CyberPower Inc., a global manufacturer of custom gaming PCs, gaming laptops, and performance workstations, today announced the gaming bundle of the year, which features the next generation GPU from AMD and the highly anticipated Battlefield 4 first person shooter.

CYBERPOWERPC is taking pre-orders for the Radeon R9 290X next gen graphics card. This gaming bundle includes the blazing fast R9 290X video card paired with AMD's 8-core FX-8350, 9370, or 9590 CPUs. This powerful combination nets you a high-performance gaming PC ready for the next generation of games including Battlefield 4 from Electronic Arts; which you get as part of this spectacular bundle.

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder of custom gaming desktops and notebooks has been working closely with AMD and EA to build two exclusive branded flagship systems that will sport the new AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics solutions to offer the best PC gaming experience for the highly anticipated BATTLEFIELD 4 game.

The flagship MAINGEAR SHIFT and F131 desktops will be equipped with the new AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics card that harnesses the visionary GCN architecture, providing higher clockspeeds on the whim and offering better performance on high performance for PC gamers such as BF4. The SHIFT will offer two R9 290X cards in CrossFire with options to configure up to 3 cards, while the F131 will start with one R9 290X and configurable up to two cards in CrossFire.

A leaked company slide by AMD confirmed that its high-end "Hawaii" silicon indeed features 64 raster operations units (ROPs). In reference to its predecessor, "Tahiti," the slide speaks of 2 times the ROPs (32 on "Tahiti") and 1.4 times the stream processors (2048 on "Tahiti," so 2816 on "Hawaii"). Other known specifications include up to 1 GHz GPU clock, up to 5.00 GHz memory clock, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. Reviews of Radeon R9 290X could surface around mid-October.

Disappointed at the $729.99 Newegg.com pricing of the Radeon R9 290X? No worries. AMD's second SKU based on the "Hawaii" silicon could be lighter on the wallet. Japanese retailers leaked the specifications sheets of both the upcoming R9 290X, and its lighter sibling, the R9 290 (non-X). Specifications of the R9 290X match rumors. The chip features 2,816 stream processors, up to 1000 MHz of GPU clock, single-precision floating point performance of 5.16 TFLOP/s, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 512-bit wide memory interface, clocked at 5.00 GHz, yielding 320 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The R9 290, on the other hand, features 2,560 stream processors, up to 948 MHz GPU clocks, 4.9 TFLOP/s single-precision floating point performance, and the same memory subsystem as the R9 290X. Both cards feature an identical combination of power connectors, 8-pin PCIe and 6-pin PCIe. Both feature hardware support for DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle.

US retailer Newegg.com leaked pricing of its reference design Radeon R9 290X graphics cards. An MSI-branded reference-design card got its own store page with its pricing redacted, but Newegg did a sloppy job at that. On close inspection of the HTML code of the page, we discovered the pricing value intended for that page to be US $729.99 (excl. taxes). Given that Newegg.com tends to add $10 to $30 on MSRP, pricing of the R9 290X is likely to have been set at $699 (excl. taxes).

Online retailers are beginning to take pre-orders for AMD's Radeon R9 290X Battlefield 4 Edition bundle, which combines an R9 290X graphics card, with a Battlefield 4 Premium copy, which gives you access to not just the game, but its entire trunk of expansion packs. The bundle is sold directly by AMD, and doesn't bear any AIB partner markings. Swedish retailer Webhallen.com listed the bundle for 7,299 SEK (including all applicable taxes and shipping), which roughly converts to US $1,145. The store page also mentions that it will begin shipping the pre-orders on the 11th of October, 2013. Based on the 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon, the Radeon R9 290X features 2,816 GCN stream processors, 176 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory. It features full support for DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle.

Radeon R9 290X is looking increasingly good on paper. Most of its rumored specifications, and SEP pricing were reported late last week, but the ones that eluded us were clock speeds. A source that goes by the name Grant Kim, with access to a Radeon R9 290X sample, disclosed its clock speeds, and ran a few tests for us. To begin with, the GPU core is clocked at 1050 MHz. There is no dynamic-overclocking feature, but the chip can lower its clocks, taking load and temperatures into account. The memory is clocked at 1125 MHz (4.50 GHz GDDR5-effective). At that speed, the chip churns out 288 GB/s of memory bandwidth, over its 512-bit wide memory interface. Those clock speeds were reported by the GPU-Z client to us, so we give it the benefit of our doubt, even if it goes against AMD's ">300 GB/s memory bandwidth" bullet-point in its presentation.

Among the tests run on the card include frame-rates and frame-latency for Aliens vs. Predators, Battlefield 3, Crysis 3, GRID 2, Tomb Raider (2013), RAGE, and TESV: Skyrim, in no-antialiasing, FXAA, and MSAA modes; at 5760 x 1080 pixels resolution. An NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN was pitted against it, running the latest WHQL driver. We must remind you that at that resolution, AMD and NVIDIA GPUs tend to behave a little differently due to the way they handle multi-display, and so it may be an apples-to-coconuts comparison. In Tomb Raider (2013), the R9 290X romps ahead of the GTX TITAN, with higher average, maximum, and minimum frame rates in most tests.

At a local press gathering in Turkey, AMD revealed the launch date of its next high-end product, the Radeon R9 290X. The press NDA over the card will end on October 15, 2013, at 12:01 AM EST (Berlin time). This NDA expiry time was disclosed in the slides that AMD showed the press. There's always the possibility that the NDA expiry date doesn't match market availability. It could merely mark NDA expiry for the press to post reviews of their AMD reference-design R9 290X (the only kind of R9 290X that will be initially available). AMD is handling R9 290X launch much in the same way NVIDIA handled the GTX TITAN, in that there won't be non-reference design cards in the foreseeable future, with the exception of cards with factory-fitted full-coverage water-blocks.

