By Steven Iglesias-Hearst
Manufacturer: Hightech Information System Ltd.
Product Name: R9 290 iPower IceQ X² OC 4GB GDDR5 PCI-E DLDVI-I/HDMI/2xMini DP
Model Number: H290QMC4GD
UPC: 4895139009330
Price As Tested: $409.99 (NewEgg)
Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Hightech Information System Ltd.
Since AMD announced their GPU 14 R9 series video cards, AIB partners have been tweaking and tuning their own aftermarket designs. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card (Model# H290QMC4GD). As the name suggests, this particular model features the high end IceQ X2 cooler from the HIS labs and slightly faster Core and Memory speeds. I have seen the evolution of this cooler first hand and I know it to be fully capable. Two 89mm dual axial fans and five heatpipes ensure that your temperatures will stay well within safe limits with the minimum amount of noise, even during overclocking.
While R9 280/280X and the R9 270/270X video cards were re-brands of the AMD 7000 series, the R9 290/290X actually bring a new architecture to the market – Hawaii. The Hawaii GPU architecture is based on the latest GCN 2.0 (Graphics Core Next) architecture, built from ground up to deliver the next era of gaming performance. AMD has made some very big changes with the new Hawaii architecture which include the addition of a massive 512-bit bus interface and stream processor count up to 2816 SPs on a 28nm die that has a size of just around 420mm2 (R9 290X).
- Total Stream Processors: 2560
- Engine Clock: 967 MHz Boost
- Memory Configuration: 4GB GDDR5 / 512-bit
- Memory Speed: 5 Gbps
- Power Connectors: 2x 8-pin
- PCI-E Standard: PCI-E 3.0
- API Support: DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, Mantle
- Output: DisplayPort / HDMI /2 x DVI-D
- Card Dimension: 29.7 x 14.3 x 4.2 cm
UltraHD 4K Resolution is:
- 3840 x 2160 30 Hz TV
- 4096 x 2160 24 Hz TV
- Half frame 1920 x 2160 60 Hz IT
- Half frame 2048 x 2160 60 Hz IT
Selling online for $409.99 (NewEgg), the HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card is designed to compete but priced slightly higher than NVIDIA’s GTX 770 video card. As you will see in the tests later, the HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB beats the GTX 770 in all but one of the benchmarks
HIS spared nothing in this design and they have made an absolute monster of a video card. Measuring 29.7cm long and 14.3cm tall you need a high end PC case just to house this beast. Weight will be an issue but thankfully HIS have taken this into consideration and have built support into the cooler design.
From the side view we get a sneak peek of three heatpipes, the other two are on the underside. At the thickest point the HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card is 4.2cm thick. HIS have chosen length over girth in the cooler design to maintain a 2-slot thickness. This model requires two 8-pin power connectors from your PSU.
The HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card features a display port, a full size HDMI port and two DVI-D connectors.
A quick look at the rear of the HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card shows that the size is not merely relative to the cooler. The PCB and backplate are absolutely massive too. The power design of this model creates a trade off between power and size.
The IceQ X2 cooler is an open air design that will inevitably exhaust warm air inside your PC case. There are vents on the backplate to take some of this air outside of your case but you will need to rely on you PC case cooling system to disperse ~95% of the hot air generated.
Source: hisdigital.com
Graphics Core Next
With AMD 2nd generation GCN technology, the card optimizes DirectX 11.2 gaming performance automatically up to 2.5 times faster! It also offers up to 4.5x compute performance and up to 95% lower GPU Idle Power Consumption!
Apps Faster & Smoother!
The card enables a “quality graphics” experience on everyday applications, giving huge performance boosts on image processing, file compression, media converter apps, and a lot more!
• Adobe Photoshop CS6
• Corel Winzip 16.5
• Musemage
• Handbrake
• MotionDSP Vreveal
• GIMP
• Cyberlink Power Director
• ArcSoft Media Converter
PCI-e 3.0 Support
Armed with the latest PCI-e 3.0 bus design maximizes performance by delivering double bandwidth per lane of PCI-e 2.x. Paired the card with the latest platforms and get the ultimate performance!
More Graphics, Less Power!
The new architecture of the card gets more usable processing power for your money, enabling better frame rates in the latest games at high resolutions. In addition, with AMD ZeroCore Power & AMD PowerTune technologies, you can optimize the balance between performance and power consumption of your system by adjusting the engine clock during runtime of the card. Manage the power and keep your wallet loaded!
