Project: Make my 290x not so damned hot and loud!

T

TheGamerZ

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Sep 18, 2003
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So, I picked up a 290x from a member here, and have been mostly happy with it. Like all 290x's, it runs hot and loud. So, after some research, I picked up a Gelid Icy Vision rev 2 for it. Core temps and VRM2 temps dropped a LOT. However, VRM1 temps are still sky high.

I came across a user on another forum who used the Icy Vision cooler with the original reference baseplate to cool the VRMs and memory. So I thought I'd do the same. Enjoy!

http://imgur.com/a/dl3Jt
 
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Or just get any after-market cooler GTX 780 or 780 Ti and be done with it.
 
Starrbuck said:
Or just get any after-market cooler GTX 780 or 780 Ti and be done with it.
Click to expand...

or dont.

just checked out your pictures, pretty cool! so now that its cooled down that thing should be under vacuum now and not able to explode right? good luck with the rest of the mod.
 
Starrbuck said:
Or just get any after-market cooler GTX 780 or 780 Ti and be done with it.
Click to expand...

I agree with this option unless the OP is doing 4k. AMD just seems to do 4k better. For everything else, I would personally go with NV. And you get the benefit of (IN MY OPINION) nvidia's hands down superior software features and better drivers. Nvidia's reference solutions are also more elegant and refined with no such noise issues.

Software/drivers are the biggest issue for me when it comes to AMD. Performance wise, I cannot deny that AMD has delivered and then some with the 290X. The cards are fast. No doubt. BUT, in terms of software - I keep wanting AMD to improve here because it's the reason I always go back to NV. Now AMD is definitely NOT as bad as they used to be - AMD has made improvements in this respect, but reading even the AMD forum here is just chock full of people experiencing black screens, vsync bugs, and all that sort of thing. A 500$ GPU is just never worth hassle. If I wanted to spend 400$+ just to get hassled, I could think of different things to do it on. And I know this doesn't affect everyone, but having used 7970 in eyefinity I know exactly how frustrating the hassle can get. Using 7970CF with eyefinity just pissed me off non stop to the point that I said fuck it. Now the 7970CF was fine on a single screen or single GPU, but once you do exotic setups that's when the weird problems just start to pile on. At least in my experience. Like I said AMD has improved here, but they obviously STILL have more work cut out for them. Especially on features which they don't add at the same pace as NV. Just read the driver threads here and at other forums with people having stupid driver issues. Not everyone, but more than enough to raise my eyebrow.

Anyway OP you have a few options. Sell the card and get a custom 290X. I would suggest not getting a gelid cooler because you still won't adequately cool your VRMs, and you may void your warranty depending on which brand you have. So you can sell your current card and get a different custom card. Or you can get a 780 - by the time you spend as much money for an Gelid cooler or what have you, you will probably have spent as much as you would on a custom/used 780 anyway. I personally think the 780 is just a better experience with nvidia's software in mind. I don't think i'm alone in this opinion, you can read the "is the 290 better than the 780" thread in the AMD sub-forum for more opionions on that.
 
I have a brand new unused MSI 290x gaming heatsink that will bolt right up to that puppy. PM me if you are interested
 
you guys sound ridicules suggesting he just go out and buy a 780:rolleyes: I am a little confused as to why he was baking his cooler.......i have baked my cards before but never the cooler:)
 
primetime said:
you guys sound ridicules suggesting he just go out and buy a 780:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Is it? Ridiculous? I dunno, it could be for some people. But when it comes to upgrade/sidegrade time what I generally do is sell the old and buy something new. It's generally not that difficult really.

He could of course also sell his reference card and get a custom 290X as well. I think either the 780 or a custom 290X would be a better option as opposed to a gelid cooler. Unless things have changed those Gelid/accelero/ and AIO loops don't generally cool the VRM areas all that well, and some AIB brands do not allow warranties for modifications such as that. And another thing to consider is that a Gelid with an AIO cooler + 290X costs just as much if not more than a new custom card anyway. Actually, a Gelid + 290X would add 60$ to a card. Or you can get an AIO bracket for 30$ and an H60 for another 60-70$. Whereas most custom cards have a 20-40$ premium. On the NV side, the custom 780 cards are usually only 10-20$ more than the base reference. And as mentioned above I think NV does the software thing better. I know that doesn't match everyone's opinion, but i'm not alone in that opinion.

