AMD recently released the Radeon ATI R9 290X video card at a price of $549. AMD developed a completely new silicon in their 290x GPU. This GPU is designed in 28nm technology that enables it to achieve higher clock speeds and higher performance. ATI R9 290X’s GPU is called Hawaii. The graphics processor unit (GPU) is composed of up to 44 computing units that include a total of 2,816 stream processors. The GPU has an output performance of 64 pixels per clock cycle and is made up of four Radeon HD 7970 geometry processors. The R9 290X has an engine clock of up to 1GHz. The GPU also features 4GB of GDDR5 memory and a 512 bit interface.

AMD’s new silicon is capable of outperforming its closest competitor, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780. In the majority of the benchmarks that we could find on the internet, we noticed that the ATI R9 290X was able to outperform the older graphics card from Nvidia, the GeForce GTX 780. We found benchmarks that test over six game titles and synthetic benchmarks that run at 1920×1080, 2560×1600 and 5760×1080 resolutions are all showing a better performance for the ATI R9 290X when compared to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780.

However, many fans of gaming are also wondering about 4K gaming. For now, not many gamers are playing at 4k, but soon, this new technology will become popular and the new norm. Tests for 4k were run on a Sharp PN-K321 32″ 4K Ultra HD Monitor at a native resolution of 3840×2160.

Both the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 and ATI Radeon R9 290X had no issues being setup and run at 4K Ultra HD resolutions. The test system had Windows 7 64-bit operation system installed. Just like the previous benchmarks, the benchmarks at 4k show the superiority of the ATI R9 290X over GeForce GTX 780.

Power Usage

Many PC gamers like to know what kind of power usage a video card uses. Often times, newer and more powerful cards use more power, although this isn’t always true. Also, AMD has a reputation of using more power than NVidia. Due to these two factors, it is no surprise that the 290X uses more power than the Nvidia GTX 780.

New Trend: Video Cards being bundled with Games

One trend recently is for graphics cards to be bundled with games. At this time, both graphic cards come in bundle packages containing software and games. Most retailers are bundling the ATI Radeon R9 290X with the game Battlefield 4. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 comes with the GeForce Holiday Bundle which contains free copies of Assassin’s Creed IV, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and Batman: Arkham Origins. The GeForce Holiday Bundle also gives a $100 off discount for buying the Nvidia’s SHIELD console. This bundles change often, so you will need to keep an eye out for the current deals. Also, how “great” a bundle is will really come down for personal preference. For example, I understand that for most people the holiday bundle is better. However, for me, I really would just prefer to have BF4.

The card from Nvidia also comes with Nvidia’s GeForce Experience software, which is included as part of the driver download. This software received a new addition called Shadowplay. That makes the bundle for Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 a winner in terms of value for the money spent.

Taking in consideration the price, the AMD Radeon R9 290X was just launched at $549 and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 used to be priced around $649 online. However, Nvidia just made an aggressive price cut and now the GeForce GTX 780 dropped its price to only $499. Both cards are offering great performance and value for their price. The newer Radeon R9 290X has a better overall performance than its competitor GeForce GTX 780, however, the GTX 780 is currently a little less expensive. It is difficult to decide which one is the best to purchase and that would depend on your personal preferences as well.  Also, one more thing to think about is whether you have an Intel or AMD setup currently. Many users like to pair an NVidia card with an Intel processor and a ATI video card with an AMD processor. You can feel confident that whichever graphics card you decide to buy, your card will perform great on the most graphic intensive games on the market today. Both of these cards should also be able to play the latest and greatest games for years to come.

• See more about the Radeon ATI R9 290X
• See more about the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780