AMD Radeon R9 290X OFFICIAL Benchmarks!

AMD have officially approved two benchmarks from Tom's Hardware of their new R9 290X graphics card. These benchmarks clearly show the 290X edging out Nvidia's GTX780, however, one can't help but notice a few oddities about the benchmark.

AMD chose only to approve benchmarks of two games (BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider), and only when these games were run at a resolution of 3840x1260. It's fairly common knowledge that one of the R9 290X's big selling points is it's 512-bit memory bus, with 4GB of VRAM. Does this large bus give the 290X an unfair advantage? Probably, but who cares?The benchmarks don't lie...

Currently, the R9 290X will also sell at an initial price point lower than the GTX780, at roughly AUD$700. Most new releases of the card also seem to be bundling a copy of Battlefield 4, as part of AMD and DICE/EA's partnership for the game. Factor in support for AMD's Mantle API, and the 290X really does seem to be a threat to Nvidia.

Nvidia have responded, however, with the official confirmation of the GTX 780Ti. Hopefully, the increase in competition between the two graphics giants will drive prices down, and the consumer will be the real winner.