It's his choice though. His money. The thread is asking for opinions on what to do. So he's getting opinions on just that. ;)
 
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I bought an early 290 that unlocks to a 290x and put an Accelero Xtreme III cooler on it.
Its a seriously good cooler, low temps and very quiet.

I cant recommend AMD cards though, drivers have too many issues such that you are scared to try betas and now even WHQLs!
AMD cause too many issues anyway.
They have prevented standard DVI to HDMI cables from passing audio, you have to buy specific AMD cables with a chip built inside them.
This suddenly happened with a new driver, earlier drivers didnt have the problem you could use normal cables just fine.
I kitted out my home theatre with long cables while owning an NVidia card, this created a major pita after buying the 290 and I refuse to replace perfectly good cables and pay a premium for something that wont give any benefit.
AMD can suck it, they have lost a future customer and all recommendation because they tried to extract cash from the unsuspecting.
Not only that, but I get the black screen problem when doing certain things. This requires a reboot to get the display back no matter what the cards config is, running as a 290 or 290x and low or high clocks.
I wouldnt expect this of the flagship cards.
I tried AMDs 5770 years ago and suffered lots, moved back to a GTX580 which was fantastic and now regret giving AMD another try.
Wont happen again, mf***ers
/rant
 
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Nenu said:
I bought an early 290 that unlocks to a 290x and put an Accelero Xtreme III cooler on it.
Its a seriously good cooler, low temps and very quiet.

I cant recommend AMD cards though, drivers have too many issues such that you are scared to try betas and now even WHQLs!
AMD cause too many issues anyway.
They have prevented standard DVI to HDMI cables from passing audio, you have to buy specific AMD cables with a chip built inside them.
This suddenly happened with a new driver, earlier drivers didnt have the problem you could use normal cables just fine.
I kitted out my home theatre with long cables while owning an NVidia card, this created a major pita after buying the 290 and I refuse to replace perfectly good cables and pay a premium for something that wont give any benefit.
AMD can suck it, they have lost a future customer and all recommendation because they tried to extract cash from the unsuspecting.
Not only that, but I get the black screen problem when doing certain things. This requires a reboot to get the display back no matter what the cards config is, running as a 290 or 290x and low or high clocks.
I wouldnt expect this of the flagship cards.
I tried AMDs 5770 years ago and suffered lots, moved back to a GTX580 which was fantastic and now regret giving AMD another try.
Wont happen again, mf***ers
/rant
Click to expand...

I won't comment on much of what you wrote but I am curious as to how are you getting audio out of the DVI port of your nvidia card without a proprietary adapter.
 
Yet it was NVIDIA drivers that killed peoples cards, WHQL as well, twice.

NVIDIA drivers that use large amounts of CPU resources when the cards are doing OpenCL work.

NVIDIA drives that don't comply to standards.

NVIDIA cards are filled with bugs and even kill peoples cards.
 
For those telling me to go Nvidia, keep that crap to yourselves. This is not a Red vs Green thread. I have cards from both sides. Give it a rest.

The Mac said:
just get one of these...

http://www.feppaspot.com/servlet/the-897/GELID-Solutions-Icy-Vision/Detail

sheeshh..
Click to expand...

This is [H]ardForum, not oftForum :eek:


ekuest said:
or dont.

just checked out your pictures, pretty cool! so now that its cooled down that thing should be under vacuum now and not able to explode right? good luck with the rest of the mod.
Click to expand...

I gave it an ice bath to make sure that it cooled down. I was kind of hoping it would re-implode on itself, but it's stuck as a big copper balloon. Just tossed it into the recycling bin.

primetime said:
I am a little confused as to why he was baking his cooler.......i have baked my cards before but never the cooler:)
Click to expand...

I needed to heat up the solder that holds the aluminum fins and vapor chamber to the baseplate so that I could separate them.


Nenu said:
I bought an early 290 that unlocks to a 290x and put an Accelero Xtreme III cooler on it. Its a seriously good cooler, low temps and very quiet.
Click to expand...

I looked at the Acceleros, but they have poor VRM cooling for the 290's (from my research. Your mileage may vary), and the Accelero IV is a joke with that backplate fin shit. They're also expensive as hell. The Gelid cooler was $30.

lavaheadache said:
I have a brand new unused MSI 290x gaming heatsink that will bolt right up to that puppy. PM me if you are interested
Click to expand...

