WEBVTT 00:00:06.640 --> 00:00:12.240 the fractal design define r4 case gets featured on the WAN Show build logs of 00:00:10.559 --> 00:00:17.039 the week section more than any other case click now to learn more about it 00:00:14.799 --> 00:00:22.320 welcome to my unboxing and review of one of the most anticipated graphics card 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:26.240 launches in recent memory this is the r9 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:29.519 290x from AMD it is their new ultimate 00:00:26.240 --> 00:00:31.840 performance flagship single GPU card it 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:37.440 features the same gcn architecture as the last gen 7000 series as well as the 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:39.600 wii u and the ps4 and the xbox one but 00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:43.600 with some performance enhancements as well as some feature tweaks so let's 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:48.480 start with a quick rundown of the specs the GPU core inside here is clocked at 00:00:46.239 --> 00:00:54.480 one gigahertz which considering that it is a fixed billion transistor GPU core 00:00:51.920 --> 00:01:00.039 is nothing short of very very impressive it has four gigs of 512 bit gddr5 memory 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:05.760 it's got 2816 stream processors so yeah there's 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:11.280 more performance and it's four gigs of gddr5 memory are running on a 512-bit 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:15.119 bus meaning there is massive memory bandwidth and a ton of memory available 00:01:13.360 --> 00:01:19.280 to it and there's a very good reason for that it is optimized for greater than hd 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:25.840 gaming compared to the last generation 7970 gigahertz edition it has twice the 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:30.320 pixel fill rate performance almost and nearly double the geometry performance 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:34.159 so that basically means it's made to take what the last gen could do which is 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:38.960 kind of two and a half k gaming amp it up a notch and deliver that kind of 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:40.159 performance at 4k resolutions on the 00:01:38.960 --> 00:01:46.320 front of the card other than the upgraded industrial design there's not much to talk about other than this right 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:50.000 here the fan has been significantly altered versus previous generation 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:55.119 products so the fan profile the software that controls it is able to ramp up and 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:59.280 ramp down the speeds much more slowly making it sound less aggressive to your 00:01:56.960 --> 00:02:04.240 ears this ties in very nicely with their new upgraded powertune technology so 00:02:01.759 --> 00:02:07.920 think of it kind of like GPU boost 2.0 for AMD they're not really going to want 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:11.680 me to say that but let's face it so it's taking four pillars so that is voltage 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:16.720 clock speed power and temperature and then balancing 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:20.400 the performance of the GPU against all of those things in order to squeeze as 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:24.400 much performance as possible out of the graphics card now what AMD says is 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:29.599 unique about their implementation is that the voltage control is incredibly 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:32.080 granular and it can switch voltage steps 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:36.400 and around 10 microseconds meaning that it is always pushing to squeeze as much 00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:42.000 perf as possible out of the card now power tune comes dialed in at 95 degrees 00:02:39.200 --> 00:02:44.879 celsius however you know some folks are not necessarily comfortable with their 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:49.920 graphics card running at 95 degrees it'll run at that temperature all the time because of the way it's designed 00:02:48.160 --> 00:02:54.160 don't worry power tune is fully customizable so if you decide you have a 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:58.319 different maximum fan speed you want or you have a different maximum temperature 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:01.840 you want to see it'll adjust all the other parameters so that is clock speed 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.680 therefore performance in order to keep in line with your expectations now 00:03:03.519 --> 00:03:09.120 NVIDIA ships their cards dialed in at 80 degrees by default but it should be 00:03:07.440 --> 00:03:12.959 noted that it was only a generation or two ago that NVIDIA was also saying it 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:16.080 was fine for gpus to run at 100 degrees flipping around to the top of the card 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:19.360 we find where the plastic shroud is joined to the metal unisync that 00:03:17.440 --> 00:03:25.200 provides cooling for the RAM and vrm components we also find cross market no 00:03:22.480 --> 00:03:29.120 no crossfire connectors AMD has tested the card in fact they left the contact 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:33.280 points on the pcb so that they could actually ghetto wire one up to make sure 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:38.799 that it doesn't make a difference and they tested it down to PCIe 8x two cards 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:42.000 running in 8x gen2 and saw no performance difference between putting 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:46.480 