295X2 vs 290X heat dump level within case?

-Mike- · 3 Feb 2015 at 23:50

Bonjour said:
A pair of reference 290Xs with HG10 adapters and Corsair AIOs.

Initially there was a real pocket of hot air forming around the GPUs. I toyed with the idea of drilling an 80mm exhaust in the window but instead opted for the PCI exhaust, which works brilliantly.

How are your temperatures with the HG10? Also which corsair unit did you fit?

Bonjour · 3 Feb 2015 at 23:54

Both idle around 30. Under load, top card runs about 10 degrees hotter than the bottom at 40c/50c.

Both fitted with Corsair H55s. No doubt you'd get better temps with more meaty AIOs, but I just wanted to reduce the hair dryer noise needed to keep the cards below 80c with the reference coolers.

Smrtka · 3 Feb 2015 at 23:56

My 295x2 doesn't go over 68°C I've got the exhaust on the back of the case and 200mm fan up front pushing fresh air in also my aio CPU cooler pushes Air out up top. Look at this.
New mods to the card I've done just now

Also I would assume that 2x290 would produce much more static heat, just as a component being hot in general multiple by 2 and even the hot air is pushed out (with the reference cooler) still the card on its own generates heat... Not to say 295x2 doesn't tho...

Bonjour · 3 Feb 2015 at 23:58

Very nice. I need to sort out my PSU cables. Are they extensions or the standard PSU cables?

-Mike- · 4 Feb 2015 at 00:09

Bonjour said:
Both idle around 30. Under load, top card runs about 10 degrees hotter than the bottom at 40c/50c.

Both fitted with Corsair H55s. No doubt you'd get better temps with more meaty AIOs, but I just wanted to reduce the hair dryer noise needed to keep the cards below 80c with the reference coolers.

Have you clocked them at all? I've a h100 cooling my cpu at the minute but I could be tempted to put that to good use on the gfx card!

Bonjour · 4 Feb 2015 at 00:16

Well they're actually both 290s, flashed with 290x bios and additional shaders unlocked, so their clocks of 1030/1250 are already overclocks from stock. I could have a go at pushing the cores further (tried them at 1100 for a quick bench without any issues), though I doubt the Elpida memory will budge at all.

Smrtka · 4 Feb 2015 at 07:17

Bonjour said:
Very nice. I need to sort out my PSU cables. Are they extensions or the standard PSU cables?

Those are standard psu cable mate

old gamer · 4 Feb 2015 at 07:56

having just had a play about with a pair sapphire 290 tri x i did notice a bit of heat build up inside the case although the cards were not to bad, the top card hittinf 77c which is pretty good, when i get chance i will remove the pci slot covers and getto fit a fan to extract heat

Smrtka · 4 Feb 2015 at 10:04

old gamer said:
having just had a play about with a pair sapphire 290 tri x i did notice a bit of heat build up inside the case although the cards were not to bad, the top card hittinf 77c which is pretty good, when i get chance i will remove the pci slot covers and getto fit a fan to extract heat

I assume the temp is on heavy load ?

old gamer · 4 Feb 2015 at 10:09

Smrtka said:
I assume the temp is on heavy load ?

i got the temps running heaven benchmark, quite pleased with the tri x coolers, i have three fans on the top of the case but im thinking if i can extract the warm air between the cards out of the pci slots this should help any summer temps

Bonjour · 4 Feb 2015 at 10:11

It's ideal, as long as you don't mind a PCI exhaust fan or two. Makes the case look a little less tidy.

old gamer · 4 Feb 2015 at 10:15

Bonjour said:
It's ideal, as long as you don't mind a PCI exhaust fan or two. Makes the case look a little less tidy.

im thinking about strapping it to the outside so i wont even see it

Smrtka · 4 Feb 2015 at 10:21

old gamer said:
i got the temps running heaven benchmark, quite pleased with the tri x coolers, i have three fans on the top of the case but im thinking if i can extract the warm air between the cards out of the pci slots this should help any summer temps

If you can put a fan Onto a bottom front panel to make sure fresh air comes blasting towards the cards or from the bottom of the case ?
As if you have fans up top the air circulation may just rotate the warm air inside the case. Can you post a picture of your case and the fan rotation ?

old gamer · 4 Feb 2015 at 10:29

i have a corsair 800d and it does have a fan blowing air upwards below the cards, ive also moded the side panel and fitted a 200mm fan

marsha11 · 4 Feb 2015 at 14:45

Im looking at crossfire 290x prob MSI Twin Frozr cards. My current case is the Zalman Z11 plus.

http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=476

Is this going to be adequate for this cards. It loaded with fans and ive had no issues with SLI 970's. (I know they run a lot cooler)

Divine Pain · 4 Feb 2015 at 16:24

I wouldnt recommend 2x 290x in CF unless its either stock reference cards, going water cooling or youve got some macho fan cooling/case solution.

I did have 2 Lightnings in CF, the bottom lightning was fine at 70ish c, but the top one was way up there in the high 80s. Whenever it got to 88 the game would crash to desktop everytime. This was all in a 760t btw.

I would recommend the 295x2 as a better solution to 2x 290x for crossfire imo.

Mal X · 4 Feb 2015 at 16:36

Divine Pain said:
I wouldnt recommend 2x 290x in CF unless its either stock reference cards, going water cooling or youve got some macho fan cooling/case solution.

I did have 2 Lightnings in CF, the bottom lightning was fine at 70ish c, but the top one was way up there in the high 80s. Whenever it got to 88 the game would crash to desktop everytime. This was all in a 760t btw.

I would recommend the 295x2 as a better solution to 2x 290x for crossfire imo.

we'd better remember this with regards to the 380X Crossfire, because with 300W it'll deffo be about the same.

Legend · 4 Feb 2015 at 16:44

Divine Pain said:
I wouldnt recommend 2x 290x in CF unless its either stock reference cards, going water cooling or youve got some macho fan cooling/case solution.

I did have 2 Lightnings in CF, the bottom lightning was fine at 70ish c, but the top one was way up there in the high 80s. Whenever it got to 88 the game would crash to desktop everytime. This was all in a 760t btw.

I would recommend the 295x2 as a better solution to 2x 290x for crossfire imo.

That doesn't sound good at all, but I can only assume yours is one of the more isolated cases, as if everyone with CF suffered with this, we'd have a similar scandal to the 970 one lol!

Bonjour · 4 Feb 2015 at 16:50

I can confirm that the top card in a CF setup runs a good bit warmer than the lower card.

MrMD · 4 Feb 2015 at 17:02

marsha11 said:
Im looking at crossfire 290x prob MSI Twin Frozr cards. My current case is the Zalman Z11 plus.

http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=476

Is this going to be adequate for this cards. It loaded with fans and ive had no issues with SLI 970's. (I know they run a lot cooler)

Have you removed the hard drive bays or something for better airflow?

I just switched out from a z11 as i was pretty certain Sli/cf would have been a temperature nightmare in that case.
I couldnt use the bottom intake as my PSU covered the slot partially,I did mount a 120mm fan in the ODD tho with zipties however.Case temp would still go up quite a lot with just a single card under load.

A pair of 290x's would deffo be pushing it IMO