XFX Radeon R9 290X Double Dissipation 4GB GDDR5 Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing (accurate at the time of writing)

The XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation 4GB graphics card currently fetches $550 on Amazon and $540 on Newegg in the USA. In the UK it sells for £420 at Scan Computers and £425 at Amazon. In the UK the XFX R9 290X has a warranty of 2 years while in the USA XFX offer a lifetime warranty if the product is registered with them within 30 days of purchase. If not registered within 30 days the product reverts to the default 2 year warranty. The XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation is a participating card in AMD’s Never Settle Gold game bundle that entitles you to a selection of 3 games for free when you buy from a participating retailer.

Overview 

Despite being one of the most affordable R9 290Xs on the market the XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation is a solid choice. It is cheaper than all competing products on the market yet still offers a surprisingly cool and quiet thermal solution that offers up a sensible balance between noise and cooling. The card also boasts some of the sleekest aesthetics on the market as well as a pretty cool illuminated logo. For North American customers the lifetime warranty is an irresistible option and the generous game bundles offered with this card across a variety of regions also sweetens an already very sweet deal. It’s pretty hard to see why you’d want to pick any other R9 290X on the market based on this performance.

On the downside it does appear to lack some of the additional cooling capacity that we see on triple fan rival products, or triple slot rival products. However, XFX have naturally made a very sensible compromise between price, size and noise and I think the end-result is a solid one. Sure it doesn’t have the best thermal performance, nor does it have the best acoustic performance, but you can easily change acoustic performance with a custom fan profile. Improving cooling performance can also be done with fan profile tweaking but the limits of the dual slot solution are fairly obvious, if you need more cooling performance (which I see no reason why you would because it stays well under thermal throttling levels) then you might consider opting for a triple fan/triple slot variant by a rival vendor or by investing in a water cooling solution for this card as it is the cheapest.

Pros

• Excellent pricing
• Lifetime warranty in North America
• Sticks to dual slot
• Good balance of cooling and noise
• Available with a variety of game bundles
• Great overclocking potential
• Unlocked voltage

Cons

• No Factory overclock
• Some (more expensive) rival products run cooler and/or quieter
• Only 2 year warranty in the UK

“In the market for a custom-cooled AMD R9 290X? If you are then the XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation is a definite consideration for those with a tight budget. It offers up the best pricing on the market, great overclocking potential, game bundles and a great balance between cooling and silence.”

Thank you to XFX for providing this review sample.