the connectors on and not putting the connectors on so the crossfire connector 00:03:43.920 --> 00:03:50.720 is gone on this card we also find the power connector so there's an eight pin 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:56.080 PCIe and a six pin PCIe plug and finally ah yes the bioswitch has made a return 00:03:53.360 --> 00:04:00.319 so by default it comes with uber and quiet fan profiles in two separate 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:05.200 bioses and you can flip between them as you want and by default the quiet mode 00:04:02.480 --> 00:04:09.439 is closer to the i o panel so naturally we have gone and put it in uber mode on 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:13.360 the rear i o we find ventilation so this is a blower design card so while some 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:18.320 air is going to come out up here most of it's going to come out the back of the card and be exhausted from your case as 00:04:16.479 --> 00:04:23.840 well as for all digital outputs all digital you 00:04:21.280 --> 00:04:28.240 might say oh dvi to vga adapter no no adapter the analog signaling is not 00:04:26.320 --> 00:04:32.560 there AMD has made some other tweaks to this though as well so check this out 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:36.720 two dvi ports one HDMI can't run ifinity off of those three ports whoa hey now 00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:42.160 you can you can run three 1080p monitors off dvi dvi and HDMI you can still use 00:04:39.840 --> 00:04:47.440 displayport for ifinity but it's totally up to you matching dvi monitors no big 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:50.720 deal an HDMI to dvi cable will take care of that with no conversion they've made 00:04:49.440 --> 00:04:54.479 some changes to the way that they allocate resources in order to make that 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:58.479 possible which is very very cool displayport you can also get some 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:03.600 commercially available displayport hubs now which will allow you to easily run 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:08.240 six displays off of this card so there is no need for an ifinity 6 edition card 00:05:06.080 --> 00:05:12.400 anymore now speaking of the HDMI port on the back AMD was the first to implement 00:05:10.320 --> 00:05:16.639 sound over HDMI on their graphics cards a couple generations ago and they are 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:20.720 throwing another first at us with this card this is the second card on the 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:24.880 market to implement AMD's true audio technology so that is a programmable dsp 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:30.240 that is built right onto the card that is dedicated hardware just to process 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:32.639 audio that means lower CPU utilization 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:37.440 better surround effects less clutchy approximations of environmental effects 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:42.000 using reverb as well as generally more immersive sound it does rely on support 00:05:39.919 --> 00:05:45.199 from middleware developers as well as from game developers so given that 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:50.000 there's only a couple cards in the market right now that support it maybe it's not going to be a huge thing yet 00:05:48.320 --> 00:05:53.360 but in the future thumbs up AMD for implementing that 00:05:51.919 --> 00:05:57.759 flipping over to the back of the card we've got the GPU itself so that's 00:05:55.199 --> 00:06:03.039 clocked at up to 1 gigahertz and then we've also got yeah count them 16 memory 00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:06.319 chips so AMD has opted to mount all of the memory on the front of the card 00:06:04.479 --> 00:06:11.680 where it can be cooled by that unisync and because of its 512-bit memory 00:06:09.039 --> 00:06:16.240 interface it actually needs 16 memory modules in order to function 00:06:15.440 --> 00:06:21.120 so there you go guys quite the engineering feat cramming all of that in there while 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:24.639 we're back here i want to take a moment to talk about zerocore technology so 00:06:22.880 --> 00:06:29.600 when your computer is idling and your screen turns off AMD cards can actually 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:34.479 almost completely turn off the graphics card so it uses almost no power we've 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:38.240 already seen this before but just a reminder guys zero core is a thing and 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.680 it does help save power if you're not the kind of person who always puts their 00:06:40.080 --> 00:06:46.319 computer to sleep or turns it off when they're not using it next up we've got 00:06:43.919 --> 00:06:50.800 mantle which is a potential game changer it's going to be supported by this card 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:55.039 and all gcn architecture cards it is a new API that allows more direct 00:06:52.960 --> 00:06:58.880 communication between the game engine itself and the hardware inside your 00:06:57.440 --> 00:07:03.039 graphics card rather than going through directx which is an intermediary layer 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:08.000 that doesn't allow for the same kind of bare metal programming for an individual 00:07:05.599 --> 00:07:13.280 graphics card architecture it's not the same as a next-gen console even though 00:07:10.400 --> 00:07:17.280 they use a gcn architecture but AMD is hoping that because of the similar 00:07:14.960 --> 00:07:21.599 architectures some of the principles that developers are using to optimize on 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:26.000 those consoles can be used through mantle to get better performance on AMD 00:07:23.840 --> 00:07:29.840 cards it'll rely heavily on developer