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MSI R9 290 OC Gaming Edition Review (1600p, Ultra HD 4K)

Total War ROME 2 is the eighth stand alone game in the Total War series, it is the successor to the successful Rome: Total War title. The Warscape Engine powers the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time. Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles.
rome2 2013-10-25 13-13-46-20rome2 2013-10-25 13-13-49-56
We test at 4K – 3840×2160 with the Very High Preset selected, as shown in the screenshots above.
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rome 2 4K
By reducing the image quality settings from ULTRA to Very High, we are still able to maintain smooth frame rates at Ultra HD 4K resolution. The MSI R9 290 OC Gaming Edition outperforms the reference clocked Nvidia GTX Titan.

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8 comments

  1. Great card, but Sapphire are miles ahead and ive been reading some problems with the fans on these MSI cards long term. failures etc.

  2. I have had an MSI twin frozr card for years and never had a problem with it. I think some people don’t clean their fans and coolers fairly regularly and the dust kills them. nothing to do with a bad design.

  3. The 290 is just so much more sensible than the 290x, they are mega money for very little extra gain. AMD dropped the ball with the pricing.

  4. I bought one last week from OC when it was on sale for £330!
    Excellent timing on the review though as now I have an idea of the headroom I have for overclocking.

  5. This R9 290 is louder, hotter and has a lower clock speed than the gigabyte R9 290, so why does this have have a higher score?

  6. I try to configure that MSI R9 290 card for mining – problem is heat – when you ask for more than 650kH/s temperature is mre that 85 it turn off.
    I find configuration with 840kH/s but iy’s working 7 minutes before turn off.
    Any idea what to do?

  7. Something interesting , the card is actually mentioned to be over clocked to 1004mhz, but it needs the MSI Gaming App (could use afterburner as well). I wish they just overclocked it to 1004mhz without the need to use that app