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The best R9 290 available?

CurlySturly

CurlySturly

CurlySturly

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30 Sep 2013
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238
Location
Bristol, UK
From all my other threads from the previous couple of weeks I've decided upon an i5 4690k devil's canyon and a r9 290. The main one I've been considering is this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-341-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752
This is because out of all the reviews I've seen, it has the best cooling capability and doesn't create too much noise, even with the three available fans.

But what I want to know is if this is the best choice for me, seeing as I'll be mainly wanting a quiet gaming experience.

On a side note, will it also be okay with the i5 mentioned if I'm going to be using two monitors, but only one to play games with, the other one for social networking e.g. Skype.
Thanks in advance as usual.
 
I have one of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-341-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Sapphire Tri-X OC 290

It's a really, really nice card. It comes out the box at 1000/1300 which is a decent clock speed. Mine is a good overclocker and gets to 1220/1675 with only +100 mV which gives almost 780 matching performance in Heaven 4.0 but bearing in mind nVidia cards seem better in this particular benchmark. I'd imagine that you can match a 780 in most games with 50 MHz less than the 780. e.g. my 24/7 780 OC was 1187/1700 so I think I can match the performance in most games by running my Radeon at 1130/1450 ish.

Heat and noise: noise not an issue. Even when I OC mine to 1150/1450 it stays around 80c on the default fan profile which is quiet enough for me using open headphones. Heat... that's another matter. This card noticeably heats my room up. It becomes stifling. It kicks out a serious amount of heat which compares to nothing I've used before. In Summer it's uncomfortable (and that is a euphemism) but in Winter I'm sure EON will be displeased as my gas bill might decrease :D.

I don't really care how hot the card is running but when the card noticeably increases the temperature of the room (whereas the 780 didn't) then that is worth mentioning. Not a fault of this particular card I'd imagine all of them kick out a lot of heat
 
Yeah that's the card I wanted to get originally, I think I said about how it's the best one in the reviews I've seen? With what you said about temperatures that won't really be an issue, in summer as you said maybe! But in winter my pilot light for the heating never seems to stay on for long so that shouldn't be a problem! In your PC, what's your fan set up like to accommodate the three fans and to allow cool air to get to it? Pictures would be useful but don't worry if you don't have any.
 
Not sure why you would recommend the XFX in a thread titled the best 290 available, you're entitled to your opinion but I'm pretty sure it either has no VRM cooling or very little compared to the sapphire cards.

If I was going AMD the only cards I'd look at would be Sapphire. Gigabyte would have been there if they didn't have so many problems recently on both sides.

People have said good things about the powercolour cards but it's one of those brands I'd be uncertain of with warranty.
 
The guy in the review thinks it's the best available and the OP wants a quiet card, XFX is that card. As a bonus it's the best looking 290 available.
 
RavenXXX2 said:
The guy in the review thinks it's the best available and the OP wants a quiet card, XFX is that card. As a bonus it's the best looking 290 available.
Click to expand...

I'm really not happy with XFX in all honesty, my current HD 7870 overheats like an oven so that's why I first suggested the Sapphire.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Not sure why you would recommend the XFX in a thread titled the best 290 available, you're entitled to your opinion but I'm pretty sure it either has no VRM cooling or very little compared to the sapphire cards.

If I was going AMD the only cards I'd look at would be Sapphire. Gigabyte would have been there if they didn't have so many problems recently on both sides.

People have said good things about the powercolour cards but it's one of those brands I'd be uncertain of with warranty.
Click to expand...

The PCS+ i a great card, nice cooler, backplate, glued chokes, large VRM cooler, fast, cool, quiet....

I can get mine to run at 1225/1550 without artefacts, 24/7 use i run it at 1100/1407 to 1150/1450 depending on what i feel like.

As for the warranty, i think OcUK handles that, one would need to double check with them.

The card is definitely an option, some rate it higher than the Tri-X, i don't know as i have not had the chance yet to test the Tri-X but they have no Back plate, the cooler is not as beefy, they don't have as good VRM cooling and the chokes are not Glued, however they do, i think, guarantee Hynix vRam where as the PCS+ are mostly Elphida.
 
CurlySturly said:
Yeah that's the card I wanted to get originally, I think I said about how it's the best one in the reviews I've seen? With what you said about temperatures that won't really be an issue, in summer as you said maybe! But in winter my pilot light for the heating never seems to stay on for long so that shouldn't be a problem! In your PC, what's your fan set up like to accommodate the three fans and to allow cool air to get to it? Pictures would be useful but don't worry if you don't have any.
Click to expand...

The one you linked was the Vapor-X. I think that one is different to the Tri-X OC. The Vapor is a non-reference PCB and has something else differentwith the cooler.

I have a side fan in, front fan in, top fan in. Back fan out. I'm going to change the top one to an 'out' fan because I can feel the heat building up at the top of my case when I put my hand over the intake fan. It's warm to the touch there.

I have a HAF-X so a good air cooling case.
 
Rusty0611 said:
The one you linked was the Vapor-X. I think that one is different to the Tri-X OC. The Vapor is a non-reference PCB and has something else differentwith the cooler
Click to expand...

Must be a dodgy link because I just clicked on it and it came up with the tri X.
So should I go with XFX or sapphire? Or are there any other cards that you would suggest I look at?
 
CurlySturly said:
Must be a dodgy link because I just clicked on it and it came up with the tri X.
So should I go with XFX or sapphire? Or are there any other cards that you would suggest I look at?
Click to expand...

Yeah you're right sorry. Must have been having a bad moment :D.

I would go with the Sapphire every day. I quite like the aesthetics of the Sapphire card but that's subjective. As bumhug says, the Powercolor PCS+ is also a nice option but your VRAM won't be as good as the Sapphire as they use the cheapo option.

That said... even at say 1350 MHz VRAM speed on the Powercolor you're looking at more than enough bandwidth.
 
Rusty0611 said:
Yeah you're right sorry. Must have been having a bad moment :D.

I would go with the Sapphire every day. I quite like the aesthetics of the Sapphire card but that's subjective. As bumhug says, the Powercolor PCS+ is also a nice option but your VRAM won't be as good as the Sapphire as they use the cheapo option.

That said... even at say 1350 MHz VRAM speed on the Powercolor you're looking at more than enough bandwidth.
Click to expand...

Sorry to sound stupid but I didn't understand any of that! Could you possibly explain in dumbed down terms?!
 
The Powercolor card uses worse video memory (VRAM) than the Sapphire card. Out of the box it's no different but the Powercolor card will generally not allow its VRAM to overclock as far as the Sapphire card.

However, the actual memory bandwidth (which is linked to the VRAM speed) is so high on both cards that it's extremely unlikely to make any difference to your actual performance in game.
 
Rusty0611 said:
The Powercolor card uses worse video memory (VRAM) than the Sapphire card. Out of the box it's no different but the Powercolor card will generally not allow its VRAM to overclock as far as the Sapphire card.

However, the actual memory bandwidth (which is linked to the VRAM speed) is so high on both cards that it's extremely unlikely to make any difference to your actual performance in game.
Click to expand...

Ah okay, now I understand. Im currently not planning to overclock my gpu only my cpu to 4ghz or something around there so I don't think that would necessarily matter for me.
I think now it's really down to the XFX or sapphire but between the two sapphire cards, which is better?
With aesthetics I don't really mind, I don't have a windowed case so it's not really that important unless I upgrade to the 300R in the future.
 
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