• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

List of 3rd party coolers compatable with the AMD 290s

Soldato
Joined
6 Feb 2010
Posts
14,591
So far we have more or less talked about 3rd party cooling for the AMD 290 here and there, but it's kinda all over the place...so I thought I would make a thread listing all the 3rd party coolers that has already listed to be compatible with the 290s and easy for everyone to see. If it's anyone know of any other I didn't mention, or see error in my list feel free to add.

Arctic Accelero Hybrid: Around £70~ (plus cost of optional extra fans)
3qre.jpg


Prolimatech MK-26: Around £50~ (plus cost of two fans bought separately)
4oa7.jpg


Arctic Accelero Xtreme III: Around £50 plus additional cost on vram sinks, as it only provide enough for 3GB (12pc) (Pic borrowed from Terminal_Boy)
P1020259_zpsa646ab2d.jpg


Gelid Icy Vision Rev 2: Around £30~
jaqf.jpg


I would love to get the Prolimatech MK-26, but not sure if I like the idea of having 5 slots blocked, and would make crossfire in the future definitely a no-go. The Arctic Accelero Xtreme III seem to take 4 slots, and rest seem to take around 3 slots.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2011
Posts
4,533
Location
bristol
Got my unlocked vtx3d coming monday, going to try the stock cooler and if im not happy im going for a accelero hybrid, got a corsair 800d and could fit two easy enough i think
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Nov 2005
Posts
24,555
Location
Guernsey
Has anyone tested the temps by removing the r290 fan and plastic casing and tie wrapping a 92mm or 120mm standard PC case fan to the heatsink ????
 
Last edited:
Soldato
OP
Joined
6 Feb 2010
Posts
14,591
Got my unlocked vtx3d coming monday, going to try the stock cooler and if im not happy im going for a accelero hybrid, got a corsair 800d and could fit two easy enough i think
If it is DPD, it's gonna be Tuesday :p

Mine unlocked VTX should be arriving on Tuesday. I gonna do the same and try the stock cooler first, if it is really too much, I think I'll just get either the Gelid of the Extreme III. I would love to try the Accelero Hybrid, but I got a feeling that performance wise, it's not gonna worth double the price of the Gelid...just saying ;)

I gotta a feeling that even of the stock cooler is ok, it'd best to upgrade to a 3rd party cooler at some point. This is because although the GPU may be able to stand 95C without issue, considering the heatsink is a block shared with the memory as well, I think it might harm the memory in the long run. I mean the idea of having heatsink on the memory is to help with cooling them...but when the GPU is running so hot and heating up the heatsink so much, it may actually be counter-productive to have the heatsink block in contact with the memory as well. Just my two cents.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
2 Oct 2012
Posts
3,246
Has anyone tested the temps by removing the r290 fan and plastic casing and tie wrapping a 92mm or 120mm standard PC case fan to the heatsink ????

Probably not because its very difficult to take the plastic casing off the metal heat sink as it is, without damaging the casing is even harder. So your likely to break your reference cooler doing it. Also the heat sink is designed to have air blown across it not straight on top of it so it's not going to help much lol. Nice thinking though!
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
6 Feb 2010
Posts
14,591
I find it interesting that the Gelid shuns convention and pulls air onto the GPU as opposed to away.
Not sure what is it you are saying, but most non-blower coolers blow cool-air into the heatsink of the coolers to push the heat out from the heatsink, and this heat in turn is move away by the airflow of the case.

Finally Marine upgrades his GPU. Never thought we'd see the day. :p
Not got the card yet. Fingercross that the card I get is problem-free :p
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
2 Oct 2012
Posts
3,246
Not sure what is it you are saying, but most non-blower coolers blow cool-air into the heatsink of the coolers to push the heat out from the heatsink, and this heat in turn is move away by the airflow of the case.


Not got the card yet. Fingercross that the card I get is problem-free :p

Yea they all do which you linked lol. Blow air into/towards the gpu. Not sure what Benjii actually means. Also wanted to ask if you've looked at the Alpenföhn Passive DRAM / VRAM Chip Coolers Marine? I'm interested in the VRM cooler in it as it looks like you can screw it down onto the VRM with some paste on there ofc opposed to holding it on with tape.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
6 Feb 2010
Posts
14,591
Also wanted to ask if you've looked at the Alpenföhn Passive DRAM / VRAM Chip Coolers Marine? I'm interested in the VRM cooler in it as it looks like you can screw it down onto the VRM with some paste on there ofc opposed to holding it on with tape.
Yea I recall people mentioning that, but since I don't have direct knowledge on this matter, so I don't think I'm in the position to recommend it. It'd be best if someone who knows more about it to add the details to this thread.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
6 Feb 2010
Posts
14,591
Soldato
Joined
2 Oct 2012
Posts
3,246
Think the Hybrid is the better choice as all the other dump heat into the case while the Hybrid doesn't.

