AMD Radeon R9 290 Video Card Review @ [H]

I bought 4 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290x.

Resolution: 8044x1440

(2600watts)

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PCB with nice Fujypoly Ultra Extreme Mother F thermal pads.

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trungracingdev said:
I don't usually upgrade every generation. I tend to skip one to two generations but I may make an exception this time for the 290.
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Yeah I hear you, I just like to get 2 years out of my build and that comes in Jan (2 years usually meant I skipped a gen).

I have to admit to being somewhat surprised buy the performance of this generation. Enough that I was tempted to get a pair of 780's back when they launched but just couldn't quite justify the price in my mind. Honestly I just don't like paying more than $550 per card. I'll do it if the performance is there but for me I didn't feel like the 780 hit that level of return for me at the time.

I'm to looking forward to seeing the 780ti in action.
 
lowstandards said:
You can't tell me that even with the AC on blast, when you walk into your computer room where you're gaming rig has been providing you with hours of gaming goodness that the temp in that room isn't noticeably warmer? I've been in 5 apartments, and in my 2nd home here in the valley and my computer room is always warmer than the rest of the house.
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Actually no, my room doesn't get warm until the winter when the heater comes on. My vents are in the floor, and I'm right next to the filter/main unit. ;)
 
Just picked up two Sapphires for $760 shipped... the pricing got me to bite early. Will run them in CFX stock and see how bad the noise is compared to my 7970's. I have never custom water cooled, but it looks like I'm about to learn...
 
WinSomeLoseNone said:
Sick rig dude. It looks so... heavy.
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Thanks, Yeah its so heavy I need a second person to flip it. (I could probably do it alone but the rear Quad radiator (480mm) makes it hard to flip)

Vexerz said:
Damn!..Definitely not a tree hugger :) do you have a worklog?
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Yes I have one called Quad Damage Project but its more than a year old and is out of date

trungracingdev said:
wow! that's clean....
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Thank you ;)

Fooshnik said:
In two separate computers? It's hard to find a 2600W power supply.
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I have the Lepa G 1600 in the main rig as you can see but I will also use another one to bench, it's an EVGA Supernova 1000G2, will only be used to power two cards.

I also have to use a wall plug in another room, I need two breakers. :rolleyes:

------------

For the curious

Radiators:
-Feser X-Changer 480mm Push/Pull
-Feser X-Changer 360mm Push/Pull
-Feser X-Changer 240mm Push/Pull
-Watercool Mo-Ra3 Pro 1080mm

-3 x MCP 655 Pumps with EK Top (all in serial / one mounted on the external rad)
 
trick0502 said:
how did the stock tim application look when you removed the cooler?
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Not too too bad. It was well spread accross the chip. It had enough of it, even maybe a little too much. It was already solidified.

(I'm still waiting for my last and fourth 290x, Ncix.ca only sent one and I ordered on the 24th at midnight, Ncix.ca has stock supply issues.
 
Pricing is kind of a moot point TBH.

A 290 today will need to be put underwater (loop or Arctic Hybrid) or 3rd party HSF which can add $50-100+.

This brings the cost closer to the 780. If a gamer wanted Batman and Assassins Creed 4 that lowers the price of the 780 below the 290 considering AIB 780's can be found for $480 then take off $100-120 for both games.

If Batman or AC4 is not your thing then I can definitely see getting the 290 but the holiday bundle makes the 780 a better deal. Its a tough choice for sure between 2 great cards.

Can't wait to see what the AMD AIB cards will perform like. Hopefully they can get the 290's heat/noise under control for those who don't like/want water.
 
I dont fully understand the noise complaints about the 290 and 290x. right now im running a Reference 6950 ( see sig). Can i expect a 290 to be at the same noise level at 50% fan as my 6950? BTW right now my fan is roaming between 50-51% and the rpm is 3k. gpu is at 97%/60c ( running guiminer at intensity 12 )
 
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Now that I've seen the 780ti's performance, I'm more excited to see the non-reference performance of these chips.
 
Brent/Kyle, how does the noise of a reference 290(x) cooler compare to a 780 ACX at 100%? Not sure if youve played with an ACX, but if you have maybe you could enlighten me.

Thanks :D
 
Karlitos said:
I have the Lepa G 1600 in the main rig as you can see but I will also use another one to bench, it's an EVGA Supernova 1000G2, will only be used to power two cards.

I also have to use a wall plug in another room, I need two breakers. :rolleyes:
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At that point, might as well hire an electrician to put in a dedicated circuit (208V/20A+).
Geez....2600W, going from a 80 Plus Gold to Platinum would definitely be noticeable.
 
ninehunid said:
I dont fully understand the noise complaints about the 290 and 290x. right now im running a Reference 6950 ( see sig). Can i expect a 290 to be at the same noise level at 50% fan as my 6950? BTW right now my fan is roaming between 50-51% and the rpm is 3k. gpu is at 97%/60c ( running guiminer at intensity 12 )
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Something being too loud tends to vary from person to person. To some people the R9 290 and 290x will not sound loud, to others they will be unbearable. Personally, I want my computer as silent as I can reasonably get it without going all crazy or buying silenced cases. I would never be able to stand the 290x in Uber mode and most likely not even the 290 at 45%. I'm itching to get the cooler off my 780 Classy and I can't even hear that run over my other fans.
 
Nvida fanboys logic.

"I can afford and i will buy GTX780 Ti/Titan, my money to burn its subjective to talk about prices, not all care about price!

1 hour later,

"4K is to expensive its irrelevant"

2 hours later,

"Multi gpu is irrelevant single card is better - smoother"

?


