Review - AMD Radeon R9 290X

[ecos]

I was wondering if you have measured the performance of the 290X with a real job and what numbers you've got.

I have tested the NTLM algo with oclhashcat 1.01, in comparison to the 6990. The O/S is linux 64-bit, driver 13.12, GPU switch set to performance, used your tool with the autofix option. If I run oclhashcat with the benchmark option (-b -m 1000), the results are consistent with your values:

290X=18602.5 MH/s
6990=20016.5 MH/s

If, however, I do similar measurements with a set of hashes, in hopeless brute force mode (-m1000 -a3 -i --increment-min=14), I get different performance ratios:

1 hash
290X=5000.0 MH/s [erratic, between 4400-6800 MH/s]
6990=17714.8 MH/s

100 hashes
290X=4800.0 MH/s [erratic, between 3700-6800 MH/s]
6990=8702.8 MH/s

10000 hashes
290X=4800.0 MH/s [erratic, between 3700-6800 MH/s]
6990=7852.6 MH/s

1000000 hashes
290X=4800.0 MH/s [erratic, between 3700-6800 MH/s]
6990=3579.6 MH/s

When using rules with large amounts of hashes, the 290X is about twice as fast as the 6990 with the same input.

Am I doing something wrong, or are the results consistent with your observations?

Cheers,
ecos