14 DAY TRIAL // You would think that AMD's Radeon R9 series of graphics adapters is already overpowered enough, but that doesn't seem to be an opinion shared by the ones actually making and selling the things. Least of all MSI.
Micro-Star International has formally launched the Radeon R9 290X Gaming 8G graphics adapter, which not only has more memory than usual but gets a faster GPU as well.
Not that we're that surprised about the latter development. A board with double the normal memory amount definitely sounds like something worth giving a clock tweak or two.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We may as well comb through the technical details of the new video card properly, so here we go.
The MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming 8G
First off, the Hawaii graphics processing unit runs at 1,040 MHz, at least in OC Mode. The board has two of them, you see. One where the fans work silently but the card is also pretty restrained, performance-wise, and one when everything goes full power. That's the OC Mode.
The silent mode might turn out to be more important than you think. Not only does it greatly save power when you're just browsing the net or something, but it keeps the fans silent.
Oh sure, MSI used some of the quietest on the market, but it still had to prioritize performance, and two of them are bound to make a bit of noise when they spin at full throttle.
Still, even then, the maximum noise output of the twin Frozr IV cooler shouldn't be that high. Definitely not enough to make itself heard when you're using some earphones / headphones.
In addition to the overclocked GPU, the newcomer has 8 GB of GDDR5 VRAM operating at 5,500 MHz, which is 500 MHz more than on the 4 GB R9 290X.
Besides the GPU and memory upgrades, and the cooler of course, the card isn't all that shocking, for a high-end model anyhow. You get DisplayPort / HDMI / 2x DL-DVI-D connectors, GPU / VDDCI Overvoltage (via Afterburner OC), and two power ports (one 8-pin and one 6-pin).
Availability and pricing
Since MSI has formally launched the R9 290X Gaming 8G, you can expect retailers to add it to their lists any day now, if they haven't already. No official price was offered, but it will probably be of around $600 / €600 or so, maybe more given the VRAM. Then again, AMD did recently cut the prices of the R9 series.
