# MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning 4 GB



## W1zzard (Apr 15, 2014)

The $700 MSI R9 290X Lightning is MSI's latest flagship card geared toward overclockers and enthusiasts. It comes with a large overclock out of the box, higher than any other custom R9 290X available today. The board is cooled by a large triple-slot, triple-fan cooler that yields excellent temperatures.

*Show full review*


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## LeonVolcove (Apr 22, 2014)

wow $699, lets give them couple a week and those price will really coming down


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## vega22 (Apr 22, 2014)

already fell to £420 over here dude.


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## LeonVolcove (Apr 22, 2014)

what? really?


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## Razorfang (Apr 22, 2014)

Thanks for the review, W1zzard.

One question: do you use a third party automatic fan speed adjuster (with or without fan curve) like EVGA Precision, for example, or is it adjusted out of the box by CCC?


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## fullinfusion (Apr 22, 2014)

Razorfang said:


> Thanks for the review, W1zzard.
> 
> One question: do you use a third party automatic fan speed adjuster (with or without fan curve) like EVGA Precision, for example, or is it adjusted out of the box by CCC?


W1zzards showing how the fans ramp up in speed on there own, as the card generates heat. The fans profile is pre-programed in the cards bios.
There is software to control the fans if one desires and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong but if I read the review I'm sure that's how it works.


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## Frogger (Apr 22, 2014)

Was really hoping the 'Lightning' might have been the Hawaii to buy. But guess not  . Might as well wait for the next Gen.
Thanks W1zz for Another great read


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## Durvelle27 (Apr 22, 2014)

Not bad but was hoping for better overclockability


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## fullinfusion (Apr 22, 2014)

Durvelle27 said:


> Not bad but was hoping for better overclockability


Stock voltage and an overclock like that is nothing to frown about. 

I'm sure with a bump in voltage, that thing will take off like a jet. Plus look at the memory clock , it will scale with the voltage too 

Id be all over this gpu in a heart beat... 

@Frogger 
Why you say that


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## Durvelle27 (Apr 22, 2014)

fullinfusion said:


> Stock voltage and an overclock like that is nothing to frown about.
> 
> I'm sure with a bump in voltage, that thing will take off like a jet. Plus look at the memory clock , it will scale with the voltage too
> 
> ...


well my reference R9 290X can do 1160/1500 at stock


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## fullinfusion (Apr 22, 2014)

Durvelle27 said:


> well my reference R9 290X can do 1160/1500 at stock


And is it under water? Id assume so, but if not hows the temps?

For a NON reference gpu I wouldn't complain at all for clocks like what the lightning is doing  
That's not a run of the mill aftermarket gpu by any means... Love they have the sammy mem chips on board and hope they don't cheap out and slap some shitty ones on shortly


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## acupalypse (Apr 22, 2014)

Durvelle27 said:


> well my reference R9 290X can do 1160/1500 at stock



On water? If not, how does the gpu graph look when stressing the gpu? how's the temp?


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## Durvelle27 (Apr 22, 2014)

fullinfusion said:


> And is it under water? Id assume so, but if not hows the temps?
> 
> For a NON reference gpu I wouldn't complain at all for clocks like what the lightning is doing
> That's not a run of the mill aftermarket gpu by any means... Love they have the sammy mem chips on board and hope they don't cheap out and slap some shitty ones on shortly


No it still has the Reference cooler on it. Temps are ok I've seen 73°C so far at 65% Fan speed and it also has Eplidia VRAM


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## fullinfusion (Apr 22, 2014)

Durvelle27 said:


> No it still has the Reference cooler on it. Temps are ok I've seen 73°C so far at 65% Fan speed and it also has Eplidia VRAM


Ok cool, seems like the earlier Eplidia chips are good clockers but the newer Hynix SUCK!


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## Durvelle27 (Apr 23, 2014)

fullinfusion said:


> Ok cool, seems like the earlier Eplidia chips are good clockers but the newer Hynix SUCK!


Wish it had samsung though. My GTX 780 had sammys and did 1850 without breaking a sweat. Hopefully will see what this card can really do once ppl start adding water.


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## acupalypse (Apr 23, 2014)

Durvelle27 said:


> No it still has the Reference cooler on it. Temps are ok I've seen 73°C so far at 65% Fan speed and it also has Eplidia VRAM



Nice temps!


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## Frogger (Apr 23, 2014)

fullinfusion said:


> Stock voltage and an overclock like that is nothing to frown about.
> 
> I'm sure with a bump in voltage, that thing will take off like a jet. Plus look at the memory clock , it will scale with the voltage too
> 
> ...



I'm Praying that the 28nm Hawaii refresh hinted
 "AMD senior vice-president Lisa Su, responding to a question by Wells Fargo, in its Q1 investors call, confirmed that her company will stay on 28 nm throughout 2014"
will yield some chips that really shine .. If not waiting for the 20nm just feels right for a full rebuild with the latest


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## fullinfusion (Apr 23, 2014)

Frogger said:


> I'm Praying that the 28nm Hawaii refresh hinted
> "AMD senior vice-president Lisa Su, responding to a question by Wells Fargo, in its Q1 investors call, confirmed that her company will stay on 28 nm throughout 2014"
> will yield some chips that really shine .. If not waiting for the 20nm just feels right for a full rebuild with the latest


Man I dont know what to think 

Lisa SU  

I think AMD are waiting for green team to do there thing and then... AMD to follow suit but with better tech!?? 

but slap me upside the head and call me stupid or whatever but Please don't wake me from this dream


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## Durvelle27 (Apr 23, 2014)

acupalypse said:


> Nice temps!


