express Interface | PCIe ver 3.0 x16 | PCIe ver 3.0 x16 |
Molex Power Connectors | 1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin | 1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin |
Typical Board Power | TBD | TBD |
Multi GPU Technology | XDMA AMD CrossFire | XDMA AMD CrossFire |
Display Connectivity |
|
|
AMD TrueAudio Technology | Yes | Yes |
API Support | DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, AMD Mantle | |
Launch Price | US$549
US$579 (with BF4 bundle) | US$399 |
This will certainly put pressure on NVIDIA's recently revised price point for the GeForce GTX 780 at US$499 as the GeForce GTX 770 (US$329) is already competing against the Radeon R9 280X currently.
Meanwhile, stay tuned to more local price updates as we gather news of the locally available Radeon R9 290 based products from the usual vendors.
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.