R9 290

Geeman1979 · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:13

Gibbo said:
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.

The KFA2 GeForce GTX 780's not a bad offer either with the free games bundle. Would look even better around the 220 mark.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:20

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.

Was that overclocked? In review I read it was about 75c or something for the MSI 290, I was thinking of leaving it at stock clocks and undervolting it a bit to stop the heat etc.

shankly1985 · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:21

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.

Would seem your 290 had a hardware issue then.

This my two, 1 hour and 30 mins BF4 and 1 hour Alien... This with Vsync off and frame rate allowed to run upto 200fps.. lock that down to 120fps and temps will drop much lower..

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:23

So if you register on XFX site do you get a LIFETIME WARRANTY on the 290 DD ?! You can keep sending the card back for repairs for the rest of your life if you want to ?!

humbug · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:24

shankly1985 said:
Would seem your 290 had a hardware issue then.

This my two, 1 hour and 30 mins BF4 and 1 hour Alien... This with Vsync off and frame rate allowed to run upto 200fps.. lock that down to 120fps and temps will drop much lower..

Some of the MSI Gaming cards on both the AMD and Nvidia side had some serious cooling faults, not all, but quite a few of them were simply broken, thats the problem.

Not bad coolers when they are working as they should

NirK said:
So if you register on XFX site do you get a LIFETIME WARRANTY on the 290 DD ?! You can keep sending the card back for repairs for the rest of your life if you want to ?!

Don't know, read the small print?

thefogo · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:24

NirK said:
So if you register on XFX site do you get a LIFETIME WARRANTY on the 290 DD ?! You can keep sending the card back for repairs for the rest of your life if you want to ?!

I don't think they offer lifetime warranty in Europe.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:24

shankly1985 said:
Would seem your 290 had a hardware issue then.

This my two, 1 hour and 30 mins BF4 and 1 hour Alien... This with Vsync off and frame rate allowed to run upto 200fps.. lock that down to 120fps and temps will drop much lower..

What card is that? I want to know which is the coolest / best 290, with no broken fans or overheating VRM's etc.

thefogo · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:26

What about the 290 Vapor-X? Or is that outside your budget?

humbug · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:28

thefogo said:
What about the 290 Vapor-X? Or is that outside your budget?

That, and the Powercolor PCS+ second, provided he has the room for its 3 slot and 300mm length.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-344-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

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

tommybhoy · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:28

I would be looking out with MSI at the moment, Nvidia/AMD, doesn't matter, it looks like it's lucky bag time whether you get a good one or a stinker.

Ayahuasca · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:29

If you can stretch get the 780ti Gibbo listed above, if not then the 290 Vapor-X or Powercolour PCS+

If I recall correctly Powercolour put glue on the chokes to all but eradicate coil whine as well.

shankly1985 · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:32

NirK said:
What card is that? I want to know which is the coolest / best 290, with no broken fans or overheating VRM's etc.

That's two Msi 290 Gaming Edition

humbug · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:33

Ayahuasca said:
If you can stretch get the 780ti Gibbo listed above, if not then the 290 Vapor-X or Powercolour PCS+

If I recall correctly Powercolour put glue on the chokes to all but eradicate coil whine as well.

Confirm. a better pic of that and its muuuaaassive VRM cooler, which works wonders.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:36

For my budget (which is basically whichever 290 is cheapest, I think all I could get would be the XFX DD one or the MSI gaming. There might be some others about but does anyone know what the best 290's are? Usually its asus and gigabyte but they are also more expensive. What about the MSI 290 gaming?

I was planning on getting a 280x but now that some 290's are actually cheaper than the 280x's it would be silly to get a 280x, I just want one that is not loud, has good cooling, doesn't have overheating VRM's and is well built.

humbug · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:38

NirK said:
For my budget (which is basically whichever 290 is cheapest, I think all I could get would be the XFX DD one or the MSI gaming. There might be some others about but does anyone know what the best 290's are? Usually its asus and gigabyte but they are also more expensive. What about the MSI 290 gaming?

What case do you have?

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:45

humbug said:
What case do you have?

Funny you ask because I just got it delivered today, its a fractal R4 with 3 intakes and 2 exhausts fitted, also removed the HD cage so it should be good enough, It has 3 x bequiet 140mm fans and 2 x scythe slipstream 1300rpm so that should be good enough.

humbug · 5 Nov 2014 at 12:56

NirK said:
Funny you ask because I just got it delivered today, its a fractal R4 with 3 intakes and 2 exhausts fitted, also removed the HD cage so it should be good enough, It has 3 x bequiet 140mm fans and 2 x scythe slipstream 1300rpm so that should be good enough.

Not bad at all, do take the top rack out, you will get better airflow, i even removed the unremovable bottom rack out of my HAF 912+

I have 200m intake and top fan, 120mm exaust which is also the CPU Cooling RAD, and a 120mm side fan.

IMO the Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB is the best card for its money, actually its the second best 290, only to the Vapour-X.

It has a large VRM cooler, its the only card with glued Coils to stop whining, the cooler is excellent, it has a nice and solid back plate, its one of the best cards there is.

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 13:04

humbug said:
Not bad at all, do take the top rack out, you will get better airflow, i even removed the unremovable bottom rack out of my HAF 912+

I have 200m intake and top fan, 120mm exaust which is also the CPU Cooling RAD, and a 120mm side fan.

IMO the Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB is the best card for its money, actually its the second best 290, only to the Vapour-X.

It has a large VRM cooler, its the only card with glued Coils to stop whining, the cooler is excellent, it has a nice and solid back plate, its one of the best cards there is.

Whats powercolour like? I have not read much about them, do they use good caps etc. like asus and gigabyte? Looks good though maybe I will get that one, also is it loud?

NirK · 5 Nov 2014 at 13:22

SAPPHIRE 4GB RADEON R9 290 TRI-X OC

Is this the best 290 available?

shankly1985 · 5 Nov 2014 at 13:24

NirK said:
SAPPHIRE 4GB RADEON R9 290 TRI-X OC

Is this the best 290 available?

If this was out at the time of me buying I probably would bought this GPU.