# Reference Radeon R9 290X Taken Apart



## btarunr (Oct 14, 2013)

A HIS-branded AMD reference design Radeon R9 290X graphics card was taken apart by Expreview, revealing its cooling solution, the PCB, the VRM, and the star attraction, the company's new 28 nm "Hawaii" silicon. The pictures match with an earlier, blurrier leak from September. The cooling solution is typical AMD fare, with its copper plate covering the GPU, memory, and VRM areas, aluminium channels, and a lateral-flow fan. The PCB features the swanky new 7.08 billion-transistor chip from AMD, sixteen GDDR5 memory chips (all of which are on the obverse side), and the 5+1+1 phase VRM, which uses CPL-made chokes, IR-made DirectFETs, and a new IR-made VRM controller. The first reviews of the Radeon R9 290X should be published later this month. Find more pictures at the source.



 

 

 

 



*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## RCoon (Oct 14, 2013)

That's some disgraceful pasting right there AMD/HIS...


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## Indra EMC (Oct 14, 2013)

I know that is a sample card but why there is no crossfire connector ?


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## Ghost (Oct 14, 2013)

Indra EMC said:


> I know that is a sample card but why there is no crossfire connector ?



Because R9 290X uses CF over PCI-E.


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## nemesis.ie (Oct 14, 2013)

Indra EMC said:


> I know that is a sample card but why there is no crossfire connector ?



If you check out the preview details you'll find that Crossfire is being handled over the PCI-E bus only on the new cards.


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## nemesis.ie (Oct 14, 2013)

RCoon said:


> That's some disgraceful pasting right there AMD/HIS...



I've seen much worse, at least it looks pretty even and no gaps.


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## Assimilator (Oct 14, 2013)

Highest-end card in the range, but no backplate?


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## RCoon (Oct 14, 2013)

Assimilator said:


> Highest-end card in the range, but no backplate?



When has a reference card from ANY range of GPU's ever come packaged with a backplate?


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## the54thvoid (Oct 14, 2013)

Went to source for better look at PCB pics.  The chokes look very similar to what was on my stock Powercolor 7970.  At least they start with '1007R3, R15'.  oooh.  They can whine under load.  Not saying it _will_ but if W1zz is reading this, mind to listen out for the boards electrical noise.
EKWB are making blocks for these so they'd be pretty fast under water (I'd hope) but if there's choke noise, it's not so pretty.

Also, 

What are the screw holes for in the cover?  Or is it just where the shroud screws have already been removed...


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## RCoon (Oct 14, 2013)

the54thvoid said:


> Went to source for better look at PCB pics.  The chokes look very similar to what was on my stock Powercolor 7970.  At least they start with '1007R3, R15'.  oooh.  They can whine under load.  Not saying it _will_ but if W1zz is reading this, mind to listen out for the boards electrical noise.
> EKWB are making blocks for these so they'd be pretty fast under water (I'd hope) but if there's choke noise, it's not so pretty.
> 
> Also,
> ...



Screw holes I assume are similar to the Titan/780, the outer shroud screws into the inner cooler on the end, only there are 4 here instead of 2.


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## Supercrit (Oct 14, 2013)

rcoon said:


> when has a reference card from any range of gpu's ever come packaged with a backplate?



5870, 6970/6950


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## Fairlady-z (Oct 14, 2013)

Too bad these cards wont ship for about 500ish, as that would have been a must buy GPU. I know people who did/didn't need to upgrade would have lol. Also, from the looks of that PCB it would a good idea to wait out for a Asus custom, but my understanding is for now the AIB are not allowed to make their own? Is there any truth to this? What about a custom cooler?


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## RCoon (Oct 14, 2013)

Supercrit said:


> 5870, 6970/6950



Interesting examples, but those days are long gone.


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## Supercrit (Oct 14, 2013)

RCoon said:


> Interesting examples, but those days are long gone.



Sigh... The golden age of backplates of 69xx, where even the non-top card 6950 has a backplate, as well as being able to unlock to a 6970.


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## Fairlady-z (Oct 14, 2013)

the54thvoid said:


> Went to source for better look at PCB pics.  The chokes look very similar to what was on my stock Powercolor 7970.  At least they start with '1007R3, R15'.  oooh.  They can whine under load.  Not saying it _will_ but if W1zz is reading this, mind to listen out for the boards electrical noise.
> EKWB are making blocks for these so they'd be pretty fast under water (I'd hope) but if there's choke noise, it's not so pretty.
> 
> Also,
> ...




