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R2 290 reference cooler and noise in silent mode?

yannis76

yannis76

yannis76

Associate
Joined
16 Aug 2004
Posts
804
Hi,

I can find used reference R9 290 in pretty decent prices and was wondering what is your personal experience with the cooler. I have read that in full speed its a screamer, however I intend to use the card in silent mode and not overclock. I currently have a windforce card which is very very silent especially in idle mode. Any comments?

thx
 
yannis76 said:
Hi,

I can find used reference R9 290 in pretty decent prices and was wondering what is your personal experience with the cooler. I have read that in full speed its a screamer, however I intend to use the card in silent mode and not overclock. I currently have a windforce card which is very very silent especially in idle mode. Any comments?

thx
Click to expand...

Unless it is a very good deal I would just get a new card with a aftermarket cooler. What I see is £250 on ebay for a reference version and about £300 for reference versions new on here and other places, you can get a Sapphire with Tri-X cooler on here for £320 new with warranty.
 
yannis76 said:
Hi,

I can find used reference R9 290 in pretty decent prices and was wondering what is your personal experience with the cooler. I have read that in full speed its a screamer, however I intend to use the card in silent mode and not overclock. I currently have a windforce card which is very very silent especially in idle mode. Any comments?

thx
Click to expand...

I can't comment on gaming noise, but when the fan is running fast it is noisy - I'm not sure what it is like in silent mode.

I would say however that its definatly worth spending the bit extra to get a card with an aftermarket cooler, sapphire being the one to go for generally. It will keep the card a lot cooler, fair bit quieter and should you ever need it, more room for overclocking.
 
Stock cards are pretty much silent when idle, just like every other reasonably modern GPU in my experience, but when gaming they do go to "can't be heard over game's audio" but I definitely wouldn't describe them as quiet/silent.

I'm fine with my PC making some noise when it's under heavy load, but I cannot abide a noisy PC at idle. I also needed new GPUs in the long period between stock cards being available and aftermarket ones coming out, my case suits blower type cards more than open cooler types, and my motherboard only offers a single slot between coolers so I've had some temperature issues with open coolers and crossfire before. My stock cooled cards meet all my criteria and I'm very happy with them. If you are planning on just a single card, and are concerned about noise (which you must be from the question) I really would reiterate what the others have said and advise to go for an aftermarket cooled card over a stock one.
 
I'd suggest if you need to run it in silent mode its not really a great investment for you as it might well be throttling and downclocking anyway.
+1 to finding a reasonably priced aftermarket one
 
I have 2 reference 290's and I don't have a problem with the noise while I'm playing games, if I'm at desktop then it's silent.
 
Confused Stu said:
Stock cards are pretty much silent when idle, just like every other reasonably modern GPU in my experience, but when gaming they do go to "can't be heard over game's audio" but I definitely wouldn't describe them as quiet/silent.
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Have a reference 290x and ^ this perfectly describes it for me too. Its on water now but when i used it on air to give the cooler a go, it seemed like any other standard AMD reference card and no where near as loud as some made it to be. Not surprising, as i bought it on release and half the GPU forums seem to be raving about how hot and loud they are even before the release but actual owners seem to have the same sort of view:

Its either hot or loud under load but cant really be heard over gaming audio.
 
My 290s don't have a silent mode as far as I'm aware, just a dual bios.
Sapphire did a BIOS update but only did one bios. Also my performance seems to be identical with both bioses.
 
yannis76 said:
Hi,

I can find used reference R9 290 in pretty decent prices and was wondering what is your personal experience with the cooler. I have read that in full speed its a screamer, however I intend to use the card in silent mode and not overclock. I currently have a windforce card which is very very silent especially in idle mode. Any comments?

thx
Click to expand...
You are not still using a Athlon 750X (or was it 760X?) for CPU are you?
 
Avenged7Fold said:
Have a reference 290x and ^ this perfectly describes it for me too. Its on water now but when i used it on air to give the cooler a go, it seemed like any other standard AMD reference card and no where near as loud as some made it to be. Not surprising, as i bought it on release and half the GPU forums seem to be raving about how hot and loud they are even before the release but actual owners seem to have the same sort of view:

Its either hot or loud under load but cant really be heard over gaming audio.
Click to expand...

Hi again

If it is like any other reference and then that is bad news. I remember when I first tried a 7950 I could not bear the noise at all
 
If you run the card at stock you can undervolt it quite heavily. This makes a big difference to temps and will ensure you can keep the card in the low 80's temp wise and run a slow/quiet (ish) fan profile of 50% or lower. Its far from silent, but its far from loud and noisy as well imo. I run my cards at 1050/1250 and at -0.037V and -0.100v Aux voltage and temps are in the low to mid 80's with fan speed 50-55%, in crossfire.
 
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Have two on stock volts / reference cooler I ignored the rabble of "too hot" "too loud" and plumped up .. I do not regret it.
 
old gamer said:
never understood the fuss about reference cards being too loud, cheapest option just buy a headset
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+1

When gaming I need to crank the fan up to 75% to be able to hear it while playing and I only let it hit 60% so I never hear the card, at desktop it's silent like any other card.
 
old gamer said:
never understood the fuss about reference cards being too loud, cheapest option just buy a headset
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I wouldn't agree, i have a ref cooled 290 in my second system and no matter how much i like it or it's 'bang for buck blah blah blah' under load its really really loud , unpleasantly so, if i run heaven , leave the room and shut the door and go into the living room i can clearly hear it, people have asked me sometimes i'f i'm using a hairdryer and i havent used one of those for drying my hair in 15 years.

I think it comes down to people's tolerance of the noise, but as a stock cooler its pretty dire no matter what way you look at it.
 
In terms of getting the heat out of the case I think the ref cooler does a pretty decent job, I agree it's not subtle but it does get the job done at least for me anyway.
 
funt said:
In terms of getting the heat out of the case I think the ref cooler does a pretty decent job, I agree it's not subtle but it does get the job done at least for me anyway.
Click to expand...


Again i wouldn't agree , if you're an average user and you dont mess about tweaking then you're going to put the card in the system and install the drivers and thats all you're going to do, in this scenario the ref card will usually (dependent on load) rockets up to 92 degrees and throttles as needed to keep the temps and noise in check , so in my humble opinion it barley gets the job done, and at a cost. This is why AMD added the extra control in ccc, so YOU as a user get to choose if you want it quiet and hot or not quite so hot but much louder.
 
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