ASUS Radeon R9-290 DirectCU II OC - vs Other 290's

gradyhawks · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:04

Hello!

Getting the itch, so want to know if the Asus R9-290 II OC is like as a card? ANd how it compares to other 290's that are out there.

Say I can get the Asus R9-290 £325, is there another card that I should be looking at instead?#

Cheers,

Grady

thefogo · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:29

From reviews it seems the cooler is pretty weaksauce. The Tri-X is generally the preferred choice.

gradyhawks · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:55

Say the Tri-X was £339, would that be a good £15 extra spent?

thefogo · 28 Apr 2014 at 20:59

In my opinion, yeah.
I think the tri-x has Hynix vram too.

LtMatt · 28 Apr 2014 at 21:03

thefogo said:
From reviews it seems the cooler is pretty weaksauce. The Tri-X is generally the preferred choice.

This.

Defy Belief · 28 Apr 2014 at 21:17

Tri-x is £329.99

rolypolyman · 28 Apr 2014 at 22:46

Tri-X and the Msi 290 Gaming are generally considered the best. Certainly my 290 has been faultless so far, very cool and quiet.

old gamer · 29 Apr 2014 at 07:50

tri-x would proberly be my first choice and gigabyte wf and msi gaming would also be on my radar, im using a msi 290x gaming edition as i felt it was the best looking, pretty shallow i know but what can you do and im pleased enough with it

Gibbo · 29 Apr 2014 at 09:20

LtMatt said:
This.

Why?

I've tested every single 290, the DC2 is one of my favourite coolers, its very powerful, yet one of the quietest. The cooler is superb.

However if I was buying a card I'd be strongly tempted by the Sapphire as the Tri-X cooler is also very good but the Sapphire cards have a chance of coming with Hynix whereas all the Asus seem Elpida. Not something to worry about if you are not overclocking.

LtMatt · 29 Apr 2014 at 09:33

Gibbo said:
Why?

I've tested every single 290, the DC2 is one of my favourite coolers, its very powerful, yet one of the quietest. The cooler is superb.

However if I was buying a card I'd be strongly tempted by the Sapphire as the Tri-X cooler is also very good but the Sapphire cards have a chance of coming with Hynix whereas all the Asus seem Elpida. Not something to worry about if you are not overclocking.

We're almost disappointed in the overclocking capabilities of the Matrix. We know that, to some degree, the silicon lottery plays a part but we still hoped to see the Matrix going far beyond the 1150MHz that is nearly guaranteed to be extracted from the Hawaii GPU. Even the memory isn't the most blisteringly fast we've seen. This is almost the antithesis of the results we obtained from the GTX780Ti Matrix, which was spectacular.

Of course the Radeon GPU is monumentally hotter than the nVidia equivalent but even still the Matrix is hardly impressive. ASUS' own DCU II model is cooler, and the MSI Lightning 290X is so much cooler (20°C) that it's off the bottom of the graph. Hmm.

Source
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/asus_r9_290x_matrix_platinum_review/4

The Matrix R9 290X Platinum has a bit of a problem; its DirectCU II cooler is actually designed for a larger GPU such as the NVIDIA’s GK110. As you can see this from the picture below, two of the copper heat pipes don’t touch the Hawaii XT GPU at all. Besides that, two other heat pipes just make partial contacts with the GPU chip resulted in inefficient heat dissipation. Their rival, Sapphire managed to solve this with their Tri-X cooler by putting some heat pipes that have better contact with the AMD's GPU.

Source
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...-ROG-Matrix-R9-290X-Platinum-Performance-Test

That's why i recommend the Tri-X over the Matrix.

290X Tri X Load Temps 70C overclocked

thefogo · 29 Apr 2014 at 09:45

Powercolour PCS is also a good choice for cooling. Around 65C load.

Though my 2 had black screen problems so I'd have trouble recommending it because of that.

LtMatt · 29 Apr 2014 at 09:51

thefogo said:
Powercolour PCS is also a good choice for cooling. Around 65C load.

Though my 2 had black screen problems so I'd have trouble recommending it because of that.

Buying pre-overclocked Elpida seems to be a bit risky on Hawaii and gives yourself the best possible chance of black screen issues i think. Not to say all pre clocked Elpida's are dodgy, but it certainly seems like a few are. Bad batch or just bad memory compatibility with Hawaii, who knows.

