AMD AIB partners launch 8GB Radeon R9 290X cards today

by Mark Tyson on 6 November 2014, 12:05

HEXUS readers cannot fail to have noticed that AMD has launched its new AMD Radeon R9 290X cards equipped with 8GB of memory today. A thorough review and analysis of one of these graphics cards, made by Sapphire, was published here on HEXUS as the NDA lifted at 6am GMT.

As well as the Sapphire Vapor-X card, we are expecting to see 8GB AMD Radeon R9 290X cards released from most of AMD AIB partners. Already we have received notifications and details of cards from MSI, Powercolor and of course Sapphire but we have also heard rumours of an XFX made 8GB card and it would be surprising if Gigabyte didn't release one shortly.

Tarinder noted in the HEXUS review of the Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X 8GB that a £70 premium over the Vapor-X 4GB version is asked for, despite the extra RAM's limited benefits. Depending upon your AIB manufacturer preference and competitive pricing some of the alternatives could well appeal to would-be buyers.

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth high-end Radeon bundle add-on

Just in time for its high-end 8GB Radeon launch AMD has added a new AAA title to its free games roster. We previously covered the news of the AMD Never Settle Space Edition bundle and its expansion to include Alien: Isolation and a Star Citizen racer. That's great for many AMD Radeon buyers but the top end Radeon card buyers are now going to get Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth for free on top of their Never Settle Space Edition goodies.

As noted by TechSpot, the free 'Civ' game is available to buyers of AMD's Radeon R9 285X, 290, and 290X graphics cards, starting from today. Buyers, who purchase via a participating retailer, will receive a redemption code. The offer ends on 28^th Feb next year or when the codes run out, whichever is sooner. Codes must be used by 28^th Feb. A maximum of three codes per household will be given – even if you buy more than three of these top end graphics cards…

Civilization: Beyond Earth makes use of AMD's Mantle API. It seems appropriate that AMD is answering Nvidia's recent 'Pick Your Path' bundling of a choice of a Ubisoft GameWorks enhanced title with this game.

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Support AMD but this just hints of slight desperation in the face of 970. Consumers aren't that gullible anymore, there's more than enough info available on the web nowadays.

Club 3D has just announced its Radeon R9 290X 8Gb royalAce. However its product page link doesn't work at this time. It also confirms the new Civilisation bundle with Club 3D R9 290, 290X and 295X2 cards.

Pleiades
… Consumers aren't that gullible anymore ….

It's cute that you think so ;)

8GB is more than 4GB, so 8GB is better. That's obvious. The fact that it isn't noticably better is neither here nor there to the vast majority of consumers. They'll just see the bigger number and go for it. And sad to say they really are that gullible. Plus OEMs love bigger numbers, so any 8GB cards that don't get sold before the next generation come out will just get passed round to HP/Dell/etc., who also sell technology based on bigger numbers.

Besides, as Hexus pointed out in their review, there are games available that benefit noticably from more than 4GB of frame buffer, to the point where an 8GB 290X is faster in those games than a 4GB GTX 980. I don't get the feeling this is desperation in the face of the 970 at all - the price premium alone suggests it's simply not targeting the same part of the market. Rather it's an obvious enhancement to its top end GPU to give it the edge in some, very specific, circumstances. I'd put money on an 8GB GTX 980 not being far behind…

Pleiades
Support AMD but this just hints of slight desperation in the face of 970. Consumers aren't that gullible anymore, there's more than enough info available on the web nowadays.

It's more about playing on your strengths @ 4K the 290X and 980 are quite close, 8GB is definitely going to help with newer games.

Shame this doesn't have multiple displayport outputs like the 295x2.

AMD AIB partners launch 8GB Radeon R9 290X cards today

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