See More, Enjoy More!
The card supports 30” LCD monitor and any large size TV up to 80″ feature with 16:9 ratio in amazing 4096 by 2160 resolution. Up-scaling your computer into a multimedia center with the biggest display!
Enjoy HD Beauty
With Full HD 1080p support, the card delivers high quality 1920X1080 graphics, enabling seamless full-screen video playback. See HD, hear HD and feel HD – Enjoy the beautiful graphics now with the card!
Enjoy Copy Protected Movies
The card is HDCP complaint, enabling users to play copy-protected content, such as commercial DVD movies.
Enjoy True to Life Graphics
ULTRA HD videos have resolution four times that of current HD videos, meaning images too clear that may deceive your eyes! With the card, you are set for getting the movie theater experience to your home. You may be able to watch a video shooting the Eiffel tower and zoom it in to see your friend’s face clearly from the top! Get your eyes impressed and enjoy mind-blowing graphics with extreme clarity, depth and texture!
See More, Win More!
The card is capable to turn your computer into a super gaming machine. Enjoy the latest 3D games with stunning graphics and effects that your enemies cannot match! Get an immersive experience with AMD Eyefinity!
Expand your game across up to 4 displays while your opponents have one monitor. Along with all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation and brand new display configurations, take the unfair advantage over your opponent and win more with the surround sight
View More, Work Better
Having one dedicated screen just for twitter or Facebook and a second for outlook is not a dream anymore. The card features 2 Mini-display Ports for enhanced workspace flexibility. You can easily connect to two displays, including the 27” Apple LED Cinema Displays with the two Mini DisplayPorts. The dual-link DVI port allows you connect to a 30” DVI display up to 2560×1600. Resolution can even reach 4096×2160 with HDMI® , good for TV up to 80″!
Hear Better in Video Conference
Most GPUs today support only one audio stream at a time. The card, however, has Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio that can simultaneously output multiple, independent audio streams. Audio seamlessly follows the video, providing affordable multi-display, multi-audio conferencing for consumers!
The Microsoft DirectX-11 graphics API is native to the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System, and will be the primary O/S for our test platform. DX11 is also available as a Microsoft Update for the Windows Vista O/S, so our test results apply to both versions of the Operating System.
In each benchmark test there is one ‘cache run’ that is conducted, followed by five recorded test runs. Results are collected at each setting with the highest and lowest results discarded. The remaining three results are averaged, and displayed in the performance charts on the following pages.
A combination of synthetic and video game benchmark tests have been used in this article to illustrate relative performance among graphics solutions. Our benchmark frame rate results are not intended to represent real-world graphics performance, as this experience would change based on supporting hardware and the perception of individuals playing the video game.
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Motherboard: ASUS Z78I-PRO
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System Memory: 8GB Avexir Blitz DDR3 1600MHz
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Processor: Intel Core i5 4670k 3.4GHz
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Disk Drive 1: 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD
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Disk Drive 2: 1TB Seagate 7200 SATA HDD
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PSU: Corsair HX750w (model: CMPSU-750HX)
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Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
- 3DMark11 Professional Edition by Futuremark
- Settings: Performance Level Preset, 1280×720, 1x AA, Trilinear Filtering, Tessellation level 5)
- Aliens vs Predator Benchmark 1.0
- Settings: Very High Quality, 4x AA, 16x AF, SSAO, Tessellation, Advanced Shadows
- Lost Planet 2 Benchmark 1.0
- Settings: Benchmark B, 32xCSAA, High Shadow Detail, High Texture, High Render, High DirectX 11 Features
- Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0
- Settings: DirectX 11, Ultra Quality, Extreme Tessellation, 8x AA
- BattleField 3
- Settings: Ultra Quality, 4x MSAA, AA Post High, 16x AF 120s Fraps scene (Operation Swordbreaker)
- Metro 2033 Benchmark
- Settings: Very-High Quality, 4x AA, 16x AF, Tessellation, PhysX Disabled – 120s Fraps (Chase Scene)
- Project Cars (Alpha Build 751)
