Gigabyte change the cooling solution on the Radeon R9 290 (X)

LtMatt · 1 Jan 2014 at 10:14

Gigabyte change the cooling solution on the Radeon R9 290 (X) - PROBLEM SOLVED

GIGABYTES OFFICIAL REPLY ON THIS MATTER IN THE QUOTE

GIGA-Man said:
GIGA-Man said:

Hi All
The problem that was raised only applied to the initial media review samples – NOT the cards that have been supplied to and sold by OcUK. All products available on market are not affected with this problem. This is an error in translation from Tom’s Hardware, and we are in the process of getting this changed.
However if you experience any issue with these cards, please contact GIGABYTE technical support under below link:
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/technical-support.aspx

Click to expand...

We have gigabytes therefore questioned again today and the following, final responses received, so we now also allowed to publish:

"There is a problem on fan sink. The production sample is different from the sample provided by our vendor. The sink for early media samples are not optimized to meet the design requirement. We will improve it immediately and we stop the mass production today ..."

That means in plain language that the sent to the press early patterns do not match with what the contract manufacturer originally submitted for the radiator to the graphics card manufacturer Gigabyte for review. This is something we are already familiar with power supplies and their shrunken features, but now it has apparently caught even gigabytes in the coolers.

Source Via google translate - Toms3D German
Toms

Gregster · 1 Jan 2014 at 10:27

At least they have recognised there is a problem and will be no problem for consumers getting a replacement if their card is running hot.

MSi last year with the 7950 and now Gigabyte's turn

the1gooner · 1 Jan 2014 at 11:45

I bought and received a Gigabyte Windforce 290X day before Christmas from the first batch that overclockers received.

Having to run it with the side panels of my case off so that it cools better.

Reading the above I am not feeling happy right now having spent £480 on one of these

Marine-RX179 · 1 Jan 2014 at 11:57

Well, if anything luckily both OcUK and Gigabyte are based in UK.

Footyslayer · 1 Jan 2014 at 16:04

Ouch, temps seems a real issue with AMD cards the latter part of this year!

Nelly · 1 Jan 2014 at 17:16

If you have to return cards, then you should not have to pay for return postage, Gigabyte should pick up the bill, it's their fault.

LtMatt · 1 Jan 2014 at 17:19

Someone should direct this to Gibbo. I'm sure OcuK will work with Gigabyte to replace any affected cards.

Gibbo · 1 Jan 2014 at 17:34

LtMatt said:
Someone should direct this to Gibbo. I'm sure OcuK will work with Gigabyte to replace any affected cards.

Shall speak to Gigabyte next week to find out if what they shipped to us was affected and if so what the process shall be to replace hassle free.

Chewie · 1 Jan 2014 at 18:18

Very interesting indeed, that could explain a lot as it is very hard to make card run with good temperatures (I have a R290 Windforce).

drunkenmaster · 1 Jan 2014 at 20:41

Footyslayer said:
Ouch, temps seems a real issue with AMD cards the latter part of this year!

It's got nothing to do with AMD. Gigabyte pay a company to build them a heatsink, they send a engineering sample, they agree to it, it works fine..... then the company builds and ships thousands of a heatsinks that are a different design.

Huge screw up, but it's got precisely nothing to do with AMD, or their cores, or heat problems. If whoever builds Nvidia Titan coolers randomly changed the spec and started shipping inferior coolers that did a less good job, their cards would run hotter to.

The company making the wrong product made the biggest error, no one at Gigabyte noticing the change on the production models is another error, a smaller error(if they look fairly visually similar, which they do) in reality but with more significant consequences.

You, me, everyone in this thread knows who Gigabyte are and end customers will be angry, no one has a clue which company makes their heatsinks for them, and while Gigabyte are angry at them, it's Gigabyte that gets(somewhat fairly) blamed for it.

the company that absolutely isn't to blame is AMD.....

Buckster · 1 Jan 2014 at 21:19

would they not have tested the press samples (at least one) before sending out for review ? being the "first" production run samples ?

CaptainRAVE · 1 Jan 2014 at 22:10

Good of Gigabyte to step up and deal with the problem.

