Sapphire launches Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X OC

Partner manufacturers continue to print new graphics cards based on the latest flagships from AMD and Nvidia. Now AMD-exclusive Sapphire is releasing a completely new model in the lavish Vapor-X series, where a self-designed printed circuit board and new cooler are on the menu.

The Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X OC is based on the Hawaii Pro graphics processor and comes with 2,560 stream processors clocked at 1,030 MHz, up from 947 MHz for AMD’s reference design. This includes 4 GB GDDR5, which steps up from the regular 5,000 MHz to 5,600 MHz for a memory bandwidth of 358.4 GB / s.

The radiator combines Sapphire’s signature design with the Vapor-X steam chamber cooler and their latest Tri-X, which consists of a 10 mm heat pipe flanked by two 8 mm and two 6 mm, placed on top of the steam chamber. The whole thing is topped off by cooling fins in aluminum that are cooled by three 90 mm fans.

For other features, the circuit board is equipped with a BIOS switch, which is primarily intended for compatibility modes between older systems and newer motherboards with UEFI. For video connections, two DVI-Ds, an HDMI 1.4a and a Displayport 1.2 for powering screens in 4K resolution (60 Hz) are displayed as usual.

No information on price is available, but it is probably a matter of a few hundred bucks more than the reference design. The graphics card is expected to be available in stores soon.