AMD’s new flagship Radeon R9 290X will no longer require CrossFire fingers to operate in multi-card configuration. Instead only PCI-Express slots will be required to make the cards run in such combination.

According to previous leaks this new approach would eliminate most of the frame pacing problems for which AMD was criticized since the topic became popular. However AMD went a step further and decided it would be a good idea to eliminate the necessity of the a separate CrossFire connection. It was possible since PCI-E interface is already capable of delivering enough bandwidth for multi-gpu communication.

The new slide supposedly leaked from AMD Reviewers Guide for R9 290X revealed that this card will scale much better than expected. The R9 290X CrossFire configuration will deliver up to 2.0x the performance of the single card. There is no game on the list that would not scale lower than 1.8x, but we are more than sure that these games were chosen here for a reason.

Additionally to that we have a chart with all the frame rates listed. I updated it with the CrossFire to single-card comparison.

AMD Radeon R9 290X CrossFire Scaling (Uber Mode) Gaming Titles Settings (4K Resolution) Radeon R9 290X Radeon R9 290X CrossFireX 290X CF / 290X Aliens vs Predators 3840×2160 4xMSAA 16xAF 32,6 63,3 194,2% Battlefield 3 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 39,2 77,1 196,7% Bioshock Infinite 3840×2160 0xAF 43,9 80,4 183,1% Crysis 3 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 32,2 62,1 192,9% Dirt Showdown 3840×2160 8xMSAA 16xAF 31,7 60,7 191,5% Far Cry 3 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 32,3 64,4 199,4% Hitman Absolution 3840×2160 8xAA 0xAF 10,9 21,1 193,6% Max Payne 3 3840×2160 8xAA 16xAF 16,9 32,6 192,9% Metro: Last Light 3840×2160 0xSSAA 16xAF 25,2 46,6 184,9% Saints Row IV 3840×2160 8xAA 16xAF 34 62,2 182,9% Shogun 2 3840×2160 8xAA 16xAF 16,4 31,2 190,2% Splinter Cell Blacklist 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 44,6 88,2 197,8% Tomb Raider 3840×2160 16xAF FXAA (TressFX On) 28,4 56,0 197,2%

From the same source we have a chart comparing Uber Mode to Quiet Mode. These results are very interesting, especially since there’s almost no difference between them. The average difference is just 1,54%. We believe that Uber mode is simply a safety switch for advanced overclocking. It should increase power limit, bump the voltage a bit and change the fan profile.

AMD Radeon R9 290X Uber Mode vs Quiet Mode Gaming Titles Settings (4K Resolution) Radeon R9 290X (Uber Mode) Radeon R9 290X (Quiet Mode) GeForce GTX 780 (Stock) 290X Uber Mode / 290X Quiet Mode Anno 2070 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 34,3 34,2 25,2 100,29% Aliens Vs Predators 3840×2160 4xMSAA 16xAF 32,6 32,3 23,5 100,93% Battlefield 4 3840×2160 4xMSAA 36,8 36,9 31 99,73% Bioshock Infinite 3840×2160 0xAF NoAA 43,9 44,2 31 99,32% Borderlands 2 3840×2160 16xAF 76,2 76,1 62,4 100,13% Company of Heroes 2 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 34,8 34,5 26,6 100,87% Crysis 3 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 32,2 32,2 27,5 100,00% Dirt Showdown 3840×2160 8xMSAA 16xAF 31,7 29,9 21,2 106,02% Far Cry 3 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 37,2 34,2 30,1 108,77% Grid 2 3840×2160 8xMSAA 47,9 46,3 39,1 103,46% Hitman Absolution 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 35,9 36 32,1 99,72% Max Payne 3 3840×2160 0xAA 0xAF 72,1 71,2 50,7 101,26% Metro Last Light 3840×2160 0xSSAA 16xAF 47,8 47,7 40,7 100,21% Saints Row IV 3840×2160 8xAA 16xAF 34 32,9 30,3 103,34% Skyrim 3840×2160 71,2 71,3 52,6 99,86% Sleeping Dogs 3840×2160 16xAF AA 46,1 45,2 18,3 101,99% Tomb Radier 3840×2160 16xAF FXAA (TressFX Off) 40,3 40,2 34,5 100,25%

UPDATE 1:

Here is an official slide comparing both Uber and Quiet mode in Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider. If someone could explain why Uber Mode is worse than Quiet in BioShock Infinite, that would be great :)

UPDATE 2:

One of the VC commentators posted a new chart, supposedly showing official 3Dmark performance in Uber and Quiet mode. Numbers seem to confirm what we wrote earlier in this post. The idea behind the Uber/Quiet BIOS switch was to uncap the performance by allowing more aggressive overclocking. However I would wait for more detailed information before describing this technology.

UPDATE 3:

One more thing, someone found the picture of the ASUS R9 290X box. Of course it’s a Battlefield 4 edition. The biggest shocker here is the door hanger, a must have item for every progamer.

Source: WCCFtech