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I got the 290X ..

F

fanboy

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
Messages
1,057
I got the Sapphire Tri X 290 X New Edition today ($259) and install was flawless .. so far it have only got to run Firestrike on it and mine is not up to date.. I have not cranked on the card yet and the cpu has alittle more yet as ram is only 1477mhz..

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5570685

I really like this New Edition and it seems to be as powerful as my R9-280 CX setup..
 
$259 is a pretty good deal. Though I'm curious, what does "New Edition" mean for that board?

Many 290x cards can run 1500 on the memory, giving it the same bandwidth as the new 390x rebrand. Mine was able to jump from 1250 to 1500 with no sweat at all.

It can be tricky to push the memory on these cards though. If the ram starts spitting out errors, rather than rendering artifacts the GPU will just re-request the memory reads until they pass ECC- so you will start to see diminishing performance after a certain threshold.

Achieving 1100/1500 stable 24/7 gaming clocks on these doesn't take much work. My card starts to glitch at around 1170 core, but Afterburner can push that further if I use the shortcut-mod trick to extend the voltage limit to 200.

Just keep a close eye on core and VRM temps, GPU will throttle at 95c and although the VRM is "said" to be fine at over 100c, I try to keep those under 90 if possible. Replacing the thermal tape on my VRMs dropped their temps by over 20c in some situations.
 
"New edition" is on the right.

oRBgiLh.png
 
I also recently purchased this card also. Very happy with it for the most part, the cooler is oversized and the fan shroud pushed against my sound card in the 3rd slot and jammed up one of the fans....so this is more of a 2.5 slot card. It stays cool and quiet under load for an AMD Hawaii GPU. I read that some of the 8x6 pin power setups for 290x's were less than adequate, so this dualie 8 pin solution with the upgraded VRMs make me feel better about the power delivery and the overclockability. It was also one of the few cards that sort of matches the aesthetic of my orange edition NZXT H440, and it even fit between the drive cages so I didn't need to remove any. This easilly matches and beats my old dual ASUS DirectCU II GTX 670 SLI setup in most games (I switched cause I've had to RMA those cards twice in 3 years, wtf ASUS quality control?). Overall, for $260 it was a great and I hope Santa can get me another.
 
I did a gpu-z log file for Heaven 4.0 benchmark which I let it warm up before starting and the gpu maxed at 65c @39% fan speed. . VRM Temperature 1 maxed at 61c VRM Temperature 2 maxed at 61c and these cards have Samsung memory .
 
I was kind of taking by the temp as I owned a ref 290 before that run 94c and getting it down 10-15c with an after market cooler was still a job.

I guess waiting all this time for the right price on a 290x paid off and it's really how Hawaii should of released in 2013 with this very design as the PCB is Sapphire and not AMD .. it would be interesting to know if the power usage dropped with the temps but I have not way to tell.
 
well you can't measure what it used to pull but an outlet meter will give detailed info of what your pc draws when loaded and idle as it is now and you can compare it to what others say....and of course depending on the cpu load that adds a lot as well. If i had to guess, it pulls around 600 watts in heavy gaming from the outlet.
 
It is amazing on how much life the x58 has had as my board /ram/power supply is 5 1/2 years old now and seems not to bottle neck the 290X on PCI Express 2.0..

I was going to buy 2 of those cards but I didn't want to find out about the ram issue CX on x58 which it may be ok as I only have 6Gb but if the system pulls 600watts as you think ..well my 950watt supply may not be enough.

Oddly these New Edition cards seemed to be released around March as that is the start of reviews on newegg for it.
 
fanboy said:
It is amazing on how much life the x58 has had as my board /ram/power supply is 5 1/2 years old now and seems not to bottle neck the 290X on PCI Express 2.0..

I was going to buy 2 of those cards but I didn't want to find out about the ram issue CX on x58 which it may be ok as I only have 6Gb but if the system pulls 600watts as you think ..well my 950watt supply may not be enough.

Oddly these New Edition cards seemed to be released around March as that is the start of reviews on newegg for it.
Click to expand...

