
Originally, I planned to skip testing at 1920x1080—it seems like too-mainstream of a resolution for these cards. But I was reminded by someone who sells a lot of high-end hardware that FHD remains massively prolific.
With that said, we’re able to run Arma III at its Ultra quality preset on even an R9 280X and enjoy playable performance. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 690 is actually the fastest card at 1920x1080, followed by its GeForce GTX Titan. However, the Radeon R9 290X still averages more than 60 FPS, alongside the GK110-powered GeForce GTX 780. It’d appear that AMD’s Radeon HD 7990 doesn’t have the CrossFire profile it’d need to properly support Arma.
Stepping up to QHD exacts a more taxing workload. The R9 290X’s increased memory bandwidth and higher pixel fill rate allow it to maintain more of its performance than GeForce GTX Titan or 780…


…the thing is, with minimums under 40 FPS, I’d hesitate before recommending any single-GPU solution in this game.

I’m going to leave frame time variance out of this story at 1920x1080. FCAT is reporting odd frame time behavior at that specific resolution, even though we’re able to verify average frame rates with Fraps. At 2560x1440, however, it’s clear that frame time variance in Arma is very low, even for the dual-GPU cards.
- Hawaii: A 6.2 Billion Transistor GPU For Gaming
- CrossFire: Farewell Bridge Connector; Hello DMA
- TrueAudio: Dedicated Resources For Sound Processing
- PowerTune: Balancing Performance And Acoustics
- Overclocking: PowerTune Changes Things
- The Radeon R9 290X
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Results: Arma III At 1920x1080 And 2560x1440
- Results: Arma III At 3840x2160
- Results: Battlefield 3 At 1920x1080 And 2560x1440
- Results: Battlefield 3 At 3840x2160
- Results: BioShock Infinite At 1920x1080 And 2560x1440
- Results: BioShock Infinite At 3840x2160
- Results: Crysis 3 At 1920x1080 And 2560x1440
- Results: Crysis 3 At 3840x2160
- Results: Metro: Last Light At 1920x1080 And 2560x1440
- Results: Metro: Last Light At 3840x2160
- Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim At 1920x1080 And 2560x1440
- Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim At 3840x2160
- Results: Tomb Raider At 1920x1080 And 2560x1440
- Results: Tomb Raider At 3840x2160
- CrossFire: Arma III At 7680x1440
- CrossFire: Battlefield 3 At 7680x1440
- CrossFire: BioShock Infinite At 7680x1440
- CrossFire: Crysis 3 At 7680x1440
- CrossFire: Metro: Last Light At 7680x1440
- CrossFire: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim At 7680x1440
- CrossFire: Tomb Raider At 7680x1440
- Power Consumption
- Noise
- CAD: AutoCAD 2013
- CAD: Autodesk Inventor 2013
- OpenGL: Maya 2013 And LightWave
- OpenCL: Bitmining, LuxMark, And RatGPU
- R9 290X: A Taste Of Paradise That Won’t Break The Bank
This is win-win-win for everyone (except maybe Nvidia).
Hope we never have to deal with a $1000 single GPU fiasco again. Good riddance.
- AMD: We're not aiming for the ultra high end.
I think Nvidia just got trolled.
- AMD: We're not aiming for the ultra high end.
I think Nvidia just got trolled.
Most of the higher resolution gaming wins come from the larger memory bandwidth and of course more vs the 780.
That's a good sign. Maybe NVidia will drop prices and push this to $400-$450 and I will pick one up when there is a Vapor-X version of course,
This is win-win-win for everyone (except maybe Nvidia).
Hope we never have to deal with a $1000 single GPU fiasco again. Good riddance.