MSI R9 290 temp check

HouR · 2 Mar 2014 at 21:27

Hi guys,

Been having a look through the various forum threads and I don't know what to think of my new MSI R9 290.

Performance is great after coming from 2x5770 however the temperature seems to be quite high for this card.

Below shows my temps after 5 minutes of the letting Heaven test cycle.

From what I have read the temps do seem high especially with the card fan at 79% but wanted other opinions.

I have included everything I can think you guys might need to give an informed opinion.

I have tried the side fan being an exhaust but the temp creeps higher with that setup.

Cheers,

ash

OvEr_KiLL · 2 Mar 2014 at 21:34

similar setup to what i have, change the side fan to exhaust not intake!
try that..

triss · 2 Mar 2014 at 21:40

One Question what height is your side fan, I've noticed on a few rigs depending on where the side fan actually is it can
A cause turbulence that interferes with you GPU fans
B If its above your GPU it can sort of hold the hot air right there and not let it escape
^ both those were with fan blowing in
Actually have you tryed your side fan on Sucking the Hot air from your GPU Out? so it can cool quicker?

Steampunk · 2 Mar 2014 at 21:41

That is high. I have a very similar layout but I don't have a side fan, and only one fan in the top. I get 78 degrees with fans at 55 percent on Heaven/Valley, and that's with a small five percent overclock. Are your fans temp controlled and speed up when the case gets hot?

Try removing/reversing that side fan and see if the cooling improves.

HouR · 2 Mar 2014 at 21:47

Ok cool - i'll give it a go without the side fan and then reverse it again.
Fans are controlled by a bay controller and when that test was done were all at 100%

almighty15 · 2 Mar 2014 at 21:55

Can you rotate your CPU cooler to pull heat say from the GPU?

At the cost of CPU temp.

HouR · 2 Mar 2014 at 22:15

Side fan as an exhaust:

Side fan removed:

Seems no fan on the side is better here...

Wizzfizz · 2 Mar 2014 at 22:20

79% Fan speed is like loud!

Steampunk · 2 Mar 2014 at 22:22

That still seems hot to me, with the fan having to spin far too much to keep it there. Maybe your heatsink isn't properly mounted.

HouR · 2 Mar 2014 at 22:33

Steampunk said:
That still seems hot to me, with the fan having to spin far too much to keep it there. Maybe your heatsink isn't properly mounted.

This is what I'm starting to think. Its got the good memory so don't really want to RMA it in case I get one with the other stuff.
Wonder if overclockers would reseat it for me under warranty rather than replacing it.

Even with 100% (well 96% in everything apart from AB) the temp still wont come down.

The cards 30 degrees hotter than anything else in my case

cwgk91 · 2 Mar 2014 at 23:03

I found having a side fan intake was much better for my gaming edition 290x, lowered temps by 6C compared to having it as an exhaust.

How many intakes do you have? In the pic I can only see the front fan and your side fan, while you have three exhausts. Generally want more intakes than exhausts to create a positive pressure, otherwise your gfx may not be able to intake enough air to cool itself

rolypolyman · 3 Mar 2014 at 00:10

Hi, I only have 2X intake (1 front/1 bottom) and 3X exhaust (1rear/2 Top) although I do have the H100 with 2X120 fans on the rad on the top of my case exhausting(counted in the 3X exhaust) I have the same card as OP. My airflow seems perfectly fine and running Heaven4 produces 75c @ 53%fan and is quiet. I have no side fan.

andyrp2001 · 3 Mar 2014 at 06:20

One of the fans stuck / not spinning?

HouR · 3 Mar 2014 at 11:31

rolypolyman - This is making me worried - My airflow cant be that bad can it...

andyrp2001 - Both fans are spinning and it certainly makes some noise when the temp goes up so seems to be working as expected.

Think I'm going to raise a support ticket with overclockers and see what they say.

Cheers for the help all

HouR · 4 Mar 2014 at 19:49

Well got some interesting info from the webnote:

"are your mining on the GPU or gaming?

The 290 cards run hot and are unstable, if you are gaming I would advise you have refund and purchase a nvidia card."

Dont really know what to do with that but seems the card with be RMA/returned.

TBH I want a card I can just stick in and play games so would I be better with a 780?
Looking at this one below:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-014-IN&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

mmj_uk · 4 Mar 2014 at 20:24

Why not get one with the Titan blower and then you don't have to worry about warm air building up inside the case? there's two less fans to go wrong as well. The trouble with half of the aftermarket coolers nowadays is that vendors are using them as a cost cutting exercise and just overloading them with multiple fans, the Titan blower from NVidia screams quality.

Rasch · 4 Mar 2014 at 20:30

Just touch the fins on the card at the max temp if they aint hot its a bad mount and the heat aint transfering from the gpu to the heatsink

HouR · 4 Mar 2014 at 21:21

The fins don't seem that hot and the air coming out of the fans doesn't seem overly hot but the backplate is burning hot when at load.
Getting tired of playing around with it now.

RMA it is.

Steampunk · 4 Mar 2014 at 21:31

HouR said:
The fins don't seem that hot and the air coming out of the fans doesn't seem overly hot but the backplate is burning hot when at load.
Getting tired of playing around with it now.

RMA it is.

The backplate getting hot is normal, but you should be able to touch the edge of the main fins at load and feel them also to be quite hot. Even the corner by the power leads gets surprisingly hot at Heaven/Valley loading.

If you're not feeling heat at the fins, then that means there's poor contact between the GPU and the heatsink, so you should RMA.

nitram100 · 4 Mar 2014 at 21:44

RMA it, that is too hot.

My 290 Gaming Edition in a cheap enermax ostrog case didn't go above 75c with 60% fan. It now sits at 65c in a Bitfenix Outlaw, which is the best case for cards that blow heat into the case. The Outlaw flips the motherboard so your MSI 290 fans are facing 2 x 120mm fans on top of the case blowing cool air right into it. If I put my refresh rate to 60hz it will often stay around 58c at 60% fan.