XFX Double Dissipation R9 290 (4GB) Review – Rock Solid Value!

The AMD R9 290 is a GPU based upon on AMD’s older flagship Hawaii GPU core as seen in the 290X. It is priced below the GTX 970 from Nvidia, and offers comparable performance in most cases. This is why we’re revisiting one of the top performers today. While AMD’s next generation of cards may be around the corner, it will be quite a while until those cards will be sold at a price below $300

The XFX Double Dissipation R9 290 version is one of the better non reference cooler designs. XFX is also well known for their lifetime warranty.

XFX DOUBLE DISSIPATION R9 290 OVERVIEW 

This particular 290 is stock clocked at 800 MHz with a boost clock of 947 MHz and a memory clock of 5000MHz. That being said this card is not the fastest R9 290 out there.

The card comes standard with 4GB of GDDR5 at 5000 MHz as mentioned above. 4GB of VRAM is very helpful when gaming at resolutions above 1080P like 2560 x 1440, or 4K (3840 x 2160), in fact these cards do quite well in crossfire at 4k

FANS AND COOLING

The XFX Double Dissipation R9 290 is equipped with its Ghost 2 thermal solution. After the original had issues with cooling the VRM, XFX went back to square one and completely redesigned the shroud and cooler, adding internal baffles and having a larger footprint to increase cooling performance while keeping noise levels down. Speaking of the shroud, XFX has went with an absolutely fantastic looking shroud that gives a very understated look that contrasts well with the lit up XFX logo.

PACKAGING 

The XFX Radeon R9 290 Double Dissipation is packaged in a dark box with a turquoise hue. The box stands taller than the average GPU box and is also deeper. The front of the box also highlights the Radeon R9 290 GPU, 4GB of VRAM, the Double Dissipation thermal solution, and the 6 VRM Power capabilities. On the back, it goes into further detail about the card’s specifications in a variety of languages.

It also includes the driver disc, which we recommend that you just download the latest drivers from AMD, a quick start guide instructions to register your card for their lifetime warranty and some power adapters in case you would need one.

DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY

The card measures in at 11 inches in length, the same as their 290X version, which most modern cases can accommodate this without problem but you will want to make sure it does before purchasing.

While made of plastic the GPU looks fantastic in our test bench as it has a very sleek and clean look with the bits of chrome accenting the shroud.

The XFX logo does light up a translucent white once powered on and looks fantastic, as it isn’t very gaudy or loud, but looks very sleek.

One of the pet peeves we had with this card is that the way the 6 and 8-pin power connectors are oriented because it required a lot of work to get off by hand as the heat sink is right up against the latches. Using a tool like a pair of needle nose pliers made life a lot easier.

We can see here this card come equipped with dual DVI-D ports as well as DisplayPort 1.2 and an HDMI port