It looks like a nice card, double ball bearings/better PCB components/more power.
Tri-X cards are also known to pull more power than other custom 290xs. So you did a right things by not getting a second one, since your PSU would not be able to handle it.
 
Wow thats great!
Congrats on your purchase.

I feel like getting one of these because my cards are starting to show their age. Running the lower cards in crossfire seems to make things feel less smooth in some situations.

Doesnt seem like the new amd cards measure up to this in terms of price/performance.
 
Dark12 said:
I feel like getting one of these because my cards are starting to show their age. Running the lower cards in crossfire seems to make things feel less smooth in some situations.
Click to expand...

I went from Crossfire 7850s to a single 290x and the difference was night and day. In my experience, the single high-end card will beat the crossfire midrange cards in every meaningful metric.

There were a few games that even though crossfire would run and kick out decent framerates, I still had to tune things to far exceed 60fps to get it smooth, sometimes needing as much as 120 - which really negates the crossfire use if I can pull a card and get 60 smooth on a single one. So back in January I saw a deal for a $300 290x and found new homes for my 7850s - 80 bucks each.
 
haz_mat said:
I went from Crossfire 7850s to a single 290x and the difference was night and day. In my experience, the single high-end card will beat the crossfire midrange cards in every meaningful metric.

There were a few games that even though crossfire would run and kick out decent framerates, I still had to tune things to far exceed 60fps to get it smooth, sometimes needing as much as 120 - which really negates the crossfire use if I can pull a card and get 60 smooth on a single one. So back in January I saw a deal for a $300 290x and found new homes for my 7850s - 80 bucks each.
Click to expand...

Badass!
I might have to end up jumping on this then..

I dont think I will be able to sell my 7870xt's because I used them for mining for a few months and one is missing the fan shroud since I have been using a Corsair H50 on it. Also a non-destructive pop spill made part of the cards sticky. >.<

Either way, sounds like its totally worth it if I can find one for what the OP paid.

1440p is a lot more taxing than the 1080p I had when I bought those cards.

EDIT: Are there any of these in stock anywhere at near that price? I'm not having any luck.
 
Dark12 said:
EDIT: Are there any of these in stock anywhere at near that price? I'm not having any luck.
Click to expand...

I would watch eBay for a used one, if I were you. I picked up a used 290X for $219 (GV-R929XOC-4GD). With patience you can get some insane deals on 290 and 290X cards used.
 
sk3tch said:
I would watch eBay for a used one, if I were you. I picked up a used 290X for $219 (GV-R929XOC-4GD). With patience you can get some insane deals on 290 and 290X cards used.
Click to expand...

Thanks for advice, but it seems like these new versions are well... new.
So I am guessing they wont go up for a while.
 
Dark12 said:
Thanks for advice, but it seems like these new versions are well... new.
So I am guessing they wont go up for a while.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes - if you want this specific revision that the thread is about - you may need a bit more patience. :)

The third-party cooled 290/290X cards are all pretty damn good - there's not much difference between them. I've owned stock 290, 290X all the way up to Lightning 290X cards - they all do not OC very well at all (not much meaningful headroom). So all of the bells and whistles are great - but the most important part is the card and VRMs being cool. So I'd say go with any third party card with good reviews.
 
sk3tch said:
Ah, yes - if you want this specific revision that the thread is about - you may need a bit more patience. :)

The third-party cooled 290/290X cards are all pretty damn good - there's not much difference between them. I've owned stock 290, 290X all the way up to Lightning 290X cards - they all do not OC very well at all (not much meaningful headroom). So all of the bells and whistles are great - but the most important part is the card and VRMs being cool. So I'd say go with any third party card with good reviews.
Click to expand...

Very cool.
Yea the thing I find cool about this one is there are more mosfets spread over a larger area so less concentrated heat. Even the ball-bearing fans seem like a nice edition since my video cards have a tendency to rattle over time.

This price gouging is just ridiculous.
http://amzn.com/B00HJOKARI
 
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Dang. Maybe it will drop back down once it comes back in stock.
 
