The AMD Radeon R9 290X Review

by Ryan Smith on October 24, 2013 12:01 AM EST

To say it’s been a busy month for AMD is probably something of an understatement. After hosting a public GPU showcase in Hawaii just under a month ago, the company has already launched the first 5 cards in the Radeon 200 series – the 280X, 270X, 260X, 250, and 240 – and AMD isn’t done yet. Riding a wave of anticipation and saving the best for last, today AMD is finally launching the Big Kahuna: the Radeon R9 290X.

The 290X is not only the fastest card in AMD’s 200 series lineup, but the 290 series in particular also contains the only new GPU in AMD’s latest generation of video cards. Dubbed Hawaii, with the 290 series AMD is looking to have their second wind between manufacturing node launches. By taking what they learned from Tahiti and building a refined GPU against a much more mature 28nm process – something that also opens the door to a less conservative design – AMD has been able to build a bigger, better Tahiti that continues down the path laid out by their Graphics Core Next architecture while bringing some new features to the family.

Bigger and better isn’t just a figure of speech, either. The GPU really is bigger, and the performance is unquestionably better. After vying with NVIDIA for the GPU performance crown for the better part of a year, AMD fell out of the running for it earlier this year after the release of NVIDIA’s GK110 powered GTX Titan, and now AMD wants that crown back.

AMD GPU Specification Comparison
	AMD Radeon R9 290X	AMD Radeon R9 280X	AMD Radeon HD 7970	AMD Radeon HD 6970
Stream Processors	2816	2048	2048	1536
Texture Units	176	128	128	96
ROPs	64	32	32	32
Core Clock	727MHz?	850MHz	925MHz	880MHz
Boost Clock	1000MHz	1000MHz	N/A	N/A
Memory Clock	5GHz GDDR5	6GHz GDDR5	5.5GHz GDDR5	5.5GHz GDDR5
Memory Bus Width	512-bit	384-bit	384-bit	256-bit
VRAM	4GB	3GB	3GB	2GB
FP64	1/8	1/4	1/4	1/4
TrueAudio	Y	N	N	N
Transistor Count	6.2B	4.31B	4.31B	2.64B
Typical Board Power	~300W (Unofficial)	250W	250W	250W
Manufacturing Process	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 28nm	TSMC 40nm
Architecture	GCN 1.1	GCN 1.0	GCN 1.0	VLIW4
GPU	Hawaii	Tahiti	Tahiti	Cayman
Launch Date	10/24/13	10/11/13	12/28/11	12/15/10
Launch Price	$549	$299	$549	$369

We’ll dive into the full architectural details of Hawaii a bit later, but as usual let’s open up with a quick look at the specs of today’s card. Hawaii is a GCN 1.1 part – the second such part from AMD – and because of that comparisons with older GCN parts are very straightforward. For gaming workloads in particular we’re looking at a GCN GPU with even more functional blocks than Tahiti and even more memory bandwidth to feed it, and 290X performs accordingly.

Compared to Tahiti, AMD has significantly bulked up both the front end and the back end of the GPU, doubling each of them. The front end now contains 4 geometry processor and rasterizer pairs, up from 2 geometry processors tied to 4 rasterizers on Tahiti, while on the back end we’re now looking at 64 ROPs versus Tahiti’s 32. Meanwhile in the computational core AMD has gone from 32 CUs to 44, increasing the amount of shading/texturing hardware by 38%.

On the other hand GPU clockspeeds on 290X are being held consistent versus the recently released 280X, with AMD shipping the card with a maximum boost clock of 1GHz (they’re unfortunately still not telling us the base GPU clockspeed), which means any significant performance gains will come from the larger number of functional units. With that in mind we’re looking at a video card that has 200% of 280X’s geometry/ROP performance and 138% of its shader/texturing performance. In the real world performance will trend closer to the increased shader/texturing performance – ROP/geometry bottlenecks don’t easily scale out like shading bottlenecks – so for most scenarios the upper bound for performance increases is that 38%.

Meanwhile the job of feeding Hawaii comes down to AMD’s fastest memory bus to date. With 280X and other Tahiti cards already shipping with a 384-bit memory bus running at 6GHz – and consuming quite a bit of die space to get there – to increase their available memory bandwidth AMD has opted to rebalance their memory configuration in favor of a wider, lower clockspeed memory bus. For Hawaii we’re looking at a 512-bit memory bus paired up with 5GHz GDDR5, which brings the total amount of memory bandwidth to 320GB/sec. The reduced clockspeed means that AMD’s total memory bandwidth gains aren’t quite as large as the increase in the memory bus size itself, but compared to the 288GB/sec on 280X this is still an 11% increase in memory bandwidth and a move very much needed to feed the larger number of ROPs that come with Hawaii. More interesting however is that in spite of the larger memory bus the total size of AMD’s memory interface has gone down compared to Tahiti, and we’ll see why in a bit.

