PowerColor R9 290X PCS+ Review

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The PowerColor PCS+ R9 290X comes in a very interesting package. The main PCS+ logo is actually the lid to the inside box and the cardboard part has a big cutout. Surprisingly for such a high-end card there is a paucity of anything much included as accessories. You get the card, a power adaptor, the driver CD we all instantly ignore and… that’s it. No games as part of the AMD Evolved suite, no case badges, just a card. Hmm.

      

Knowing that the Hawaii GPU’s are like little furnaces it’s great to see PowerColor make such a concerted effort to provide a cooler than, at first glance at least, looks like it could cool the very fires of hell. Which is fortunate, because judging from our previous experience with R9 290Xs they’re about as hot as an Epicurean in Dante’s Inferno. The reverse of the PCS+ has a solid back plate to help keep things rigid under even the most demanding circumstances.

      

It’s great to see a cooler than seems to be designed for the card its on. We’ve seen a few that had more bits hanging over the edges than an over 60s nudist camp, but the PowerColor design is very well crafted. Shiny copper heatpipes always make us happy, and these are very shiny indeed.

      

At the business end the R9 290X PCS+ is similar to all the other 290X’s, with a 8+6 power input and the regular AMD selection of display outputs. We think you’ll agree it’s a good looking card.