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AMD Radeon R9 290X with Hawaii GPU pictured, has 512-bit 4GB Memory

Soldato
Joined
20 Aug 2006
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9,607
could the 7970 not sit at 95C ? without throttling

so why the fuss about the 290x being designed to run at 95C - most modern GPU chips do that can't they ?

so why pick 95C for this card and not the 7970 ? or is it the lowest they could get it without the fans being annoying ?
 
Caporegime
OP
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United Kingdom
could the 7970 not sit at 95C ? without throttling

so why the fuss about the 290x being designed to run at 95C - most modern GPU chips do that can't they ?

so why pick 95C for this card and not the 7970 ? or is it the lowest they could get it without the fans being annoying ?

7970 was built to operate up to 90c at stock speeds. However if you were overclocking you had to keep it below 80c. Larger overclocks below 75-70c. Extreme overclocks often 65c or lower.
 
Soldato
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7970 was built to operate up to 90c at stock speeds. However if you were overclocking you had to keep it below 80c. Larger overclocks below 75-70c. Extreme overclocks often 65c or lower.

Indeed, my 7970 can't handle extra volts above 75c. It will be interesting to see how much aftermarket cooling, water or air, brings the temps down and whether or not the extra headroom is all usable with high volts.
 
Soldato
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6,102
At that price it's impossible not to buy even if there'll be a long wait - Arctic Cooling might have a new cooler out by then too.
:)

Yeah :/ So much for waiting until next Thursday to order 2 x 290s. I've now got a 290X on order, and I'm strongly considering ordering a second.
 
Soldato
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At that price it's impossible not to buy even if there'll be a long wait - Arctic Cooling might have a new cooler out by then too.
:)

I had considered it as well. But I'd rather not void the warranty by putting an after market cooler on. I've never had an issue with my cards until my 7970 which I had to RMA, since then I've been paranoid. :o
 
Associate
Joined
7 Mar 2013
Posts
230
Well this thread got pretty ridiculous overnight.

I switched to PC gaming a little over a year ago and thought by leaving the consoles behind I was also leaving behind the playground fanboy mentality. After all, the fact the PC gaming is relatively more expensive and requires an element of expertise means that it would be more adult-orientated, right?

APPARENTLY NOT!

Honestly, all the passive-aggressive smiley usage is just embarrassing. GTX 780, R9 290X... whatever, just buy what you want and enjoy?
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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33,188
There are two guys in particular who add nothing, talk rubbish and when called on it just say "it's banter, we're all having fun". Rubbish.

Either way as others have said, my 7970 in overclocking rarely gets above 75C before it gets unstable at higher clocks and topples, so 95C is a definite difference, in fact a huge difference. Most people don't know much about the process nodes, that's not a problem most people aren't interested. There are multiple choices for slightly different materials, different spacing of transistors, different transistor designs, many different ways you can push a design to suit a particular temp, or clock speed. So it's very likely there are many subtle changes you wouldn't know about as it's very clearly stable at significantly higher temps.

One chip simply isn't comparable with another, hot for one chip could be 30C, another 150C or anything in between.

People banging on about the cooler being poor because the chip runs hotter than a competitor is nonsense, without attaching the heatsink to a 780gtx and comparing people are literally talking rubbish.

Most people seem to be excluding the simple fact that Titan has a 26% higher surface area, that is 26% more contact with the heatsink and lower W/mm2 to start with. It SHOULD run cooler. If anything that the 7970 ran at similar temps using similar power to a chip with a 60% higher surface area actually points to the Titan cooler being WORSE, not better.

250W in 350mm2 is inherently harder to cool than 250W in 550mm2.
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,188
Honestly, all the passive-aggressive smiley usage is just embarrassing. 7970, 7950, R9 290, R9 280x, R7 270, 7990 or R9 290X... whatever, just buy what you want and enjoy?

fixed

:p I jest. I've used both for donkeys years, I won't buy a 290x(for now) as on my budget £315 I paid for a 7970 ages ago is about as far as I can stretch and with 20nm chips potentially well under a year away I feel a £400+ chip has a lot less value in longevity than say the 7970 had.
 
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