No doubt about it, this is a great card for the money.
Pros:
- Excellent performance per dollar
- Full 4GB of RAM is available
- Sapphires cooling solution
Cons:
- Noise issue (probably with the fans vibrating against the heatsink or cooling pipes when they spin at certain speed)
- Energy hog
- Size of the card
Right now, the AMD R9 290X might be the most bang for your buck and unlike what NVIDIA did with 970, AMD didn't "misrepresent" their product--you will get the full 4GB of RAM. I'm not an "AMD Fanboy" and I'm also not a fan of companies misrepresenting their products.
NVIDIA makes great cards, there is no doubt about that. However, AMD makes cheaper great cards and the R9 290X is a pretty good example. We could get into benchmarks, but I'm not saying this card will perform better than its NVIDIA counterparts. I am saying this card is considerably cheaper and its overall performance compares quite well.
The Sapphire cooling solution on this card gets the job done. Seeing as how this card is a energy hog, the job of keeping it cool is no easy task. Sapphires triple cooling fans work really well when they aren't making noise. When the fans hit a certain speed--I think its somewhere around 50% fan speed according to Sapphire Trixx software--they make some noise that I think is the result of some vibration against the heatsink or cooling pipes.
I've been able to create a custom fan speed curve with Sapphrie Trixx that seems to keep the fans spinning in ranges that don't make the noise, but occasionally it still happens. There is a YTube video of a guy who detached the fans and added some thin pieces of rubber in certain spots behind fans that eliminated any whining or vibration noises. I don't necessarily recommend this and I haven't found the issue to be bothersome enough to try that fix, but the noise is definitely something to consider.
Overall the price was right and the card does everything I need it to do. However, if another model Sapphire or other AMD/NVIDIA manufacturer can match the price/performance on this card and not have the noise issue then they would easily win me over. I would give this card 3.5 out of 5 stars, but thats not possible. Since I don't hear the fan noise very often then I bumped this up to 4 stars.
Update 7-13-2015 ** Warning: wall of text ahead, but important info for any smart consumer to consider before going with Sapphire.**
About 35 days after purchase from Amazon (past the 30 day Amazon policy) I decide the fan noise is too much to deal with and they should have never been stuck at 20% speed forcing me to use custom fan control. So I contact Sapphire for RMA service. I answer a few questions about the fans and the card and they refer me to AlthonMicro (the 3rd party company that handles Sapphire RMA service). This is where the real trouble starts.
Althon Micro asked me to RMA the card and they shipped a replacement last week. One problem, the card was delivered today to the WRONG address and signed for by someone else! FedEx told me Althon gave them a different address than mine! I contact Althon and after many emails they finally admit they entered wrong info on the address (sent to 8th street instead of 18th street). Simple mistake right?
Any legit company would know how to remedy this problem which was frustrating as all heck for me, but which I figured would be sorted out...eventually. They then tell me I need to go get the package from whoever signed for it at the wrong address! Only after more email and me refusing to go knocking on peoples doors and confront them to get my package did Althon finally say they will call FedEx. This is unbelievably unprofessional and not safe for me to do. I am not a law enforcer and I am not the shipping service and I am not the company who made the mistake of shipping a customers product to a wrong address.
I have never been this unsatisfied and upset with a customer service. This is the kind of trouble you might expect from a 3rd party retailer on eBay (though I have never had trouble like this from even a eBay seller), but nobody should expect this from the customer support of a multi-million dollar tech company like Sapphire.
All this trouble for me after I buy the top of the line product from them and it's fans are defective. You know it took Althon Micro 10 days to respond to my RMA request, then I pay another $14.00 to ship my defective $300.00 product to them, then I wait another seven days for the replacement, then they ship it to the wrong address, then it takes six emails for them to admit they made a mistake, then they tell me to go find my package myself, then more email and they finally admit they should fix the their own mistake. Now who knows how long it will take for them and FedEx to workout this problem and recover the package. A good company would admit to the mistake and send a new replacement ASAP while they recover their package or file insurance claim, but not Althon Micro and Sapphire. No, they even ask you to go confront random people at their homes to retrieve what should have been shipped to their customer. This is totally outrageous and unacceptable.
The worst customer service experience I've ever had and for one of the most expensive computer parts I've ever purchased. I want to know how to contact Sapphire at the corporate level so I can let them know how horrible AlthonMicro and the RMA service is. I still feel the R9 290x is a great product with the most bang for your buck, but I would never buy or recommend Sapphire products again if this is the kind of service one should expect from them.
I wil update this review again with what happens.
UPDATE 7-17-15: FedEx was able to get the package back and deliver it to me. At least I can count on FedEx to be professional and reliable. The card works as it should, without the vibrating fan noises when the fan reaches 50% speed. I still believe the AMD R9-290X is a fast and affordable option, but I cannot recommend Sapphire because of quality control (ive read other complaints about the fan noises) and because of their horrible customer support--mostly just the 3rd party RMA company Althon Micro (ive read many complaints about them as well). Sapphire would be wise to ditch Althon Micro.
| Max Screen Resolution | 2560 x 1600 |
|---|---|
| Memory Speed | 1300 MHz |
| Graphics Coprocessor | AMD Radeon |
| Chipset Brand | AMD |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 4 GB |