It was sold out and then it was back at $319 ($279 after rebate) but it's sold out again..but you have to make sure it's that model number as they make another one that looks like it with AMD PCB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202145

I have seen no reviews of the card because reviewers don't know it exist as it was released without saying much of anything. Now performance wise it is on par with Crossfire 7950/280 as that set up scored alittle over 13,000 Graphics Score in FIRSTRIKE and this 290x scores 12298 on the same rig so it my be power hungry but I would think it would use less then CX R9-280's .
 
Always good when you enjoy a purchase, have fun! :)
 
fanboy said:
It was sold out and then it was back at $319 ($279 after rebate) but it's sold out again..but you have to make sure it's that model number as they make another one that looks like it with AMD PCB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202145

I have seen no reviews of the card because reviewers don't know it exist as it was released without saying much of anything. Now performance wise it is on par with Crossfire 7950/280 as that set up scored alittle over 13,000 Graphics Score in FIRSTRIKE and this 290x scores 12298 on the same rig so it my be power hungry but I would think it would use less then CX R9-280's .
Click to expand...
Search for the 8 GB model and you will find a few reviews from March~May 2015. It's the same card but with extra VRAM.
 
Blargh
Ill have to look into this Fury business later today. Seems like it costs way too much for the performance over the 290x it offers.
 
Dark12 said:
Blargh
Ill have to look into this Fury business later today. Seems like it costs way too much for the performance over the 290x it offers.
Click to expand...


You'd be right. Had the Fury for a couple of weeks, but ended up returning it. Disappointing, really. Went back to my 280x xfire setup.
 
That's why I say get a cheap 290 or 290X on eBay. Fury and Fury X are too expensive and 290X's (or 390X) like this one are too expensive.

For a third of the cost of a Fury you can get a 290X which offers like 80% of the performance, if not more (in some cases).

If you want to dump $500+ - then you're pretty much "stuck" with NVIDIA for "bang/buck" (if that exists at that price level). :)
 
It really seems like this new version is worth the small premium if I can find it for under $300.
I will be looking every few hours. Ready to pull the trigger!
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
Search for the 8 GB model and you will find a few reviews from March~May 2015. It's the same card but with extra VRAM.
Click to expand...

I did and saw afew but the 8Gb models reviewed didn't have Samsung memory like this card which I don't know if that's good or bad.
 
sk3tch said:
That's why I say get a cheap 290 or 290X on eBay. Fury and Fury X are too expensive and 290X's (or 390X) like this one are too expensive.

For a third of the cost of a Fury you can get a 290X which offers like 80% of the performance, if not more (in some cases).

If you want to dump $500+ - then you're pretty much "stuck" with NVIDIA for "bang/buck" (if that exists at that price level). :)
Click to expand...

The main issue with the 290x is heat and to much of it.. I wouldn't own a ref model because it can't handle it and the other issue is power design and why you see the high VRM1 and 2 temps.. so it was not to expensive if it address's most all the issues in one card.. testing the 8Gb cards with this Tri X cooler showed 72c and I reported 65c on this 4Gb model..

Keeping the card cool means 1020Mhz clocks and more performance.
 
fanboy said:
The main issue with the 290x is heat and to much of it.. I wouldn't own a ref model because it can't handle it and the other issue is power design and why you see the high VRM1 and 2 temps.. so it was not to expensive if it address's most all the issues in one card.. testing the 8Gb cards with this Tri X cooler showed 72c and I reported 65c on this 4Gb model..

Keeping the card cool means 1020Mhz clocks and more performance.
Click to expand...

That's just it - you don't need to buy a reference model for so cheap. I was able to score a Gigabyte tri-fan cooled one (super cool VRMs and GPU) for $219.
 
I jumped on the this deal also. I upgraded from a reference 7970, so it wasn't much of a jump in performance, but I couldn't pass it up at $260 after MIR.

Anyone else using the displayport on this card? I'm trying to push a 1440p 144hz and I'm continuously getting 'displayport link failure' errors. Didn't have this trouble on my 7970.
 
I have not tried display port yet but I do have a setup for Eyefinity using one to run 5760 X 1080.. for me the jump was Crossfire 7950 performance but you really need to drop a Xeon X5650/60/70 on the X58 board.
 
Does any other manufacturer make this new version of the 290x?
I have not been able to find it anywhere and I really want this new one.
 
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