HIS Radeon R9 280, 285, 280X, 290X IceQ X²

HIS Radeon R9 290X iPower IceQ X² Turbo Specifications

We’ve been to Tonga and Tahiti, so now it’s time to visit Hawaii. The Radeon R9 290X is currently the fastest single-GPU graphics card AMD has to offer.

HIS interpretation of extreme performance is met with IceQ X2 cooling and custom PCB.

You should know though, that this is not the fastest R9 290X model in HIS line-up. There’s also R9 290X Hybrid, with Arctic Accelero cooler.

Our sample is clocked at 1040/5400 MHz for core and memory respectively. This is exactly 40 MHz faster core and 400 MHz faster memory.

Radeon R9 290X is equipped with 4GB GDDR5 memory across 512-bit interface. It means that this card has the highest bandwidth from all cards in this test: 346 GB/s.

Just like Radeon R9 285, R9 290X comes with four display outputs: DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort.

HIS Radeon R9 Series
	HIS R9 280 IceQ X² OC	HIS R9 285 IceQ X² OC	HIS R9 280X iPower IceQ X² Turbo	HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X² Turbo
Picture
GPU Codename	Tahiti PRO	Tonga PRO	Tahiti XT	Hawaii XT
Unified Cores	1792	1792	2048	2816
TMUs	112	112	128	176
ROPs	32	32	32	64
Base Clock	847 MHz	938 MHz	1000 MHz	1040 MHz
Boost Clock	953 MHz	–	1050 MHz	–
Memory Clock	1250 MHz	1375 MHz	1500 MHz	1350 MHz
Memory	3GB GDDR5	2GB GDDR5	3GB GDDR5	4GB GDDR5
Memory Bus	384-bit	256-bit	384-bit	512-bit
Bandwidth	240 GB/s	176 GB/s	288 GB/s	346 GB/s
Power Connectors	6pin + 6pin	6pin + 6pin	8pin + 6pin	8pin + 8pin
TDP	200W	190W	250W	290W

A closer look at HIS Radeon R9 290X iPower IceQ X² Turbo

The first thing you will notice by comparing HIS R9 290X to R9 280 series is the backplate. You can only get it by purchasing R9 290X (Turbo or non-Turbo model). The direction of the HIS logo bugged me, once installed it says SIH.

The other feature exclusive to R9 290 series is the special holder (as seen right on top of the card in first picture below). You can easily remove it, but I found it very useful while removing the card for other tests. The good example of its utility is that you will never burn yourself by accidental touching the heat pipes (which are often very hot after stress testing, obviously).

Moving forward to the PCB design, we should note that HIS R9 290X IceQ X2 is a fully custom graphics card. It means that not only is cooling  replaced with a more efficient solution, but that the board has also been designed from the scratch by HIS engineers. First thing to mention is more powerful VRM. This sample has 9 PWM phase design, ensuring more stable operation under higher usage. The PCB is equipped with two 8-pin power connectors, making sure the card always gets enough power.

The exclusive feature of Hawai-based models is dual-BIOS switch. You can either put the card into Silent or Standard (UBER) mode. What you should know about Silent mode is that R9 290(X) owners almost never use it. It’s a useful feature for people with reference models, where the cooling solution isn’t as good. Since silent mode also limits TDP and clock speeds, we are not using this mode in our review.

Physical specifications:

• Width: 143 mm
• Length: 297 mm
• Height: 2-slot
• Weight: 1025 g
• Cooling: IceQ X² (dual-fan)
• Display outputs: DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI, DisplayPort

HIS Radeon R9 290X iPower IceQ X² Turbo packaging