Best 290x for crossfire

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m1abram

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I made a mistake with my choice of video cards with the 7970 in that its cooling solution was very poor when in an crossfire setup (it was not a reference design). To avoid that I am wondering which 290x card would better suit my needs in a crossfire setup. Also I have not decided yet whether I will WC or not, I assume a card that follows the reference design would be a better choice for WC.
 
I use this case with reference cooled 290X CrossFire and don't have throttling issues. It is all about airflow.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004X19B02/

41oQk0yJ3dL._SX425_.jpg
 
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AMD are having a sale of their 295x2 cards shortly. See here. Why buy two cards when you can buy one?
 
Hmm, the sale may peak my interest. I liked the idea of the 295x2 just not the price premium.

The case I have is the Fractal Design Define XL R2
 
I have a corsair 800D and had severe throttling issues with reference R9 290s in crossfire.

Now I have the Asus Direct CU II 290Xs and the cooling is exceptional but quiet at the same time.

PS: None of my reference or non-reference 780 GTX Ti's had any throttling issues whatsoever.
 
If this sale happens I'll be picking up a R9 295x2 also! Damn nice card!

Edit : yeah, cases with vertical cards have good airflow. Warms up the room with connection airflow though.
 
m1abram said:
I know function over form, but I do not particularly like the appearance of that case :(. Course I do not like most cases that are sold and that one is not as bad as many.

Also with vertical oriented cases like that do you need to get right angle cables?

P.S. Note I am thinking about that case, just damn why cant case makers just have simple clean functional lines why do they have to make it look like a prompt from a b rated scifi flick.
Click to expand...

I had the same issue before deciding on

196883.jpg


Function over form my ass. That's what rackmount servers at work are for. I prefer the best of both worlds at home; I don't need an eyesore under my desk, wtf...

No throttling issues at all, even under Sapphire 290X Trifire (On Air). Now running Crossfire again, but this sale may make me go Quad -_-
 
m1abram said:
I know function over form, but I do not particularly like the appearance of that case :(. Course I do not like most cases that are sold and that one is not as bad as many.

Also with vertical oriented cases like that do you need to get right angle cables?

P.S. Note I am thinking about that case, just damn why cant case makers just have simple clean functional lines why do they have to make it look like a prompt from a b rated scifi flick.
Click to expand...

Not sure a change in case will remedy your non-reference heat issues. I believe Kyle said he was using reference cards. I had a Raven 01 case, and non reference gigabyte 5870s overheated constantly. I did eventually get acclero xtreme coolers that did the trick.

Your best bet is to get reference cards or the Vapor-X/DCUII 290x. If using non-reference, probably a good idea to throw a 140mm intake fan on your side panel.
 
Bluesun311 said:
Try folding at home on your trifire 290X's on air :D
Click to expand...

LOL, not unless I want it to sound like I'm in an airplane hangar :D

And I forgot about the reference vs aftermarket cooling issue with in-case heat. That's also why my setup had no throttling on air, because all my cards are reference. The aftermarket coolers are better for single card use IMO, unless you're running an open case (which is doable for temps, but the acoustics on R9 series are a bit too loud for that shit).
 
Xinmosni said:
I had the same issue before deciding on

196883.jpg


Function over form my ass. That's what rackmount servers at work are for. I prefer the best of both worlds at home; I don't need an eyesore under my desk, wtf...

No throttling issues at all, even under Sapphire 290X Trifire (On Air). Now running Crossfire again, but this sale may make me go Quad -_-
Click to expand...

What case is that?
 
Oops sorry, it's the Lian Li PC-X2000FN

Site: http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-x2000fn/

Review: http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/lian_li_pc_x2000fn_review,1.html

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lian-Li-PC-X2000FN-Aluminum-Computer/dp/B00ARP29K2

I almost went with the Caselabs Magnum STH10 (http://www.caselabs-store.com/magnum-sth10/) but after seeing videos of it, it was just too damn huge to the point of being kinda ugly. It's probably worth the money if you have a WC setup and benchmark all day, but for the price difference I upgraded other shit in my system and feel like I got the better deal *shrugs*
 
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Xinmosni said:
Oops sorry, it's the Lian Li PC-X2000FN

Site: http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-x2000fn/

Review: http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/lian_li_pc_x2000fn_review,1.html

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lian-Li-PC-X2000FN-Aluminum-Computer/dp/B00ARP29K2

I almost went with the Caselabs Magnum STH10 (http://www.caselabs-store.com/magnum-sth10/) but after seeing videos of it, it was just too damn huge to the point of being kinda ugly. It's probably worth the money if you have a WC setup and benchmark all day, but for the price difference I upgraded other shit in my system and feel like I got the better deal *shrugs*
Click to expand...

That is one good looking case.
 