At the same time because AMD’s memory interface is so compact they’ve been able to move to a 512-bit memory bus without requiring too large a GPU. At 438mm2 and composed of 6.2B transistors Hawaii is still the largest GPU ever produced by AMD – 18mm2 bigger than R600 (HD 2900) – but compared to the 365mm2, 4.31B transistor Tahiti AMD has been able to pack in a larger memory bus and a much larger number of functional units into the GPU for only a 73mm2 (20%) increase in die size. The end result being that AMD is able to once again significantly improve their efficiency on a die size basis while remaining on the same process node. AMD is no stranger to producing these highly optimized second wind designs, having done something similar for the 40nm era with Cayman (HD 6900), and as with Cayman the payoff is the ability to increase performance an efficiency between new manufacturing nodes, something that will become increasingly important for GPU manufacturers as the rate of fab improvements continues to slow.

Moving on, let’s quickly talk about power consumption. With Hawaii AMD has made a number of smaller changes both to the power consumption of the silicon itself, and how it is defined. On the tech side of matters AMD has been able to reduce transistor leakage compared to Tahiti, directly reducing power consumption of the GPU as a result, and this is being paired with changes to certain aspects of their power management system, with implementing advanced power/performance management abilities that vastly improve the granularity of their power states (more on this later).

However at the same time how power consumption is being defined is getting far murkier: AMD doesn’t list the power consumption of the 290X in any of their documentation or specifications, and after asking them directly we’re only being told that the “average gaming scenario power” is 250W. We’ll dive into this more when we do a breakdown of the changes to PowerTune on 290X, but in short AMD is likely underreporting the 290X’s power consumption. Based on our test results we’re seeing 290X draw more power than any other “250W” card in our collection, and in reality the TDP of the card is almost certainly closer to 300W. There are limits to how long the card can sustain that level of power draw due to cooling requirements, but given sufficient cooling the power limit of the card appears to be around 300W, and for the moment we’re labeling it as such.

Left To Right: 6970, 7970, 290X

Finally, let’s talk about pricing, availability, and product positioning. As AMD already launched the rest of the 200 series 2 weeks ago, the launch of the 290X is primarily filling out the opening at the top of AMD’s product lineup that the rest of the 200 series created. The 7000 series is in the middle of its phase out – and the 7990 can’t be too much farther behind – so the 290X is quickly going to become AMD’s de-facto top tier card.

The price AMD will be charging for this top tier is $549, which happens to be the same price as the 7970 when it launched in 2012. This is about $100-$150 more expensive than the outgoing 7970GE and $250 more expensive than 280X, with the 290X offering an average performance increase over 280X of 30%. Meanwhile when placed against NVIDIA’s lineup the primary competition for 290X will be the $650 GeForce GTX 780, a card that the 290X can consistently beat, making AMD the immediate value proposition at the high-end. At the same time however NVIDIA will have their 3 game Holiday GeForce Bundle starting on the 28th, making this an interesting inversion of earlier this year where it was AMD offering large game bundles to improve the competitive positioning of their products versus NVIDIA’s. As always, the value of bundles are ultimately up to the buyer, especially in this case since we’re looking at a rather significant $100 price gap between the 290X and the GTX 780.

Finally, unlike the 280X this is going to be a very hard launch. As part of their promotional activities for the 290X retailers have already been listing the cards while other retailers have been taking pre-orders, and cards will officially go on sale tomorrow. Note that this is a full reference launch, so everyone will be shipping identical reference cards for the time being. Customized cards, including the inevitable open air cooled ones, will come later.

Fall 2013 GPU Pricing Comparison
AMD	Price	NVIDIA
	$650	GeForce GTX 780
Radeon R9 290X	$550
	$400	GeForce GTX 770
Radeon R9 280X	$300
	$250	GeForce GTX 760
Radeon R9 270X	$200
	$180	GeForce GTX 660
	$150	GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost
Radeon R7 260X	$140

 Source:AnandTech.

A Bit More On Graphics Core Next 1.1

Second-generation Retina MacBook Pros get a boost from Haswell

13" model now starts at $1,299, 15" at $1,999, shipping today.

by Andrew Cunningham - Oct 22 2013,

More than a year after introducing the first Retina MacBook Pro at the 2012 Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple has announced that the computers will be getting a refresh at today's media event. The most significant update to the new models' specifications comes from Intel's brand-newHaswell processors, which should improve the battery life significantly compared to their Ivy Bridge-based predecessors.