- Settings: DirectX-11, Ultra Quality, SMAA S2X, 16x AF, Texture Resolution High, World Detail High – 120s Fraps (1 Lap Milan Classic Formula B)
| Graphics Card | HIS R9 270X | HIS R9 280 |
GeForce GTX770 | HIS R9 280X | HIS R9 290 |
| GPU Cores | 1280 | 1792 | 1536 | 2048 | 2560 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 953 | 1046 | 1000 | 967 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | 1140 Boost | N/A | 1085 Boost | 1050 Boost | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1400 | 1250 | 1752 | 1500 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 512-bit |
- AMD Radeon R9 270X (1050 MHz GPU/1140 MHz Boost/1400 MHz vRAM – AMD Catalyst 14.6)
- AMD Radeon R9 280 (953 MHz GPU/1250 MHz vRAM – AMD Catalyst 14.6)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (1046 MHz GPU/1085 MHz Boost/1752 MHz vRAM – Forceware 337.88)
- AMD Radeon R9 280X GAMING (1000 MHz GPU/1050 MHz Boost/1500 MHz vRAM – Catalyst 14.6)
- HIS AMD Radeon R9 290 (967 MHz GPU/1250 MHz vRAM – Catalyst 14.6)
FutureMark 3DMark11 is the latest addition the 3DMark benchmark series built by FutureMark corporation. 3DMark11 is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX-11 graphics card performance without vendor preference. Although 3DMark11 includes the unbiased Bullet Open Source Physics Library instead of NVIDIA PhysX for the CPU/Physics tests, Benchmark Reviews concentrates on the four graphics-only tests in 3DMark11 and uses them with medium-level ‘Performance’ presets.
The ‘Performance’ level setting applies 1x multi-sample anti-aliasing and trilinear texture filtering to a 1280x720p resolution. The tessellation detail, when called upon by a test, is preset to level 5, with a maximum tessellation factor of 10. The shadow map size is limited to 5 and the shadow cascade count is set to 4, while the surface shadow sample count is at the maximum value of 16. Ambient occlusion is enabled, and preset to a quality level of 5.
- Futuremark 3DMark11 Professional Edition
- Settings: Performance Level Preset, 1280×720, 1x AA, Trilinear Filtering, Tessellation level 5)
3DMark11 Benchmark Results
| Graphics Card | HIS R9 270X | HIS R9 280 |
GeForce GTX770 | HIS R9 280X | HIS R9 290 |
| GPU Cores | 1280 | 1792 | 1536 | 2048 | 2560 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 953 | 1046 | 1000 | 967 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | 1140 Boost | N/A | 1085 Boost | 1050 Boost | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1400 | 1250 | 1752 | 1500 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 512-bit |
Aliens vs. Predator is a science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Rebellion, and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, Sony PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Xbox 360. Aliens vs. Predator utilizes Rebellion’s proprietary Asura game engine, which had previously found its way into Call of Duty: World at War and Rogue Warrior. The self-contained benchmark tool is used for our DirectX-11 tests, which push the Asura game engine to its limit.
In our benchmark tests, Aliens vs. Predator was configured to use the highest quality settings with 4x AA and 16x AF. DirectX-11 features such as Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) and tessellation have also been included, along with advanced shadows.
- Aliens vs Predator Benchmark 1.0
- Settings: Very High Quality, 4x AA, 16x AF, SSAO, Tessellation, Advanced Shadows
Aliens vs Predator Benchmark Results
| Graphics Card | HIS R9 270X | HIS R9 280 |
GeForce GTX770 | HIS R9 280X | HIS R9 290 |
| GPU Cores | 1280 | 1792 | 1536 | 2048 | 2560 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 953 | 1046 | 1000 | 967 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | 1140 Boost | N/A | 1085 Boost | 1050 Boost | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1400 | 1250 | 1752 | 1500 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 512-bit |
Lost Planet 2 is the second installment in the saga of the planet E.D.N. III, ten years after the story of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. The snow has melted and the lush jungle life of the planet has emerged with angry and luscious flora and fauna. With the new environment comes the addition of DirectX-11 technology to the game.
Lost Planet 2 takes advantage of DX11 features including tessellation and displacement mapping on water, level bosses, and player characters. In addition, soft body compute shaders are used on ‘Boss’ characters, and wave simulation is performed using DirectCompute. These cutting edge features make for an excellent benchmark for top-of-the-line consumer GPUs.
The Lost Planet 2 benchmark offers two different tests, which serve different purposes. This article uses tests conducted on benchmark B, which is designed to be a deterministic and effective benchmark tool featuring DirectX 11 elements.
