Sapphire R9-290X Tri-X “Sapphire Takes a Shot at Cooling the Monster”

Our Final Thoughts

Sapphire set out to fix the major complaint about the 290X being the heat and noise and well what can I say besides they not only succeeded but they gave me a product that I simply cannot believe as it runs that much better. I hope AMD learns something from the Sapphire team as this change along is enough to sway major enthusiasts to their side y having the knowledge and ingenuity to see a problem and proactively fix it and not only make it acceptable but turn it into a kick ass piece which you would never know had a heat issue to begin with.

In my eyes Sapphire took a card that was massively overheating and with just a change of cooling solutions made the card not only much cooler but cooler than most cards I have tested which speaks very well to the engineering team over there.

Now it’s not all rainbows and lemon drops as AMD still pulls more power but thats not something I can blame sapphire for as that’s on AMD team to figure this out but Sapphire had one job and well they delivered and now I can strongly recommend a 290X as a major competitor for a top end flagship card for gamers looking to jump into some high res gaming action.

One other thing worth noting is that AMD has been increasing pricing recently once again not sapphires problem but it does make it much harder to recommend a AMD card as where they would normally be a bit cheaper that margin is shrinking by quite alot.