Overclocking & Overclocked Performance
The overclocking ability of a graphics card is an important buying consideration irrespective of whether the graphics card is low end or enthusiast level. I’m sure everyone will agree that the more extra performance from overclocking – the better. In our overclocking we push each graphics card to its maximum stable core and memory frequencies. Typically we also raise the power limit to the maximum and where possible raise the voltages if this results in higher overclocks being achieved. We always aim for “24/7” stable overclocks that DO NOT result in potential heat on longevity issues so if we do raise the voltage it is still kept within safe parameters. The latest beta version of MSI’s Afterburner software is the overclocking utility of choice: this is because MSI Afterburner Beta versions typically allows you to circumvent overclocking restrictions – particularly those set by AMD.
The XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation is by far the best core overclocker we’ve managed to get. We put this down to the fact XFX offer a fully unlocked voltage, or maybe we got a fairly promising piece of silicon. However, in theory the unlocked voltage allows for higher overclocks and our results suggest this may well be the case. The memory was fairly poor at overclocking, this is due to the use of inferior Elpida memory chips that never overclock as well as Hynix equivalents. Mileage will of course vary between GPUs but the XFX R9 290X (in our testing at least) is a clear winner.
- XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation – 1175MHz core and 1400MHz actual (5600MHz effective, Elpida) memory.
- Powercolor R9 290X PCS+ – 1125MHz core and 1650MHz actual (6600MHz effective, Hynix) memory.
- Gigabyte R9 290X WindForce OC – 1110MHz core and 1500MHz actual (6000MHz effective, Elpida) memory.
- AMD R9 290X Reference – 1100MHz core and 1525MHz actual (6100MHz effective, Elpida memory.
Wow, $450 on Amazon and $540 on Newegg? thats a huge price different. people who bought from newegg must be dumb and didnt do their homework….
People who buy from Newegg over Amazon probably because bad history with Amazon.
can’t edit, they made a huge typo, it’s the same price on amazon as newegg.
LOL…. where did eteknix get the price from?
$540 was the price at the time of writing the review last week. Newegg have reduced their prices since.
I want this so bad, but Blender Cycles only supports Nvidia graphics cards for rendering, from what I have seen. Looks like my renders(http://sh.st/rqLpS) will have to be slow for a while longer.