- Lost Planet 2 Benchmark 1.0
- Settings: Benchmark B, 32xCSAA, High Shadow Detail, High Texture, High Render, High DirectX 11 Features
Lost Planet 2 Benchmark Results
| Graphics Card | HIS R9 270X | HIS R9 280 |
GeForce GTX770 | HIS R9 280X | HIS R9 290 |
| GPU Cores | 1280 | 1792 | 1536 | 2048 | 2560 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 953 | 1046 | 1000 | 967 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | 1140 Boost | N/A | 1085 Boost | 1050 Boost | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1400 | 1250 | 1752 | 1500 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 512-bit |
Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
Heaven Benchmark immerses a user into a magical steampunk world of shiny brass, wood and gears. Nested on flying islands, a tiny village with its cozy, sun-heated cobblestone streets, an elaborately crafted dirigible above the expanse of fluffy clouds, and a majestic dragon on the central square gives a true sense of adventure. An interactive experience with fly-by and walk-through modes allows for exploring all corners of this world powered by the cutting-edge UNIGINE Engine that leverages the most advanced capabilities of graphics APIs and turns this benchmark into a visual masterpiece.
- Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0
- Settings: DirectX 11, Ultra Quality, Extreme Tessellation, 8x AA
Unigine Heaven 4 Benchmark Results
| Graphics Card | HIS R9 270X | HIS R9 280 |
GeForce GTX770 | HIS R9 280X | HIS R9 290 |
| GPU Cores | 1280 | 1792 | 1536 | 2048 | 2560 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 953 | 1046 | 1000 | 967 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | 1140 Boost | N/A | 1085 Boost | 1050 Boost | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1400 | 1250 | 1752 | 1500 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 512-bit |
In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the Elite U.S. Marines. As the first boots on the ground, players will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York. As a U.S. Marine in the field, periods of tension and anticipation are punctuated by moments of complete chaos. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions force players to the grounds, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before.
The graphics engine behind Battlefield 3 is called Frostbite 2, which delivers realistic global illumination lighting along with dynamic destructible environments. The game uses a hardware terrain tessellation method that allows a high number of detailed triangles to be rendered entirely on the GPU when near the terrain. This allows for a very low memory footprint and relies on the GPU alone to expand the low res data to highly realistic detail.
Using Fraps to record frame rates, our Battlefield 3 benchmark test uses a two-minute capture on the Intro stage (after interogation cut-scene) of Operation Swordbreaker. Relative to the online multiplayer action, these frame rate results are nearly identical to daytime maps with the same video settings.
- BattleField 3
- Settings: Ultra Quality, 4x MSAA, AA Post High, 16x AF 120s Fraps scene (Operation Swordbreaker)
Battlefield 3 Benchmark Results
| Graphics Card | HIS R9 270X | HIS R9 280 |
GeForce GTX770 | HIS R9 280X | HIS R9 290 |
| GPU Cores | 1280 | 1792 | 1536 | 2048 | 2560 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 953 | 1046 | 1000 | 967 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | 1140 Boost | N/A | 1085 Boost | 1050 Boost | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1400 | 1250 | 1752 | 1500 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 512-bit |
Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror, and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows. Metro 2033 uses the 4A game engine, developed by 4A Games. The 4A Engine supports DirectX-9, 10, and 11, along with NVIDIA PhysX and GeForce 3D Vision.
The 4A engine is multi-threaded in such that only PhysX had a dedicated thread, and uses a task-model without any pre-conditioning or pre/post-synchronizing, allowing tasks to be done in parallel. The 4A game engine can utilize a deferred shading pipeline, and uses tessellation for greater performance, and also has HDR (complete with blue shift), real-time reflections, color correction, film grain and noise, and the engine also supports multi-core rendering.
Metro 2033 featured superior volumetric fog, double PhysX precision, object blur, sub-surface scattering for skin shaders, parallax mapping on all surfaces and greater geometric detail with a less aggressive LODs. Using PhysX, the engine uses many features such as destructible environments, and cloth and water simulations, and particles that can be fully affected by environmental factors.
NVIDIA has been diligently working to promote Metro 2033, and for good reason: it’s one of the most demanding PC video games we’ve ever tested. When their flagship GeForce GTX 480 struggles to produce 27 FPS with DirectX-11 anti-aliasing turned two to its lowest setting, you know that only the strongest graphics processors will generate playable frame rates. All of our tests enable Advanced Depth of Field and Tessellation effects, but disable advanced PhysX options.
