R9 290-290X owners thread

[the54thvoid]

...BTW, where's YOUR commitment? Are you just coaxing others to commit to satisfy your curiosity?

Well, if your 7970 is more than adequate, so is my little beasty!

But seriously, I like to see how things perform, outside of reviews. Healthy, constructive rivalry, pushing folk to try harder.

 

[The Mac]

i just installed my new sapphire 290 pro friday.

Initially, i fired up a game of DA2, and wow. what a difference. smooth as hell, zero AA crawling, and super sharp images.

my 7970 OC @1ghz, was lucky to get 50fps, lots of crawling, and not near as sharp of an image.

There was some doubt in my mind whether this would be just a marginal upgrade, not anymore.

what a hell of an upgrade

10fps gain on a dx11 title? yes please...

and at full tilt i dont hear a thing out of my corsair 600 case ( i use 2.1 speakers, not cans)

bumped the clock up to 1000mhz, no problem.

 

[15th Warlock]

Let's liven up this thread a little bit shall we:

Yesterday I finally got my Arctic Accelero Hybrid, here are the usual suspects:

My son spinning the stock cooler for his own amusement:

Freaking warranty stickers, I hate you for this XFX:

After installing the heatsinks, only 12 RAMsinks were included, I had to improvise, I also decided to use Akasa thermal tape instead of the thermal adhesive included:

The deed is done after 2 and a half fucking hours, hardest third party cooler installation I've ever done, and I've done many, a heatsink fell off one of the RAM chiips during installation, I added new thermal tape to it and re positioned before putting the card back in my rig:

Thank God the video card worked, I thought I killed her trying to make the freaking cooler align with the backplate, was praying for it to post; this is the most contrived installation imaginable, not for the faint of heart I tell you:

Back to crunching for the WCG challenge, I can't believe my rig was out of commission for almost three hours, again, I can't stress this enough, who ever designed the installation for this cooler must hate humanity:

Now, for the results, the card was hitting 94 degrees under load, and throttling all the way down to a little over 800MHz after a few minutes, and that's using the "Uber" BIOS; after installing the cooler the temps for the GPU went down to 68 degrees after one hour of torture test running Valley in a loop, not a single MHz dropped, 1000MHz during the entire run

The VRMs peak at 83 and 79 degrees at full load, but I didn't measure the temps with the stock cooler under load, so I would appreciate if anyone else can share this info with me.

The cooler works as advertised, I had to modify the separators for the GPU as the included ones are 4.5mm, you need 3mm clearance for the 290X, nothing my dremel and a disk couldn't do, caveat emptor.

Please let me know what you guys think

 

[manofthem]

@15th Warlock: I love it!!! from what you described, the installation sounds terrible How does it sound compared to the stock cooler?


I know that when I install my waterblock, it's going to take a while so I've been waiting, but I hope to do it this week.

 

[15th Warlock]

@15th Warlock: I love it!!! from what you described, the installation sounds terrible How does it sound compared to the stock cooler?


I know that when I install my waterblock, it's going to take a while so I've been waiting, but I hope to do it this week.

Yes, first the included spacers don't fit the card so you have to modify them, then you have to add this tiny included tape disks to the spacers in the top AND the bottom of card, and then you have to align the freaking cooler to the backplate while you hold your card with one hand and the hoses and radiator get in the way all the time if you want to rotate the card for a better view, all this while praying for the spacers not to fall off and with the heatsinks and shroud blocking the view, VERY frustrating

As for the noise levels, they are nowhere near close to the stock cooler, almost silent, I added an extra arctic cooling fan for a push/pull effect and the card is still much quieter than it was, and the best of it, zero throttling.

I'm a freaking dentist and 99.99% of the root canals I've ever done have been easier than installing this cooler...

A custom water block will be much easier for you to install, please post your results once you get it

 

[manofthem]

Yes, first the included spacers don't fit the card so you have to modify them, then you have to add this tiny included tape disks to the spacers in the top AND the bottom of card, and then you have to align the freaking cooler to the backplate while you hold your card with one hand and the hoses and radiator get in the way all the time if you want to rotate the card for a better view, all this while praying for the spacers not to fall off and with the heatsinks and shroud blocking the view, VERY frustrating

As for the noise levels, they are nowhere near close to the stock cooler, almost silent, I added an extra arctic cooling fan for a push/pull effect and the card is still much quieter than it was, and the best of it, zero throttling.

