2 Aug 2020 - Graphics card reviewed

While some games have more powerful requirements than this GPU, the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition is only really challenged by the most demanding games released today, but normally it is more than capable of running games with a stable frame rate at 1080p. All games with system requirements of DirectX 11 or lower are met by this card.

Here we take a closer look at the various performances across 1080p, 1440p and 4K screen resolutions for the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition. In particular this is looking at the Ultra graphics settings to see what sort of FPS this graphics card can get across some of the more popular games played in 2020. When considering how well this graphics card can run the 1000 most demanding games available today it can best 197 of the games’ recommended graphics requirements.

Looking at some of the modern popular games people are playing today the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition is predicted to run Assassins Creed: Valhalla with weak performances on 1080p Ultra, getting 14 frames per second. Comparing this to Cyberpunk 2077 which is predicted to get weak results, where it averages 19 FPS. Another popular game we looked at is Grand Theft Auto VI, which is predicted to run at 11 frames per second.

Next up we increase screen res tests to accommodate the growing in popularity 1440p screen size. So we researched the upcoming Assassins Creed: Valhalla to predict how the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition would deal with it. Our research revealed a weak series of FPS results across these graphics presets - Low: 21 FPS, Medium: 18 FPS, High: 16 FPS and Ultra: 11 FPS. Next we looked at Cyberpunk 2077 which we predict will be weak with a 14 FPS at Ultra 1440p. And finally looked at Grand Theft Auto VI that we predict will get an Ultra 1440p FPS of 8. 1440p Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition PC gaming is not going to be able to maintain a playable game at this resolution.

How many years will the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition graphics card play newly released games and how long until you should consider upgrading the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition in your PC? There is around 6-12 months of top end gaming left in this card, at which point its graphics card replacement time, assuming the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition is part of your PC gaming machine.

Whats a good PC graphics upgrade for the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition? A suitable upgrade choice for the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition is the 16 Series GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6GB, which is 49% more powerful and can run 853 of the 1000 most demanding PC games beating their recommended requirements. Alternatively a suitable upgrade choice for the Radeon R9 290 VTX3D X-Edition is the R-500 Series Radeon RX 580 8GB, which is 21% more powerful and can run 790 of the 1000 most demanding PC games beating their recommended requirements.