- Metro 2033
- Settings: Very-High Quality, 4x AA, 16x AF, Tessellation, PhysX Disabled – 120s Fraps (Chase Scene)
Metro 2033 Benchmark Results
| Graphics Card | HIS R9 270X | HIS R9 280 |
GeForce GTX770 | HIS R9 280X | HIS R9 290 |
| GPU Cores | 1280 | 1792 | 1536 | 2048 | 2560 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 953 | 1046 | 1000 | 967 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | 1140 Boost | N/A | 1085 Boost | 1050 Boost | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1400 | 1250 | 1752 | 1500 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 512-bit |
The MADNESS Engine (developed by Slightly Mad Studios) is a cross-platform development framework and game engine currently supporting the PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360. Built specifically for multi-core and multi-processor architectures, the MADNESS Engine is built to support next generation platforms, and offers the following features:
- Advanced AI with decision making
- Advanced physics for world physics, characters and objects with NVIDIA PhysX support
- Advanced vehicle physics/driving dynamics system
- Realistic depth of field and motion blur
- HDR lighting and displacement maps, per-pixel, per-vertex and volumetric lighting
- Radiosity, lightmapping, gloss maps, and anisotropic lighting
Project CARS is currently in development and is targeted for a Q2 2014 release on PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U. Since it is still in early alpha, many content deals are yet to be done, so there are placeholder names for many tracks and cars. Some are fictional, such as the Shifter Kart 01 and Formula B.
Using Fraps to record frame rates, our Project CARS benchmark test uses a two-minute capture on the ‘Milan Classic’ racetrack driving the ‘Formula B’ race car. Benchmarking was conducted in ‘Free Practice’ mode with no other race cars on the track.
- Project CARS (Alpha: Build 577)
- Settings: DirectX-11, Ultra Quality, SMAA S2X, 16x AF, Texture Resolution High, World Detail High – 120s Fraps (1 Lap Milan Classic Formula B)
Project CARS Benchmark Results
| Graphics Card | HIS R9 270X | HIS R9 280 |
GeForce GTX770 | HIS R9 280X | HIS R9 290 |
| GPU Cores | 1280 | 1792 | 1536 | 2048 | 2560 |
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1050 | 953 | 1046 | 1000 | 967 |
| Shader Clock (MHz) | 1140 Boost | N/A | 1085 Boost | 1050 Boost | N/A |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 1400 | 1250 | 1752 | 1500 | 1250 |
| Memory Amount | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 2048MB GDDR5 | 3072MB GDDR5 | 4096MB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 384-bit | 512-bit |
For power consumption tests, Benchmark Reviews utilizes an 80-Plus Gold rated Corsair HX750w (model: CMPSU-750HX). This power supply unit has been tested to provide over 90% typical efficiency by Ecos Plug Load Solutions. To measure isolated video card power consumption, I used the energenie ENER007 power meter made by Sandal Plc (UK).
A baseline test is taken without a video card installed inside our test computer system, which is allowed to boot into Windows-7 and rest idle at the desktop before power consumption is recorded. Once the baseline reading has been taken, the graphics card is installed and the system is again booted into Windows and left idle at the desktop. Our final loaded power consumption reading is taken with the video card running a stress test using FurMark. Below is a table with the isolated video card power consumption (not system total) displayed in Watts for each specified test product. The HIS R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB requires 2x 8-pin power connectors from your PSU, so you will want to power it with a reliable power supply. The power consumption results discussed below are absolute maximum values, and not representative of real-world performance.
Power Consumption
| Power State | Power Consumption (watts) | |
| Idle Desktop (no video card) | 42w | |
| Idle Desktop | 27w (69-42) | |
| FurMark Load (extreme burn-in) | 242w (284-42) | |
| Overclocked FurMark Load | 268w (310-45) |
Benchmark tests are always nice, so long as you care about comparing one product to another. But when you’re an overclocker, gamer, or merely a PC hardware enthusiast who likes to tweak things on occasion, there’s no substitute for good information. Benchmark Reviews has a very popular guide written on Overclocking Video Cards, which gives detailed instruction on how to tweak a graphics cards for better performance. Of course, not every video card has overclocking head room. Some products run so hot that they can’t suffer any higher temperatures than they already do. This is why we measure the operating temperature of the video card products we test.