Yeah, that sounds horrible! Glad you made it through though, all safe and sound!

I'm a freaking dentist and 99.99% of the root canals I've ever done have been easier than installing this cooler...

A custom water block will be much easier for you to install, please post your results once you get it

I LOL'd at that statement, puts it into perspective nicely! I'll be posting back when I get mine installed. I'll be putting my card in on air in my main rig and running a few benches. Then after installing the wb, I'll be rerun the same benches for some nice before and after. If I"m feeling good, maybe I'll throw in some OC numbers while I'm at it

 

[HTC]

Let's liven up this thread a little bit shall we:

Yesterday I finally got my Arctic Accelero Hybrid, here are the usual suspects:

http://img.techpowerup.org/131117/IMG_8010.jpg

My son spinning the stock cooler for his own amusement:

http://img.techpowerup.org/131117/IMG_8014432.jpg

Freaking warranty stickers, I hate you for this XFX:

http://img.techpowerup.org/131117/IMG_8012008.jpg

After installing the heatsinks, only 12 RAMsinks were included, I had to improvise, I also decided to use Akasa thermal tape instead of the thermal adhesive included:

http://img.techpowerup.org/131117/IMG_8017683.jpg

The deed is done after 2 and a half fucking hours, hardest third party cooler installation I've ever done, and I've done many, a heatsink fell off one of the RAM chiips during installation, I added new thermal tape to it and re positioned before putting the card back in my rig:

http://img.techpowerup.org/131117/IMG_8024150.jpg

Thank God the video card worked, I thought I killed her trying to make the freaking cooler align with the backplate, was praying for it to post; this is the most contrived installation imaginable, not for the faint of heart I tell you:

http://img.techpowerup.org/131117/IMG_8039629.jpg

Back to crunching for the WCG challenge, I can't believe my rig was out of commission for almost three hours, again, I can't stress this enough, who ever designed the installation for this cooler must hate humanity:

http://img.techpowerup.org/131117/IMG_8047578.jpg

Now, for the results, the card was hitting 94 degrees under load, and throttling all the way down to a little over 800MHz after a few minutes, and that's using the "Uber" BIOS; after installing the cooler the temps for the GPU went down to 68 degrees after one hour of torture test running Valley in a loop, not a single MHz dropped, 1000MHz during the entire run

The VRMs peak at 83 and 79 degrees at full load, but I didn't measure the temps with the stock cooler under load, so I would appreciate if anyone else can share this info with me.

The cooler works as advertised, I had to modify the separators for the GPU as the included ones are 4.5mm, you need 3mm clearance for the 290X, nothing my dremel and a disk couldn't do, caveat emptor.

Please let me know what you guys think

Just goes to show what a proper cooling can achieve with this: congratz, dude!

If AMD had shipped this card with a cooler that could do ... say ... 1/3 of the difference between a reference cooler and yours while not blowing your ears in the process, they would most certainly have much better card, even if that ended up raising it's cost by $20-$30 more, IMO.

Did you do some benches (anything: doesn't matter which ones) before putting this cooler on?

I ask because i would very much like to know the answer to the question i posted in this post.

 

[15th Warlock]

Yeah, that sounds horrible! Glad you made it through though, all safe and sound!



I LOL'd at that statement, puts it into perspective nicely! I'll be posting back when I get mine installed. I'll be putting my card in on air in my main rig and running a few benches. Then after installing the wb, I'll be rerun the same benches for some nice before and after. If I"m feeling good, maybe I'll throw in some OC numbers while I'm at it

I know right? It's sad but true

Good luck with your card and your cooler

Just goes to show what a proper cooling can achieve with this: congratz, dude!

If AMD had shipped this card with a cooler that could do ... say ... 1/3 of the difference between a reference cooler and yours while not blowing your ears in the process, they would most certainly have much better card, even if that ended up raising it's cost by $20-$30 more, IMO.

Did you do some benches (anything: doesn't matter which ones) before putting this cooler on?

I ask because i would very much like to know the answer to the question i posted in this post.

