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We received one of the first samples out of Sapphire's HQ in the Far East and as such it wasn't shipped in a retail box.
We did however get the image above direct from Sapphire PR, highlighting the new ‘robot' box artwork.
The bundle includes a software disc, product literature, an HDMI cable and some power converter cables.
The Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC is built on a black PCB and features the Tri-X cooler which we have seen in recent months on the excellent R9 290X Toxic Edition and R9 290 Tri-X OC models.
The card has a DVI-I, DVI-D, full sized HDMI and DisplayPort connectors.
R9 Series graphics cards can now support up to three HDMI/DVI displays for use with AMD Eyefinity technology. A set of displays which support identical timings is required to enable this feature. The display clocks and timing for this feature are configured at boot time.
As such, display hot‐plugging is not supported for the third HDMI/DVI connection. A reboot is required to enable three HDMI/DVI displays.
The Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X takes power from an 8 pin and a 6 pin power connector, the same as the AMD R9 290X reference card.
There is no Crossfire connector on the R9 290X Tri-X Edition. The 290X and 290 offer Bridgeless Crossfire capabilities. In the picture above you can see a BIOS switch however unlike the reference 290X, this switch doesn’t change any settings. Those who have read our previous editorials will already be aware that the BIOS switch on the 290X would shift between a 40% and a 55% maximum fan profile.
The Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X offers UEFI compatibility via this BIOS switch. With the enhanced cooler Sapphire should not need to set multiple fan speeds via BIOS profiles.
The card disassembled, highlighting the excellent TriX cooler which features monster 10mm heatpipes. The Tri-X cooler comprises five 10mm copper heatpipes – two of which bend 180 degrees backwards from the core block into a secondary set of aluminum fins.
An overview of the Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC graphics card. The Hawaii CPU is built on the 28nm process and has 24 ROPS, 176 Texture units, and 2816 Stream processors. The 4GB of GDDR5 memory is connected via a wide 512 bit memory interface. Sapphire have overclocked both core and memory from 1,000mhz to 1,040mhz and 1,250mhz to 1,300mhz respectively.
Ordering one, but I doubt OCUK will get them in on the 27th, will be first week in 2014 I reckon.
Good value really considering the price of GTX780 Ti, which ive seen for £650. AMD have the price right and finally the right card. two months after launch day though? what a complete fuc*ing mess they made of such a good card.
About bloody time, longest wait for a fixed 290X ever.
I have to ask, why the Titan is never overclocked in these tests ?
Great card, a little power hungry but it’s worth it looking at these results.
OC.uk actually have gigabyte R9 290X windforce in stock now….I bought one this morning….8 left.
“At the price, none”. my first time seeing it. LOL. Nice card, really. Now if only it available in my country i will definitely buy it
Well thats impressive by any stretch of the imagination. 27c cooler than AMDs part and no need to balance fan speeds against noise.
Im tempted in January now, dont think OCUK will have stock in until the new year anyway
I don’t understand whats with the fuss about the heat on R9 290/x cards. I have been using MSI OC Edition GTX 670 previously, and they run 97c most of the time while I do gaming. It’s not a big deal to me, as I understand that the cards has been designed to run hot because they eventually will with a load on them.
I can understand the noise issue ONLY if you crank up the fan settings to 100%, but that won’t be necessary. I run the card, with custom fan profie from inside MSI after burner for 55% max fan speed, the card was quite to me. Maybe because of my big case, but really, I don’t see the what’s with the fuss all about.