Say it isnt so Jhonny....god what I hate the most is the damn whine noise that some of my older cards produced. It drove me nuts, so much that I would upgrade at a loss just to get out of it. My MSI 7


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## btarunr (Oct 14, 2013)

Assimilator said:


> Highest-end card in the range, but no backplate?



Just like the $1000 Titan.


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## the54thvoid (Oct 14, 2013)

btarunr said:


> Just like the $1000 Titan.



Absolutely.  And FTR, my Titan has coil whine when i up the voltage.  Let's hope AMD isn't making a "better than Titan but has same problems as Titan card."


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## BarbaricSoul (Oct 14, 2013)

the54thvoid said:


> Absolutely.  And FTR, my Titan has coil whine when i up the voltage.  Let's hope AMD isn't making a "better than Titan but has same problems as Titan card."



I agree 100%. I'd love to replace my 7970 with a 290X,but if the card has coil whine , I don't care if it gives a bajillion FPS at super ultra very high settings at 25600000*16000000 resolution, I won't buy it. :shadedshu


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## dj-electric (Oct 14, 2013)

This PCB design makes me worry, It doesn't seem very capable, at all.

BUT, unlike the Titan it is going to be changed a lot by AIB's


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## Ghost (Oct 14, 2013)

BarbaricSoul said:


> I agree 100%. I'd love to replace my 7970 with a 290X,but if the card has coil whine , I don't care if it gives a bajillion FPS at super ultra very high settings at 25600000*16000000 resolution, I won't buy it. :shadedshu



Actually, bajillion FPS would be a cause of coil whine.


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## RCoon (Oct 14, 2013)

Ghost said:


> Actually, bajillion FPS would be a cause of coil whine.



I was just about to say. My old reference 780 got coil whine, only when I reached 1800+ FPS, but the coil whine disappeared around 1600-1700FPS. (3DMark tests)


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## Fourstaff (Oct 14, 2013)

btarunr said:


> Just like the $1000 Titan.



IIRC they removed it because it caused the cards to be air starved in SLI.


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## manofthem (Oct 14, 2013)

I can live with the coil whine .   Just give me a nice price withinu a month from launch, and we have a deal!


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## Prima.Vera (Oct 14, 2013)

Why are they keeping the same shitty cooler??! Specially for a premium card?? WHY?


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## swirl09 (Oct 14, 2013)

the54thvoid said:


> Went to source for better look at PCB pics.  The chokes look very similar to what was on my stock Powercolor 7970.  At least they start with '1007R3, R15'.  oooh.  They can whine under load.  Not saying it _will_ but if W1zz is reading this, mind to listen out for the boards electrical noise.
> EKWB are making blocks for these so they'd be pretty fast under water (I'd hope) but if there's choke noise, it's not so pretty.



This is a complete deal breaker for me. I had 2 7970s and both had the most god awful coil whine. I'll be paying attention to any reviews about this issue. 

I'm feeling like an upgrade, and this card may do it - _if_ it has no bloody whiney buzz crap.


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## BarbaricSoul (Oct 14, 2013)

Ghost said:


> Actually, bajillion FPS would be a cause of coil whine.





RCoon said:


> I was just about to say. My old reference 780 got coil whine, only when I reached 1800+ FPS, but the coil whine disappeared around 1600-1700FPS. (3DMark tests)



you guys know what I mean :shadedshu


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## RCoon (Oct 14, 2013)

swirl09 said:


> This is a complete deal breaker for me. I had 2 7970s and both had the most god awful coil whine. I'll be paying attention to any reviews about this issue.
> 
> I'm feeling like an upgrade, and this card may do it - _if_ it has no bloody whiney buzz crap.



In all fairness both my Gainward 570's and a third Gigabyte card all had coil whine. Reference 780 had it, but my new Gigabyte custom PCB has no coil whine. I dont get how manufacturers can bugger it up so bad.


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## BarbaricSoul (Oct 14, 2013)

damn, I'm feeling lucky, only PC component that I've ever had that produced coil whine was a 750 watt Cooler Master PSU, and it didn't start the coil whine until I tried running crossfired 5870 cards with it..


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## TheHunter (Oct 14, 2013)

Well its mostly PSU that whines not gpu. 

