MSI Radeon R9 290(X) gaming/lightning card club

[broken pixel]

They should be happy about alt coin mining, it makes them more money. GPUs have been know to do more than just render pixels for some time. If AMD was keen they would build dedicated mining cards as peer to peer payment systems ie cryptographic currencies are not going to die anytime soon.

As always its about profits for shareholders and not quality or customers. That goes hand in hand with the consumer based society we all live in.

 

[R00kie]

@buildzoid seems like this is more than enough to make the fans on these cards leak the oil out...

I made some pics before I cleaned the card out:

 

[broken pixel]

Miners don't run fans at 100% because fan efficiency(airflow vs RPM vs Power Draw) past 85% is horrible and miners generally would like the fan to run for as long as possible. Most mining guides recommend variable fan speed control that peaks at 85% with a frequency throttle kicking in to stop overheating instead of fan hitting 100%.

Also most miners undervolt and underclock as to be more energy efficient. I never mine with 100% fan as the GPUs never reach such high temps that require 100% fan speeds. My 2x 290x GPUs max out at about 72C depending on the ambient room temp @ -19 mV, 860MHz/1250MHz with 85% fan max.

 

[fullinfusion]

And to stay on topic id rma the card.

Edit: sorry to come off so strong over mining but there is a proper spot for it and its not here. Mining fucked alot of ppl from doing what they enjoy and its gaming and when a $400 dollar gpu is $600 + alot of ppl got screwed.

I also wouldn't blame the rep! If its neliz he's here to help and advice. Him and i had a pissn match a while ago and you know he did more then any other rep besides the mushkin rep.. Both are great guys imho. Id blame the fan manufacturers. I know if mine spit out oil it be on the next plane for rma..

Why do you think i made this thread? Its because i never got any help in the other club. All i read was pissn and moaning about heat.. And next to nada for help when asked so i lucked out and a msi guy showed up and will be straight up. He don't need to be here but chooses to be here..

 

[facepunch38]

Here's a stock run on the block hopefully you can see it next im gonna try to blow it up

 

[TheGoat Eater]

Hey guys - I am going to be testing the 290X Lightning here over the next few weeks . I have taken some photos for you to oogle in the meantime

IMGUR Album

I am taking this slowly over the coming weeks to limit my stress that I get from testing ( trying to take it easier for my health :/ - no more hours of testing at the computers for me :'( )

 

[fullinfusion]

Hey guys - I am going to be testing the 290X Lightning here over the next weeks . I have taken some photos for you to oogle in the meantime

IMGUR Album

I am taking this slowly over the coming weeks to limit my stress that I get from testing ( trying to take it easier for my health :/ - no more hours of test. ing at the computers for me :'( )

Woohoo first lightning card! Drive it (test it) like ya stole it.. WFO!!

I see they botched the cooler design again with the power plugs. Id rip off the cables locking tab to make it easy to remove. It donttake much to damage the pin connector hole wiggling back n forth while trying to insert a small tiny flat head screw driver. I hope the card meets and beats All your expectations.
And welcome im sure i speak fr o us all that we're excited

 

[neliz]

Ryan didn't steal it, I simply allowed him to have it!

 

[RCoon]

Also most miners undervolt and underclock as to be more energy efficient. I never mine with 100% fan as the GPUs never reach such high temps that require 100% fan speeds. My 2x 290x GPUs max out at about 72C depending on the ambient room temp @ -19 mV, 860MHz/1250MHz with 85% fan max.

To be fair, miners shouldn't be buying cards labelled "GAMING" and expect them to work in such hostile conditions as mining. They simply aren't designed for that. It's like bitching to MSI that their cards die after 3 months of solid furmark testing and saying your GPU exploded.

 

[R00kie]

@fullinfusion tbh im not too fond of RMA'ing stuff, I mean the card works, even though there are huge blobs of eeky stuff on the shroud, but the card still works as it should. I think if something happens to it, be it fan stop spinning or huge frequency drops because of it overheating since the fan's not working properly - I will then consider RMA'ing.