support so battlefield 4 is going to 00:07:27.599 --> 00:07:34.639 have mantle support coming in december and at their developer conference in 00:07:31.919 --> 00:07:38.639 november 2013 we are expecting to see announcements from a lot of other 00:07:36.479 --> 00:07:42.479 developers based on the the rumors that i've heard chirping around now before we 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:46.000 get into performance numbers i want to talk about overclocking we run all of 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:50.400 our cards overclocked and overclocking is very different on 290x so instead of 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:56.400 the traditional clock speed slider and fan speed slider now you set a maximum 00:07:53.280 --> 00:07:58.960 fan speed and you have a little heat map 00:07:56.400 --> 00:08:03.520 grid within AMD's overdrive utility that allows you to see how the settings 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:08.000 you're applying and it's a percentage based overclock now not a clock speed 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:11.440 based overclock affect both the clock speed as well as the temperature and the 00:08:09.599 --> 00:08:14.639 power targets and how all those things work together so you're going to want to 00:08:12.960 --> 00:08:18.240 spend a little bit of time learning about that before you go and try and 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:22.000 overclock this card now for us we were running an uber mode we ran at 1080p and 00:08:20.479 --> 00:08:28.479 then we did a special head-to-head battle between r9 290x and gtx 780 at 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:33.120 two and a half k however we don't have a 4k monitor at this time and AMD informs 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:37.919 me that the 290x doesn't really stretch its legs and show its metal until you 00:08:35.839 --> 00:08:41.839 hook it up to a 4k display without further ado 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:44.800 off to you slick there has been a ton of anticipation over these numbers so i'm 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:49.519 just going to go right into it and something that a lot of people are going to notice right off the bat is that this 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:52.800 card is not actually topping our charts to explain we have been running our 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:57.040 graphics card tests for quite a while now with everything overclocked to the 00:08:54.560 --> 00:09:01.200 wall and this test is no different we're running everything overclocked as much 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:04.399 as possible and we found that the 290x actually comes out of the box quite 00:09:02.880 --> 00:09:08.800 aggressively clocked and there isn't a ton of headroom left now 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:11.600 we were interested when it started not being at the top of all our charts so i 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:17.200 did a little bit of investigation and when the 780 and 290x are both at stock 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:21.680 the 290x and the 780 often switch position the 290x is actually usually on 00:09:19.920 --> 00:09:26.800 top but we run all of our tests overclocked so moving on another thing 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:32.160 to note is that this card is about 550 and a 780 is about 650 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:38.000 maybe give a few more depending on where you are now at about 20 cheaper in our 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:44.080 1080p benchmarks it's only 10 slower jumping to 2560 by 1440p we noticed 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:46.959 actually that the story got even sweeter at about only five percent loss in 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:50.959 performance that makes that whole price performance thing even better we were 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:54.880 seeing ten percent on 1080p and now we're only seeing five percent that's 00:09:52.880 --> 00:09:57.760 great moving up to 4k it's supposed to be even better we unfortunately don't 00:09:56.560 --> 00:10:01.360 have those numbers as we don't have a screen that can support that though 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:05.120 another thing to note is that with star citizen everything is kind of skewed 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:09.360 that game is not released yet that game is not optimized yet and 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:13.279 i kind of think it's gonna happen but mantle is not on it yet at all so those 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:17.839 three things will actually change the game a ton we just wanted to include it 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:20.640 because star citizen no actual real logical reason we just wanted to show 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:24.880 how it's performing right now just in case you're one of those guys that's going to jump on the hanger module 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:29.040 that's going to jump on dog fighting that's going to jump on everything in the future because you're a big follower 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:32.399 of star citizen and we know there is a ton of you out there if you like the 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:36.560 video like the video if you just like the video dislike the video and in the 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:40.000 comments below what are you going for are you going for that sensible price 00:10:38.560 --> 00:10:42.959 per performance route or are you going for the hardcore i want to be at the top 00:10:41.839 --> 00:10:49.040 of the charts with crazy amounts of overclocking and all that kind of stuff angle what is your angle and all as 00:10:47.200 --> 00:11:01.840 always be sure to subscribe to Linus tech tips