My old PSU had huge coil whine by very high fps - latest 3dmark 1st benchmark, now when I bought new one its so silent almost unnoticeable, I have to put my head near psu ~ 5cm away to hear it.


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## BarbaricSoul (Oct 14, 2013)

TheHunter said:


> Well its mostly PSU that whines not gpu.
> .



I realize that


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## Lionheart (Oct 14, 2013)

*My reaction when I receive my new Video Card in the mail.





*

*Has coil whine




*


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## Random Murderer (Oct 14, 2013)

Huh. The board design looks like a reference 7970/280X with four extra memory chips and a different core. Anybody else feel like AMD has probably been sitting on a stockpile of these for quite a while now?


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## TheGuruStud (Oct 14, 2013)

Cap the framerate and coil whine won't exist 

The only time I've had whine (on virtually any card) is in game menus that don't cap, so it's at 200+ fps.


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## Casecutter (Oct 14, 2013)

Random Murderer said:


> AMD has probably been sitting on a stockpile of these for quite a while now


If you mean the PCB it's not a 7970 board (512-Bit), or do you mean the Hawaii chip?


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## 1d10t (Oct 14, 2013)

Same board layout as TahitiXT but slightly faster,this card will draw more or less on par with 7970GE.That's a winner in my book.I don't care about coil whine though,i had Xonar HDAV + 5 NZXT rad fans to compromise  



Indra EMC said:


> I know that is a sample card but why there is no crossfire connector ?



Still jailbreakin PS3 console on kaskus mate?


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## Random Murderer (Oct 14, 2013)

Casecutter said:


> If you mean the PCB it's not a 7970 board (512-Bit),


Obviously.
I meant it _looked similar_ to the 7970 board. The power circuitry layout, especially.


Casecutter said:


> or do you mean the Hawaii chip?


Both. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they've had fully assembled cards lying around, waiting to be sent to their partners. Would certainly explain why the 290/290X is being limited to reference designs for now.


1d10t said:


> I don't care about coil whine though,i had Xonar HDAV + 5 NZXT rad fans to compromise


Agreed. Coil whine doesn't bother me as long as the hardware works. My case fans drown out the whine anyway, and even if they didn't, I game with headphones on.
Luckily, only one of my 7970s has coil whine and it's the worst ASIC and overclocker of the three.


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## xvi (Oct 14, 2013)

That's cool, AMD. I didn't need to save any money. Here. Take it. TAKE IT!


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## HisDivineOrder (Oct 14, 2013)

I just don't get it, AMD.  You go all out, you want to sell me a high end card, and I want to be excited about it.

Then you slap it in a cooler the same as your now $300 card, you don't make it feel premium, and you want to charge me high cost for it.  If you want to make it premium, you have to make it premium.

You can't cheap out on presentation and then expect the same or close to the same as the other guy.  nVidia knows enough to really spare no expense on the cooler just to give off the impression that people spending the extra money are getting something for their money.

Moreover, coil whine may be acceptable to some, but it won't be acceptable to a lot of people dropping this kinda cash on a card (or two or three).

All that said, I'm glad AMD is returning to the high end.  Even if they don't lower the price points much or raise the bar much (or at all?), it's nice to see the ti-- ...er.., I mean giants slugging it out at the high end again because GPU's (and enthusiast PC's in general) have become so boring lately...


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## xvi (Oct 14, 2013)

-____-

Coil whine is speculation based on it apparently using the same choke as the 7970. There's no reviews saying it whines. Speculation.

As for the cooler, the 280x is the 7970, which has a 250 watt TDP. The 290x is rumored to have a 300w TDP. Additionally, the 280x *doesn't have a reference cooler*. Everything is custom (Anandtech.com). AMD may have thrown on a similar cooler to the 280x in their engineering samples, but only because it's what they had available and it shouldn't reflect what you'll get in retail.

tl;dr: Wait until people actually get it in their hands.


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## Frick (Oct 14, 2013)

xvi said:


> tl;dr: Wait until people actually get it in their hands.



Never! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




EDIT: Seriously though, coil whine sucks. I will never ever be in the market for this GPU in any case, but it always suck.

Not that, as the illuminated xvi points out, it has to be.


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## Finners (Oct 14, 2013)

I notice it has hynix memory, is that good?

What memory is on the titan? I've read a few people complaining that its not the best.


