Report: Radeon R9 290X to Launch October 15

AMD unveiled its new Radeon R9 290X last week in Hawaii, describing the R9 and R7 series as 'the new GPUs for a new era in graphics.' So when can we expect this new era to start? Well, AMD didn't actually say.  Luckily, we have the rumor mill to keep us warm while we wait for an official announcement from AMD.

 

TechPowerUp reports that AMD may have actually revealed the launch date of the R9 290X at a press event in Turkey. Apparently, the press NDA is scheduled to expire on October 15, just over two weeks from now. This expiration date was noted on the slides that AMD showed during its event. Even though it's possible the NDA expiration date doesn't align with the date when the first cards will be hitting the market, it's possible AMD would want units available the same day consumers are reading reviews. The good news is that we don't have long to wait to find out, so stay tuned!

If you missed out on our coverage of AMD's GPU14 Tech Day, hit up our recap here, watch the full presentation here, or scroll through our live blog for the most important moments.

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  • John Bauer
    If it looks good enough, and priced well, I will switch from Nvidia and their (recent) terrible drivers.
    Reply
  • patrick47018
    Looks very promising, Toms needs to get there hands on some of these new cards and do a review(s) ASAP (:
    Reply
  • Mousemonkey
    11630046 said:
    If it looks good enough, and priced well, I will switch from Nvidia and their (recent) terrible drivers.

    I'm sure they are going to miss you but on the plus side I'll take your place as the drivers for this 7790 I have are the total pits so it's a 1:1 deal! :lol:
    Reply
  • C 64
    Speaking of drivers....
    How is the state of ATI open source rivers for Linux? Any positive movement there?
    Reply
  • C 64
    Sorry for double posting - some Foxie troubles, also my D key on keyboard is not working as it should: I meant how are the drivers?
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    But you can preorder on the 3rd without having any insight into performance and price... Isn't that nice of AMD?
    Reply
  • iamtheking123
    I bet $1 that it's yet another AMD paper-launch with actual purchase-ability not coming until November. And I'll believe the "Titan killer" rumors when someone actually reviews one. Lest we forget Bulldozer being talked up like it was the greatest thing ever and we all remember how that turned out.
    Reply
  • childofthekorn
    11630197 said:
    Speaking of drivers....
    How is the state of ATI open source rivers for Linux? Any positive movement there?

    Last official news I heard is that they had to slow down on AMD's end for Linux support. A buddy of mine who keeps up with linux moreso than I states that both Nvidia and AMD are starting to ramp it up since SteamOS announcement. Just wanted to pass along a bit of hearsay.
    Reply
  • RazerZ
    Anyone know the pricing? I love the fact that Nvidia is cutting prices come Nov :D
    Reply
  • eodeo
    Ati thoroughly disappointed me with awful driver support for (now aging) 4850. In 2013 I still can't get pure black on video reproduction. Instead, I have to be content with level 16 dark gray emulating TV reduced color range.

    Unlike ATI that outright dropped support for older cards, nvidia on the other hand kept releasing updates that freeze windows and forces users to hard reset the computer and (naturally) lose all your work for gtx 4xx and 5xx cards.

    Sure, I could (and do) use older drivers to circumvent that, but not before banging my head against the wall figuring out what the problem with the freezing was. I'd take dark gray not being black over freezing my computer any day.

    Nvidia had rock solid drivers and stellar support for older cards for ages now, and it all slipped to sorrow in less than 12 months. Time to give ATI another go.
    Reply