AMD's next-generation flagship graphics card, the Radeon R9 290X, could strike a US $599.99 (or 499.99€, £399.99 before taxes) price-point, turning up the heat on the more expensive offerings by NVIDIA - GeForce GTX 780 and GTX TITAN. The card should be available from mid-October. Based on the new 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon, the card is expected to feature 2,816 GCN stream processors, spread across 44 SIMDs (11 computing units). Other specifications include 172 TMUs, 44 ROPs, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 4 GB of memory, which likely achieves its >300 GB/s memory bandwidth with a 5.00 GHz memory clock. The company is expected to launch 6 GB variants of the card a little later.

Here's a quick recap of AMD's updated product stack, spread between the R9 and R7 series. This article can help you understand the new nomenclature. AMD's lineup begins with the Radeon R7 250 and Radeon R7 260X. The two are based on the 28 nm "Curacao" silicon, which is a variation of the "Pitcairn" silicon the previous-generation Radeon HD 7870 was based on. The R7 250 is expected to be priced around US $89, with 1 GB of RAM, and performance rated at over 2,000 points by 3DMark Firestrike benchmark. The R7 260X, features double the memory at 2 GB, higher clock speeds, possibly more number crunching resources, Firestrike score of over 3,700 points, and a pricing that's around $139. This card should turn up the heat against the likes of GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost.

Moving on, there's the $199 Radeon R9 270X. Based on a chip not much unlike "Tahiti LE," it features 2 GB of memory, and 3DMark Firestrike score of over 5,500 points. Then there's the Radeon R9 280X. This card, priced attractively at $299, is practically a rebrand of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition with. It features 3 GB of RAM, and over 6,800 points on 3DMark Firestrike. Then there are the R9 290 and R9 290X. AMD flew dozens of scribes thousands of miles over to Hawaii, and left them without an official announcement on the specifications of the two. From what AMD told us, the two feature 4 GB of memory, over 5,000 TFLOP/s compute power, and over 300 GB/s memory bandwidth. The cards we mentioned are pictured in that order below.More pictures follow.

AMD's approach to the next-generation product stack isn't structured too differently from that of NVIDIA's current. The company is launching just one big (high-end) chip, codenamed "Hawaii," based on which it's launching the Radeon R9 290X. It's been detailed to death in our older posts. The Radeon R9 280X, on the other hand, is we're hearing a re-badged Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. At the most, expect a slight clock speed bump, and a different reference-design board, but for the most part, it's shaping up to be identical. The approach draws parallels with the NVIDIA's lineup. The Radeon R9 290X is expected to compete with the GeForce GTX TITAN, R9 290 with GTX 780, and R9 280X with the GTX 770. While launch of the R9 290 series will be tightly controlled by AMD (i.e., don't expect non-reference designs for a while), the R9 280X will launch entirely by non-reference designs. The three cards will launch a little later this week.

In addition to the Radeon R9 290X pictured earlier today, AMD will also be unveiling the Radeon R7 260X upper mid-range graphics card. Pictures of the card were leaked to the web. At the moment, we have no clue as to what chip the card is based on, but we're hearing two codenames, "Curacao" and "Bonaire XTX." "Curacao," in our best guess, is a variant of "Pitcairn." "Bonaire XTX" could be a higher-performing variant of the "Bonaire" silicon AMD launched the Radeon HD 7790 with. Given the way components are arranged behind the GPU, we're inclined to believe the card pictured below is based on "Curacao." Gotta give AMD marks for trying out something different with the cooler shroud design.

Here are the first pictures of AMD's next-generation flagship graphics card, the Radeon R9 290X. If the naming caught you off-guard, our older article on AMD's new nomenclature could help. Pictured below is the AMD reference-design board of the R9 290X. It's big, and doesn't have too much going on with its design. At least it doesn't look Fisher Price like its predecessor. This reference design card is all that you'll be able to buy initially, and non-reference design cards could launch much later.

With its cooler taken apart, the PCB is signature AMD, you find digital-PWM voltage regulation, Volterra and CPL (Cooperbusmann) chippery, and, well, the more obvious components, the GPU and memory. The GPU, which many sources point at being built on the existing 28 nm silicon fab process, and looks significantly bigger than "Tahiti." The chip is surrounded by not twelve, but sixteen memory chips, which could indicate a 512-bit wide memory interface. At 6.00 GHz, we're talking about 384 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Other rumored specifications include 2,816 stream processors, four independent tessellation units, 176 TMUs, and anywhere between 32 and 64 ROPs. There's talk of DirectX 11.2 support.It gets better, the source also put out benchmark figures.

TechPowerUp announced the latest update to GPU-Z, the popular graphics hardware information, monitoring and diagnostics utility. Version 0.7.3 brings in a few major changes, keeping in mind plans by AMD and NVIDIA to update their product stacks, a little later this year. We've added preliminary support for Radeon R7 240, R7 250, R7 260X, R9 270, R9 270X, R9 290, and R9 290X. On the NVIDIA front, we've added support for GeForce GT 625, GT 645, GT 755M, GT 745M, GTX 760M, GTX 765M, GTX 770M, Quadro K1100M, and K5100M. Support was also added for AMD Radeon HD 7600G, HD 8250, HD 8330, HD 8470G, HD 8570, HD 8570G, and E6460; FirePro W7000, and W600. GPU-Z 0.7.3 brings improved support for GeForce GTX 780 graphics cards with CHiL CHL8318 voltage controllers, and GeForce cards in general, with NCP4206 controllers.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.3 | TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.3 ASUS ROG-themed

The complete change-log follows.