From what I've heard, those have poor VRM cooling also. But, you have a PM anyway :)
 
The Mac said:
exsqueeze me?

that is THE best vrm kit on the market for 290/x

i suggest you check the temps i linked to.
Click to expand...

I'm implying why pay for something when you can totally break shit and achieve the same result! Buying the kit is an easy way out! (*cough* bookmarked for later...)
 
ah, ok.

hack away...

Persoanlly, id like to keep my stock cooler intact incase, i dunno, i need to rma?
 
guitarguy6 said:
I won't comment on much of what you wrote but I am curious as to how are you getting audio out of the DVI port of your nvidia card without a proprietary adapter.
Click to expand...

What proprietary adapter are you talking about?

Dual link DVI ports have for years allowed DVI to HDMI cables to pass audio through otherwise unused connections when fed to HDMI because HDMI only requires connections from single DVI.
All modern NVidia cards with DL DVI support this.
AMD used to with any modern DVI to HDMI cable, but now only support it through AMD cables that have a specific chip which the driver recognises.
This chip serves no other purpose than to tell the driver that the cable is authorised.
So standard cables no longer supply audio because the driver blocks audio transmission.

It worked fine with AMD until a driver update which incorporated the check for an AMD specific cable.
Since then, no standard DVI to HDMI cable can supply audio.
 
really...ive been looking for one on ebay, cant find on....linky?
 
hmmm...they must have just started popping up, i looked a few weeks ago anr there werent any.

hurry up and finish to i can see your temps.

i ordered the vrm kit, but if this gets better temps im in....

someone on OCN did this as well, but hacked off the vrm area, and did not use the whole plate.

i dont think the icy vision has enough clearance in the RAM area to use the whole plate unless you shim the heat exchanger somehow.

with just the pads and the sinks that came with the icy vision, they are almost touching the exchanger fins.
 
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Go with custom liquid cooling, I put two 290's under water and it's a night and day difference in noise, not to mention the highest temp I have seen is about 52 C under load for hours. The process was not overly difficult or complicated and it was my first time ever putting together a loop. I think to get the most out of that beast you should at least look into it.

BTW I have two reference 290 coolers if anyone is interested.
 
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Nenu said:
What proprietary adapter are you talking about?

Dual link DVI ports have for years allowed DVI to HDMI cables to pass audio through otherwise unused connections when fed to HDMI because HDMI only requires connections from single DVI.
All modern NVidia cards with DL DVI support this.
AMD used to with any modern DVI to HDMI cable, but now only support it through AMD cables that have a specific chip which the driver recognises.
This chip serves no other purpose than to tell the driver that the cable is authorised.
So standard cables no longer supply audio because the driver blocks audio transmission.

It worked fine with AMD until a driver update which incorporated the check for an AMD specific cable.
Since then, no standard DVI to HDMI cable can supply audio.
Click to expand...

Interesting, the only video card I can remember owning that was able to do DVI to HDMI with audio was an ATI 3850 and the required adapter was included with the video card. How was nvidia passing through the audio? Where they using the 4 pins that usually carry analog video? I'm not arguing I'm curious as I didn't know it was possible to do with any random DVI to HDMI cable.
 
guitarguy6 said:
Interesting, the only video card I can remember owning that was able to do DVI to HDMI with audio was an ATI 3850 and the required adapter was included with the video card. How was nvidia passing through the audio? Where they using the 4 pins that usually carry analog video? I'm not arguing I'm curious as I didn't know it was possible to do with any random DVI to HDMI cable.
Click to expand...

If you don't care about complying with HDCP then you could do it with any cable.
 
guitarguy6 said:
Interesting, the only video card I can remember owning that was able to do DVI to HDMI with audio was an ATI 3850 and the required adapter was included with the video card. How was nvidia passing through the audio? Where they using the 4 pins that usually carry analog video? I'm not arguing I'm curious as I didn't know it was possible to do with any random DVI to HDMI cable.
Click to expand...

The DVI to HDMI adapter reroutes the audio signals from existing pins in exactly the same way a DVI to HDMI cable does.
The signals have to exist or the adapter cant do anything with them.

