Just got my new MSI 290x lightning - Wow!

SticKx911 said:
kinda wish the "lighting" letters on the backplate were yellow. With a waterblock it'd still match my Mpower board nicely.
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On a serious note you could color it in :)

polonyc2 said:
if not for the heat/power then this would be nearly perfect...1 6-pin and 2 8-pin power connectors required?...wow...I didn't even realize the 290x had DX12 support
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correct - two 8pins are all that you will need on air
 
TheGoat Eater said:
On a serious note you could color it in :)
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haha. I guess. Just not the same, but I know yellow isn't many people's theme so I completely understand the neutral colors of the backplate they chose. :)

I think coloring it in wouldn't look right. Maybe if it were letters that were cut out that I could slip a yellow piece of acrylic behind that would be nice...but that's getting off topic and too application specific. It's still a good card. I'll wait till someone unloads one with a waterblock though. Great new prices tend to mean better used prices later on. :D
 
The cooling on this Lightening is absolutely awesome. Ran Unigen benchmarks, played Grid, and Shadow of Mordor for several hours straight. And its never reached above 70C.
 
I think I read somewhere (might have been here) that AMD has already announced that they won't release the newer GPUs until the number of 2xx gpu's in the retail channel go down - that's the main reason for the clearance type price drops.

If you are happy with the 290's, now is a great time to buy. If you want the latest and greatest, save your money for a little bit longer for the 3xx gpu's.
 
I cannot wait to get some money and jump on a card like this. It is one of two GPUs on my mind.
 
Here they are in my rig:

Uwf6oCZl.jpg
 
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I just got mine in today to replace my SLI 970s. The card will likely only be serving as a stopgap until the 390x is available, but, damn, this is one hell of a card. Definitely the 290x to get right now if you can't wait until the new stuff drops in a few months.
 
n=1 said:
I can't help but wonder whether AMD is selling the 290X at a loss with these ridiculous prices. Don't get me wrong I'm all too happy for AMD to make some more money, but if undercutting nVidia to move cards means losing money on each card they sell, I'd rather they not do that.
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I would be surprised if the card cost them $100 to make. Do you think the GTX 980 actually costs $200 more to manufacture than the 970? Of course it doesn't.

Probably a good deal for those who are okay not using Nvidia. I have a feeling AMD's new cards are around the corner though.
 
Yakk said:
Looks like Lightening struck twice there!
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Indeed! I'm going to go in after work today and fix those wires, though. That looks like it will be blocking some airflow! Who built that trashy-looking thing? ;)

Flogger23m said:
I have a feeling AMD's new cards are around the corner though.
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The latest rumor is June. Consider, though, they won't cost $329. If they outperform the 980, which they should, expect the price to be as much or more. With that in mind, the 290x Lightning is a huge bargain right now.
 
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Sigh...so I'm already having issues with my card. Whenever I let my computer go to sleep, I cannot get it to wake up with the 290x installed. I've tried wiping the 14.12 drivers and reinstalling twice now, and I'm still getting the issue. It seems like my PC is still functional, but the card is not putting out a signal to my monitor (the light on the monitor flashes like there is no signal). If I restart the PC, I get a signal right away, and everything seems to work fine. I know it's not any of my other components since my 970s ran perfectly on the same setup. Anyone else have this issue? I really rather not set my PC to never sleep. That's a workaround, not a fix.
 
bpizzle1 said:
Sigh...so I'm already having issues with my card. Whenever I let my computer go to sleep, I cannot get it to wake up with the 290x installed. I've tried wiping the 14.12 drivers and reinstalling twice now, and I'm still getting the issue. It seems like my PC is still functional, but the card is not putting out a signal to my monitor (the light on the monitor flashes like there is no signal). If I restart the PC, I get a signal right away, and everything seems to work fine. I know it's not any of my other components since my 970s ran perfectly on the same setup. Anyone else have this issue? I really rather not set my PC to never sleep. That's a workaround, not a fix.
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I'm assuming that "re-installing" consists of reseating the card? Have you tried resetting your board's BIOS to default settings?
 
