R9 290

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 07:54

I am looking at buying a 290 but the thing that is putting me off is the power consumption, is there anything you can do with the 290 to make it better? On a review I saw some tweaking options in the catalyst control panel but I don't know what they do...

The idle power is ok, but the power consumption watching videos (which I do a lot from my PC) is extremely high, has AMD released any new drivers since the launch that has fixed or improved that? If not is there any tweaks you can do to get normal power consumption when watching videos... for example "techpowerup review - Blu ray power consumption : GTX 780 = 18w, R9 290 = 75w, also the multi monitor power consumption is bad.

Is there anything you can do about this? Changing the power settings or changing the config files etc?

Nocky24 · 5 Nov 2014 at 08:27

You could see how far you can undervolt it on stock clocks, but that's something you would usually do if you were running crossfire and trying to keep temps down and is never a guarantee. If you're that concerned about power consumption I would opt for a 970. I've had a vapor-x 290 and my 970s in my possession the past week and there's nothing in it performance wise, but the 970s are noticeably cooler and consume less power. Both are good cards though.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 08:57

Nocky24 said:
You could see how far you can undervolt it on stock clocks, but that's something you would usually do if you were running crossfire and trying to keep temps down and is never a guarantee. If you're that concerned about power consumption I would opt for a 970. I've had a vapor-x 290 and my 970s in my possession the past week and there's nothing in it performance wise, but the 970s are noticeably cooler and consume less power. Both are good cards though.

Yeh I would like the 970 but the 290 is already the most expensive card I can afford, the difference between a 280x and 290 new is not much, actually some 280x cost more than some 290 for some reason, Maybe I could keep it at stock clocks and undervolt it, don't want to underclock the mhz because that sort of makes it pointless buying a fast card.. Do you know if there have been any driver updates to fix the blu ray / video power consumption? Or if you can do it by changing settings? On my 5870 I can change some settings such as idle clocks etc. in the config file.

postmanfw · 5 Nov 2014 at 09:08

60w=15rs for 20p so thats not even 3p a film (@2hrs)...so 2 films a week will cost you £3 a year? Is it worth worrying about??

(no offence or negative tone intended)

Richdog · 5 Nov 2014 at 09:14

NirK said:
Yeh I would like the 970 but the 290 is already the most expensive card I can afford

It is only 28 quid more for the cheapest Nvidia 970... http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-004-GX&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

That is a difference that is easy to make up in a month of cutting back on a couple of non-essential things, and if you truly cannot afford the small extra for that then maybe you should be thinking about a GPU in a lower price category?

foster grant · 5 Nov 2014 at 09:27

Some of those 290s are at a good price right now

nitram100 · 5 Nov 2014 at 09:43

Not even worth thinking about, seriously over a year it is nothing.

tommybhoy · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:00

Richdog said:
It is only 28 quid more for the cheapest Nvidia 970... http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-004-GX&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

That is a difference that is easy to make up in a month of cutting back on a couple of non-essential things, and if you truly cannot afford the small extra for that then maybe you should be thinking about a GPU in a lower price category?

Your 970=£250-£25 selling on the game=£225
290=£216-£50 selling on 3 games=£166

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-166-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

970 is cooler/less power/louder/bit faster@£225
290 is quieter/hotter/higher power/bit slower@£166

Depends how a system is ran but if it's for 24/7 use, Zerocore powers down the gpu and uses no power.

The op can work out whether he can claw back £69 of leccy over the time he plans on running a card.

nitram100 · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:32

tommybhoy said:
Your 970=£250-£25 selling on the game=£225
290=£216-£50 selling on 3 games=£166

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-166-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

970 is cooler/less power/louder/bit faster@£225
290 is quieter/hotter/higher power/bit slower@£166

Depends how a system is ran but if it's for 24/7 use, Zerocore powers down the gpu and uses no power.

The op can work out whether he can claw back £69 of leccy over the time he plans on running a card.

That is a stonking deal for that card. Mine runs at 65c max on full load and matches a 290x for speed.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:40

tommybhoy said:
Your 970=£250-£25 selling on the game=£225
290=£216-£50 selling on 3 games=£166

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-166-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

970 is cooler/less power/louder/bit faster@£225
290 is quieter/hotter/higher power/bit slower@£166

Depends how a system is ran but if it's for 24/7 use, Zerocore powers down the gpu and uses no power.

The op can work out whether he can claw back £69 of leccy over the time he plans on running a card.

I never looked at it like that..... I only want one of the games on the deal anyway so I could sell 2 of them which would make it cheaper, nice one.

humbug · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:45

I just don't understand the hyperbole about temperatures and noise.

I use a powercolor pcs+ r9 290 @ 1125/1400 (a 20% over reference overclock) it struggles to get to 70 after 3 hours of gaming with v-sync off. thats also with custom quiet fan profile. at stock it barely breaks 60c+

i ran a 7870xt before it and that was notably hotter.

the thing is as cool as a cucumber, its also extremely powerful, especially with mantle powering it. they are fantastic cards.

after a 3x loop of heaven.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:47

nitram100 said:
Not even worth thinking about, seriously over a year it is nothing.