Yes the GPU is held back by its stock cooler, not to worry, I'm sure AIB partners will pick up the slack

Unfortunately I will not be able to run any benchmarks now as I already lost a lot of time keeping this rig offline during the WCG challenge, I could only run Valley for an hour while the CPU was crunching at a 100%, so all benchmark results will be skewed by the high CPU load ATM, as soon as the challenge is over I'll run more benches for sure

I have to pick up the pace, by the way, you're all invited to join the TPU team and crunch, we could use some help

Join team TPU for the WCG Challenge!

 

[HTC]

I know right? It's sad but true

Good luck.with your cooler



Yes the GPU is held back by its stock cooler, not to worry, I'm sure AIB partners will pick up the slack

Unfortunately I will not be able to run any benchmarks now as I already lost a lot of time keeping this rig offline during the WCG challenge, I could only run Valley for an hour while the CPU was crunching at a 100%, so all benchmark results will be skewed by the high CPU load ATM, as soon as the challenge is over I'll run more benches for sure

I have to pick up the pace, by the way, you're all invited to join the TPU team and crunch, we could use some help

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194389

That's obviously always going to happen: i just think it's effects should not be this bad with any card using it's stock cooler (barring any defects with the card, ofc). It would have been preferable to put the price a tad bit higher and have a better cooler then the way it turned out to be, IMO.

Then wait until after the contest is over: no point in doing benches otherwise, IMO.

 

[manofthem]

Well, I'm shamed to have to say this, but I paused WCG on my other rig to run a few things, just because it's been bugging me....

3dmark11

Pic1 is 947/1250 and pic 2 is at 1000/1300, while fans were set custom in MSIab.

From what I can gather, when I throw my card into my main rig with my 2600k, things should see a nice improvement.

And WCG is crunching away again on the i3

 

[HTC]

Well, I'm shamed to have to say this, but I paused WCG on my other rig to run a few things, just because it's been bugging me....

3dmark11
http://puu.sh/5lPRe.png




Pic1 is 947/1250 and pic 2 is at 1000/1300, while fans were set custom in MSIab.

From what I can gather, when I throw my card into my main rig with my 2600k, things should see a nice improvement.

And WCG is crunching away again on the i3

The purpose was to put head to head a stock cooler with both quiet and uber modes @ their fan speeds VS whatever cooler that makes absolutely sure the card does NOT throttle during the bench: the difference in performance would the be the size of the cannon ball AMD used to shoot themselves in the foot.


Thanks anyway for the benches but that could have (and should have) waited, dude.

 

[manofthem]

The purpose was to put head to head a stock cooler with both quiet and uber modes @ their fan speeds VS whatever cooler that makes absolutely sure the card does NOT throttle during the bench: the difference in performance would the be the size of the cannon ball AMD used to shoot themselves in the foot.


Thanks anyway for the benches but that could have (and should have) waited, dude.

I think I take your meaning, but this thread is for 290/290x owners to share what they have and/or doing with their cards. I did that with my 290 paired with an i3, which is short term and for kicks.

I think all that you're referring to is what I'm planning to do when the card goes in my main rig; I could not have done it now because to change the cooler, it has to go in my main rig since that's where the water loop is. I'm going to put my 290 on air cooler with my 2600 and test it, both temps, clocks, scores. Then I will switch the cooler to water block and retest everything. That would have been too time consuming this weekend so it had to wait.

Anyway no worries, more proper benches will follow as soon as I have the time.

 

[Absolution]

The only comments I've seen on TA so far are it can conflict with sound cards if you don't turn it off.

I've yet to see any evaluation done specifically on TrueAudio performance, but I'd be interested to read what people have to say about it. I've not been able to find any comments on it in reviews. AFAIK though it enhances vs replaces onboard sound. Much like Euphoria is not a physics engine like many think, it merely enhances the physics.

Came across this video (techdemo showcasing the gen audio plugin). Surprisingly the guy says the sound is better and requires no additional hardware lol.

 

[m0nt3]

All at stock GPU clocks just a manual fan profile. CPU is overclocked as shown in system specs. 13.11 Bv9.2 driver, not sure why it shows as GenericVGA.