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## buildzoid (Oct 14, 2013)

HisDivineOrder said:


> I just don't get it, AMD.  You go all out, you want to sell me a high end card, and I want to be excited about it.
> 
> Then you slap it in a cooler the same as your now $300 card, you don't make it feel premium, and you want to charge me high cost for it.  If you want to make it premium, you have to make it premium.
> 
> You can't cheap out on presentation and then expect the same or close to the same as the other guy.  nVidia knows enough to really spare no expense on the cooler just to give off the impression that people spending the extra money are getting something for their money.



Here's you main difference the AMD card has a VRM that should be able to out put between 300 and 375A no problem whereas the Nvidia one will blow up at this point and burn your house down so please keep your stupid vanity cooler because coolers can be replaced VRMs not so much.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Oct 14, 2013)

HisDivineOrder said:


> I just don't get it, AMD.  You go all out, you want to sell me a high end card, and I want to be excited about it.
> 
> Then you slap it in a cooler the same as your now $300 card, you don't make it feel premium, and you want to charge me high cost for it.  If you want to make it premium, you have to make it premium.
> 
> ...




Interesting standpoint you have , mine is that if i bought a 6-700 pound gfx card i wouldnt want any cheap ass fan thing on it at all, its got to be a full cover block or nowt at that price i mean who pays more then 600 quid for a card with fans on

secondly this,,, Amd back in the enthusiast grade GPu thing , what total bollocks, whilst a 7970 isnt graded enthusiast now nor should it Now,, it sure was until titan came out how long ago? ,and as for looking cheap that's exactly why i didnt overpay for an economy aimed gk104 card that had an extended BLOWER on it just to make it look more premium as imho despite the good performance at that time, i would'nt overpay for what i saw as a shit built gpu(gtx680ref) aimed at value guy but priced for muppet man, in short get real i and a great many others are clearly enthusiast's were here waffleing nonesense everyday but most dont have 1 titan never mind more but you stroke your epeen i bet you've a gtx660 anyway


titan released at last

http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/Releas...-Supercomputer-Powered-by-World-s-Fa-925.aspx


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## xvi (Oct 14, 2013)

theoneandonlymrk said:


> i wouldnt want any cheap ass fan thing on it at all



Please elaborate.


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## DeOdView (Oct 14, 2013)

And then we stripped it all off... re-dressed with some other fancy after market goody... 

I just wanted a bare board


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Oct 14, 2013)

xvi said:


> Please elaborate.



if i pay 600+ I am getting a full cover waterblock, its gota last and fan coolers on gpu's are too noisey full load......though my matrix aint bad


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## the54thvoid (Oct 14, 2013)

Finners said:


> I notice it has hynix memory, is that good?
> 
> What memory is on the titan? I've read a few people complaining that its not the best.



Titan have Samsung which is purported to be better for oc'ing. Mine has gone as high as 7100 so far on Valley.  I should add even at that there were no memory artifacts.


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## Finners (Oct 14, 2013)

the54thvoid said:


> Titan have Samsung which is purported to be better for oc'ing. Mine has gone as high as 7100 so far on Valley.  I should add even at that there were no memory artifacts.



So the Titan is better in that department then, Anyway get back to work! Your misses just told me your on back shift haha 

Those tapped holes you pointed out earlier, are for the brackets they use on GFX cards in mac's, Most GPU's have them


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## Casecutter (Oct 14, 2013)

the54thvoid said:


> Titan have Samsung which is purported to be better for oc'ing. Mine has gone as high as 7100 so far on Valley.  I should add even at that there were no memory artifacts.



I thought that also but not true...


Casecutter said:


> Now, I've yet to find a Titan or GTX780 that uses anything but Samsung parts? …





HumanSmoke said:


> MSI GTX 780 Lightning....Elpida.
> Neliz's post.
> 
> The whole EVGA range
> ...


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## the54thvoid (Oct 14, 2013)

Casecutter said:


> I thought that also but not true...



One of the three, Samsung, Hynix or Elpida is lesser. It must be the Elpida getting the bad rap.


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## Random Murderer (Oct 14, 2013)

Finners said:


> Those tapped holes you pointed out earlier, are for the brackets they use on GFX cards in mac's, Most GPU's have them



Not just Macs. Server towers as well.


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## HumanSmoke (Oct 14, 2013)

the54thvoid said:


> What are the screw holes for in the cover?  Or is it just where the shroud screws have already been removed...


