Widescreen Gaming Forum
https://www.wsgf.org/phpBB3/

Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
https://www.wsgf.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=26706		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  skipclarke [ 11 Oct 2013, 03:31 ]
Post subject:  Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews

I wanted to let everyone know that we do have reviews in the works for the just announced Radeon R7 & R9 series. I have an R7 260X 2GB, R9 270X 2GB and R9 280X 3GB in my position. I knew that AMD was having the Tech Day broadcast from Hawaii, but was surprised to learn soon after that I would be receiving cards. I actually got the cards delivered before I got the emails from AMD. Following the cards there was a press briefing last week, along with the usual slideshow press deck.

Prior to this I was neck deep in two articles for the WSGF. The first article was looking at the gaming power of the latest AMD A10 APUs. I ran each chip through Geekbench, Cinebench, as well as a suite of gaming titles. In total I ran 14 tests on 9 titles. The second was a large CPU shoot-out to look at a range of CPU/APUs and their real-world impact on gaming. I tested 3 Intel CPUs, 4 AMD CPUs and 3 AMD APUs - each with three video cards. I tested three titles, each at 1080p and 3x1080p Eyefinity. In total I ran 180 gaming tests, in addition to Geekbench and Cinebench.

While I would have loved to jump into the new GPUs, I was simply too deep into the testing cycle on these existing platforms. That testing has completed, and I have updated my test rig to boot. I have migrated to an AMD FX-8350, and upgraded to a 480GB SSD as my primary drive.

While I'm working on the text for those articles, I will begin updating the drivers on the new rig and digging into the new GPUs. I will be testing at 1080p (and possibly 2560x1080 21:9 on the lower end card). I will then be testing 1080p Eyefinity, as well as UHD 4k (using a 2x2 Eyefinity group). Additionally, I've purchased an IR heat gun, an SPL sound meter and a Killiwatt power usage monitor to help provide a more well rounded look at the cards.

Thanks for your patience, and please let me know if there are any particular titles you would like for me to test. I probably can't get to everything up front, but I do plan to circle back around and do more articles on "best playable settings" for games on these cards.

Read More
Author:  Delphium [ 11 Oct 2013, 17:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
Awesome, look forward to the articles :D
Author:  GeneralAdmission [ 13 Oct 2013, 06:16 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
Very cool of AMD to keep sending the hardware! Eagerly awaiting the reviews.

Regarding games, as long as these cards can play Crysis, I'm good. ;)

-edit-
Just noticed you got a Killawat. These are fantastic. I've used mine to measure several appliances as well as my PC. Could not recommend this gadget more.
Author:  Zencyde [ 14 Oct 2013, 18:02 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
Can't wait to see the results! Glad to hear that you're throwing a Kill-A-Watt at it too. Powerswitch let me borrow one for a while. I'm shocked at how little power comes from the screens and how much comes from just the GPU and processor.
Author:  Timobkg [ 17 Oct 2013, 04:23 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
In the interest of saving you time, I feel you could probably skip the 1080p benchmarks. Unless you're going to do highest playable settings benchmakrs, ala HardOCP, I'm just not sure that doing a set of 1080p benchmarks would be useful given that there are so many other sites that already do 1080p benchmarks.

Eyefinity bechnmarks, on the other hand, would be very useful as few sites do those, and those that do tend to limit it to the highest GPUs or dual-video card tests.

Along those lines, I find highest playable settings benchmarks, ala HardOCP, much more useful than straight max/min/avg benchmarks.

Anyway, thanks again for doing these reviews. I know how incredibly time consuming it is, and I appreciate it.
Author:  Suedenim [ 17 Oct 2013, 09:06 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
Is Eyefinity on Linux a possibility? Given the announcement of SteamOS and Nvidia and AMD getting their linux driver act together having another PC gaming option would be great. No DX restrictions to worry about, a bit more OS freedom and hopefully improved Linux games selection :)
Author:  Timobkg [ 17 Oct 2013, 23:11 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
Eyefinity works on Linux. That said, the graphics drivers for Linux from both AMD and Nvidia are nowhere near the stability, compatibility, and polish of their Windows drivers. Once SteamOS comes out, that could certainly change.
Author:  ColdSun [ 18 Oct 2013, 00:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
Heres hoping theres a wide range of R9 cards that have 4+ Display port connections.
Author:  skipclarke [ 18 Oct 2013, 21:05 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
Timobkg wrote:
In the interest of saving you time, I feel you could probably skip the 1080p benchmarks. Unless you're going to do highest playable settings benchmakrs, ala HardOCP, I'm just not sure that doing a set of 1080p benchmarks would be useful given that there are so many other sites that already do 1080p benchmarks.

Eyefinity bechnmarks, on the other hand, would be very useful as few sites do those, and those that do tend to limit it to the highest GPUs or dual-video card tests.

Along those lines, I find highest playable settings benchmarks, ala HardOCP, much more useful than straight max/min/avg benchmarks.

Anyway, thanks again for doing these reviews. I know how incredibly time consuming it is, and I appreciate it.


I went a head and did the 1080p for this. I did basically do max settings. I was already running them for the CPU shoot-out I'm doing. Future stuff will go more in depth on games in EF/S and 4k UHD.
Author:  Kiteman [ 22 Oct 2013, 05:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Our AMD Radeon R7 & R9 Reviews
A lot has been written this year about the stutter problems when using more than one AMD card. Hoping that you can get your hands on two of the cards you are reviewing I would be curious to know if this problem has been resolved with the new generation of cards and drivers. Supposedly it has ....
My prime interest is the 280x and how it handles high quality games in terms of graphics such as Battlefield 4 at a 4k resolution. I wonder if the 3GB buffer is sufficient for 4k. Hopefully the 290x will be out soon as well; I'm really curious about it stacks up against the Titan.
Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
https://www.phpbb.com/