MofoKilla · 1 Jan 2014 at 23:00

Reading the above I am not feeling happy right now having spent £480 on one of these

could have got a 780ti for not much more :confused:

GIGA-Man · 2 Jan 2014 at 09:57

Hi All
The problem that was raised only applied to the initial media review samples – NOT the cards that have been supplied to and sold by OcUK. All products available on market are not affected with this problem. This is an error in translation from Tom’s Hardware, and we are in the process of getting this changed.
However if you experience any issue with these cards, please contact GIGABYTE technical support under below link:
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/technical-support.aspx

Gibbo · 2 Jan 2014 at 10:02

Hi there

Response I've just had from Gigabyte via email:-

Hi Andrew,

HQ have confirmed that the only cards that were affected is 30 pcs of production sample. NO cards that were shipped for resale were affected by this. Tom’s Hardware mis-translated some information, and we are in the process of getting them to change their statement as it is misleading to customers.

If you have specific customers who are having problems with the temperatures on the cards you have sold, please put them in touch with our tech guys so that they can work with them to resolve. Also, if you can get full details of temps they are seeing etc, I will get our guys to escalate immediately for them.

Besty · 2 Jan 2014 at 10:06

Come on now Matt, walk the plank of shame and edit your original post

People are too quick to cut and paste this stuff these days.

You lot could be reading my humble members market post rather than being here. Eve though the mods locked it

straxusii · 2 Jan 2014 at 10:11

Good on Gigabyte to come clean on this.

pgi947 · 2 Jan 2014 at 10:11

Serious question time:

How would someone notice if thier 290 (x) was running too hot? As it regularly hits the choke point of 95c anyhow, surely it would be difficult to pick up on a card running too hot?

Its not like the problem msi had with over heating as temps were distinguishable between too hot and normal temp range.

LtMatt · 2 Jan 2014 at 10:12

GIGA-Man said:
Hi All
The problem that was raised only applied to the initial media review samples – NOT the cards that have been supplied to and sold by OcUK. All products available on market are not affected with this problem. This is an error in translation from Tom’s Hardware, and we are in the process of getting this changed.
However if you experience any issue with these cards, please contact GIGABYTE technical support under below link:
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/technical-support.aspx

Gibbo said:
Hi there

Response I've just had from Gigabyte via email:-

Hi Andrew,

HQ have confirmed that the only cards that were affected is 30 pcs of production sample. NO cards that were shipped for resale were affected by this. Tom’s Hardware mis-translated some information, and we are in the process of getting them to change their statement as it is misleading to customers.

If you have specific customers who are having problems with the temperatures on the cards you have sold, please put them in touch with our tech guys so that they can work with them to resolve. Also, if you can get full details of temps they are seeing etc, I will get our guys to escalate immediately for them.

Good work guys. Thanks for clearing it up.

Besty said:
Come on now Matt, walk the plank of shame and edit your original post

People are too quick to cut and paste this stuff these days.

You lot could be reading my humble members market post rather than being here. Eve though the mods locked it

Will do. Was just trying to help people at the time.

EDIT

I've added Gigabytes reply to the OP and edited the post accordingly.

ICDP · 2 Jan 2014 at 10:33

pgi947 said:
Serious question time:

How would someone notice if thier 290 (x) was running too hot? As it regularly hits the choke point of 95c anyhow, surely it would be difficult to pick up on a card running too hot?

Its not like the problem msi had with over heating as temps were distinguishable between too hot and normal temp range.

The same way they would notice for every other card out there, they check their temperatures.

R9 290 boost works differently than Nvidia's or other AMD boost. Here is a basic version of how it works.

AMD R9 290/X

Temperature target is set at 95c default
With R9 290X the fan will usually ramp up to the maximum determined by the quiet (40%) or uber (55%) mode setting. R9 290 has 47% max fan as default.
Once the maximum fan speed and maximum temperature is reached the GPU starts throttling.
If the minimum core clocks are reached (290 = 662 and 290X = 727) then the fan will start ramping up beyond the preset default, or user defined max fan speed. At this point it becomes apparent that the GPU is overheating.

I hope that answers your question.