Pros: Great for gaming when works, does not require crossfire bridge.

Cons: Loud and runs VERY hot. Died after just a few months of normal usage and under water cooling blocks. I have 2 of these & both cards are sapphire. Sapphire support is horrble been email communicating with them back and forward for over 2 weeks with no result still awaiting rma, not phone number to call if you are in canada. XFX & Asus has never given me any problems like this, i am never buying another sapphire product.

Overall Review: over all 290x cards are amazing for gaming and mining scrypt coins or hashcat hash cracking. Sapphire though is not the one you want!

Pros: Very fast.

Cons: Miss the Nvidia software.Not every program runs. Compared to Nvidia a little less polished around the edges. Needs a little TLC .

Overall Review: As soon as box was opened i removed original cooler. Replaced with a EKB water block and back plate.This was a leap of faith considering card was never used. Relaxed and took my time.Used Noctua TIM. Results were at 1,200Mhz core 1,350Mhz memory and 15 minutes of furmark @ 2560x1440 ,Max temp was 60 Celsius!!! I rest my case.

Pros: When the card wants to work its nice BF 4 60+ fps on 1440p COD Ghost 70+ fps on 1440p

Cons: this card is terrible. I keep getting the black screen issue and I have TWO of these cards. I havent set them up in xfire but i trouble shooted both cards one by one and ive rma'd one card already and the replacement is still giving the same problems. Look online and you'll see all the blackscreen issues that this forsaken card keeps giving, and AMD hasnt said or acknowledged anything about it which would be realy nice. I wanna return these cards back but its only a replacement, which im really upset about. I really regret getting these cards because my pc is basically just a giant paper weight right now as I cant watch youtube videos, play a video game, or even worse edit pictures (which is my job) Ive been with NVIDIA but i decided to go amd since this r9 290x was half the price of the titan and better performance. But lesson learned never going with amd again. Lastly if people are wondering if theyre reading this review my cards were never overclocked or fiddled with.

Pros: Crossfire was a breeze in Windows 8.1 Pro x64. I installed the second card after running a single card for a few weeks, and after one restart the card was initialized and a crossfire textbox popped up and asked to be enabled. It was that easy. I am running eyefinity at 5760x1080 @144hz and these cards shine on BF4. I have most of my video options set to ultra and am getting well over a minimum of 100fps in games with 64 players. On load, in a HAF X case with excellent airflow/fans, my cards usually run 73-83c. I couldn't be happier.

Cons: The stock blower coolers aren't the best and the fans can get loud if you don't have good airflow in your case.

Overall Review: I am currently using Catalyst 11 9.2 beta drivers and newer games are running very smoothly for me. I have both of these cards set to the second bios setting that is closer to the front of the case, if mounted normally with the connector plate on the rear of the case. This allows the fans to run at 55% on load, which offers much better temperatures over the quiet mode 40% fan speed. The cards can get hot, but they are rated to be okay to run at 95c. The heat and fan noise are not issues for me when the fans are running on load because I'm either using headphones or have my speakers turned up. The cards are quick to cool and return to a quiet idle state during non-taxing activities. After testing a single card and making an earlier review, I will say, at this point in time, that two of these cards are the best thing since sliced bread. I think AMD did a really great job on these cards. Once again, make sure your mobo bios and drivers are updated. Get the latest Catalyst beta drivers from the AMD site. Remember, this is a new card and the driver support will only get better but is already pretty solid. BF4 has known memory leak issues that should be resolved soon, but I have played 30+ hours on this particular title with minimal crashes to desktop. This is a DICE issue and no fault of these beastly cards. Either way, take my review for what it is worth. Buy one or more and love them, or don't.

Pros: Very fast card. Contains more VRAM than you can shake a stick at. :P This card chews up BF4 and asks for more. Supports Mantle API.

Cons: Seriously, none for me. Not sure about all these other guys.

Overall Review: I upgraded from a 6990 to this card. I wrestled a while with this decision as on paper the specs of the 6990 are equal to or slighter greater than the r290x. However, I was tired of dealing with microstutter and game compatibility problems due to crossfire. I took a leap of faith and was rewarded as the 290x is everything I hoped it would be and more. I am averaging 60fps on BF4 (vsync enabled) with Ultra settings. (minus msaa). I am running an i7-920 @ 3.5ghz. Also, the crashing problems I was experiencing with BF4 went away when I upgraded to the 290x. Could be a coincidence. I'm not sure why everyone complains about noise and heat? The heat coming out of the exhaust is FAR less than I was experiencing with the 6990. I also don't understand what the complain is about noise, either. I haven't noticed any loud fan noises coming from the card, and I have the switch in Uber mode and the fan set to go up to 100% if it needs/wants to. Ambient temps in my PC room range from 65-73 degrees F depending upon the season and time of day. I wonder how many people don't have proper case cooling or positioning and then complain that their card is running too hot? This is in an Antec 900 two case. All fans are blowing air in the case. (including the CPU fan, using a corsair hydro cool that draws air from outside the case) The only fan exhausting air is the large fan on top. All case fan speeds are set to their highest setting. At the minimum you should have a case that contains a fan in the side window, as nearly all modern cases do. Also, your case should be at least one to two feet away from the wall.

Pros: Performance as advertised. Purchased two and ran them in CF and they really push some frames. A little hot and a little loud but nothing excessive and nothing that hasn't been written about all over the web. I had planned on installing water blocks on them so those known issues didn't concern me at all.

Cons: Coil whine the likes I've never heard before. I don't understand how these two cards could have possibly passed any type of quality control. Not just the occasional howling coil or capacitor but a screeching and chattering noise from each of the cards that completely took me by surprise. Needless to say I RMA'd the very next day. Really Sapphire? How dare you put your sticker on such a half-baked product and then sell it for $550?

Overall Review: What a shame. I've been living with a pair of water cooled HD 6970 in CF for years waiting for AMD to make worth my while to upgrade. I thought this would have been it but now I'm scared that since all the R9 290X's out there are a reference card with only different brand stickers on them that this problem will be common to all of them. Nvidia here I come :(

Pros: Pretty quick. Drivers need a little work. Compares well to my other cards (7970's GTX Titans, 2x CFX and SLI) Fan is loud if you push the card. Sapphire should provide an unlocked bios.

Cons: louder than a hair dryer when spun up

Pros: Pretty good fps on games at the highest settings. Runs games beautiful at 1920x1080 with a 144hz monitor 1ms refresh rate. I'm about to order a second card and try out Crossfire.

Cons: Card runs at 74c with a little OC and fans at 75% through MSI afterburner playing TR. Fans are loud but I play with headphones so I don't really have a problem with it.

Overall Review: I actually ordered the Tri-X OC model of this card and was sent this card instead. Newegg offered the RMA and had no problem accepting a refund, but I kept the card because the Tri-X OC was out of stock and I didn't feel like waiting. Not to mention the box it came in was totally destroyed (due to FedEX somewhere down the line). I don't live in the best area of Washington DC, but I dont know what happened. The box was also missing my Intel CPU, which I'm currently in the middle of sorting out between Newegg and Fedex.