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** A NEW BEST SUB £300 CARD? AMD 290X 8GB!! **

Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
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33,887
Gibbo, can you confirm the PCB type of these? I'm presuming it is not the same as the 4GB cards so my waterblocks wouldn't fit?

Also what brand is the memory?
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Dec 2006
Posts
7,224
If the PSU is a high quality unit, it will be fine. I used 290X Crossfire at stock on a 750W Silver Seasonic PSU without issue and with my 2700K at 5Ghz. Of course though, this will not leave you much headroom for overclocking the gpus.
That's useful to know. Does overclocking net you much in the way of actual gains within games, or are we talking just a few FPS? x2 8GB cards at stock should kick butt in pretty much everything anyway shouldn't they?

Stunning :p
Just a shame these are very close to the 3X series cards pfffffft
6 months away. And I'm not sure I'd be buying the VERY FIRST cards to come off the production line anyway. I'd want to see what was available and upcoming.
 
Caporegime
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That's useful to know. Does overclocking net you much in the way of actual gains within games, or are we talking just a few FPS? x2 8GB cards at stock should kick butt in pretty much everything anyway shouldn't they?


6 months away. And I'm not sure I'd be buying the VERY FIRST cards to come off the production line anyway. I'd want to see what was available and upcoming.

What's the make and model of the PSU?

I personally run my graphics cards at stock while gaming and save overclocking for the benchmark threads. Once you start adding more than one Radeon card, the need to overclock to get playable fps reduces.
 
Associate
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19 Nov 2014
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UK CO.DURHAM
now this as come do keep my pre on the ref 970s in SLI
or go for Crossfire for MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming Edition 8192MB - just really don't no what to do as am on the red team @ min with R9 270 2GB, gaming @ 1080p

and again sure it be ok will crossfire work with my PSU Corsair AX760
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,887
No idea, as not looked at any of the cards, most likely to be Hynix.

Could you ask EK if the the 'EK Water Blocks EK-FC R9-290X' will fit on the MSI?

Because I'm an idiot, I'm single and I have more money than sense, I may upgrade my two 4GB cards.
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Dec 2006
Posts
7,224
Great PSU, I was using the 1600W Platinum model until very recently. Your PSU will be good to at least 1000W, if not higher. All the decent ones have 150W+ headroom typically. :)
So, factoring in the rest of my system: OC'd 5820k @4.4, 16GB RAM, x2 SSD's, x1 HD, Nepton 240M AIO, and x4 additional fans... you think x2 of the 8GB MSI cards will be OK? What risks would I be running, if any.... would my system explode in fiery ball or simply be crashing every 5 minutes?
 
Caporegime
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Location
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So, factoring in the rest of my system: OC'd 5820k @4.4, 16GB RAM, x2 SSD's, x1 HD, Nepton 240M AIO, and x4 additional fans... you think x2 of the 8GB MSI cards will be OK? What risks would I be running, if any.... would my system explode in fiery ball or simply be crashing every 5 minutes?

I think you'll be fine, just make the next upgrade a PSU if you want to start overclocking the graphics cards.

If the PSU does not like it, it will trip (switch off) to prevent damage and will shut down the computer.
 
Caporegime
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Could you ask EK if the the 'EK Water Blocks EK-FC R9-290X' will fit on the MSI?

Because I'm an idiot, I'm single and I have more money than sense, I may upgrade my two 4GB cards.

Solid shout S2KIP as you're at 4K and you play Battlefield 4 using Mantle. 4GB is not enough for Mantle at 4K maximum details, that will explain your stuttering. I use around 5gb on my 4x290X 8GB setup at 4K in Mantle Ultra Preset.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,887
Solid shout S2KIP as you're at 4K and you play Battlefield 4 using Mantle. 4GB is not enough for Mantle at 4K maximum details, that will explain your stuttering. I use around 5gb on my 4x290X 8GB setup at 4K in Mantle Ultra Preset.

As above, the blocks aren't compatible and I don't think I could deal with the noise of two cards after having a nigh on silent setup for a year.

390X better hurry, or Titan II or whatever it's called.
 
Caporegime
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As above, the blocks aren't compatible and I don't think I could deal with the noise of two cards after having a nigh on silent setup for a year.

390X better hurry, or Titan II or whatever it's called.

Have you tried contacting EK to ask if they may support any of the 8GB models? I thought they supported the 290X 8GB Vapor-X cards.
 

Ste

Ste

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,812
That's a shame! Nearly bought three of your cards from the MM the other day too! Phew!

Does it affect all x58 boards do you know? Will have to do some reading
 
Soldato
Joined
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Aberdeen
Could you ask EK if the the 'EK Water Blocks EK-FC R9-290X' will fit on the MSI?

Because I'm an idiot, I'm single and I have more money than sense, I may upgrade my two 4GB cards.

EK likely won't be making one, it's the same pcb as the 4gb 290x gaming and they have left that without a block since launch, can't see an 8gb variant adding any extra incentive.

Spend a bit more and get something like the pcs, which uses the reference 290x pcb.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2011
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16,799
Location
Aberdeen
Have you tried contacting EK to ask if they may support any of the 8GB models? I thought they supported the 290X 8GB Vapor-X cards.

They do, those that use the reference pcb, msi do not on the gaming cards

Edit: refrence pcb or that tri slot sapphire monster have blocks available.
 
Caporegime
Joined
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40,435
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That's a shame! Nearly bought three of your cards from the MM the other day too! Phew!

Does it affect all x58 boards do you know? Will have to do some reading

This is my personal experience using a 290P Crossfire setup and a P8P67 Deluxe Motherboard which had that NF200 PCI-E Switching chip. As soon as i got a board with a different switching chip (P8Z77 WS etc) the problems vanished. The problems i had were idle bsod messages, under load things were fine.

If you do try a 290 card, just get one card and be prepared to return it under DSR if you have issues. It may not affect you, but i think it's only fair to inform you of a problem i found.

As these boards are so old now, there is no chance of a bios update from the motherboard makers to address it.
 
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