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Best non-reference designs on AMD's side

M

Mungojerrie

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 19, 2011
Messages
1,940
Hey Everyone,
I'm waiting to pick up two 290x's and just wanted to get an idea of which non-reference cards I should be looking for. I know there is a large variety of non-reference cards. I'm just hoping to get a feel for which are the best historically.
 
I know there is a large variety of non-reference cards
Click to expand...

there are no non reference 290x cards out yet to my knowledge

or in case this is a troll i give it a 4 out of 10
 
VonGriffin said:
there are no non reference 290x cards out yet to my knowledge

or in case this is a troll i give it a 4 out of 10
Click to expand...

I was looking at historical trends due to the fact that many of the non reference brand cards are carried over from generation to generation. Examples being: ICEQ, Vapor X, Lightning, DCII.

Not a troll, asked a legitimate question, do not pass go, do not collect 200$.
 
we are talking about new architecture , different TDP and temperatures. a performing cooling solution for 7970 might not do as great for a much hotter 290x and who knows what kind of percentage will amd introduce in drivers by then

hence logic dictates to wait for actual reviews before deciding about what brand to get or looking at past results but hey tats just me thinking out loud carry on
 
Mungojerrie said:
Hey Everyone,
I'm waiting to pick up two 290x's and just wanted to get an idea of which non-reference cards I should be looking for. I know there is a large variety of non-reference cards. I'm just hoping to get a feel for which are the best historically.
Click to expand...

Asus Directcu
 
VonGriffin said:
we are talking about new architecture , different TDP and temperatures. a performing cooling solution for 7970 might not do as great for a much hotter 290x and who knows what kind of percentage will amd introduce in drivers by then

hence logic dictates to wait for actual reviews before deciding about what brand to get or looking at past results but hey tats just me thinking out loud carry on
Click to expand...

Very true, but usually certain companies usually have more robust cooling systems than others. So when the new coolers are released we usually feel safe grabbing them ASAP as the first batch of cards sells out within the first few hours. I have had to wait a month for the next shipment to come back into stock, so then you end up with a weaker cooler if you are impatient.
 
also sapphire toxic, and gigabyte windforce have been good performers.
 
Sodapopjones said:
Which is basically invalid considering Asus has the worst support and RMA experience in the business.... lol
Click to expand...

Maybe I got lucky 2 RMA's in the past - 1 motherboard fried ROG and 1 artifacting 6970 . no questions asked from their RMA dept just paid the shipping and fast turn around. It was such a good experience I have brand loyalty for Asus hence I recommended it.
 
There's the Vapor-X as well... But really the stock Dual X coolers from Sapphire aren't that bad...
 
Sodapopjones said:
There's the Vapor-X as well... But really the stock Dual X coolers from Sapphire aren't that bad...
Click to expand...

I have a couple Dual X 7970s and they are doing okay. I'm hoping for something akin to MSI's lightning. The Vapor-X sounds like a solid candidate.
 
Activate: AMD said:
I'd have a hard time getting too enthusiastic about them... the one on my 7970 basically shook itself apart after 15 months (mounting posts cracked from fatigue)
Click to expand...

The dual-x on my 7970 OC edition is still working away, never had a problem coming up on 2 years now.

dual-x is pretty pedestrian though, the Toxic is much better.
 
The Mac said:
The dual-x on my 7970 OC edition is still working away, never had a problem coming up on 2 years now.

dual-x is pretty pedestrian though, the Toxic is much better.
Click to expand...

Thing is the Toxic, and Vapor-X weren't apart of the release of the 7970's aftermarket coolers, so who knows if they will be for the 290's. Hence me saying the Dual-X isn't that bad. Assuming the WF3 cards aren't locked, they will probably be the best available at release *Asus doesn't exist remember*. I'm kind of curious to see what HIS is going to do...
 
My vote goes toward the Asus DC II and MSI twin frozr. Gigabyte's WF3 is also good.

Not a fan of sapphire's aftermarket cards.
 
Always had good experiences with Sapphire's Dual-X and Gigabyte's Windforce.
 
I've always been a fan of HIS and the IceQ lineup. some of the quietest heat sinks for ATI cards...
 
Yeah, it's a Matrix 7970 PCB. But I think it's just meant to be representative of the kind of design work Asus is capable of, they're not claiming it's exclusive spy shots of a new board.

Pretty sure If Asus does release a Matrix version of the 290x (and pretty sure they will), they'll probably continue that kind of engineering, and the 290 series would benefit a LOT with better quality VRM, better LLC, and better air cooling.

I suspect the Matrix version will be just as impressive for this generation as it was for the last. Though hopefully with fewer problems, RMA rate on the 7970 Matrix Platinum was a bit high mostly due to how agressive they were with the overclocks out of the box, something they seem to have addressed with the 280X version having more relaxed BIOS defaults while otherwise being identical.
 
Croak said:
Yeah, it's a Matrix 7970 PCB. But I think it's just meant to be representative of the kind of design work Asus is capable of, they're not claiming it's exclusive spy shots of a new board.

Pretty sure If Asus does release a Matrix version of the 290x (and pretty sure they will), they'll probably continue that kind of engineering, and the 290 series would benefit a LOT with better quality VRM, better LLC, and better air cooling.

I suspect the Matrix version will be just as impressive for this generation as it was for the last. Though hopefully with fewer problems, RMA rate on the 7970 Matrix Platinum was a bit high mostly due to how agressive they were with the overclocks out of the box, something they seem to have addressed with the 280X version having more relaxed BIOS defaults while otherwise being identical.
Click to expand...


Problem with the Matrix HD7970 is that the PCB was over kill. Key to HD7970 performance was luck of the draw on the quality of the GPU.

The reference PCB of the 290X/290 series is plenty capable of pushing it to 1300mhz+ but the key is well tuned BIOS and voltage control and the most important part getting lucky with the golden GPU.
 
My personal favorite is the windforce, next is asus' dcu2, since the windforce is so hard to find I typically go dcu2.
 
So why exactly is it taking so long for non-reference design 290x card to come out? I dont understand =/
 
DCII and HIS IceQ X². I actually prefer the HIS models, but their top binned models tend to be quite pricey.
 
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