MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning 4GB GDDR5 PCIe R9 290X LIGHTNING

Overview

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 6 expert reviews

Excellent:

3
Good:

3
Average:

0
Bad:

0

Pros:

Overclocked out of the box.
Low temperatures.
Dual BIOS.

Cons:

Fan is noisy in both idle and load.
Large price premium.

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Last revision on January 26, 2016

Reviewers Liked

Overclocked out of the box
Low temperatures
Dual BIOS
Fans can be controlled individually by software
Backplate included
Very impressive build quality

Reviewers Didn't Like

Fan is noisy in both idle and load
Large price premium
Three power connectors required

Competitors and Related Products

Our editors hand-pick related products using a variety of criteria: direct competitors targeting the same market segment, or devices that are similar in size, performance, or feature sets.

Expert reviews and ratings

There is no doubt that AMD's 290X GPU is fast. But no matter how fast a GPU is out of the box, overclocking to squeeze just that little bit more out can yield noticeable performance increases, a fact that MSI know very well. And with this card, MSI have...

By PC Authority on July 17, 2014

AMD's Radeon R9 290X is built on the company's Hawaii GPU, the first truly new high-end graphics chip from the company in a very long time (21 months). Using 6.8 billion transistors, the GPU is built on a 28 nanometer process at TSMC, Taiwan. It...

By techPowerUp! on April 22, 2014

MSI’s overclocked Lightning variant of the R9 290X improves the performance of this already powerful GPU, while getting noise and cooling under control. It’s loaded with enthusiast-friendly features and very well built, though not a...

By Computer Shopper on April 07, 2014

Our first impressions of the Hawaii XT GPU that forms the backbone of the MSI R9 290X Lightning was that it had enormous potential but that it was being stifled by the asthmatic cooler AMD had supplied it with. When the ASUS DirectCU II version of the...

By Overclock3D on March 04, 2014

MSI improves the cooling, noise, and performance of the already powerful Radeon R9 290X GPU. It's very well built, with extra features, but it lags behind rivals on price and...

By PC Mag on October 30, 2014

At the end of February, we published a comparison test featuring Radeon R9 290(X) video cards from ASUS, Gigabyte and Sapphire. MSI and XFX, amongst others, were absent in this review. In the meantime, MSI has sent us three different models, including...

By uk.hardware.info on July 01, 2014

The Radeon R9 290X Lightning continues MSI tradition of building incredibly impressive and over-engineered graphics cards. The Lightning brand is well represented by this card with a custom PCB design enabling impressive overclocking ability while also...

By PCPer on June 05, 2014

MSI deserves credit for taking a GPU that began its life as a hot, unpredictable performer and turning its image around. The R9 290X Lightning comes armed with the cooling necessary to keep AMD's Hawaii GPU at a consistent clock rate, and it does its...

By Tom's Hardware on April 16, 2014

MSI Lighting Series was introduced back in 2009, with the replacement of the cooling system and low frequencies show the basic units, which makes it completely unique in hi-end-class. MSI LIGHTNING have a set of additional features, using which the user...

By extremespec.net on April 15, 2014

Well, it is time to wrap things up here. It should be pretty darn obvious that MSI has done a lot over the R9 290x reference specifications. The super beefy PCB, power bits, and extra power plugs allow more power and cleaner power to the GPU and...

By overclockers.com on March 26, 2014

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MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning 4GB GDDR5 PCIe R9 290X LIGHTNING

Overview

Pros & Cons

Reviews

TechSpot Metascore

Pros:

Cons:

Reviewers Liked

Reviewers Didn't Like

Competitors and Related Products

Asus Radeon R9 290 DirectCU 2 OC 4GB GDDR5 PCIe

AMD Radeon R9 290X

AMD Radeon R9 290

Asus Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum 3GB GDDR5 PCIe

Expert reviews and ratings