 

[fullinfusion]

@fullinfusion tbh im not too fond of RMA'ing stuff, I mean the card works, even though there are huge blobs of eeky stuff on the shroud, but the card still works as it should. I think if something happens to it, be it fan stop spinning or huge frequency drops because of it overheating since the fan's not working properly - I will then consider RMA'ing.

That's what's good about cross shipping haha. I do it when i can't go without a part.. Aka mobo from asus. I think i may look into the top 1155 msi board to try in the near future. Well lets see some numbers my friend.

 

[R00kie]

And I cant really pay for the postage either, it costs as much I could buy a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and clean the damn thing meself...
I'm a poor student that just spent most of his monthly wage on this card, so RMA -no bueno

 

[fullinfusion]

Ryan didn't steal it, I simply allowed him to have it!

Your an ass lol.. Where's my sample. I sware ill send it back hahahahahaha

 

[broken pixel]

@fullinfusion tbh im not too fond of RMA'ing stuff, I mean the card works, even though there are huge blobs of eeky stuff on the shroud, but the card still works as it should. I think if something happens to it, be it fan stop spinning or huge frequency drops because of it overheating since the fan's not working properly - I will then consider RMA'ing.

Call MSI (626) 271 - 1004 ask for Jose Lopez and explain the oil leaking from the sleeve bearing fan and they will RMA the GPU. Ask him if they will comp the shipping because of the ongoing issues with the fans, trust me they will pay for the shipping back.

Also the fan is going to fail once it starts to make rattle sounds and will leak even more.

 

[Lopez0101]

I just got mine in the mail yesterday and have had nothing but problems trying to get the card installed and working. The card works fine and boots into Windows without the drivers installed (With some weird color banding), but when I install the drivers (I've tried 4 different versions, and even just the display drivers) Windows stays at a black screen and locks up as soon as the Windows splash screen goes away. This seems to be a common enough problem after some googling and nothing I've seen has fixed it. Sent in a support ticket to MSI, I'll see what they say, if their suggestions don't work I'm going to RMA it and see if I can get Newegg to pay for return shipping since it's going to cost me a pretty penny.

Anybody else encounter this issue and solve it?

 

[broken pixel]

I would like to emphasize these statements from an MSI rep. as utter nonsense, shame on them.

The details...
Basically our cards are designed mainly for one thing.. gaming (the clue's in the name). They are not intended for use under "industrial" load conditions where they would be needed to run flat-out continuously day after day, week after week with potential high heat levels.

^ What about all the people that have been Folding and doing SETI calculations for many, many years? Lets not mention them.

MSI HQ have been working on the fix since late December to make some changes to our Twin Frozr coolers to stop this from happening. At the centre of the fan there is a 3mm gap inside where a specially made gel is inserted to keep our fans running smoothly and quietly to give you the award-winning silent conditions during idle and gaming modes you have seen and/or heard about. MSI has since reduced this to 2mm. This doesn't sound much but has in fact solved one of the issues whereby there was extra space for air to squeeze inside the area alongside the gel to cause tiny air bubbles that (while at 100% fan load for a long period of time) forces the gel to leak out onto the fan shroud and surrounding area.

The final issue that was fixed was simply not to put as much gel inside the fans core. We intentionally put more gel into this area during production to ensure your cards would continue to run smoothly and that durability would never decrease. Sadly our good intentions came back to hurt us since many customers are using R9 Graphics Cards (and R7) to mine for coins jumping quickly onto the Cryptocurrency bandwagon. Our cards we're not designed for this. Under normal gaming conditions this would not happen (rare cases it may). MSI HQ wanted (yet again) to improve our award-winning Twin Frozr coolers further by solving any and all reliability questions of the running of our fans... hence more gel.

People that knew about bitcoin 4 years ago have been mining way before the mainstream miners that jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon after the surge of BTC price went to over 1,000 USD last Nov- Dec of 2013.

