R9 290X Owners Thread

Papablu · 15 Jul 2014 at 21:29

Thanks for the info Kaapstad, it was something I suspected but didn't want to face up to because it may mean I'll need to return my pc for OCUK to sort it out.

It's been a bit iffy since I had it and comparing it to my old pc it's been extremely unreliable with gaming on the whole. I love these cards though, the picture is amazing and they run everything well when the pc allows it. I got some help here with the BSOD's which seemed to work a treat but issues have been creeping back in. I'll give OC a call tomorrow and see what they recommend.

Vertiginous · 16 Jul 2014 at 00:59

Eh running sorta hot at the moment but it is very hot in my room

Kaapstad · 16 Jul 2014 at 20:19

EK Readies New Full-Cover Water Block for Radeon R9 290X Graphics Cards

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is about to release a new Full-Cover water block for TUL Corporation's (Power Color, Club3D and VTX3D) AMD Radeon R9 290(X) graphics cards with amended circuit board design R29FA.

EK-FC R9-290X SE directly cools the GPU, RAM as well as VRM (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and its VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. This water block also features a very high flow design therefore it can be easily used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

Base is made of nickel-plated electrolytic copper while the top is made of quality cast POM Acetal. Screw-in brass standoffs are pre-installed and allow for safe installation procedure. The cooling engine uses refined 0.6 mm wide microchannel structure to even further improve the heat transfer while not sacrificing the famous low hydraulic restriction design.

Up to four EK-FC R9-290X SE water blocks can be interconnected with EK-FC Terminal which allows for hassle-free piping job. Moreover this water block perfectly lines up with EK-FC R9-290X series water block for AMD reference design circuit board Radeon R9 290(X) graphics card thus allowing different model graphics cards to be used at the same time.

In order to simplify the search for suitable and compatible water block EK is adding newly released graphics cards and motherboard from various manufacturers to EK Cooling Configurator database and compatible graphics cards are being added to the list on daily basis.

The product will be available for purchase through EK Webshop and Partner Reseller Network by the end of July 2014. An aesthetic retention backplate will also be available.

http://www.techpowerup.com/203111/ek-readies-new-full-cover-water-block-for-radeon-r9-290x-graphics-cards.html

Kaapstad · 28 Jul 2014 at 08:37

Club 3D R9 290X Royal Ace review at PC-MAX placed in OP.

Link

humbug · 28 Jul 2014 at 14:25

Kaapstad said:
Club 3D R9 290X Royal Ace review at PC-MAX placed in OP.

Link

The cooler is the same as the Powercolor PCS+, it even has the same VRM HS, but no Glue around the Coils.

They need to update their Benchmark list, not a single game there is less than 2 years old.

old gamer · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:06

humbug hows your powercolor doing im still uming and aring on pulling the trigger on one or the tri x, everytime I go to click the buy button I have doubts on which to buy.

danm I need to grow some and just buy one

LtMatt · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:09

old gamer said:
humbug hows your powercolor doing im still uming and aring on pulling the trigger on one or the tri x, everytime I go to click the buy button I have doubts on which to buy.

danm I need to grow some and just buy one

If you don't mind spending the extra then I'd go with the Tri-X. Basically you're paying the extra £40 for guaranteed Hynix memory. I think most of the PCS are Elpida. Is it worth £40 extra? Both have excellent quiet coolers, probably the best coolers out there bar the lightning and Vapor X.

humbug · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:11

old gamer said:
humbug hows your powercolor doing im still uming and aring on pulling the trigger on one or the tri x, everytime I go to click the buy button I have doubts on which to buy.

danm I need to grow some and just buy one

Its doing good.

+/-

Tri-X is 2 slot, PCS+ is 3 slot
PCS+ cooler is better than Tri-X, But both are good
Tri-X (i think has more chance of Hynix Memory ICs)
PCS+ has a beefier VRM cooler
PCS+ has Glued Coils to stop Whining, Tri-X does not and may Whine
PCS+ has a sturdy Back Plate.

LtMatt · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:13

humbug said:
Its doing good.

