Hate to be the fun wrecker, but I have the AMD Radeon R9 290X and an intel i7 quad core 4700 2.4 gz. its not that old, a fairly new big brand alienware machine, that cost me over 4 grand. It runs everything but this game flawlessly.
It's the GPU - driver issue specifically
Pop a 970 in there and watch the problem disappear. Sell your R9 to someone on hardforum or someplace 
HB can't fix a driver issue if AMD isn't willing to work with them.
Next time consider not buying an alienware... you (anyone with a minimum amount of ability) can build your own and save so much. I bet you could have built that entire setup for $1,200ish. And it's fun doing it and it's ultimately a better computer due to the ability to choose each component.
You are right, and I agree, threw away my money, but I went click and the next day it was here. I built a machine downstairs 5 or 6 years ago, for 800 or 900 dollars, that the kids still use and play all the latest games on still. Watched the teen play fallout 4 on it the other day flawlessly. Thing is better than this machine 5 fold, btw, NVidia gpu. Just not in a convenient spot in the house for my bad smoking habit.
I do on the other hand have a hard time blaming amd for a driver issue. I back dated the driver and only got temporary relief as this game has not always ran bad on amd gpu's.
Actually, according to my research, the game ran very very good in early access and a little beyond on amd gpus, but not very good on NVidia. It was last December, a game update, the graphic optimization update that introduced for the first time a big problem for the amd gpu, but fixed most of the NVidia issues being experienced at that time. Many players at that time with amd gpus needed to then reduce from high settings to low settings for stability. Weeks later, HBS blames an amd driver, however back dating the driver provided no relief. Hence I have a hard time blaming AMD.
I think HBS just decided, they can only get 1 brand of card to work well, and went with NVidia, the more popular card.