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Xinmosni said:
LOL, not unless I want it to sound like I'm in an airplane hangar :D

And I forgot about the reference vs aftermarket cooling issue with in-case heat. That's also why my setup had no throttling on air, because all my cards are reference. The aftermarket coolers are better for single card use IMO, unless you're running an open case (which is doable for temps, but the acoustics on R9 series are a bit too loud for that shit).
Click to expand...

Okay so think it we misunderstood. So I want to get a pair of 290X and I do not want to repeat the issue I had with the 7970s (XFX) that I had. The non-reference design of the coolers on those 7970s worked great when they were solo but if you paired them the upper card would roast.
So not trying to solve that issue with a case, however when building this new machine I may change out the case if it helps keep temps down. Also I want to go with a pair of 290x cards that will not have a poor cooling design for crossfire.
 
Then as mentioned before, any Reference R9 290X is your best bet, since reference blowers will exhaust heat out of the back of the case instead of distributing heat inside of the case. It's the same as it was for 7970s.
 
Yeah, you'll need to decide if you want to water cool or not. If you want to water cool then a decent reference card will do the trick. For going air something like the Sapphire vapor x or the Tri-X will do nicely. Also, If you havent chosen a mobo yet look for one that will give you good spacing between the cards.
 
The tri-x should be a reference pcb unless sapphire has different revisions of the card. It's also one of the better cooling solutions.
 
It's a reference PCB (unlike Vapor-X), but the problem is that its cooling solution dumps heat into the case. That's great for keeping a single card's temps low, but when using more than one card it only compounds the problem of needing to rely on case airflow to exhaust heat.
 
None! Don't do it man! Save that money for a PC update or a rainy day.

Crossfire setups are already costing you a large price/performance premium. Many games don’t support it and others have issues, bugs, jitters, pausing and or low scaling. A 2X card is pushing your price/performance even more out of whack. Despite what AMD may say you even get extra issues that X2 cards have that pair of single cards don’t and they are less likely to be addressed as your card is niche. Maybe they fixed it but just turning Crossfire off on my 5970 when games wouldn’t run with it enabled was a pain in butt.
 
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Lol, I was about to jump on it too, but was waiting to see if Amazon drops. It's looking like they won't -_-

Let us know how it turns out
 
m1abram said:
I know function over form, but I do not particularly like the appearance of that case :(. Course I do not like most cases that are sold and that one is not as bad as many.

Also with vertical oriented cases like that do you need to get right angle cables?

P.S. Note I am thinking about that case, just damn why cant case makers just have simple clean functional lines why do they have to make it look like a prompt from a b rated scifi flick.
Click to expand...

I had one of those cases and you don't need right angle cables. Here are my 2 cents on the case But I didn't like it very much. The HAF935 I replaced it with has much better airflow for the video card. My 290x is about 10-15C cooler in it.
 
Tanquen said:
None! Don't do it man! Save that money for a PC update or a rainy day.

Crossfire setups are already costing you a large price/performance premium. Many games don’t support it and others have issues, bugs, jitters, pausing and or low scaling. A 2X card is pushing your price/performance even more out of whack. Despite what AMD may say you even get extra issues that X2 cards have that pair of single cards don’t and they are less likely to be addressed as your card is niche. Maybe they fixed it but just turning Crossfire off on my 5970 when games wouldn’t run with it enabled was a pain in butt.
Click to expand...

Funny, since I upgraded to a Trifire setup a few months back, my performance has basically doubled and the scaling is amazing...esp in most current games. The drivers have been surprisingly good as well from AMD.
 
The Cobra said:
Funny, since I upgraded to a Trifire setup a few months back, my performance has basically doubled and the scaling is amazing...esp in most current games. The drivers have been surprisingly good as well from AMD.
Click to expand...

So with 2 more cards you doubled the performance of one card? That doesn’t sound all that great and you must be picking all the right games. I get all the wrong ones I guess. Every game I pick is either, an indie that don’t need it, a high end game that has it disabled (Company of Heroes 2, Wolfenstein: The New Order) but could use it or you have to turn it off because of bugs.

I’m sharing a friends Steam library and did get a nice performance bump in Skyrim (when it first came out it was really bad) but only after some digging and adding a ini file command to get rid of the random pausing every few seconds while running around. It’s just a mess for the money you pay.

They should have to have a web page that shows all the games that it actually works with latest driver and the benefits of 2/3/4 cards vs one.
 
I heartily recommend water cooling crossfire 290s. Quiet as can be (of course), very cool (never goes above 60 C) and no throttling. I tried reference 290s in crossfire for all of 5 minutes before I ordered blocks. Just make sure you have enough rad, I'm using 3.120 and 2.120 rads to cool both cards and the CPU. Works like a champ. :)
 
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