what's the best r9-290 brand for OC?

If you want to overclock, i'd wait for a non reference board which apparently will come in December - the cooler on the 290 is really not adequate for high overclocks. Aside from that, buy whatever brand is the cheapest and has a free copy of BF4......
 
If you mean currently it wouldn't make a difference. The reference cards are likely sourced from the same supplier (possibly Sapphire) or possible two suppliers. There is a preference for Hynix memory over Elpida memory for memory OCing at the moment but there is no grantee you will get one or the other. The only guaranteed physical difference between the brands is the sticker used for branding.

Just pick whoever you feel has the warranty/service and price most appealing to you.
 
Well free BF4... more like embedded into the price.

Overclocking you MUST wait on the new non ref cards to come out or go full waterblocks with exisiting cards.

Im just still waiting on Microcenter to get a few cards in.
 
limitedaccess said:
If you mean currently it wouldn't make a difference. The reference cards are likely sourced from the same supplier (possibly Sapphire) or possible two suppliers. There is a preference for Hynix memory over Elpida memory for memory OCing at the moment but there is no grantee you will get one or the other. The only guaranteed physical difference between the brands is the sticker used for branding.

Just pick whoever you feel has the warranty/service and price most appealing to you.
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not sure if I necessarily agree with that ^^^

I have really good luck overclocking EVGA, and MSI cards. I have had fairly good luck with an Asus DCUII Top Edition 680 that Ive had as well, but a refrence model was so-so.
 
Any 290 with a waterblock ;). Id avoid asus due to hassling people for warrantee coverage. Sapphire or MSI in my books for AMD cards.
 
Yeah I just got 2xXFX290s before that coupon expires from newegg.
I'm also reading those 290 unolocked to 290x. I should definitely give a shot once it comes.
 
Sheppard said:
not sure if I necessarily agree with that ^^^

I have really good luck overclocking EVGA, and MSI cards. I have had fairly good luck with an Asus DCUII Top Edition 680 that Ive had as well, but a refrence model was so-so.
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I'm not quite sure I understand what you are trying to say here.

The reference cards are physically identical essentially across the brands. The board partners do not make changes the board designs or bin the GPUs, the only customization is the branding. The only 290/290x cards currently are reference models.

When you mention the DCUII Top Edition that isn't even a reference video card.

Also in terms of sample size that isn't really large enough to be statistically significant. Nor is the information you've given very complete, is your experience with MSI, EVGA and Asus reference cards for the same GPU even?

There is going to OC variance and luck of the draw regardless. Two Asus cards of the same model will OC differently as an example.
 
I think AMD makes all ref cards as the last of the HD7950 Boost cards was made by them and sold by Sapphire only.
 
The only OC card I can find atm is the Powercolor 290 OC.
Its about 2.5% overclocked on just the core and still uses the stock cooler.
Wishful thinking says the cores may be better binned, but considering the tiny overclock, it probably isnt necessary to have a better binned part.

It costs 6.5% more to buy in the UK so its not exactly better value for money, but who knows if its better for those fitting aftermarket coolers.
In the overclocking review looking at fps throughout the game, there are clear times that there is a large performance difference, much larger than the core overclock and more in line with the memory overclock.
Overclocking both has definite large benefits.
The reliance on memory overclock 'may' be reduced for games that use the Mantle API as the amount of required data copying and memory footprint should be reduced, but that remains to be seen.
And it wont apply to all games.

If you can wait, it has been reported that non reference cooler cards will appear at the end of the month.
Or you can get an aftermarket cooler.

I just cancelled my 290 order because its still not in stock.
I cant decide whether to get the Powercolor OC with aftermarket cooler or wait until the end of the month.

RE the bios flash from 290 to 290x, someone has reported it as successful, but also reported was a card that failed a while after doing the flash.
Nothing can be substantiated yet, it is wise to wait and see.
 
schmuckley said:
I like Sapphire.Know that Powercolor has no VRM sinks.
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That would be odd, the heatsink is the same on all of them.
The aluminium part that cools the memory also cools the VRMS.
Do you have a link about it?
 
schmuckley said:
I like Sapphire.Know that Powercolor has no VRM sinks.
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Just FYI, all current boards are 100% identical if they are reference design - meaning all 290/290X boards are VRM cooled. The VRM area should be cooled if I remember correctly from my 7970 shroud. (the 290 shroud is 100% identical under the hood)
 
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