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2 x MSI 290 Gaming in a mATX?

BS Dave

BS Dave

BS Dave

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2004
Posts
4,697
Location
London
Hi i've got a Gene V and am tempted to move up from 7970 xfire to 290 xfire with a couple of MSI Gamings as per title.

I've got 3 questions

i've got a Gene V mobo so space between cards is minimal to say the least - would a couple of these puppies be better than reference cards

Do they have hynix memory?

Will my Corsair AX 860 power supply be enough to run them?

Also didn't i read somewhere about them not having VRM temp gauges or something...

Oh these cards are still reference design - if i wanna go watercooling later right??

Thanks
 
BS Dave said:
Hi i've got a Gene V and am tempted to move up from 7970 xfire to 290 xfire with a couple of MSI Gamings as per title.

I've got 3 questions

i've got a Gene V mobo so space between cards is minimal to say the least - would a couple of these puppies be better than reference cards

Do they have hynix memory?

Will my Corsair AX 860 power supply be enough to run them?

Also didn't i read somewhere about them not having VRM temp gauges or something...

Oh these cards are still reference design - if i wanna go watercooling later right??

Thanks
Click to expand...

I have ruffly what your looking at what cpu are you getting ?

You'll need a good case like the ft03 and reference coolers no make the most of a matx system

Also I would say depending on cpu you would need minimum off 1000w as my enermax 1000w platinum keeps cutting out with my rig in sig and looking to go 1200w
 
Temps will be very high. I know this because I just went and got a new motherboard with 4 way 8X pci-e lanes to move the cards far away as possible.

Unless you can get the hot air away from the bottom gpu expect top card to have high temps.

My asrock board does 3x pci-e lanes two 8x and if in top 16X and bottom 4x doing this made temps superb both maxed out at 65c-70c But performance from 4x is bad hence new board.

Bloody phone.
 
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How hot roughly shanks? Was it throttling etc? Does anyone know whether it's a reference design re lay-out??
 
BS Dave said:
How hot roughly shanks? Was it throttling etc? Does anyone know whether it's a reference design re lay-out??
Click to expand...

Top card was hitting it's max 94c while bottom was just 70c
Managed to bring it down into 80s but no room for overclocks. Unless you can get them good space I would look at something else tbh
 
hmm - 80 was with a new fan profile..? i just can't see the reference cards being any cooler, and i love my gene...though maybe i could still get a good price for it...
 
Get the Sapphire Tri-X 290's as the cooler is soooooooo much better when running a couple of cards.

The MSI cooler chokes when running more then one.
 
almighty15 said:
Get the Sapphire Tri-X 290's as the cooler is soooooooo much better when running a couple of cards.

The MSI cooler chokes when running more then one.
Click to expand...

There all just as bad tbh, at the end of the day they all blow hot air back into the case. It's how you manage it for the better.
My new board should be here Wednesday.
 
BS Dave said:
hmm - 80 was with a new fan profile..? i just can't see the reference cards being any cooler, and i love my gene...though maybe i could still get a good price for it...
Click to expand...

Not just fan profile but also under voltage. The cooler is superb so long you can keep them good enough apart. Bit of a problem with a micro board.
 
Yeah Matt's got reference cards hasn't he? Do you know he gets on? I don't mind paying extra for better coolers if they work, but if not i may as well get reference and save for water...
 
BS Dave said:
Yeah Matt's got reference cards hasn't he? Do you know he gets on? I don't mind paying extra for better coolers if they work, but if not i may as well get reference and save for water...
Click to expand...

Think his run 80s not 100% sure. Reference will be the way to go with your setup. The hot air will be taking out the back of the case.
 
BS Dave said:
Yeah Matt's got reference cards hasn't he? Do you know he gets on? I don't mind paying extra for better coolers if they work, but if not i may as well get reference and save for water...
Click to expand...

Hi Dave, yes i do have reference cards. Depending on what clocks and volts and fan speed i use temp varies. Worst case example is BF4 as i run with vsync off so fps are up at 90-150. I can run 1050/1250 (10% overclock on both cores) and keep temps at or below 93C with 60-64% fan speed. If i back off on the overclock a bit i can run 1000/1250 with 60% fan speed and stay around 90c. However theres nothing wrong with a bit of throttling imo, clocks speeds only drop a little bit and you can run stock 947/1250 and keep the fan relatively quiet and get similar performance. The good thing about the ref cards is they dump almost all heat out the case so your card temps are identical or very similar. Just depends if you can put up with the noise or not. As you're going Matx i would consider reference cards.
 
As an owner of a Gene V myself I know how close the slots are together and I would be worried about the cards getting enough air personally. They are so tight that I couldn't even fit 2 7950 IceQs in when I tried it.
 
those 7950 IceQs are really big though. I can run my 7970s in the gene at 1100/1575 at stock volts and the fan around 65% which is live-able with but i was considering watercooling them (so not that quiet), but it's taking so long for AMD to sort out Mantle for BF4 on them i'm thinking of jumping ship. BF4 then the DICE star wars game, then hopefully a WW2 version are all i'll really play, another thing it feels a bit of a waste of money to throw watercooling at the 7970s as they're such old cards...

And now the tri-Xs are on today only!! Decisions...
 
BS Dave said:
those 7950 IceQs are really big though. I can run my 7970s in the gene at 1100/1575 at stock volts and the fan around 65% which is live-able with but i was considering watercooling them (so not that quiet), but it's taking so long for AMD to sort out Mantle for BF4 on them i'm thinking of jumping ship. BF4 then the DICE star wars game, then hopefully a WW2 version are all i'll really play, another thing it feels a bit of a waste of money to throw watercooling at the 7970s as they're such old cards...

And now the tri-Xs are on today only!! Decisions...
Click to expand...

Do it. As great as Tahiti is/was its time to move on to new tech with Hawaii imo.
 
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