Hybrid should also be quieter too...

I'm not sure the Hybrid would be that great though as on the 290 and 290x there are 2 vrms. The one in the usual place which the fan blows on then the one in the corner near the left side which nothing is cooling.

And thanks Marine, still looking into it :)
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Nov 2011
Posts
11,370
Has anyone tested the temps by removing the r290 fan and plastic casing and tie wrapping a 92mm or 120mm standard PC case fan to the heatsink ????

I don't think it would make much difference except possibly slightly quieter, someone hacked theirs to remove the backplate to improve airflow and it made no difference to temps or performance, it just changed the quality of the noise from a whine to a rumble
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
6 Feb 2010
Posts
14,591
OK so I've gotten my VTX flashed to 290x card yesterday. I've left the card completely at stock (not even increased the power limit) and ran Valley bench on loop for nearly an hour, and the temp is better than I thought it'd be.

Note that I have set up a custom fan profile on MSI Afterburner with minimum 30% fan speed, and 50% fan speed on 90C, and this is the result:
9du.png
9fh.png


I have to say, while 89C is not "great" temp, but bearing in mine I've set the fanspeed max at just 50% at 90C, so it is definitely better than what I'd expect. The VRM temp is not too bad as well I would think.

My case is arounds 1 metres away from me on the floor, and at fanspeed of 50% and 55%, while I can hear it, but if you were gaming with the speakers on at even normal level (not loud), the noise is not instrusive; however for people who got their case on the desk at ear level, then the noise would may be too much for them. I've also ran Heaven on loop for an hour with max fanspeed set to 55% at 90C, and it was only hitting 86-87C max.

I would like to point out my case has "extremely good" airflow with lots of fans (and cool air being directly feed to the stock cooler's intake), so I would imagine for people that only got "good" airflow might get around 3-5C higher in temp if using the same settings as mine above.

As it stand, I find 50% fanspeed is not too bad for me, and is enough to keep the GPU temp *just* below 90C. I would imagine if I gonna do high overclock on this card, I gonna have to increase the fanspeed.

If I'm completely honest, cooling wise the stock cooler up to the job, however the problem is turning the fanspeed up too high, the noise level would become unbearable. Also I would imagine during the summer time, while turning up the fanspeed MAY BE enough to keep the card cooled, but the noise level would be hitting unbearable level...so what I'm trying to say is, while I can use the card at reasonable noise level during the winter, I would imagine the need for getting a 3rd party cooler is just a matter of time.

Edited: Have tried tweaking a little more, and found that put the profile of fanspeed up ro 55% at 80C and 60% at 90C I was manage to keep the temp not exceeding 85C in Heaven most of the time. It's a bit louder, but still not instrusive enough along the use of the speaker at normal level volume. The temp is definitely at a better place at 85C max than just 1-2C short of 90C.

Also I've tried 100% fanspeed, and it was able to keep the temp in Heaven at just 70C...but of course it was loud as hell.

I've already order the Gelid Icy Vision Rev 2...will report back once I received and installed it. Was originally thinking of getting the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III, but it is a) only comes with enough ram sink (12) for 3GB of vram so would require getting Alpenföhn Passive DRAM / VRAM Chip Coolers (£12), and would put the cost up to a total of around £60, whereas the Gelid comes with enough ramsink (16) for 4GB of vram and cost just under £33 delivered. Also the Xtreme III would be too long to fit into my CoolerMaster 690II Advanced case, as I've current have a fan mounted on the side of the drive-cage, so that's 25mm shorter in length available for the graphic card and removing that fan could be a bit of pain for me, due to the way how the screws are screwed in.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2011
Posts
4,533
Location
bristol
had a bit of a play and found it nowhere as loud as ive been led to believe, I would say about the same as my ref 7970, does get a tad warm though running heaven hit 90c,
I used afterburner to create a fan profile and with the fan kept pretty quiet temps stayed around 75-80 playing crisis 3
 
Back
Top Bottom