Updates to both the 15-inch and 13-inch models were revealed today, which gets the two models on the same refresh schedule. (The 15-inch model was originally introduced last June at the 2012 WWDC, but the 13-inch model was introduced last October.) The 13-inch laptop starts at $1,299. The 15-inch model starts at $1,999. Both models ship today.

The upgraded 13-inch Macbook Pro comes with a 2.4GHz (2.9GHz Turbo) Core i5, 4GB of DRAM, a 128GB SSD, and Haswell's integrated Iris GPU. This means that the baby Macbook Pro finally has a better GPU than the MacBook Air—the 2560×1600 screen will continue to soldier on with integrated graphics, but the Iris 5100 GPU should be a decent step up in performance from the HD 5000 GPU in the Airs.

The new 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro is a logical upgrade over last year's model. The entry-level Retina MacBook Pro now uses a Haswell-based quad-core 2.0GHz Core i7 CPU that can Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz, while the high-end model uses a 2.3GHz (3.5GHz Turbo) part by default. Both laptops can be upgraded to 2.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) CPUs at purchase. To power the laptop's 2880×1800 display, Apple swaps out the Nvidia GeForce GT 650M GPU in last year's model for an upgraded GeForce GT 750M with 1GB of GDDR5 graphics RAM in the high-end models, though the lower-end models will only include the Intel Crystalwell (that is, Iris 5200) integrated GPU. The GeForce 700M GPUs are architecturally similar to their predecessors, but higher clock speeds and tweaks to that architecture should be good for a decent performance boost. As in last year's models, OS X can dynamically switch between the integrated Intel GPU and the dedicated Nvidia GPU based on workload to save power.

Intel says that Haswell should enable big jumps in general-usage battery life, and to that end Apple has increased the battery life figures for all Retina MacBook Pros from seven hours to more than nine hours.

Other new, minor tweaks include a 1080p FaceTime webcam, which replaces the 720p webcam in the outgoing models. Like the MacBook Air and 2013 iMac before it, the MacBook Pros are also picking up 802.11ac wireless networking (the adapter will continue to connect to 802.11n, g, b, and a networks). Both models also include higher-bandwidth Thunderbolt 2 ports. The 13-inch model has dropped a bit of weight and slimmed down, to 3.46 lbs and 0.71 inches.

And what of the non-Retina MacBook Pros? There's just one left: a non-Retina 13-inch model at $1199, and it hasn't been upgraded from last year's Ivy Bridge configuration. That means a 2.5GHz dual-core i5, Intel's integrated HD 4000 GPU, and yes, a 500GB mechanical hard drive. The 15-inch non-Retina device appears to have been put down, though. Rest easy, old friend, and say hi to the white plastic MacBook for us when you get to that farm upstate.

We will continue to update this post as more information becomes available.

Source:ArsTechnica.

OS X Mavericks comes out today—and it’s free

Version 10.9 of OS X trades big cats for surfer dudes, lands on Macs today.

by Lee Hutchinson - Oct 22 2013.

Hang ten and get gnarly, dudes. OS X 10.9 Mavericks is here. Named for a totally tubular surf spot in California, the latest Apple desktop operating system will be thundering our way today. Like Lion and Mountain Lion before it, it will be available in the Mac App Store. Upgraders can download the software for no cost.

The release was announced as part of Apple's October 22 press event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California. The new operating system brings a lot of under the hood changes, including a fix for OS X multi-monitor support. Another hotly anticipated feature is Finder Tabs, which takes a page from tabbed Web browser behavior and should allow users more flexibility when managing files. Visually, the new operating system has banished some of the more despised skeuomorphic elements that have crept onto the desktop over time. Apple's PR images show that things like iCal's leather stitching have been excised, leaving many applications less "touchable" but also less visually cluttered.

Efficient resource usage is also a major theme in the updated operating system. Apple's computer sales are dominated by portables, and Mavericks includes a great number of named features built to reduce the amount of power a Mac consumes and keep it running longer. In fact, Apple says that merely by installing Mavericks, Haswell-equipped Mac portables like the Macbook Air will gain at least an extra hour of battery life. Additionally, Mavericks gets a little smarter about memory management, compressing applications in memory and dynamically allocating memory to the GPU based on performance requirements.

It's not spoiling anything to say that our own John Siracusa has also been hard at work on the latest in his long string of highly anticipated, novel-length operating system reviews. You can read his epic thoughts on OS X Mavericks right here.

Mavericks is available right now—the download appears to have gone live at about 12:00 PT, though it might not be showing up as a featured item yet. You can get your electronic fingers on it by opening the Mac App Store application and searching for "Mavericks."

Source:arstechnica.