Single link DVI has many spare pins on the DVI port, some of these are used for the audio channel when converting to HDMI.
HDMI has the same bandwidth as Single Link DVI so HDMI has no other use for the spare pins, they are free to be used.

ATI and NVidia put digital audio on them and since then, newer DVI to HDMI cables have routed the audio onto the HDMI pins.

edit
to answer your question, I saw a pinout a long time back that showed the audio was connected to the Second Link of the Dual Link video output pins, when used in Single Link mode.
Cant find it now though.

This article covers the origin of when it started
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVI
So, DVI-D devices output HDMI signals, many including audio, (examples: ATI 3000-series and NVIDIA GTX 200-series video cards),[9] and some multimedia displays input that HDMI signal, including audio, by using a DVI to HDMI adapter.
Click to expand...


My major annoyance with AMD is that I have 2 long DVI to HDMI cables that I use to carry audio+video, neither of these supply any audio with my 290 card yet they worked perfectly with my GTX580.
After researching I found that during the last generation of cards, AMD added a chip to the DVI to HDMI adapters, the driver was changed to recognise the chip and will not allow audio to pass unless the chip is present.
So my fully kitted out and working home cinema now needs new long HDMI cables to make full use of it, and I have to buy some of AMDs DVI to HDMI adapters to get audio from DVI the ports.
My 290 card didnt even come with any adapters, cheeky mfs!

To spite AMD, I have hooked up an old sound system when using my monitor and use a long HDMI cable (which does carry audio) to my AV system.
I can now have 2 sound systems running again and dont have to pay anything to AMD lol.
They can kiss my ass.
I wont be buying or recommending them again.

Spazturtle said:
If you don't care about complying with HDCP then you could do it with any cable.
Click to expand...

It doesnt compromise HDCP.
 
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Nenu said:
I bought an early 290 that unlocks to a 290x and put an Accelero Xtreme III cooler on it.
Its a seriously good cooler, low temps and very quiet.

I cant recommend AMD cards though, drivers have too many issues such that you are scared to try betas and now even WHQLs!
AMD cause too many issues anyway.
They have prevented standard DVI to HDMI cables from passing audio, you have to buy specific AMD cables with a chip built inside them.
This suddenly happened with a new driver, earlier drivers didnt have the problem you could use normal cables just fine.
I kitted out my home theatre with long cables while owning an NVidia card, this created a major pita after buying the 290 and I refuse to replace perfectly good cables and pay a premium for something that wont give any benefit.
AMD can suck it, they have lost a future customer and all recommendation because they tried to extract cash from the unsuspecting.
Not only that, but I get the black screen problem when doing certain things. This requires a reboot to get the display back no matter what the cards config is, running as a 290 or 290x and low or high clocks.
I wouldnt expect this of the flagship cards.
I tried AMDs 5770 years ago and suffered lots, moved back to a GTX580 which was fantastic and now regret giving AMD another try.
Wont happen again, mf***ers
/rant
Click to expand...

Jesus christ lol.

Im sure you know exactly what you're doing right?
 
Yeah that was my feeling too lol.
I know my stuff pretty well, but am always open to new information.
Check the posts above yours, the cable issue is further clarified.
 
TheGamerZ said:
For those telling me to go Nvidia, keep that crap to yourselves. This is not a Red vs Green thread. I have cards from both sides. Give it a rest.



This is [H]ardForum, not oftForum :eek:




I gave it an ice bath to make sure that it cooled down. I was kind of hoping it would re-implode on itself, but it's stuck as a big copper balloon. Just tossed it into the recycling bin.



I needed to heat up the solder that holds the aluminum fins and vapor chamber to the baseplate so that I could separate them.




I looked at the Acceleros, but they have poor VRM cooling for the 290's (from my research. Your mileage may vary), and the Accelero IV is a joke with that backplate fin shit. They're also expensive as hell. The Gelid cooler was $30.



From what I've heard, those have poor VRM cooling also. But, you have a PM anyway :)
Click to expand...


The Msi gaming Twin frozr has excellent vrm cooling. Not sure where you read that.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
How much of an issue are VRAM temps these days?
Click to expand...

Not TOO much of an issue. Especially on these cards. The 290x runs on a 512bit bus, so they reduced the operating speed (and therefor the voltage) and still maintained the rediculous throughput.

