As you might have noticed from the slew of reviews that hit the net today – including our own in-depth one – AMD officially launched its expected flagship card, the R9 290X, ushering in a new generation of GPU that throws the gauntlet at Nvidia's feet and dares it to do better.

However the reference cards have some cooling issues. As Zardon pointed out, these things run hot – hotter than a Titan, by quite a margin. The problem with that, is this card has some in-built underclocking thermal controls, which means the GPU focuses on keeping the temperature around 95 degrees Celsius. If it's running below that, it'll crank that clock to its comfortable stock, but if it goes over, it can fall by several hundred megahertz, which isn't something any gamer or enthusiast wants – though it does suggest overclocking potential under extreme cooling could be impressive.

That's why we'll be turning to AMD partners like Sapphire, which also launched its version of the 290X today. It's got a stock cooler at the moment, but give it time. It has all the features you'd expect as well, including the 4GB of onboard GDDR5 with its 512bit memory interface, 2816 stream processing units and a core clock of 1000MHz.

Sapphire also hit the news recently for becoming the exclusive partner for AMD's lineup of FirePro Professional GPUs.

KitGuru Says: What did you guys think of the 290X? It's a bit of a powerhouse, but I'd be looking to fit an aftermarket cooler on to it ASAP. And replace what heatpaste they've used with something a bit more impressive. 

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