Report: Radeon R9 290X to Launch October 15
Could AMD's high-end Radeon R9 290X hit in mid-October?
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.
Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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!
How is the state of ATI open source rivers for Linux? Any positive movement there?
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.
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.
Delay normally happens when they switch to a new process.
Since the chips are using the same 28nm, and most of them are refreshes, I don't expect much lag between announcement and retail availability.
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.
What is this? Someone on the internet who wrote a well-thought-out response?! What kind of wizard are you!?
Jokes aside, I really do admire your comment
I saw that the expected price is around $599.99. Decent if you ask me. If it can drive a modded to hell skyrim and oblivion at 1440p as well as run my little sideshow of artsy programs and programming, I am a happy Wolf.
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.
What is this? Someone on the internet who wrote a well-thought-out response?! What kind of wizard are you!?
Jokes aside, I really do admire your comment
I saw that the expected price is around $599.99. Decent if you ask me. If it can drive a modded to hell skyrim and oblivion at 1440p as well as run my little sideshow of artsy programs and programming, I am a happy Wolf.
Your response makes no sense (first quote). Babbling from an obvious fanboi trying to sound neutral. I have owned many cards from both camps, and although I have not much experience with drivers and half decade old cards (time for an upgrade maybe?), Nvidia has always had much better drivers. I currently run a 770sli main and 7870 htpc. The 770 is a better experience even dealing with sli.
Also as others have said, it's typical of amd to hold the nda until the last second so their underperforming product can get the fanboi hype train rolling. All the silly kids expect this giant killer, but temper those expectations. I'm all for a spectacular showing from the red camp, one that can stand the test of time and not fizzle out after a few weeks, but lets just say im not holding my breath.
Speaking of drivers....
How is the state of ATI open source rivers for Linux? Any positive movement there?
My experience for an oldish onboard radeon chipset in Linux was that with the open source drivers, I got bad performance, stutter and artifacts.
It was a royal pain to install the propritary drivers but once I did, the framerate doubled and the artifacts and stutter were gone.
@smeezekitty
Thank you for the good news.
Was hoping that the announcement of SteamOS would make some progress on this front, so I can call my old computer and components out of retirement...
The fact of the matter is Linux has like 2% desktop market so it isn't the main priority.
NVidia drivers are far from perfect on Linux too.
But this can change depending on what Nvidia will do...