295x2--which??

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Bluesun311

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Pretty much every AMD Add-On-Board partner has an identical version of the r9 295x2.

Capture_zpsd6befb87.png~original


They are all the same price-- $1500, except the Saphire OC version (which comes in a hard case o_O) is a hundred more. Which would you get if you HAD to get one of them? Like there are suddenly no other options. You must choooooose.

It's dicey because... what if a pump dies? What if a memory chip dies? All of them are 2 year warrantys. Even XFX. Would suck to have it falter. I've actually never had a problem with a video card. I've seen them overheat and turn off, but I've never killed one. But 2 separate pump tops on 2 separate cards that are connected under one chassis. Scary.

Whats the other AIO option for 290s?
CF reference PCB 290x's (I think the PCS+ is a reference PCB, right?, almost positive) with H50s on them and the NZXT brackets? I hate the way the thing looks but that's a much smarter way to go because you can replace the AIO anytime and if one card dies, the other doesn't go with it... plus I think the 295x2 has to use an onboard crossfire bridge which introduces a bit of latency. Also... what... 200-300$ cheaper?

Any thoughts?

Edit: Interestingly the Gigabyte, MSI and Asus 295x2's all have 3 year warranties... everyone else has a 2 year warranty except Visiontek... which is a 1 year warranty. I went with MSI o_O
 
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They are all reference PCBs, so whoever has the best warranty service. I've had good experiences w/ Asus and Gigabyte, so I would lean towards one of those two (probably Asus).

I would go with this guy if I had the money with my own loop:

http://anandtech.com/show/8084/asus-launches-rog-ares-iii-for-water-cooling-builds

I know that isn't what you were asking for though :).

Hopefully more custom ones come out that aren't as atrocious as the reference setup. I think the idea of 295x2 is terrible with one rad, this is niche enough of a product that they could have went with a 240mm rad for the loop.

I think there is another bracket out there like the NZXT, but yeah the gist of it would be the same for the 290s.
 
After I noticed they are making custom blocks for the 295x2 I felt better. I don't HAVE to use the AIO setup, and the 3 year warranty on the MSI ASUS and Gigabyte units is industry standard so... yeah. It's a crazy stupid mid-life crisis kinda purchase but I did it ;p
 
Damn, that looks awesome. I'll see how the MSI 295x2 with the AIO on it goes. For giggles I'm gonna tri to Trifire it with the 290x PCS+ I have. For what it's worth the PCS+ is pretty impressive, I've never seen powercolor put so much effort into a cooling solution before (the shroud is metal) and I've never seen them come up with such nice sensible goodlooking promotional packaging, either. They took a hint from Asus but one-upped them, you still get an anti-static bag!

Edit: on second thought, 1000W is probably barely enough for 3 290xs...
 
Yeah you might need more than 1000w but it will not hurt to try out trifire for the fun of it.
I am not sure I would buy the 295x2 ,I am satisfied with R9 290 crossfire.Then again I might pick up the devil for the fun of it.
 
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ahaha... newegg is selling these cards with a non-refundable clause but no warning. I'll have a 295x2 and a 295 tomorrow but I only wanted 1 card :p I'm such an idiot. Oh well.

Hope the 295x2 is a keeper, at least they will exchange it no questions asked for 30 days.
 
So I've been running the MSI 295x2 since Friday. It's a beast. It gets so freaking hot--it starts to throttle at 70C so I've been trying to figure out how to keep it below that. Not that 70C is so crazy hot but I can't see the VRM temps and the amount of hot air it's throwing out from my case is large.

One thing I wanted to mention:
I contacted MSI on Friday to ask why about a UEFI BIOS. My x2 didn't have a UEFI BIOS (neither switch position is) but it was at least compatible with my UEFI windows install. MSI sent me a UEFI BIOS for the card today o_O
 
Yeah many AIB manufacturers require you to request the UEFI vBIOS, they don't come with it by default.
 
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