That said, the partial coverage on that one exposed chip is still more than enough.
 
Yeah ram temps are pretty low.
I'm running a 290 as a 290x with an AC Extreme III cooler.
The GPU heatsink mount is so big, it covers 1/2 of one memory chip.
At first I wanted to send the cooler back, but someone had done the same and said it worked ok still with only a small heatsink.
So I fitted a 1/2 chip heatsink on that memory chip and can still overclock the memory to 6480MHz (with +100mV on VGPU, no change in memory voltage).
 
No, it's not poor airflow. It's poor video card. On my GTX 780s the VRMs run in the 60s under load.

Search for "290/290x VRM temps high" and you'll see it's an ongoing existing issue with 290/290x's.
 
Here's my longwinded take on the custom AMD cards with poor quality. Yes, a card with 120C VRM temps? That should not happen.

I think that AMD doesn't have the strict quality control over AIBs that nvidia generally exerts. Now say what you will about nvidia's "green light" program, but it is effective in terms of keeping AIB custom cards in line with the nvidia brand. After asus released their faulty GTX 590 several years ago, nvidia (presumably) made a push to enforce quality among AIBs and more often than not, it shows. Now i'm sure some will scoff at newegg reviews and amazon reviews, but you will see nearly all nvidia cards are 4/5 star reviews. Maybe there are exceptions, but generally speaking, nvidia has far higher buyer review scores on average than does AMD. Part of that is (IMO) that AMD doesn't have the software quality that NV has. And then their lack of quality control causes situations like cards with 120C VRM temps to happen which directly results in these poor reviews - Certain brands have 4/5 stars. For instance, the Tri-X from sapphire is generally considered excellent, and the reviews show it. These are fantastic 290 designs and should be the blueprint to follow, nobody can say anything bad about the Tri-X. But the other 290 custom cards? These 4/5 star reviews are the exception on the AMD side. There are simply a vast amoungs of junk custom designs on the AMD side because AMD doesn't enforce any type of quality standards with their partners. And you get into other custom AMD 290 cards with 1,2,3 star reviews on both newegg and amazon (and these are verified purchases, mind you).

I think this is because AMD doesn't really enforce quality among AIBs. They just sell the chips and that's it. Sometimes that's good, but in more cases than not, it's bad. IMO. The lack of quality doesn't apply to all AIBs, but there are definitely more than a few AMD custom designs that are just lacking - the entire XFX 79xx DD VRM issue is a case in point. Something like that would never happen on the green side because nvidia enforces quality. It wasn't always like that, asus had the slipup with the GTX 590 which overheated because of poor VRM components. But I haven't seen repeats of a situation like that, I have to assume it's because of green light and NV enforcing quality across the board. My take is, NV takes their brand name and image fairly seriously. AMD? Well, maybe they don't have the money or resources to do so. They're not exactly in the best financial situation right now so they're just focusing on making the chips without enforcing quality among all of the AIBs.

Personally, and i'm not trying to poo poo on AMD here, but I really would like them to step it up. I'm on the green side now BECAUSE of AMD's software after having used 7970s in eyefinity which was just a nightmare. When AMD steps it up and improves their quality across the board and their software/features across the board, i'm not closed to the idea of going back. And that would also help improve the competition dynamic. Now the 290 is a great performer, I cannot deny that AMD delivered on the performance front, no question. But there are other areas that AMD could REALLY improve in , and that would help them in terms of competition. Whether anyone likes it or not, there are significant amounts of buyers (including myself) that won't touch AMD until they demonstrate a CLEAR improvement in software. Reading the 14.4 driver threads on various forums does NOT inspire confidence. It's just ridiculous really, it's the same old AMD software situation and that isn't a good thing.
 
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The Mac said:
hmmm...they must have just started popping up, i looked a few weeks ago anr there werent any.

hurry up and finish to i can see your temps.

i ordered the vrm kit, but if this gets better temps im in....

someone on OCN did this as well, but hacked off the vrm area, and did not use the whole plate.

i dont think the icy vision has enough clearance in the RAM area to use the whole plate unless you shim the heat exchanger somehow.

with just the pads and the sinks that came with the icy vision, they are almost touching the exchanger fins.
Click to expand...
It was I that hacked off the vrm part. Worked very well =] I'll eventually put on the rest
 
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