Sapphire R9 290x Tri-X 8GB Graphics Card Review

[section_title title=Conclusion]

Conclusion

A long 18 months on from AMDs first launch of the R9 290x 4GB model with the reference blowers and today, reviewing another R9 290x, but this time with a whopping 8GB of VRAM.  Surely AMD are intending to release their 390x sometime in the near future?  NVIDIA have already had a string of new cards and are just playing catch up with themselves currently; AMD has left me underwhelmed as a company for the past year but can all be redeemed today?  The Sapphire R9 290x Tri-X 8GB card offers something that the previous versions don’t; double the VRAM which for those e-peen wearing elitist jerks who think VRAM is the ultimate performance must have, they will be happy.  Is it worth a purchase and what’s the deal with this super AMD card?

Performance was a very interesting affair in all honesty with a clear level pegging of NVIDIA’s GTX 970 in most instances and even kept up with the GTX 980 when VRAM was heavily intensive; one of the huge benefits of this card is being able to handle oodles and oodles of texture packs.  However with that being said, in less VRAM heavy games the GTX 970 did keep itself ahead but given the price difference, NVIDIA’s blatant disregard as to what 4GB of VRAM on a GTX 970 actually constitutes of, it’s a pretty even playing field for me.  The strongest showing for me was in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor where it managed to equal the ASUS GTX 980 with relative ease; Mordor is a heavily VRAM intensive game and is well known for favouring cards with higher VRAM.  Overclocking performance however on this particular sample was heavily disappointing and if this is an across the board average, the NVIDIA GTX 970 will surpass it with absolute ease when overclocked; it beats it in pretty much everything at 1080p as it is.  That is the price of silicone lottery, some samples are good and others are total dogs.  This is why I say take overclocking results with a pinch of salt and check out other media to get an average of sorts and that way, you won’t be left disappointed.

On the design front, Sapphire could have had a fairly easy design award today if they had the thought to include a back plate with this particular model; even most GTX 970’s come with back plates these days with a couple being the exception; the MSI GTX 970 Gaming being one that springs to mind.  With that criticism out of the way, I feel that the R9 290x Tri-X is a very welcomed change from the typical colour schemes currently trending throughout components; yes I like black and red but sometimes changed is a good thing.  With Sapphire offering something different, it might give the impression that I am being slightly unbiased towards non black and red components; couldn’t be further from the truth as my current test system is red and black.  Anyway, the Sapphire R9 290x Tri-X 8GB card has a great looking cooler, a nice colour scheme and a pleasing aesthetic, but the lack of a back plate at its current price tag be enough for me to talk myself out of a purchase; not what you want really!

Without touching on the gazillion AMD features other than the latest, AMD FreeSync, which I even dedicated a page to in the review as I really like the concept, the architecture of this card is already 18 months old so it’s hard to be excited about this; other than for the 8GB of VRAM of course.  Now with a 512bit memory bus, it certainly does help the card in VRAM heavy games and as I have already said, puts it in line with a GTX 980 at 1440p in some games; this equates to me as an easy performance award at the end of the day, especially given the price tag that Sapphire are asking in comparison to NVIDIA for their GTX 980.

Going further on the pricing, you can pick this card up for £329.99 at Overclockers UK but most other retailers should hopefully be a similar price point; a good price in my opinion.  One little thing I would point out is that the NVIDIA GTX 970 which beats this card at 1080p is a good £30-50 cheaper making it a little more desirable if you aren’t fussed about a whopping amount of VRAM; if you do want to future proof your card and actually want all the VRAM you are paying for, it makes this card a no brainer.  Although the cooler is a little loud under load, it’s certainly no worse than some other cards on the market and with no room for a semi passively cooled design unlike NVIDIA’s Maxwell GPU, AMD have neither improved or got worse with their hardware; 8GB though is a very nice touch and if you are into rendering, high velocity Photoshop editing or any form of CAD, 8GB of VRAM is sure to come in handy.

Overall, the Sapphire R9 290x Tri-X 8GB card with its doubled VRAM actually gives an even more viable option for 4K gaming for those not wanting to be on team NVIDIA; not everybody does but I am totally indifferent.  Although this card is just powerful enough for 1440p at Ultra, it isn’t going to manage 4K HD resolutions on its own but in Crossfire, this particular card will make the most out of the latest resolution to be popular; even though I still find it a totally irrelevant technology currently.  If I had the money to spend on a card around £300 give or take £30 or £40 and I wanted the better bang for buck, NVIDIA wouldn’t get my money this time round and I would firmly purchase one of these.  Can’t really give it a better endorsement than that really can I?

Huge thanks to Sapphire for sending the R9 290x Tri-X 8GB graphics card in for review today!