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If you are in the market for the fastest possible AMD graphics card and can't afford the monster R9 295X2 then the Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X OC deserves to be on your final shortlist.
We review a wide range of graphics cards every month, but no company have claimed so many awards as Sapphire in our labs over the last year. The reason is simple – Sapphire don't cut any corners.
The triple fan Vapor-X cooler is the best on the market in regards to pure cooling performance. Sapphire support the excellent cooling system by overhauling the PCB and VRM cooling. They expose a copper layer on the board close to the 8 pin PCI connectors, then fit a heatsink direct to the copper layer – meaning that heat can be absorbed into the PCB from the GPU, then transferred out.
When you combine this with the adoption of mighty 10mm heatpipes, it is no wonder these cards are topping our thermal charts.
The power design on this card uses Sapphire Black Diamond chokes – featuring a black ferrite cooler for better efficiency. Sapphire are using high grade electrolyte capacitors throughout the design as well.
Sapphire focus a lot of their research and development time into dropping board temperatures as much as possible. VRM temperatures on other R9 290X cards may hit 95c under Furmark load, but the VRMs on the Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X OC hold steady at a staggering 60c–63c under the same conditions. This will help improve longevity and reliability of the board, especially if you are living in a humid, warm country.
With the prices of Ultra HD 4K monitors dropping to around £500 in 2014, there has never been a better time to buy a R9 290/X or GTX780ti. While the cost of these video cards may prove prohibitive, if you want to get acceptable frame rates at 3,840×2,160 then it is recommended to aim for the fastest solution you can afford today.
Sapphires' R9 290X is available in two flavours from Overclockers UK. The 4GB version we reviewed today is available for £499.99 inc vat. They have an exclusive offer however on a limited edition 8GB version, which is priced £100 more, at £599.99 inc vat.
If it is proving difficult to raise the funds for either of these cards, then we recommend you take a look at the more affordable Sapphire R9 290 Vapor X OC Edition, which we reviewed back in April this year. Overclockers UK stock this card for £379.99 inc vat and after overclocking to 1,200mhz it performs better than many, more expensive R9 290X cards. Worth bearing in mind.
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Pros:
- Class leading frame rate performance.
- Sapphires' cooler is the best on the market for AMD cards.
- 1,200mhz+ is possible with TriXX.
- perfect partner for that new 4K screen.
Cons:
- Could be a little quieter.
Kitguru says: The fastest R9 290X we have reviewed and one of the best you can buy today.
This is awesome- i love the GPU reviews here. Wish I had £500 spare, or £600 for the 8GB version.
Sapphire focus a lot on the VRM’s – which many AMD partners DON”T. Glad to see you pointing it out in this review
The Sapphire 290 is the better value card, its only 6 phase, not 10, but it overclocks well and saves you £130. enough to get a good new power supply
I prefer their blue finish, to the orange. its very sexy. I still have a Sapphire AIW card, thats how well they are built 😉
Not much of an AMD fan but that card looks sexy.