Testing Methodology
Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X 8GB Specification |
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GPU Comparisons |
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| Graphics Card | GPU Cores | Base Clock (MHz) |
Boost Clock (MHz) |
Memory Size (MB) |
Memory Clock (MHz) |
Memory Bus (bits) |
Graphics Driver | |
| Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X 8GB | 2,816 | N/A | 1,030 | 8,192 | 5,500 | 512 | 14.9 | |
| Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X 4GB | 2,816 | N/A | 1,030 | 4,096 | 5,300 | 512 | 14.9 | AMD Radeon R9 290X | 2,816 | N/A | 1,000 | 4,096 | 5,000 | 512 | 14.7 RC3 |
| AMD Radeon R9 290 | 2,560 | N/A | 947 | 4,096 | 5,000 | 512 | 14.7 RC3 | Galax GeForce GTX 980 Super Overclock | 2,048 | 1,228 | 1,329 | 4,096 | 7,012 | 256 | 344.07 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming | 2,048 | 1,228 | 1,329 | 4,096 | 7,012 | 256 | 344.07 | |
| MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming 4G | 2,048 | 1,216 | 1,317 | 4,096 | 7,012 | 256 | 344.07 | |
| Palit GeForce GTX 980 Super JetStream | 2,048 | 1,203 | 1,304 | 4,096 | 7,200 | 256 | 344.07 | |
| Asus GeForce GTX 980 Strix | 2,048 | 1,178 | 1,279 | 4,096 | 7,012 | 256 | 344.07 | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 | 2,048 | 1,127 | 1,216 | 4,096 | 7,012 | 256 | 344.07 | |
| EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW | 1,664 | 1,216 | 1,367 | 4,096 | 7,012 | 256 | 344.07 | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan | 2,688 | 837 | 876 | 6,144 | 6,008 | 384 | 344.07 | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 2,880 | 875 | 928 | 3,072 | 7,012 | 384 | 344.07 | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 | 2,304 | 863 | 900 | 3,072 | 6,008 | 384 | 344.07 | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 | 1,536 | 1,046 | 1,085 | 2,048 | 7,012 | 256 | 344.07 | |
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 | 1,536 | 1,006 | 1,058 | 2,048 | 6,008 | 256 | 344.07 | |
HEXUS Graphics Test Bench |
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| Hardware Components | HEXUS Review | Product Page | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4770K (quad-core, overclocked up to 4.40GHz) | June 2013 | Intel.com |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-D15 | April 2014 | Noctua.at |
| Motherboard | Asus Z97-A | May 2014 | Asus.com |
| Memory | 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1,866MHz | - | Corsair.com |
| Power Supply | Corsair AX760i | - | Corsair.com |
| Storage Device | Crucial M500 240GB SSD | July 2013 | Crucial.com |
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite Series 600T | October 2010 | Corsair.com |
| Monitor | Philips Brilliance 4K Ultra HD LED (288P6LJEB/00) | - | Philips.co.uk |
| Operating system | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | October 2012 | Microsoft.com |
HEXUS Ultra-High-End Benchmark Suite |
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| Synthetic Benchmarks | ||
| 3DMark | Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Extreme Feature Tests - Texture Fill and Colour Fill | |
| Gaming Benchmarks | ||
| Title | Settings at 1,920x1,080 (Full-HD) | Settings at 3,840x2,160 (4K) |
| BioShock Infinite | AA Enabled, Ultra Preset inc. Depth of Field | AA Enabled, Ultra Preset inc. Depth of Field |
| Crysis 3 | 4xMSAA, Very High Textures, Very High System Spec | 0xMSAA, Very High Textures, Very High System Spec |
| Grid Autosport | 8xMSAA, Maximum Quality Settings (Soft Ambient Occlusion On, Advanced Lighting On, Global Illumination On) | 2xMSAA, Maximum Quality Settings (Soft Ambient Occlusion On, Advanced Lighting On, Global Illumination On) |
| Tomb Raider | FXAA, Ultra Quality Preset, TressFX Disabled | FXAA, Ultra Quality Preset, TressFX Disabled |
| Total War: Rome II | AA Enabled, Extreme Preset | AA Disabled, Ultra Preset |
| General Benchmarks | ||
| Power Consumption | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record system-wide mains power draw both when idle and while playing Grid Autosport. | |
| Temperature | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and while playing Grid Autosport. | |
| Noise | A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and while playing Grid Autosport. | |
| Overclocking | Maintaining out-the-box voltage, we increase the card's power target and aim for an optimal balance of core and memory overclock. With the heightened frequencies in place, the 3DMark and Total War: Rome II tests are re-run. | |
Notes
To minimise the impact of any CPU bottlenecks, our test platform is configured with a quad-core Intel Core i7-4770K overclocked at up to 4.4GHz. 16GB of Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 is set to run at 1,866MHz using the built-in XMP profile.
For our ultra-high-end benchmark suite, we have an array of games tested at both full-HD (1,920x1,080) and 4K (3,840x2,160) resolutions. In order to maintain playable framerates in the latter mode, the level of anti-aliasing may be reduced and any such changes are highlighted using bold in the above table. Readers should note that, despite running with lowered settings, games often look considerably better at 4K as a result of the huge increase in on-screen pixels.
Where applicable, any vendor-specific enhancements such as PhysX and TressFX are disabled to help even the playing field. In-game benchmark results are recorded as minimum and average frames per second.
The 8GB conundrum
Our regular suite is unlikely to show a difference between the standard Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X 4GB card and the 8GB iteration which runs at the same core clock but a little faster on the memory. One recent game that does use a large framebuffer is Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, whose optional HD pack enables ultra-quality textures that push framebuffer usage up to 5GB. We've also benchmarked this at very high and ultra quality levels at both 1080p and 4K resolutions.