Upgrade cooling on Ref 290 or sell to get new card

Vengance_01

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 23, 2001
Messages
7,213
I have had my 290 Reference based card for 2-3 years now. After taking a break from gaming, I am starting to get the itch again. Been playing Doom and with the new Vulcan API 1440P max out runs smooth enough for me(50-85FPS) but the poor card gets pushed. I can keep it from throttling, but I had to create a custom fan profile and this thing is super loud. Performance wise the card is still pretty good. So I have 2 options

If I can find a Hydro Series HG10 A1 + a cheap and used Corsair H50 etc.. for about 60-75$ total which will give me the noise levels that I want, Should be able to hit 1050 to 1100 on the core to give me a small boost, or do I try and sell the card due to mining craze and grab a used 1070 with a better heatsink to keep noise and temps in check. BTW I can't use any Vega cards as my monitor is a DVI-DL based 1440P Korean IPS monitor. All the cards I have seen on Vega do not have a DVI port. All current Nvidia cards do. The specs of my system are below. Please don't preach me on I need to upgrade my system first. I know the 2500K is getting long in tooth. Yes I know but I am waiting for the next revision to the Zen lineup aka 2018. I will do a complete system overall then minus the GPU.

Specs

[email protected]
16GB DDR3
SSD Boot Drive
 
Well you can get a GTX 1070FE for $399 new from nvidia. Which is probably the best price for now. Used 1070's are not much cheaper. Heck even b-stock 1070s in EVGA are $430 and up.

BTW your 2500 still packs a punch so it should do well with a GTX1070
 
I have had my 290 Reference based card for 2-3 years now. After taking a break from gaming, I am starting to get the itch again. Been playing Doom and with the new Vulcan API 1440P max out runs smooth enough for me(50-85FPS) but the poor card gets pushed. I can keep it from throttling, but I had to create a custom fan profile and this thing is super loud. Performance wise the card is still pretty good. So I have 2 options

If I can find a Hydro Series HG10 A1 + a cheap and used Corsair H50 etc.. for about 60-75$ total which will give me the noise levels that I want, Should be able to hit 1050 to 1100 on the core to give me a small boost, or do I try and sell the card due to mining craze and grab a used 1070 with a better heatsink to keep noise and temps in check. BTW I can't use any Vega cards as my monitor is a DVI-DL based 1440P Korean IPS monitor. All the cards I have seen on Vega do not have a DVI port. All current Nvidia cards do. The specs of my system are below. Please don't preach me on I need to upgrade my system first. I know the 2500K is getting long in tooth. Yes I know but I am waiting for the next revision to the Zen lineup aka 2018. I will do a complete system overall then minus the GPU.

Specs

[email protected]
16GB DDR3
SSD Boot Drive
2500k is more than adequate. I was happy with mine, I only upgraded to SB because I wanted a more modern platform. As for dropping money to buy a block for that older GPU, I wouldn't, because you're going to be wanting to upgrade that real soon anyways. If you could find an aftermarket open style cooler for that, put some good paste on it and you might be able to bump up the clock some.
 
Looks like you can sell the 290 for $150-200. Might be worth doing that and picking up a 1070/1070Ti.
 
Yea I am gonna try my luck on ebay with 290. I think I am gonna try and snag a used GTX 1080 or see on BF if GTX 1070ti cards fall to the 420-430 range.
 
Sell it. Dumb to upgrade a card that old. Get what you can, put the money into something better.
 
Back
Top