Thx


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## LeonVolcove (Apr 23, 2014)

I think only HIS R9 290x/290(custom cooling i mean) that not have been reviewed yet


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## fullinfusion (Apr 23, 2014)

LeonVolcove said:


> I think only HIS R9 290x/290(custom cooling i mean) that not have been reviewed yet


What are you talking about, that gold and silver thing they call a cooler?

If so I had one and tested it.


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## LeonVolcove (Apr 23, 2014)

fullinfusion said:


> What are you talking about, that gold and silver thing they call a cooler?
> 
> If so I had one and tested it.



gold and silver thing


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## fullinfusion (Apr 23, 2014)

LeonVolcove said:


> gold and silver thing


Well take what I say with a grain of salt ok.

#1 the card in person looks great
#2 the cards cooler works fine at idle
#3 place a slight OC to it and it's mid 90's man

I had one, I sold it to a local on the 3rd day... It wasn't my cup of tea


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## Relayer (Apr 23, 2014)

Have to see what it does with some added voltage. The Powercolor PCS+ @ $579.99 matches it (beats it slightly).


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## Tatty_One (Apr 23, 2014)

Relayer said:


> Have to see what it does with some added voltage. The Powercolor PCS+ @ $579.99 matches it (beats it slightly).


 
1190mhz, he has added voltage, see the bottom of page 27.


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## Relayer (Apr 23, 2014)

Tatty_One said:


> 1190mhz, he has added voltage, see the bottom of page 27.


Wasn't there a similar chart for the PCS+? I thought I remembered seeing it, but I don't now. I seem to recall exclaiming how well it scaled with voltage.


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## Tatty_One (Apr 23, 2014)

Not for voltage adjustment no.....
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_290X_PCS_Plus/26.html


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 23, 2014)

Well that solves my Question, Ill be getting a Sapphire VaporX 290

Hey tatty look at both our Thanks Received Count

whats common about both?  Yes you guessed it, same digits


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## LeonVolcove (Apr 24, 2014)

fullinfusion said:


> Well take what I say with a grain of salt ok.
> 
> #1 the card in person looks great
> #2 the cards cooler works fine at idle
> ...



Why, is because terrible performance or cooler? or you just dont like the "design"?


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## radrok (Apr 24, 2014)

This thing yells for a custom waterblock


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## fullinfusion (Apr 24, 2014)

LeonVolcove said:


> Why, is because terrible performance or cooler? or you just dont like the "design"?


Don't get me wrong it was a good card but it don't cool under mild over clocks. Sure its quiet but my main concerns were how bad it sagged under its own weight. If it had a back plate that fix its issue but the cooler didn't do all that great.


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## TheGoat Eater (Apr 28, 2014)

I will need to re-read the article to see how you tested the cooler since mine is VERY cool and stays that way under hours of 100% load.  It may be due to me having the card on my test bench in open air maybe?


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## etayorius (May 8, 2014)

Wizz, could you add some MANTLE benchmarks in next reviews? back in the day you made a big deal out of AMD not having PhysX and even took several points out to all Radeon Cards... just saying, i`m no AMD Fanboy... i don`t even own a Radeon but it would be *fair* to add MANTLE benchmarks because you know... more performance is what GPU`s are all about and MANTLE is a feature of all Modern Radeon Cards.

We got 2 Titles and 1 demo (Star Swarm)which support MANTLE, with a List of about 10+ extra Games through 2014-2015.


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## EarthDog (May 8, 2014)

TheGoat Eater said:


> I will need to re-read the article to see how you tested the cooler since mine is VERY cool and stays that way under hours of 100% load.  It may be due to me having the card on my test bench in open air maybe?


It performed like a champ on an open air test bench, and pretty well in the PC too. I never had any issues with the cooler outside of the fans not working properly because of the "amd drivers". MSI fan control has now been updated, as well as the bios so I believe that is a non issue now.


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## acupalypse (May 9, 2014)

Has anyone noticed something odd the VRM2 temp seen in GPU-Z? It's not in AB and shows same temperature even if everything else around it is warm or cold. Seems like reboot, driver update and some issues may influence it and cause it to show slightly higher temp numbers. Not sure where that reading is coming from.


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## Lx20 (Jun 12, 2014)

Hello, I have a r9 290x lightning, new to oc and I tried oc at 1125-1175 because alot of people have been able to get these results stable but yet when I do it, it will play fine until there is alot goin on then fps drop to 3-7 and then my comp will restart, but before that I would check temps and they never go above 70c, so I'm kinda stumped as to why it happens. My specs are p8z68 v pro gen 3 pcie3.0
I7 2600k stock, corsair vengeance 16gb ram, corsair hx750 running the 6-8pin connectors gpu came with along with extra 6pin, 4 case fans in haf932 atx case, windows 7 64bit, 1tb ssd 840evo, 1tb wd hdd 7200rpm, Blu ray cd rom drive. Any help would be appreciated, thank you


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