They use these fans and do not manufacture them. PowerLogic PLD10010S12HH

Unlike our competitors, our bearing is made from a special ring made from a mixture of pressed cooper shavings and oil – This unique design avoids the need of ball bearings so the fan can run quieter.

Ball bearing fans produce slightly more decibels but are way more reliable, and the reason they use cheap sleeve bearing fans is the cost, as they do not want to use more reliable fans, meaning more money for the shareholders. In actuality their choice is hurting them more than it is benefiting them from using cheap quality sleeve bearing fans.

Those customers with Graphics Cards pre-January that are worrying about oil leaking in the future causing harm to the fans.. don't worry. The oil leaking is from the fans hub and not from the bearing, thus will not impact the lifetime running of the fans.

BS once the fan lube leaks the fan will eventually fail to operate and is a design flaw.

I'm done and sorry for the rants but it urks me when Reps of Big Corporations take advantage of customers by trying to hide their tracks by lying to customers for the poor choices made by said corporation and forgetting the customer is King as they pay their pay checks and salary's.

Good luck and happy times,
broken_pixel

 

[broken pixel]

I just got mine in the mail yesterday and have had nothing but problems trying to get the card installed and working. The card works fine and boots into Windows without the drivers installed (With some weird color banding), but when I install the drivers (I've tried 4 different versions, and even just the display drivers) Windows stays at a black screen and locks up as soon as the Windows splash screen goes away. This seems to be a common enough problem after some googling and nothing I've seen has fixed it. Sent in a support ticket to MSI, I'll see what they say, if their suggestions don't work I'm going to RMA it and see if I can get Newegg to pay for return shipping since it's going to cost me a pretty penny.

Anybody else encounter this issue and solve it?

The best thing to do is call MSI and talk to a tech. I am still in the process of an RMA for one of my 7970 Lightning BE editions. I am waiting on my 3rd replacement for a single RMA GPU. Maybe this time they will send me a working GPU?

My first RMAs were 7950s that they could not replace with my actual SKU I sent them, since my R7950s were the 8pin 6pin with the 7970 PCB design. They kept sending me 6pin 6pin 7950s that had bad HDMI ports and after over a months time has passed they finally agree to swap the 7950s for 7970 Lightnings. (And I never ran my fans at 100% RPM) it was not needed as they stayed a cool 58C- 65C under 2,000 RPM. I had 5 7950s in one rig only consuming 1,070 watts total system from the wall.

MSI always stresses they test the cards sent in and always test the replacement cards before they ship them. From my experience of getting many borked replacement GPUs from MSI, I have come to the conclusion they must have monkeys testing the RMAs and replacements GPUs.

And yes I will continue to use MSI and even ASUS. Once you actually get a product from either company that works, it works great.

 

[neliz]

The best thing to do is call MSI and talk to a tech. I am still in the process of an RMA for one of my 7970 Lightning BE editions. I am waiting on my 3rd replacement for a single RMA GPU. Maybe this time they will send me a working GPU?

My first RMAs were 7950s that they could not replace with my actual SKU I sent them, since my R7950s were the 8pin 6pin with the 7970 PCB design. They kept sending me 6pin 6pin 7950s that had bad HDMI ports and after over a months time has passed they finally agree to swap the 7950s for 7970 Lightnings. (And I never ran my fans at 100% RPM) it was not needed as they stayed a cool 58C- 65C under 2,000 RPM. I had 5 7950s in one rig only consuming 1,070 watts total system from the wall.

MSI always stresses they test the cards sent in and always test the replacement cards before they ship them. From my experience of getting many borked replacement GPUs from MSI, I have come to the conclusion they must have monkeys testing the RMAs and replacements GPUs.

And yes I will continue to use MSI and even ASUS. Once you actually get a product from either company that works, it works great.

You know those "7950 with 7970 pcb design" are Tahiti ProH GPUs? there's a reason those are not available.

 

[broken pixel]

You know those "7950 with 7970 pcb design" are Tahiti ProH GPUs? there's a reason those are not available.

