28 Nov 2019 - Graphics card reviewed

While some games have more powerful requirements than this GPU, the Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC 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. Capable of running games with up to a DirectX 11 requirement.

How well will the Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC Edition run 2019 games? We will take a look at the biggest releases and frames per second analysis on Ultra graphics settings. In terms of performance against the most demanding games today this graphics card can play 429 of the 1000 most demanding PC games beating their recommended requirements.

The Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC Edition graphics card is predicted to return a weak performance on Microsoft Flight Simulator at 1080p of 22 frames per second at Ultra graphics settings. Another popular title that is good to benchmark graphics cards against is Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order which we saw got weak frame rates of 22 FPS. A third game we can look at on Ultra at 1080p is the popular The Outer Worlds, which was getting 54 FPS under tests.

With PC gamers looking for larger screen sizes like 1440p we tested the Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC Edition by researching Microsoft Flight Simulator leading us to predict a weak performance. Its FPS predictions for the graphics settings are as follows - L: 43FPS, M: 34FPS, H: 23FPS, U: 16FPS. Another popular game we tested with this card was Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order and that was weak. This graphics card delivered 16 FPS at Ultra 1440p. Another popular title was The Outer Worlds which gets playable results with a 41FPS on Ultra 1440p. 1440p gaming on the Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC Edition is in need of some graphics adjustments to get some stability, which means its not an ideal gaming resolution for this GPU.

How many years will the Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC Edition graphics card play newly released games and how long until you should consider upgrading the Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC Edition in your PC? This Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC Edition card has 12 to 18 months of latest AAA game play left in it before upgrading should be considered

Whats a good PC graphics upgrade for the Radeon R9 290 Asus DirectCU II OC Edition? Upgrading this graphics card would have us consider the 16 Series GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB which is 50% more powerful. This upgrade choice can also run 899 games from the most demanding games today. Alternatively upgrading this graphics card would have us consider the R-500 Series Radeon RX 580 8GB which is 20% more powerful. This upgrade choice can also run 846 games from the most demanding games today.