Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X 4 GB

[W1zzard]

Sapphire's R9 290 Vapor-X comes highly overclocked out of the box, matching the R9 290X in performance. The card's triple-fan, triple-slot cooler manages temperatures very well and offers a unique feature: you decide whether the card idles with one or three fans running, which lets you focus on temperature or noise.

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[Assimilator]

3rd page, "is branding the Vapor-X in a strongrt"...

 

[Mathragh]

I think you might've forgotten to change the clocks at the overclocking page after copy-pasting

Apart from that, looks like a nice card! custom PCB it seems?

 

[fullinfusion]

What Id really like to see is a crossfire review and see what temperatures really look like. Can these coolers in fact keep the core cool

 

[W1zzard]

3rd page, "is branding the Vapor-X in a strongrt"...

I think you might've forgotten to change the clocks at the overclocking page after copy-pasting

Apart from that, looks like a nice card! custom PCB it seems?

both fixed. thanks!

What Id really like to see is a crossfire review and see what temperatures really look like. Can these coolers in fact keep the core cool

what do you mean? temps are listed. in CF you have half a slot spacing between each card, plenty

 

[Champ]

2 of these will be in my possesion

 

[fullinfusion]

both fixed. thanks!


what do you mean? temps are listed. in CF you have half a slot spacing between each card, plenty

lol have you crossfired them recently?

Temps that would be in the high 70's in single mode shoot right up in crossfire. I have killer single card temps but when the 2nd card is active up goes the top cards temp.

That would be a great test to see if the master card's cooler is worthy enough to handle the heat..

 

[avatar_raq]

Page 1: "Clock speeds have been increased to 947 MHz GPU", I think you mean 1030mhz.

Edit: It is corrected now.

 

[Scrizz]

lol have you crossfired them recently?

Temps that would be in the high 70's in single mode shoot right up in crossfire. I have killer single card temps but when the 2nd card is active up goes the top cards temp.

That would be a great test to see if the master card's cooler is worthy enough to handle the heat..

do you have the same cards he has?

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Fancy coolers, mediocre performance & poor overall power consumption especially at both normal & peak usage. Rather spend that extra $200+ for a GTX780Ti that basically blows AMD out of the water.

 

[buildzoid]

Well Sapphire managed to screw up the VRM on this one. Using 6 40A PowerIRStages is a lot less than AMD's 5 71A IR MOSFETs unless I'm reading the numbers on the power stages wrong and they aren't 3553s(40A) but 3550s(60A) or 3551s(50A).

 

[Mathragh]

lol have you crossfired them recently?

Temps that would be in the high 70's in single mode shoot right up in crossfire. I have killer single card temps but when the 2nd card is active up goes the top cards temp.

That would be a great test to see if the master card's cooler is worthy enough to handle the heat..

Wouldn't this be an airflow issue rather than the card thats at fault?

I can imagine 600W of heat being injected into the case being quite the problem for the local air temperature if you don't have enough air flowing past those two cards.
I already noticed a difference in case temperature when I went from the stock rear exhaust cooler to an open air one, and thats with loads of airflow and a card that maybe uses half the power.

 

[buildzoid]

Wouldn't this be an airflow issue rather than the card thats at fault?

I can imagine 600W of heat being injected into the case being quite the problem for the local air temperature if you don't have enough air flowing past those two cards.
I already noticed a difference in case temperature when I went from the stock rear exhaust cooler to an open air one, and thats with loads of airflow and a card that maybe uses half the power.

I run my crossfire setup on a test bench and heat still a problem.

 

[Lopez0101]

extra $200+

$200 for an 11% performance increase. I'd take the 290 and but that $200 toward a 1440p monitor.

 

[Kyuuba]

Great card but not worth the price according to the extra performance.

 

[Relayer]

I run my crossfire setup on a test bench and heat still a problem.

A proper case design with good airflow will outperform static air flow even on an open bench. Have you tried adding any fans to your setup?

 

[buildzoid]

A proper case design with good airflow will outperform static air flow even on an open bench. Have you tried adding any fans to your setup?

2 70mm fans force air in from the back between the cards and one 120mm fans is pushing air in from the front both card exhaust up. However even with this setup the middle intake fan is staking in 36C air when the cards are full load. The two outer fans get to intake ambient temperature air.

 

[Casecutter]

Rather spend that extra $200+ for a GTX780Ti that basically blows AMD out of the water.

You'd rather spend 50% more money to recieve 11% more performance...

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Well, why not? I dun mind getting the best performing single GPU card in the market, in it's reference form. Doesn't have fancy coolers but gets the job done.

 

[Lopez0101]

Put that extra money toward a monitor that can use that extra power?

 

[eidairaman1]

Fancy coolers, mediocre performance & poor overall power consumption especially at both normal & peak usage. Rather spend that extra $200+ for a GTX780Ti that basically blows AMD out of the water.

Go troll elsewhere.

 

[Kyuuba]

Fancy coolers, mediocre performance & poor overall power consumption especially at both normal & peak usage. Rather spend that extra $200+ for a GTX780Ti that basically blows AMD out of the water.

That's funny, even two 780 ti can't beat the 295X

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

I'm saying on single GPU cards, not dual GPU cards mind you... besides, having 2 cards is still cheaper than a single R9 295X2 & I'm not playing games on 4K since triple 1080p displays are more than enough & 4K gaming only gives resolution, not better visual quality like those 4K TV demos you see at those electronic shops.

 

[Kyuuba]

I'm saying on single GPU cards, not dual GPU cards mind you... besides, having 2 cards is still cheaper than a single R9 295X2 & I'm not playing games on 4K since triple 1080p displays are more than enough & 4K gaming only gives resolution, not better visual quality like those 4K TV demos you see at those electronic shops.

I understand you, really i do, but you could be less rude, it's just a review, sometimes we speak too loud that apparently sounds like a troll, the reviewer has done the cool job on showing the product's potential, however, my reply wasn't attacking you either so it's all good.

 

[Steevo]

Noise complaint despite being quieter than the 780Ti it was aiming at? Perhaps a different more annoying noise than the 780Ti makes? Perhaps the sound from the strippers on the money saved was the real issue.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_780_Ti/32.html