mtbush said:
I'm assuming that "re-installing" consists of reseating the card? Have you tried resetting your board's BIOS to default settings?
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The reinstallation was in reference to the drivers only. I haven't tried reseating the card yet, but would that actually help? If it wasn't seated right, I wouldn't get video at all, no? I did try using 2 separate PCI-E power cables instead of the same cable plugged into both 8pins, and that didn't do anything. I suppose I could set my BIOS back to default and see if that helps. I know my OC is completely stable though, so I also have my doubts about that doing much.

edit: To add to the fun, I'm also now getting system hard locks at random. Nothing in particular seems to be causing it, it just randomly completely freezes my PC and forces me to do a manual restart.

edit2: I reloaded all of my BIOS settings to default, reseated the card, and I'm still having the screen wake issue.
 
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How long have you had that Seasonic SS-760XP2? Do you have a different PSU you can try?
 
bpizzle1 said:
Sigh...so I'm already having issues with my card. Whenever I let my computer go to sleep, I cannot get it to wake up with the 290x installed. I've tried wiping the 14.12 drivers and reinstalling twice now, and I'm still getting the issue. It seems like my PC is still functional, but the card is not putting out a signal to my monitor (the light on the monitor flashes like there is no signal). If I restart the PC, I get a signal right away, and everything seems to work fine. I know it's not any of my other components since my 970s ran perfectly on the same setup. Anyone else have this issue? I really rather not set my PC to never sleep. That's a workaround, not a fix.
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my 680 did this on a windows 7 install for me for a while. I couldn't ever figure it out. Once I did a reformat reinstall the issue went away. Not saying you should do that, but the video change may have just confused your windows install. Try CC cleaner on your old drivers and new before reinstalling the new drivers. You could also try and disable sleep entirely, restart, than re-enable...good luck. I know it's a pain.
 
bpizzel,
which bios version are you using on the card, original or ln2? I've read you should use the LN2 setting regardless of overclocking or not. I'd also run the factory speeds for a good while and see if issues still persist.
 
bpizzle1 said:
The reinstallation was in reference to the drivers only. I haven't tried reseating the card yet, but would that actually help? If it wasn't seated right, I wouldn't get video at all, no? I did try using 2 separate PCI-E power cables instead of the same cable plugged into both 8pins, and that didn't do anything. I suppose I could set my BIOS back to default and see if that helps. I know my OC is completely stable though, so I also have my doubts about that doing much.

edit: To add to the fun, I'm also now getting system hard locks at random. Nothing in particular seems to be causing it, it just randomly completely freezes my PC and forces me to do a manual restart.

edit2: I reloaded all of my BIOS settings to default, reseated the card, and I'm still having the screen wake issue.
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I ran into an issue with this a while ago and it ended up being a combination of the video card and the monitor. Have you tried another display or connector?
 
bpizzle1 said:
Sigh...so I'm already having issues with my card. Whenever I let my computer go to sleep, I cannot get it to wake up with the 290x installed. I've tried wiping the 14.12 drivers and reinstalling twice now, and I'm still getting the issue. It seems like my PC is still functional, but the card is not putting out a signal to my monitor (the light on the monitor flashes like there is no signal). If I restart the PC, I get a signal right away, and everything seems to work fine. I know it's not any of my other components since my 970s ran perfectly on the same setup. Anyone else have this issue? I really rather not set my PC to never sleep. That's a workaround, not a fix.
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I had the same problem with my 7850 a long way back. Weird thing if it did it on one computer but not the other with the same drivers. Sadly i cannot remember how i fixed it. I have a worse problem with my GTX 980, not only can I not sleep, but my computer cannot shut down unless I do it by command line. Started with the latest drivers.
 
horse said:
I've read you should use the LN2 setting regardless of overclocking or not. I'd also run the factory speeds for a good while and see if issues still persist.
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I agree with both of these as I read the LN2 can solve some issues and I always run new hardware at stock for a bit to see if there are any issues. If it can't even run properly at stock, it sure won't when OC'd.
 