 

[The Mac]

Came across this video (techdemo showcasing the gen audio plugin). Surprisingly the guy says the sound is better and requires no additional hardware lol.

linkage?

 

[Absolution]

linkage?

Hmm thought I posted it. Here it is: http://crazy-angel.jp/?eid=25262

 

[PatoRodrigues]

I bought two... And did not order two Accelero Xtreme III's.

The sound is unbearable. In the moment i started benchmarking, i decided to stop and get one out of the rig. One simply does not handle that much noise.

Right now, i'm using just one. And it's really noisy already. I'll have to spend more 150$, i suppose.

 

[manofthem]

I bought two... And did not order two Accelero Xtreme III's.

The sound is unbearable. In the moment i started benchmarking, i decided to stop and get one out of the rig. One simply does not handle that much noise.

Right now, i'm using just one. And it's really noisy already. I'll have to spend more 150$, i suppose.

Understandable for sure. I did see a video with the 290 and the Accelero cooler and it was pretty amazing!

But please feel free to share some of those benchies.

 

[15th Warlock]

I bought two... And did not order two Accelero Xtreme III's.

The sound is unbearable. In the moment i started benchmarking, i decided to stop and get one out of the rig. One simply does not handle that much noise.

Right now, i'm using just one. And it's really noisy already. I'll have to spend more 150$, i suppose.

I feel you man... When I was trying to OC my card and manually increased the fan speed to 85% and more I swear that card would scream like a 747 taking off

I'm sure you're not going to regret getting those coolers, not only will your cards be more silent but they'll also be more energy efficient as found by Tom's hardware.

 

[manofthem]

I feel you man... When I was trying to OC my card and manually increased the fan speed to 85% and more I swear that card would scream like a 747 taking off

What kind of OC did you end up pulling off? I'm interested to see what everyone else is hitting.

I ran a few benches on my 290 non-x, stopping when I got to 1050/1350, and then I'll compare when I change the cooler. But before I change, I want to do a little sustained test to see how long it takes before it throttles.

 

[The Mac]

im at 1050 right now on stock cooler, max fan to 100%, never breaks 55%.

drawing about 360 watts at the wall (90 watts idle, including monitor), full system.

 

[manofthem]

im at 1050 right now on stock cooler, max fan to 100%, never breaks 55%.

drawing about 360 watts at the wall (90 watts idle, including monitor), full system.

OMG 100% fan I've wondered how long it could maintain that fan setting until it would break down.

So at those temps, do you ever see any throttling?

 

[15th Warlock]

What kind of OC did you end up pulling off? I'm interested to see what everyone else is hitting.

I ran a few benches on my 290 non-x, stopping when I got to 1050/1350, and then I'll compare when I change the cooler. But before I change, I want to do a little sustained test to see how long it takes before it throttles.

I managed to get my card to 1100/1500 anything over that would make the card render artifacts:

UNIGINE-Valley BENCHMARK scores

However, I must have doing something wrong because the card was throttling heavily after just a few seconds, even though it wasn't hitting the thermal target.

Can't wait to try it with its new cooler

BTW, can you guys measure your VRM temps and post them? I didn't measure mine before installing the new cooler, thanks

 

[The Mac]

OMG 100% fan I've wondered how long it could maintain that fan setting until it would break down.

So at those temps, do you ever see any throttling?

MAX fan is set to 100%, it never get there, never gets over 55%.

Just normal throttling, bobbles around between 1050 and 1000, drops down during screen loading obviously...

but during normal gameplay the only throttling i see is when screen complexity drops, so usage drops.

I also always use vsync and triple buffering on EVERY game i play, so im not pushing for max frames. My throttling pattern will be very different from someone who is lookfing for max fps.

 

[RCoon]

So it's time to senselessly spend money tomorrow, I've got around £730+ cash, and I was half tempted to pick up a 290 or 290X, Kinda torn between the two, I usually prefer having the top card. I'd rather go for a fan blower type cooler because of having such a tight tiny ITX case, and I don't want hot air being blown into my carefully balanced ecosystem of a case. So 290 or 290X? Theres around £100 difference between them on OCUK. Don't talk to me about peformance per dollar because I don't care, I just need honest opinions of whether that £100 is actually netting me anything other than a heavily throttled card considering I'm staying on reference cooling.