+/-

Tri-X is 2 slot, PCS+ is 3 slot
PCS+ cooler is better than Tri-X, But both are good
Tri-X (i think has more chance of Hynix Memory ICs)
PCS+ has a beefier VRM cooler
PCS+ has Glued Coils to stop Whining, Tri-X does not and may Whine
PCS+ has a sturdy Back Plate.

Some interesting tidbits there that i didn't know. PCS is definitely a bargain at £270!

MOOGLEYS · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:18

Tri-x is a great 290. Mine has been running away nice and happily and more importantly to me it's very quite.

Tbh I cant really say anything bad about it which is unusual for me. I have had it a few weeks and not gone back to Nvidia so it must be doing something right.

Just flip a coin and buy one....

Edit - I'm in the 290x forum again.

old gamer · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:28

powercolor ordered, last one in stock spurred me on, not too fussed about Hynix memory as my msi 290x had it and was still a poor overclocker

humbug · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:31

old gamer said:
powercolor ordered, last one in stock spurred me on, not too fussed about Hynix memory as my msi 290x had it and was still a poor overclocker

Wow, they have been selling well, they still had 10+ in when i looked last week.

LtMatt · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:31

old gamer said:
powercolor ordered, last one in stock spurred me on, not too fussed about Hynix memory as my msi 290x had it and was still a poor overclocker

I'm sure you'll be happy with either card. Pics when it arrives please, need to get you on the roll of honour.

old gamer · 28 Jul 2014 at 15:56

yep wil post pics this time, I never got round to it with the other 2 I had

rsturbomad · 29 Jul 2014 at 21:14

Heres my Sapphire 290x 8gb x2

Papablu · 29 Jul 2014 at 21:38

Hi Guys,

I've asked this in my cpu issue thread but obviously it's not the best place to be asking this one so I'll repeat it here. My apologies to those who've already read that.

This has likely come up before on this thread too so my apologies again.

I have 2 Sapphire R9 290x Battlefield 4 edition cards in my Infinity Tesseract which is having to go back because of a dodgy i7 4770k that can't cope with the 4.7ghz OC.
While it's at the menders I want to make it worthwhile and at least get something out of the situation so I want to get a third card installed with water blocks etc to match. However they don't appear to have the exact same cards for sale any more, so can I add a 3rd card that isn't an exact match and what would be the consequence of doing so, if I can of course ?

Thanks all.

humbug · 29 Jul 2014 at 23:33

Papablu said:
Hi Guys,

I've asked this in my cpu issue thread but obviously it's not the best place to be asking this one so I'll repeat it here. My apologies to those who've already read that.

This has likely come up before on this thread too so my apologies again.

I have 2 Sapphire R9 290x Battlefield 4 edition cards in my Infinity Tesseract which is having to go back because of a dodgy i7 4770k that can't cope with the 4.7ghz OC.
While it's at the menders I want to make it worthwhile and at least get something out of the situation so I want to get a third card installed with water blocks etc to match. However they don't appear to have the exact same cards for sale any more, so can I add a 3rd card that isn't an exact match and what would be the consequence of doing so, if I can of course ?

Thanks all.

Nothing, as long as its another 290X (any 290X) it will work just the same as if it from the same AIB.

tommybhoy · 30 Jul 2014 at 00:26

Papablu said:
so I want to get a third card installed with water blocks etc to match. However they don't appear to have the exact same cards for sale any more, so can I add a 3rd card that isn't an exact match and what would be the consequence of doing so, if I can of course ?

If you can't get a hold of a reference 290x this is the one you want:

1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11226-03-40G) £379.99

The Tri-x version is built on the exact same reference pcb as your Sapphire R9 290x Battlefield 4 with the added bonus that the 290X Tri-x uses Hynix vram.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/03/11/sapphire-radeon-r9-290x-tri-x-oc-review/1

If you were to get a custom 290X version, they probably won't have any full WC plate to fit, a few do, but the Tri-X is the one you really want.

Kaapstad · 30 Jul 2014 at 08:04

rsturbomad said:
Heres my Sapphire 290x 8gb x2

Beautiful cards and on the Roll of Honour.

rsturbomad · 30 Jul 2014 at 09:51

Kaapstad said:
Beautiful cards and on the Roll of Honour.

Awesome many thanks!