Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
Corsair HS60 Headset review
Gigabyte Aorus X470 Gaming 7 Wifi review
ASUS ROG Crosshair VII HERO (Wifi) review
MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC review
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X review
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X review
NZXT Kraken X72 Review
HP EX900 500GB M.2. SSD review
be quiet! Dark Rock PRO 4 review
be quiet! Dark Rock 4 review

New Downloads
Corsair Utility Engine Download (iCUE) Download v3.1.133
Corsair Utility Engine Download (CUE) Download v2.24.50
Corsair Link Download v4.9.7.35
HWiNFO64 Download v5.82
PCMark 10 Download v1.0.1493
Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 17.0.8.5
Intel HD graphics Driver Download Version: 15.65.5.4982
AIDA64 Download version 5.97
GeForce 391.35 WHQL driver download
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 18.3.4 Driver download


New Forum Topics
Philips (MMD) To Release 43in Ultra HD Monitor with HDR1000 New Nvidia Control Panel leaked? Review: Gigabyte Aorus X470 Gaming 7 Wifi Where Can I Find Drivers For.... AMD Adds Ryzen 2400GE and Ryzen 3 2200GE (35W) to APU Lineup Which is the most stable driver for Nvidia GTX 960 M 4 GB(Win 10)? How much free space to leave on an external HDD used for storage? + Corruption multiple backups? Review: Corsair HS60 Headset Which motherboards support automatic memory timing and frequency OC? Review: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X processor




Guru3D.com » Review » AMD Radeon R9-290 review » Page 3

AMD Radeon R9-290 review - A new Island and Technology

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 11/07/2013 03:28 PM [ 5] 136 comment(s)

Tweet

Is the Crossfire connector going AWOL ?

Allow me to deal with this item straight away, Yes and No. Not for the refresh products just yet, but starting with the Radeon R9 290 and 290X the Crossfire bridges will disappear.
 


Here's a fun fact - that Crossfire bridge we all know and learned to love is slowly being phased out, starting with R9-290/290X. In the near future Crossfire bridges will be thing of the past as AMD is going to run Crossfire over the PCI Express bus. Especially with standards like PCI-E Gen 3.0 there's plenty of bandwidth there, but even at Gen 2.0, it really should not be an issue.

For the R290 cards setup in Crossfire, PCIE Gen 3.0 is recommended. We'll be performing some bus flood tests over Gen 3.0 in a later stage. What if you do not have PCIE 3.0 compatibility ? Well, the bus will revert to Gen 2.0 which will probably not make more then a marginal difference as it is really hard to flood even two x8 Gen 2.0 ports. 

True Audio

AMD presented the following as a pretty big feature. Thus far however this new feature has been received with a bit of skepticism as most enthusiast PC users already have a dedicated soundcard. Anyhow, audio immersion is a key factor for AMD as they are now implementing an audio pipeline into the newest GPUs. Now first, please understand that AMD True Audio only is available at the R7 260X and the upcoming Radeon R9-290 and R9-290X. Next to that future products based on new silicon will get this as well. But NOT the rest of this R7/R9 series as those products are respins of older GPUs like Pitcairn and Tahiti. 

 

And AMD is implementing a fully programmable audio engine, True Audio technology. You guys know programmable shaders for visuals right? To some extent that now applies for audio as well; to improve audio effects (real-time voices and audio channels in your game opposed to what is possible with CPUs today) enabling directional (surround) audio over input. To do so AMD injected DSPs into the GPU that can do some magic on the audio channels. 

For the geeks:

  • There are multiple Audio optimized DSP cores
  • Tensilica HiFi2 EP instruction set
  • Tensilica Xtensa SP Fload support
  • The DSPs have 32KB instruction and data caches
  • 8KB of scratch RAM for local operation.

So yes, an audio processor is onboard the 260X and the 290 series. For example surround with stereo could be virtualized. There isn't enough CPU power left to run complex audio mechanisms and this is where the technology kicks in. So professional grade audio is now closer to the PC with this new audio technology. Try to imaging High Quality Reverbs, Room Simulation True 3D audio dedicated audio processing. Game developers can use what is called a Wwise audio plugin to get all this going over the AMD True Audio DPS. This is going to help with CPU load. A few simple Audio effects can use up-to 14% of your CPU, this is now offloaded to the graphics card. That's always good stuff. But not available for the R9-270 and 280 though.




32 pages « 2 3 4 5 next »



Related Articles
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 8GB review
We review the Radeon RX Vega 64 with 8GB graphics memory. The new AMD graphics card has arrived, is released and we'll take you through the architecture and the performance numbers. Was it worth the ...

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB review
In this review we take the 399 USD Radeon RX Vega 56 with 8GB graphics memory for a spin. This more affordable AMD graphics card might actually be the better proposition value for money wise. ...

Tech preview: AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 and 64
In this technology preview we'll have a closer look at the now announced AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 and 64. AMD is to release three models for the consumer market, two air-cooled versions and one liquid ...

AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive Edition Driver v17.7.2 Overview
AMD is has been working hard on the v17.7.2 driver, in this article we look at what AMD updated. This is the new v17.7.2  driver has had some TLC from AMD and quite a bit of software updates and func...

© 2018