Thanks for some of the input. I'm on my phone, so I'm not going to do a bunch of quotes since it's a pain. To respond to some of the comments:

First, as an update, I've been saying the issue is when the PC is sleeping. That was a mistake on my part since my PC never sleeps. I do have the display shut off though, and that is where my problem actually stems from. If it comes down to it, I'll just disable the display turning off and manually power it down when not in use. The random system freezes are more concerning to me though.

I've had my PSU for about 6 months. Up until the second I installed the 290x, it was running SLI 970s and my CPU OC just fine, so I highly doubt that is the problem. Normally, I do have a backup, but I gave it to my brother when his PSU was going out not long ago.

My monitor is a Korean 1440p one that is DVI only, but I do have an old Samsung I can try using via HDMI.

I will also switch to LN2 BIOS to see if that does anything. I've been on the regular BIOS running the factory OC. I haven't even bothered trying to OC anything beyond the factory setting.

I have a replacement coming in today from Amazon, so my last resort is going to be a complete reformat along with the replacement card.
 
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I had to set my BIOS from S1 to S3 sleep state and set the option to "USB Wake from Sleep" to enabled in the BIOS. Solved my issue when the monitor went to sleep.

This happened on a new recent build with an Asus R9 290 for a friend. Using Omega drivers too.
 
Rvenger said:
I had to set my BIOS from S1 to S3 sleep state and set the option to "USB Wake from Sleep" to enabled in the BIOS. Solved my issue when the monitor went to sleep.

This happened on a new recent build with an Asus R9 290 for a friend. Using Omega drivers too.
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I tested this myself for the last couple days and am have complete opposite findings as you. Mine goes like this:
S3 overnight sleep - monitor will not regain signal
S3 10 min sleep - monitor will not regain signal
S1 overnight sleep - functions normally, monitor regains signal
S1 10 min sleep - functions normally, monitor regains signal

I'm using the 14.12 omega's as well. Strange, but I guess every system is unique so...
 
I haven't made any changes to my system but was experiencing the same issues y'all mentioned when I started using the Omega 14.12 drivers but it is completely random. I am now on day 2 without a lock up, going to roll with it until my 295x2 shows up in a day or so and reinstall Windows on to a new SSD. Have y'all played with settings any more, seen better or worse results?
 
I had to RMA my first lightning. Would black screen even without the computer going to sleep. This was at stock settings too. A reboot would not always get the display back either. The replacement seems much better.
 
Can't wait to get my card. Replacing my two G1 970s with one Lightning 290X. Found an EK block for it on eBay that I picked up for about $104 shipped. Just need to get the backplate for it and some red primoflex tubing to go with the AMD colors. Wonder if I should get the red backplate or the black one though...
 
bigsnyder said:
I had to RMA my first lightning. Would black screen even without the computer going to sleep. This was at stock settings too. A reboot would not always get the display back either. The replacement seems much better.
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Same situation for me. When I got mine I ran some 3DMark, played some WoW, then it black screened while browsing the web. I was never able to get it to output a display again. Did a quick and easy RMA with Newegg, and the replacement has been working great for the week I have had it installed.
 
Seems like the blackscreening issue is extremely common on the 290/290x. Now im getting pretty nervous about having purchased one. Tons and tons of newegg reviews stating the same thing.
 
Chihlidog said:
Seems like the blackscreening issue is extremely common on the 290/290x. Now im getting pretty nervous about having purchased one. Tons and tons of newegg reviews stating the same thing.
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Go for a 980

Better energy saver
 
Starrbuck said:
So true. With my 290x Lightnings (2x) I could push them to over 1,100 watts on Furmark. Running about 650 watts under load with two 980 cards now.
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Same here around 600-650 on sli

Own a ups that shows me wattage.