Gibbo · 29 Apr 2014 at 10:11

LtMatt said:
Source
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/asus_r9_290x_matrix_platinum_review/4

Source
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...-ROG-Matrix-R9-290X-Platinum-Performance-Test

That's why i recommend the Tri-X over the Matrix.

290X Tri X Load Temps 70C overclocked

Matt in all fairness I do not test coolers with the automated fan settings.

I test them at 100% and what the noise/cooling potential is at lower percentages.

In my testing at 100% fan the DC2 is quieter than the Tri-X and nearly as powerful cooling wise.

At 30-40% fan it will keep the card sub 85c under any load and remains very quiet.

Just leaving a fan in its automated mode where it only increases RPM as temperatures go beyond 90c is not a good test of any cooler.

Myself and 8 Pack test cooling power at set percentages to give a true represensation. The DC2 is one of the best coolers with the PCS and Tri-X.

Yaayuh! · 29 Apr 2014 at 10:15

The ASUS Direct CU-II cooler auto fan has always been bad. I've owned the GTX580 Matrix Platinum and 2 7970 Matrix Platinums and always had to set a custom profile, auto was terrible.
However when the profile was setup, it was awesome. I frequently ran 1.3v+ through the 7970s easily.

LtMatt · 29 Apr 2014 at 10:19

Gibbo said:
Matt in all fairness I do not test coolers with the automated fan settings.

I test them at 100% and what the noise/cooling potential is at lower percentages.

In my testing at 100% fan the DC2 is quieter than the Tri-X and nearly as powerful cooling wise.

At 30-40% fan it will keep the card sub 85c under any load and remains very quiet.

Just leaving a fan in its automated mode where it only increases RPM as temperatures go beyond 90c is not a good test of any cooler.

Myself and 8 Pack test cooling power at set percentages to give a true represensation. The DC2 is one of the best coolers with the PCS and Tri-X.

Fair enough. As ive not used the card i can only go on what review sites show us. If you say different, then ill take your word over theirs.

triss · 29 Apr 2014 at 10:20

Auto fan tbh is a terrible way to compare coolers as it all depends how aggressive the maker was with sound or temperature priority
^^ gibbo's is the more reliable way and i'd hazzard a guess he's tested/tryed more 290/x's than most reviewers

Gibbo · 29 Apr 2014 at 10:22

triss said:
Auto fan tbh is a terrible way to compare coolers as it all depends how aggressive the maker was with sound or temperature priority
^^ gibbo's is the more reliable way and i'd hazzard a guess he's tested/tryed more 290/x's than most reviewers

Yes I've tried everyone.

I'd rank cards in following order for best all round performance/cooler:-

1. Sapphire Vapor-X
2. Powercolor PCS
3. Sapphire Tri-X
4. Asus DC2

Those four are all superb, very quiet yet powerful if required. Buy based on features/looks.

gradyhawks · 29 Apr 2014 at 10:32

Righto, thanks chaps! Bought the 290 Tri-x from Sapphire, tbh the only thing that made me go for the Asus over the Sapphire was the fact it was the correct colour for the build. My current card is a Sapphire and its been great.

What is this about Hynix ram however? I will be overclocking this eventually, so just wondering.

LtMatt · 29 Apr 2014 at 10:33

gradyhawks said:
Righto, thanks chaps! Bought the 290 Tri-x from Sapphire, tbh the only thing that made me go for the Asus over the Sapphire was the fact it was the correct colour for the build. My current card is a Sapphire and its been great.

What is this about Hynix ram however? I will be overclocking this eventually, so just wondering.

Good choice, i think.

Hynix ram is good, so no worries there.

Enjoy.

Kaapstad · 29 Apr 2014 at 10:57

Gibbo said:
Yes I've tried everyone.

I'd rank cards in following order for best all round performance/cooler:-

1. Sapphire Vapor-X
2. Powercolor PCS
3. Sapphire Tri-X
4. Asus DC2

Those four are all superb, very quiet yet powerful if required. Buy based on features/looks.

When are you getting the new Sapphire Vapor-X 290X in stock, it looks absolutely stunning.