That was over 8 months ago when I was dealing with my R7950s RMA. Also I would like to note I was told numerous times by three different MSI techs that they had them in stock each time I called to question the RMA because every replacement 7950 had a bad HDMI port or other issue, that went on for about a month.

More dirt for you:
Factory MSI TIM application.
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This is why factory TIM GPUs will run higher in temperature, about 3 Celsius more. Every single MSI GPU I have owned (TEN so far) had to have a re-application of TIM as they use way too much. Such a waste of TIM and another way MSI could save a bit of money, as the saying goes trickle down to the customer in service and quality. Rice or very small pea size amount of TIM is all that is needed.

 

[FX-GMC]

To be fair, miners shouldn't be buying cards labelled "GAMING" and expect them to work in such hostile conditions as mining. They simply aren't designed for that. It's like bitching to MSI that their cards die after 3 months of solid furmark testing and saying your GPU exploded.

Bad logic. If the card fails from mining it wasn't designed properly to begin with. If you keep the temps within spec, no damage should be done to the card. The card would fail the same way if you played a demanding game for the same amount of time.

Unless you mean "Gaming" stands for sub-par video card.

And to stay on topic id rma the card.

Edit: sorry to come off so strong over mining but there is a proper spot for it and its not here. Mining fucked alot of ppl from doing what they enjoy and its gaming and when a $400 dollar gpu is $600 + alot of ppl got screwed.

I also wouldn't blame the rep! If its neliz he's here to help and advice. Him and i had a pissn match a while ago and you know he did more then any other rep besides the mushkin rep.. Both are great guys imho. Id blame the fan manufacturers. I know if mine spit out oil it be on the next plane for rma..

Why do you think i made this thread? Its because i never got any help in the other club. All i read was pissn and moaning about heat.. And next to nada for help when asked so i lucked out and a msi guy showed up and will be straight up. He don't need to be here but chooses to be here..

I didn't know "mining" set the prices GPUs were sold at. (Hint: they don't. The retailers do. )

 

[broken pixel]

Bad logic. If the card fails from mining it wasn't designed properly to begin with. If you keep the temps within spec, no damage should be done to the card. The card would fail the same way if you played a demanding game for the same amount of time.

Unless you mean "Gaming" stands for sub-par video card. (Lulz)

I didn't know "mining" set the prices GPUs were sold at. (Hint: they don't. The retailers do. )

Also one aspect the GPU price bitcher's seem to forget is their GPUs hold value and do not depreciate as much as Nvidia GPUs. People are still able to get very good return on their used 7950s & 7970s still.

 

[fullinfusion]

What's still? 1-2 weeks? After china out a ban on coin ppl are getting out of it. See the prices dropping? And thanks for the pic of the tim job.. Both my reference R7979's looked like that. I wonder what the twin frozr look like @neliz you've had them apart, what do they look like?

Edit lets not bitch about non R msi cards please guys. Kinda defeats the purpose of a msi R9 club ok.

 

[broken pixel]

What's still? 1-2 weeks? After china out a ban on coin ppl are getting out of it. See the prices dropping? And thanks for the pic of the tim job.. Both my reference R7979's looked like that. I wonder what the twin frozr look like @neliz you've had them apart, what do they look like?

Edit lets not bitch about non R msi cards please guys. Kinda defeats the purpose of a msi R9 club ok.

You would actually have to type let stick with R9 MSI GPUs discussion because there are R7950s, R7970s etc... In any case the information being gathered in this thread is good for the consumer/ user, off topic, side topic or on topic.

 

[fullinfusion]

You would actually have to type let stick with R9 MSI GPUs discussion beause there are R7950s, R7970s etc... In any case the information being gathered in this thread is good for the consumer/ user, off topic, side topic or on topic.

Title says msi R 9 290 (x) club so i think if ppl read i've been updating it as i work on the road and only have so much time. Thread clean up is on the way. but thanks for the info bp

 

[broken pixel]

There goes my post, lol!

When you get a chance add me to the club, thanks.

Crap did not see the MSI only in the title, damn discrimination. Wait when I get home in a week I will flash my XFX to MSI BIOS.