XFX R9 290 DD Double Dissipation GPU Review

XFX R9 290 DD Review

Introduction

The AMD R9 290 is one of our favourite graphics cards at the moment. There is plenty of performance to be found and they usually overclock well giving a decent amount of free performance. The two big flies in the ointment are heat, always a problem but especially so on the R9 290, and that because they overclock so easily the stock performance isn’t always eye-popping.

XFX have been producing graphics cards for as long as we can remember, but it’s been a long while since one has entered OC3D Towers to be run through our benchmark suite.

The Dual Dissipation cooler has been the XFX equivalent of the MSI Twin Frozr, in that it’s existed forever and gradually been refined across the variations. Whereas it once was merely okay, we’ve been told that the current evolution is the canines testicles so we can’t wait to see if it finally solves the R9 290 temperature issues and allows the AMD drivers to make the most of the card without having to declock it.

Technical Specifications

Besides the addition of the Dual Dissipation cooler, the DD in the model name, the XFX R9 290 is a fairly standard model which is perfect for our plug in and go testing today. So let’s take a closer look at it.

General

Product Description : DD RADEON R9 290 947M 4GB D5 DP HDMI 2XDVI
UPC Number : 778656065468

Processor & Bus

Bus Type : PCI-E 3.0
Chipset version : Hawaii Pro
GPU Bus (bit) : 512
GPU Clock : 947MHz
Performance Category : Performance
Stream Processors : 2560

Memory

Memory Bus : 512 bit
Memory Clock : 5.0 GHz
Memory Size : 4 GB
Memory Type : DDR5

Feature Technologies

AMD HD3D Technology : Y
AMD Hybrid Graphics Technology : Y
AMD PowerPlay Technology : Y
AMD Stream Technology : Y

Display Output
Display Port ready : 1.2
Dual link Support : Y
HDMI Ready : 1.4a
Max Supported Resolution (ANALOG) : 2048 x 1536
Max Supported Resolution (DIGITAL) : 2560 x 1600(DVI);4096 x 2160(HDMI;DP)
Output – Display Port : 1
Output – DL-DVI-D : 2
Output – HDMI : 1

Physical

Card Profile : Dual
Thermal Solution : DD Fansink
Card Dimension (cm) : 29.5 x 14.3 x 4.2
Card Dimension (inch) : 11.61 x 5.63 x 1.65

Includes
6-pin to 4-pin power cable : 1
8-pin to 6-pin power cable : 1
Driver Disk Installation Guide : 1
Installation DVD : 1

Requirements

External Power – 6-pins : 1
External Power – 8-pins : 1
Minimum Power Supply Requirement : 750 watt