To begin my testing, I use GPU-Z to measure the temperature at idle as reported by the GPU. Next I use FurMark’s “Burn In test” (with extreme burn-in enabled) to generate maximum thermal load and record GPU temperatures at high-power 3D mode. The ambient room temperature is also measured throughout testing. FurMark does two things extremely well: drive the thermal output of any graphics processor higher than applications of video games realistically could, and it does so with consistency every time. Furmark works great for testing the stability of a GPU as the temperature rises to the highest possible output. The load temperatures discussed below are absolute maximum values, and not representative of real-world performance.
Ambient temperature 24.5°C
| Fan Speed | Temperature °C | Noise level /10 | |
| Idle | 20% | 40 | 1/10 |
| Load | 41% | 77 | 3/10 |
| Load | 100% | 74 | 7/10 |
| OC Load | 47% | 86 | 3/10 |
| OC Load | 100% | 82 | 7/10 |
Before I start overclocking I like to get a little bit of information. Firstly I like to establish operating temperatures, and since we know these are nice and the IceQ X2 VGA cooler is very capable we can quickly move on. Next I like to know what the voltage and clock limits are, so I fired up the HIS iTurbo overclocking utility. I wasn’t able to adjust the vCore and mCore voltages in iTurbo or with MSI Afterburner but I was able to adjust the board power limit pecentage slider (for an extra 50%). Clock speeds were adjustable far beyond the speeds I managed to overclock to.
I was able to push the GPU to 1075MHz (+080MHz) and the memory to 1350MHz (+100MHz – 5.4GHz effective) which required very little effort at all. I am positively impressed by the capabilities of the HIS Radeon R9 290 IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card since it already has a decent overclock right out of the box. I did manage to raise the core and memory clocks higher but it was only at the speeds detailed above that it could pass through every benchmark without artifacts.
Overclocked speeds vs Stock speeds – Results
| Test Item | Standard GPU/RAM | Overclocked GPU/RAM | Improvement | |||
| HIS R9 290 IceQ X2 4GB | 967/1250 MHz | 1075/1350 MHz | 108/100 MHz | |||
| DX11: 3dMark11 GT1 | 59.60 | 70.82 | 11.22 FPS (18.82%) | |||
| DX11: 3dMark11 GT2 | 66.49 | 79.02 | 12.53 FPS (18.84%) | |||
| DX11: 3dMark11 GT3 | 82.20 | 97.49 | 15.29 FPS (18.60%) | |||
| DX11: 3dMark11 GT4 | 41.24 | 47.87 | 6.63 FPS (16.077%) | |||
| DX11: Aliens vs Predator | 80.26 | 88.47 | 8.21 FPS (10.22%) | |||
| DX11: Lost Planet 2 | 79.10 | 82.61 | 3.51 FPS (3.45%) | |||
| DX11: Unigine Heaven 4 | 40.11 | 44.04 | 3.93 FPS (9.79%) | |||
| DX11: Battlefield 3 | 82.90 | 86.77 | 3.87 FPS (4.66%) | |||
| DX11: Metro 2033 | 74.81 | 80.79 | 5.98 FPS (7.99%) | |||
| DX11: Project CARS (Alpha 577) | 62.24 | 62.65 | 5.95 FPS (9.55%) |
Armed with a 108MHz GPU core overclock and a 100MHz memory overclock, we went back to the bench and ran through the entire test suite. Overall we saw an average 11.9% increase in scores (at 1920×1080 resolution), with performance on par with 1680×1050 scores, and a 18% increase in the 3DMark11 scores. This is impressive considering the card is factory overclocked already.
That’s all of the testing over, in the next section I will deliver my final thoughts and conclusion.
When I first heard about the ‘Hawaii’ R9 290 and 290X GPU’s I wanted to see if AMD have what it takes to compete with NVIDIA, and really even out the playing field. Now that I have tested the R9 290 first hand I can see that AMD really mean business. The AMD Hawaii GPU’s are beating the GTX GPU’s from NVIDIA but not the Titans. AMD’s next hopes lay with their Mantle Graphics API.