I hope AMD releases something equal to the gtx 980 energy efficiency and is a lot faster, 10-15 fps more won't convince me unless it's cheaper, faster, and energy efficient . I will sell my cards and jump over to that free sync if it is any good. Seems like gsycn has issues in some games . Looking to buy he new asus 120hz IPS monitor when released win display port 1.4a
 
Really? Talking about wattage in like the third thread when this is a simple "look at my new cards!" thread.
Let the man enjoy his cards. You guys have plenty of other places to PUSH your opinions.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
Really? Talking about wattage in like the third thread when this is a simple "look at my new cards!" thread.
Let the man enjoy his cards. You guys have plenty of other places to PUSH your opinions.
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I'm reasonably sure he'd rather know this during his return period than after when it's too late to change it out to a 980.
 
the wattage isn't as big an issue as you two push. I'm reasonably sure the man can afford 15 a year or so in electricity.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
the wattage isn't as big an issue as you two push. I'm reasonably sure the man can afford 15 a year or so in electricity.
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Or even less, if he lives in a state like I do, where electricity goes as low as $0.08 kW/h for portions of the year which would be like $7-8 extra a year if you played 20 hours a week. Having owned both the 290X and 980, I would absolutely not get a 980 again. It is a great card, but nearly double the price for so little extra performance is inconceivable.
 
I was frankly not concerned about the electricity usage, but there are other factors to consider...

For example, expecting to still be on NVIDIA cards, for my newest build, I purchased a 1250w PSU and a 1500VA UPS that has a load capacity of 865w. When I OC'd the Lightnings any further than stock, the system caused the UPS's fan to turn on, and it was loud! I'd need to spend even more $$$ on a higher-capacity UPS, and if you've looked at the big ones lately, they ain't cheap!!

Just trying to show it's not just the cost of the electricity to think about. And it's just my opinion. :)
 
Starrbuck said:
I was frankly not concerned about the electricity usage, but there are other factors to consider...

For example, expecting to still be on NVIDIA cards, for my newest build, I purchased a 1250w PSU and a 1500VA UPS that has a load capacity of 865w. When I OC'd the Lightnings any further than stock, the system caused the UPS's fan to turn on, and it was loud! I'd need to spend even more $$$ on a higher-capacity UPS, and if you've looked at the big ones lately, they ain't cheap!!

Just trying to show it's not just the cost of the electricity to think about. And it's just my opinion. :)
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Spending over $1,200 on two 980 Matrix cards and selling the Lightnings was somehow "cheaper" I assume?
 
Reus said:
Spending over $1,200 on two 980 Matrix cards and selling the Lightnings was somehow "cheaper" I assume?
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Of course not. There were many other factors that went into my decision, such as AMD's drivers, RadeonPro no longer being updated, CrossFireX stuttering at times, additional heat in my case, ... Shall I go on?

Also, 290X's were $700 at launch. When the 980 is as old, maybe they'll be $329 too!

And, where can I get two Matrix 980's for only $1,200? That's a great price! It's more like $1,400. Be right back... Gotta go polish the diamonds in my grill! :cool:
 
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Starrbuck said:
And, where can I get two Matrix 980's for only $1,200? That's a great price! It's more like $1,400. Be right back... Gotta go polish the diamonds in my grill! :cool:
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Well if you want to get cute about it, I said *over* $1,200. They are currently $639 at both Amazon and Newegg.
 
Reus said:
Well if you want to get cute about it, I said *over* $1,200. They are currently $639 at both Amazon and Newegg.
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Yup, you did, and I went back and fixed my post. I think Newegg lowered them first and then Amazon followed. BTW, you can get Amazon to do what they call a "Goodwill Refund" if the price goes down within 7 days of you receiving the product. They did the same thing on my Lightnings which were originally $349 and went down to $329. But they're back up to $369.

I'd like to save a little and downgrade to the STRIX cards, but the MATRIX looks so good in my system. We are moving into a new place and I plan on putting the CPU on the top of the desk so I can oogle over it:

 
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