Just worked it out, at 50w more watching videos, 4 hours a day, every day, it would be about £1 a month or £12 a year, about 70w more gaming 4 hours a day about £1.50 a month or £18 a year so about £20-30 a year which thinking about it is not a lot lol. I don't spend 8 hours a day gaming and watching videos anyway so probably more like £20 a year compared to a 970. Still would be good if there was a fix for it... Or if you could tweak the config for a lower power etc.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:51

humbug said:
I just don't understand the hyperbole about temperatures and noise.

I use a Powercolor PCS+ R9 290 @ 1125/1400 (a 20% over reference overclock) it struggles to get to 70 after 3 hours of gaming with V-Sync off. thats also with custom quiet fan profile. at stock it barely breaks 60c+

Probably because the stock coolers on release were **** and they ran at 95 degrees etc. With custom coolers they are good but the power is still one of the highest for any card and I am sure they could have made the video consumption a lot better than 75w when nvidia can do it at about 15w. Oh well in the scheme of things it is not a lot, for example a wall heater or an oven uses about 2-3kw lol.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:54

Damn the games are just download keys so wouldn't get £50 for them... If you get a game with a download key, can you download it, play it, then sell the key? Or once you have entered the key you cannot sell it again?

humbug · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:55

NirK said:
Just worked it out, at 50w more watching videos, 4 hours a day, every day, it would be about £1 a month or £12 a year, about 70w more gaming 4 hours a day about £1.50 a month or £18 a year so about £20-30 a year which thinking about it is not a lot lol. I don't spend 8 hours a day gaming and watching videos anyway so probably more like £20 a year compared to a 970. Still would be good if there was a fix for it... Or if you could tweak the config for a lower power etc.

There is a fix for it, see above. stop reading reviews about early reference cards which have blower coolers that are only really good enough for a HD 7850, the fact that those coolers can cool 290's is a testament to how easy it actually is to cool them.

With a half decent AIB cooler and a case with proper air flow they run very cool.

edit:

NirK said:
Probably because the stock coolers on release were **** and they ran at 95 degrees etc. With custom coolers they are good but the power is still one of the highest for any card and I am sure they could have made the video consumption a lot better than 75w when nvidia can do it at about 15w. Oh well in the scheme of things it is not a lot, for example a wall heater or an oven uses about 2-3kw lol.

Right

Podmonkey · 5 Nov 2014 at 11:56

tommybhoy said:
Your 970=£250-£25 selling on the game=£225
290=£216-£50 selling on 3 games=£166

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-166-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

970 is cooler/less power/louder/bit faster@£225
290 is quieter/hotter/higher power/bit slower@£166

Depends how a system is ran but if it's for 24/7 use, Zerocore powers down the gpu and uses no power.

The op can work out whether he can claw back £69 of leccy over the time he plans on running a card.

It also depends if the XFX offer is still on: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18632342

Bought mine yesterday so it should still be good.

It would knock another £16 off the 290 price.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:05

Is the XFX a good card / brand? I know they do good PSU but not sure about GPU, some cards have overheating problems etc. is the XFX good?

Said in a review I just read that the VRM's get extremely hot, is this fixed?

Disco_P · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:09

I had an MSI Gaming R9 290, with their really good Twin Frozr Cooler. Card had no issues reaching 90C+ with the fans being very noticeably loud. And regardless of how good the cooler is, Hawaii produce stupid amounts of heat that after market cards will dump in your case.

I asked OcUK if I could take my 290 apart and they just asked for it back for DSR. I obliged and swore never to get another Hawaii card.

NirK said:
Damn the games are just download keys so wouldn't get £50 for them... If you get a game with a download key, can you download it, play it, then sell the key? Or once you have entered the key you cannot sell it again?

You cannot use the key then sell it on. As with most PC games, once activated it is tied to your account.

Gibbo · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:10

Podmonkey said:
It also depends if the XFX offer is still on: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18632342

Bought mine yesterday so it should still be good.

It would knock another £16 off the £290 price.

Yes the offer is on whilst we have stock.

So £199.99 initial buy price, then sell the games, be about £160 ish final cost, that is unbeatable as a 970/780Ti are £250-£300.

The 780Ti is the other gem, sell the Borderlands 2, Splintercell and pick your path code would bring that down to around £240 which for a 780Ti is incredible value as it hands down beats the 970 and 290 for performance.

humbug · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:13

Disco_P said:
I had an MSI Gaming R9 290, with their really good Twin Frozr Cooler. Card had no issues reaching 90C+ with the fans being very noticeably loud. And regardless of how good the cooler is, Hawaii produce stupid amounts of heat that after market cards will dump in your case.

I asked OcUK if I could take my 290 apart and they just asked for it back for DSR. I obliged and swore never to get another Hawaii card.

You cannot use the key then sell it on. As with most PC games, once activated it is tied to your account.

MSI Gaming Cards are riddled with cooling problems, Google them.

I use a Powercolor PCS+ R9 290 @ 1125/1400 (a 20% over reference overclock) it struggles to get to 70 after 3 hours of gaming with V-Sync off. thats also with custom quiet fan profile. at stock it barely breaks 60c+

I ran a 7870XT before it and that was notably hotter.

The thing is as cool as a cucumber, its also extremely powerful, especially with Mantle powering it. They are fantastic cards.