Subjective

Subjective

Subjective
 
lowstandards said:
You can't tell me that even with the AC on blast, when you walk into your computer room where you're gaming rig has been providing you with hours of gaming goodness that the temp in that room isn't noticeably warmer? I've been in 5 apartments, and in my 2nd home here in the valley and my computer room is always warmer than the rest of the house.
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I gotta agree here. I'm on my third home and that's been my experience as well. I bought a portable room air conditioner that serves me well so I don't have to freeze out the other members of my family.
 
Aquineas said:
I gotta agree here. I'm on my third home and that's been my experience as well. I bought a portable room air conditioner that serves me well so I don't have to freeze out the other members of my family.
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I also have a portable air conditioner in my room! Way too much electronics in my room. Computer, 30 inch monitor, 50 inch tv, 3 laptops, ipads....
 
Karlitos said:
I have the Lepa G 1600 in the main rig as you can see but I will also use another one to bench, it's an EVGA Supernova 1000G2, will only be used to power two cards.

I also have to use a wall plug in another room, I need two breakers. :rolleyes:
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Awesome setup! My old rig (now tri-SLI TITANs) I had 240VAC custom wired to a standard wall-plug for my EVGA SuperNOVA so i could run it in "OC" mode at 1650W. :) Ran a breaker for the whole house, too. It pays to have good buddies that are electricians.

http://1pcent.com/?p=123
 
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I am getting a lot of shimmering and aliasing In games, I had gtx 580 before I upgraded to amd290 and I didn't have these issues.
 
AMD could've avoided this whole debacle if they had launch the 290 series with the different AIB partners like how they did with the 7 series.

Simple start off with the aftermarket brands then launch the reference models later on.

It's not like they didn't know about the heat, they probably thought the price alone would kill all the complaints.
 
3lackDeath said:
AMD could've avoided this whole debacle if they had launch the 290 series with the different AIB partners like how they did with the 7 series.

Simple start off with the aftermarket brands then launch the reference models later on.

It's not like they didn't know about the heat, they probably thought the price alone would kill all the complaints.
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Agreed. Hindsight is always 20/20, though...i'm sure AMD regrets the cooling situation at this point. Although with the 7 series aftermarket cards weren't available for a while either...
 
3lackDeath said:
AMD could've avoided this whole debacle if they had launch the 290 series with the different AIB partners like how they did with the 7 series.

Simple start off with the aftermarket brands then launch the reference models later on.

It's not like they didn't know about the heat, they probably thought the price alone would kill all the complaints.
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The problem is that the card is designed to run hot a higher temp then previously released cards. So heat itself isnt a problem, as it has been explained many times, the card will put out the same amount of heat whether it is running at 95c or 60c.
 
Aquineas said:
I gotta agree here. I'm on my third home and that's been my experience as well. I bought a portable room air conditioner that serves me well so I don't have to freeze out the other members of my family.
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Just leave the door open in that room and its no warmer than the rest of the house. No need to lock yourself in a dungeon.
 
How do I control the fan ? I just bought a Gigabyte 290 and can't see AMD Overdrive to manually set fan speed... im on beta 13.11
 
Thx, the drivers for this are amazingly bad... That said...

Is an 850w PSU enough to drive 2 or should i go 1kw to be safe ?
 
Brownstone said:
Thx, the drivers for this are amazingly bad... That said...
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Are the drivers really that bad?

I have never owned an AMD card but the price/perf of the 290 makes it the only intelligent option.

With the Nvidia cards It was 1. Plug in, 2. Install drivers, 3. update drivers as needed.

Beyond the above I have never had to deal with anything else.
 
Yes, they are. My previous card was a 680 Lighting at its been flawless since day 1... HOWEVER, i bought it on march, so it had plenty of time to mature and i don't know how it compare 680 day 1 vs 290 day 1

And i would argue, that i ve had ATI/AMD cards before, plenty of them. And never encountered any significant issue on driver level. So im confident enough (hey, im buying CFX soon...) that things will get resolved and its not a huge deal all things considered

What is inexcusable is the pathetic thing they strapped and called cooler... it hate the cooling with passion and will switch to an aftermarket asap.
 
Got my 290 from OcUK yesterday. Had to pull apart my WC loop in order to get it in with the stock cooling (don't have time to do a proper re-fit and leak test until the weekend, plus it pays to check it all works first) but it appears to be DOA. All spins up, no bleeping or anything untoward and there is power at least to the DVI ports....but no display. I left it time to get into Windows and still nothing, re-seated card and even pulled out my soundcard to no avail. Dusted off my old 8800 GTS (couldn't find the original HSF for my 580 ,although I know I haven't thrown it away) and got display, so at least I didn't harm my PC when I put it back to aircooling (which was a definite worry as I need it for my contract work).
Has anyone else experienced similar issues? I don't think it's a monitor compatibility issue, and while it didn't line up at all well with my case expansion slots I did manage to get a good DVI connection (screwed down and all). I now have my suspicions that this a previously RMA'd card as there are no warranty stickers anywhere and the electrostatic bag was sealed with clear tape - my previous cards have all used yellow tape with Attention/Warning text printed on it. Anyone with an ASUS branded 290 care to chime in on the packaging?

EDIT: Forgot to mention I'm using a Corsair TX850 and yes the 6+8 pin power was connected. Mobo is an MSI P67A-GD65
 
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What kind of monitor, rincewind? The 290 and 290X are digital only. They do not support analog connections. Could indeed be a compatibility issue.
 
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