Support bracket mount. Usually seen on OEM and workstation rigs. Allows options for additional card support and sometimes PCI-E cable routing. 
Here's a similar bracket attached to a  GTX 690


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Oct 14, 2013)

BarbaricSoul said:


> I agree 100%. I'd love to replace my 7970 with a 290X,but if the card has coil whine , I don't care if it gives a bajillion FPS at super ultra very high settings at 25600000*16000000 resolution, I won't buy it. :shadedshu



Well you're screwed then. I bought into that Asus marketing about their silent coils, total bullshit. Every card whines and it's pretty damn annoying.


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## The Von Matrices (Oct 14, 2013)

Ugh, AMD is still using a recessed core like Tahiti.  So you can't use a universal cooler on a 290 series card, you have to buy a cooler that is made for a 290 and is compatible with nothing else.  It doesn't matter for people who want to use full coverage water blocks, but it basically eliminates the use of aftermarket universal air and water coolers.


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## buildzoid (Oct 15, 2013)

The Von Matrices said:


> Ugh, AMD is still using a recessed core like Tahiti.  So you can't use a universal cooler on a 290 series card, you have to buy a cooler that is made for a 290 and is compatible with nothing else.  It doesn't matter for people who want to use full coverage water blocks, but it basically eliminates the use of aftermarket universal air and water coolers.



EK sells copper shims specifically to solve this issue or you can always just remove the brace by using a knife.


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## The Von Matrices (Oct 15, 2013)

buildzoid said:


> EK sells copper shims specifically to solve this issue or you can always just remove the brace by using a knife.



I use a shim in my 7970s, but it's far from a good solution thermally and it's _extremely difficult_ to apply properly.

It's very difficult to keep the shim centered on the core while screwing down the heatsink; the shim wants to move as the thermal paste spreads, and it also moves if you need to shift the heatsink slightly to align with the mounting holes.  The shim is only slightly smaller than the brace's opening, so if you are off even a little bit the side of the shim ends up on top of the brace and you end up with a thick paste layer on one side between the core and the shim.  It took me about 4 or 5 tries before I got it right the first time I tried it; I'm still not perfect, but I've done it enough times that I'd estimate on any try I have a 50% chance of getting it right now.

The shim adds about 5-10°C over a solution with no shim, but if you don't apply the shim properly (and it ends up slightly overlapping the brace) you can add another 10°C to that.  Part of the frustration is that if you applied the shim improperly and it slightly overlaps the brace it's not like the card won't work; it will just run a bit hotter, which makes it hard to tell when you've applied it properly.  I'm not that inclined to remove the brace to avoid invalidating the warranty, although that's probably a good solution once the warranty expires.

The shape of the core on the 290 is different, so you need different shims; it might take a while for those to be released.


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## Random Murderer (Oct 15, 2013)

Anyone else notice the top of the display port connector says "1337"?


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## TheGuruStud (Oct 15, 2013)

Random Murderer said:


> Anyone else notice the top of the display port connector says "1337"?



And the top of the GPU border shim thingamajig says 1336... :|


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## 1d10t (Oct 15, 2013)

Random Murderer said:


> Agreed. Coil whine doesn't bother me as long as the hardware works. My case fans drown out the whine anyway, and even if they didn't, I game with headphones on.
> Luckily, only one of my 7970s has coil whine and it's the worst ASIC and overclocker of the three.



Nicely put coil whine is suppose to be faulty product not a design fail 



The Von Matrices said:


> I use a shim in my 7970s, but it's far from a good solution thermally and it's _extremely difficult_ to apply properly.



You might to try my trick.I'm using copper pad copper shim to deal with gap between GPU die and XSPC rasa universal gpu waterblock.It works better than Ek one


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## Assimilator (Oct 15, 2013)

btarunr said:


> Just like the $1000 Titan.



Fair enough, I didn't realise the Titan and 780 don't come with backplates. Disappointing considering their cost, and how much a small sheet of metal costs.


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## Prima.Vera (Oct 15, 2013)

When is the launch of 290x ?


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## springs113 (Oct 15, 2013)

Prima.Vera said:


> When is the launch of 290x ?



I thought it was suppose to be today, but I heard a rumor of it being postponed.

I found this though...
http://videocardz.com/46785/amd-radeon-r9-290x-performance-charts-emerge


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