Nokia brings its biggest Lumias yet, including a Windows RT tablet

New Lumia phones sport 6-inch displays.

by Jason Inofuentes - Oct 22 2013, 5:55pm WEDT

To open Nokia World 2013 in Abu Dhabi, former CEO Stephen Elop unveiled Nokia's first tablet alongside several new handsets. Rumors had been building that some bigger Lumias were coming, with Windows Phone Update 3 including support for 1080p phones, and fuzzy pictures of increasingly larger handsets being leaked. Looking over the lineup and specifications, there's a lot to like in the new Lumias.

Lumia 2520—10.1 Windows RT Tablet

Nokia's 10.1-inch Lumia 2520 Windows RT Tablet.

Nokia has always had the design chops to make covetous devices, and with its first Windows tablet you get the same design language, just bigger. The Lumia 2520, Nokia's first Windows RT device, moves the company into direct competition with the newly launched Surface 2. The 10.1-inch slate features a 1080p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC, LTE, Wi-Fi, and a 6.7MP rear camera with Zeiss optics and an impressive f/1.9 aperture. The display's touch interface features the same capacitive layer we've seen from other Lumias, so you won't need to take off your winter gloves in order to operate the tablet.

Windows RT 8.1 drives the device, and Nokia has included ports of some of its suite of Windows Phone apps, including Here Maps for offline navigation and Nokia Music and Mix Radio. Two new apps, Storyteller and Video Director, make keen use of the camera. It's little surprise that Nokia would attempt to offer a premium camera experience on any of its devices, even if cameras on tablets aren't traditionally a priority. That Nokia's focus is on video rather than still shots hints that the company has researched user behavior and expects video to be the primary use case for a device this size.

Aping the Surface 2's accessories, Nokia is releasing the Power Keyboard cover. Featuring a keyboard and touchpad, the cover also has an additional battery and two USB ports. The wrap-around cover looks to be a mix between Microsoft's Touch Cover and Type Cover, offering physical keys with a soft-touch body. Nokia reports battery life in the 16-hour range with the Power Keyboard attached and 11 hours without it. Nokia has also baked in its charging tech, which it claims allows for 80 percent of battery life to be recovered in just one hour of charging.

The Lumia 2520 comes in at $499 and will be available in red, cyan, white, and black. The $50 premium over Microsoft's Surface 2 nets you LTE and NFC, though no 64GB option has so far been announced. The Power Keyboard cover will cost you another $149. Sales will begin to roll out in the US, UK, and Finland shortly, with other markets rolling out soon after. In the US, versions will be available for both AT&T and Verizon, with the AT&T device supporting both 3G and LTE and the Verizon one being pure LTE.

Lumia 1520 and 1320—big phones, different prices

Nokia Lumia 1320.

The Lumia 1520 and 1320 extend the recipe Nokia used for the Lumia 1020—with some choice substitutions. The 1520 is the new flagship, though it doesn't have the ultimate camera. Featuring a 1080p 6-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC, 2GB of RAM, and a 20MP PureView camera, the 1520 comes laden with all the advances you'd expect—and a premium $749 price tag to match. The large volume allows it to house a 3400 mAh battery and a microSD slot to compliment the 32GB of onboard flash. A new addition to Nokia's camera software is the ability to shoot in RAW, a feature that will come to the Lumia 1020 in a later update. The 1520 will be exclusive to AT&T when it launches in the US.

The 1320's price, $339, gives you a good idea of what you'll find inside. While still a 6-inch device, the 1320 makes do with a 720p display (a rarity among Nokia's Windows Phone 8 devices, which have tended to favor 768p) and a Snapdragon 400 SoC. The phone is aimed at those who still have an interest in large devices but don't want to spend the big bucks to get one. And although it isn't the powerhouse of its stablemate, it does retain the 1520's 3400 mAh battery. Omitted, though, is the PureView camera; Lumia 1320 buyers will have to be content with a 5MP shooter, though the same video and camera software suite will be made available.

These two approaches to the "big phone" market should cover all the demographics interested in larger devices, and they are somewhat enabled by the advances Microsoft made in its GDR3 update.

Asha—For the rest of the world

Nokia's Asha Phones: Just as colorful, oh so affordable.

US readers are likely unfamiliar with Nokia's Asha platform, though folks in the developing world probably are. Not quite a smartphone platform, Asha has been at the heart of Nokia's push into emerging markets around the world. The new handsets (Asha 500, 502, and 503) are all priced below $100 and feature modest specifications while still drawing from Nokia's design language and historically high build quality. Interestingly, Microsoft will be able to use the Nokia name only with Asha phones; Lumias will presumably fall under the Microsoft or Surface brands. The challenge for Microsoft becomes helping Asha customers make the transition to Lumia phones despite losing the Nokia name. For now, you can have a brand-new Nokia Asha 500 for just $69, though I would suggest the 503 since it supports 3G data.

Listing image by Nokia.

Source: arstechnica.