Mantle is a graphics API specification developed by AMD as an alternative to Direct3D and OpenGL, primarily for use on the PC platform. Currently the only implementation is for graphics processing units with AMD’s Graphics Core Next architecture. The design goals of Mantle are to allow games and applications to utilize the CPU and GPU more efficiently, eliminate CPU bottlenecks by reducing API validation overhead and allowing more effective scaling on multiple cores, provide faster draw routines, and allow greater control over the graphics pipeline by eliminating certain aspects of hardware abstraction inherent to the current prevailing graphics APIs.[6] Mantle will allow Graphics Core Next GPUs to better utilize the TressFX and TrueAudio programs, both of which are also AMD developed technologies.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantle_(API)
The HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card is priced to perform in comparison to an NVIDIA GTX 770 video card, but in reality performs much better. These new R9 line of video cards are offering an excellent value/performance ratio. This isn’t old stock that AMD needs to move any more so they could be more aggressive with pricing. Overclocking this already overclocked video card saw an average 11.9% increase in benchmark scores (at 1920×1080) and an average 18% increase on the 3DMark11 benchmark scores.
I think the IceQ X2 video card cooler looked absolutely awesome in it’s black/silver color scheme, but this new gold finish doesn’t really do it for me. The stock box designs of the AMD reference video cards has had a snazzy makeover, but these after market designs just blow them out of the water. There is a downside to having a good looking card however. All of the after market designs that I have seen exhaust most of their warm air inside the case rather than straight out the back like the AMD stock design. Sure you get a cooler core but you will also get a warmer interior case temperature to deal with too.
The HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB is an extremely well constructed video card. The size of the PCB , Backplate and Cooler combined make for a super heavy video card. There is quite a bit of weight to deal with, but HIS have this covered with their integrated component/mosfet/memory cooler that also doubles as a PCB support plate. Overall, the construction of the entire card, and layout of components are infallible.
Functionality wise, the HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card just about has it all. Factory overclocked out of the box, cool and quiet operation, comparatively low power consumption figures and some headroom for overclocking (which could only be improved with voltage adjustments to back it up). The main thing that lets this video card down is its size. At 29.7cm long x 14.3cm tall, it is one of the bigger video card I have handled. Most entry level PC cases (and some more expensive cases) simply won’t be able to house this beast, but I don’t think this video card is aimed at the entry level market anyway.
Priced online for $409.99 (NewEgg), the HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC 4GB video card is in a very nice sweet spot. Priced slightly higher than the average GTX 770 but way below the GTX 780, the performance/price ratio is very positive. The question is whether or not the extra cost (over the GTX 770) is worth the extra performance achieved. These cards are undoubtedly priced to take a dent out of NVIDIA’s profits and this is all good for the PC gaming community.
+ Awesome Price/Performance ratio
+ Great design and construction
+ IceQ X2 Cooler performs brilliant
+ Priced for GTX 770, performs better
+ DirectX 11.2 ready and PCI-e 3.0 Compliant
+ Up to 4-way CrossFire
+ UltraHD 4K display support
+ Multiple outputs – 1x Display Port/1x HDMI/ 2x DVI-D
+ Supports Triple-display and AMD HD3D Technology
+ Excellent power consumption figures
– Very long and tall video card design
– Vents exhaust inside your PC case
– Couldn’t adjust voltages when overclocking
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Performance: 9.50
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Appearance: 8.50
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Construction: 9.25
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Functionality: 9.00
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Value: 9.00
Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.
COMMENT QUESTION: What is your initial impression of these new GPU’s from AMD?
4 thoughts on “HIS Radeon R9 290 iPower IceQ X2 OC Video Card Review”
Which fans are they using on this cards cooler if the fans are made by Zunshan I wouldn’t touch it with a 2000mtr barge pole
2 from 2 HIS graphics cards both with ZunShan fans had the fans fail within the first 12 months of ownership 1st fan failed at 9 months 2nd fan failed at 7 months, both became very noisy as if the bearing were dry neither could be re-lubed as neither fan could be taken apart to do so without breaking the housing making the fan useless
Hi Athlonite.
This model isn’t using those ZunShan fans that you were referring to. Instead they are using FirstDO 12V DC Brushless 0.35AMP (model# fd7010h12d) fans.
Hope this helps,
Steve.
I like the way you’ve included R9 270x and 280 – gives pretty clear idea of how things start to scale with those extra stream processors. Pitting everything against a GTX Titan/R9 295 (like what some other sites are doing) sometimes yields only confusion. Fine review, Keep them coming 🙂
Thanks the review inspired me to purchase this card!
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