R9 290X Owners Thread

eyetrip · 1 Feb 2015 at 21:37

How you guys finding mantle and bf4?

savagesam117 · 1 Feb 2015 at 21:39

Well i turned it on, i don't really know what it does but it does ultra and it's perfect. I do not get any stutter, fps drops.

Care to share some light on what it does?

Kaapstad · 1 Feb 2015 at 21:49

eyetrip said:
How you guys finding mantle and bf4?

Greatly improved but the best one to ask is Matt.

savagesam117 · 1 Feb 2015 at 21:55

What have you guys got your cards overclocked to?

Kaapstad · 1 Feb 2015 at 21:55

savagesam117 said:
My 290X for the honor roll.

But the colour clash though!
Now to Overclock her

Thanks for recommending AMD, Matt, I'm very happy with my choice but now i want to add another, this one looks lonely

Oh and a shiny new triple 4K monitor set up

And on the "Roll of Honour".

Stuen4y · 1 Feb 2015 at 22:19

Mike19 said:
Do I need to uninstall my 5850 drivers next week or is the package for the 290x the same?

Use DDU and remove the drivers for install of a new card. The PC will shut down. Swap cards and install the 14.12 drivers after you boot into Windows. I've had dead Windows installations and had to reinstall from not removing the drivers before swapping cards. Once it happened from a 7970 to a 280X so definitely get rid of all the drivers beforehand.

savagesam117 said:
My 290X for the honor roll.

But the colour clash though!
Now to Overclock her

It can always be better but at least mine is sort of matching the system.

Just need to get a spray paint and make all the fans black and yellow and it will be perfect.

I can't explain how much I wanted a lightning card ever since I got the MPower... And the chance that the good ol' HX is yellow, priceless.

savagesam117 · 1 Feb 2015 at 22:29

Stuen4y said:
It can always be better but at least mine is sort of matching the system.

Just need to get a spray paint and make all the fans black and yellow and it will be perfect. I can't explain how much I wanted a lightning card ever since I got the MPower... And the chance that the good ol' HX is yellow, priceless.

Indeed, that is quite pretty. It's a beast of a card, I was amazed of the size when i opened the box.

Kinda wish i waited for the asus one released on the 6th but I'm too impatient for that and no one can see it anyway even though it does have a window it sits facing my desk. When i watercool it all that will be coming off anyway im guessing from what i've seen of other peoples

dessimpson · 1 Feb 2015 at 22:29

Quick question. I know the 290x's run quite hot.
I've got 4 fans on the side of my case (corsair 600t).
Should I have them pointing in or out of the case?
I've currently got them pointing inwards with my 970's but I'm unsure if this is the right way to go about it.

savagesam117 · 1 Feb 2015 at 22:34

dessimpson said:
Quick question. I know the 290x's run quite hot.
I've got 4 fans on the side of my case (corsair 600t).
Should I have them pointing in or out of the case?
I've currently got them pointing inwards with my 970's but I'm unsure if this is the right way to go about it.

It depends on whether your other fans are intakes or exhausts.

You could use front and side as intakes then rear and top as exhausts?

dessimpson · 1 Feb 2015 at 22:39

savagesam117 said:
It depends on whether your other fans are intakes or exhausts.

You could use front and side as intakes then rear and top as exhausts?

That's how it is currently.
There's a 240mm intake at the front. A 240 exhaust at the top. And I've two 120's on the H60 radiator exhuasting to the rear.
I'll keep it as is at first and monitor the temps. Might have to bite the bullet and get a better case.

savagesam117 · 1 Feb 2015 at 22:44

I've got one 120mm rear fan, one 120mm top, and one 120mm front.
At max load i got a max temp of 70 degrees. I've got a really cheap Zalman case, it was like £30.

dessimpson · 1 Feb 2015 at 22:59

I game with headphones on, so turning up the fans has never been an issue for me.
My 7990 used to run at about 70-75 degrees but I had two of the side fans in each direction.

savagesam117 · 1 Feb 2015 at 23:06

dessimpson said:
I game with headphones on, so turning up the fans has never been an issue for me.
My 7990 used to run at about 70-75 degrees but I had two of the side fans in each direction.

Yeah same for me, i haven't felt the need to do so yet. Temps seem to be alright.

I don't have a clue what my old card ran at, i didn't even care it was so bad haha.

I'd leave it for the time being, will probably be alright, mine is silent during normal usage, only when i turn on a game the GPU decides to wake up!

Kaapstad · 1 Feb 2015 at 23:33

Stuen4y said:
Use DDU and remove the drivers for install of a new card. The PC will shut down. Swap cards and install the 14.12 drivers after you boot into Windows. I've had dead Windows installations and had to reinstall from not removing the drivers before swapping cards. Once it happened from a 7970 to a 280X so definitely get rid of all the drivers beforehand.

It can always be better but at least mine is sort of matching the system.

Just need to get a spray paint and make all the fans black and yellow and it will be perfect. I can't explain how much I wanted a lightning card ever since I got the MPower... And the chance that the good ol' HX is yellow, priceless.

And on the "Roll of Honour".

chef-borjan · 2 Feb 2015 at 11:26

Sorry I know this probably comes up all the time, but hows the 8GB 290X at 1440p? Single card only... I have a mITX case. With talk of sub £300 as a potential prices point, I'm sorta tempted to swap the 970 I have...

Legend · 2 Feb 2015 at 11:30

chef-borjan said:
Sorry I know this probably comes up all the time, but hows the 8GB 290X at 1440p? Single card only... I have a mITX case. With talk of sub £300 as a potential prices point, I'm sorta tempted to swap the 970 I have...

From what I've been told and read, for a single card, 8GB is not going to be fully utilised, as you'll run out of GPU grunt beforehand, so paying the premium for 8GB is not worth it, supposedly. But for x2 cards it's great. Otherwise, the 4GB will suffice. I have not tried either myself though (I have a 970) or seen a head to head, so perhaps someone who has seen a benchmark can comment.

chef-borjan · 2 Feb 2015 at 11:40

Legend said:
From what I've been told and read, for a single card, 8GB is not going to be fully utilised, as you'll run out of GPU grunt beforehand, so paying the premium for 8GB is not worth it, supposedly. But for x2 cards it's great. Otherwise, the 4GB will suffice. I have not tried either myself though (I have a 970) or seen a head to head, so perhaps someone who has seen a benchmark can comment.

Thanks, that is sort of what I am thinking. In review benches, I've sen them run at 1080p then 'dial a few settings down' to go higher.

Boomstick777 · 2 Feb 2015 at 13:00

Legend said:
From what I've been told and read, for a single card, 8GB is not going to be fully utilised, as you'll run out of GPU grunt beforehand, so paying the premium for 8GB is not worth it, supposedly. But for x2 cards it's great. Otherwise, the 4GB will suffice. I have not tried either myself though (I have a 970) or seen a head to head, so perhaps someone who has seen a benchmark can comment.

chef-borjan said:
Thanks, that is sort of what I am thinking. In review benches, I've sen them run at 1080p then 'dial a few settings down' to go higher.

There are a few games already that use more than 4GB at 1080P, so if you're planning on keeping a GPU for a while or moving up to 1440P or higher, more than 4GB makes a lot of sense. Seeing as 8GB cards can be had for £30 - £40 more than 4GB I think it's worth getting, the small extra cost to have room in the tank.

ChrisD. · 2 Feb 2015 at 13:11

If I were buying now, I'd be getting 8GB for future proofing. As pointed out above, it's not an awful lot of money extra.

Chipper500 · 2 Feb 2015 at 13:37

Guys think im going to purchase the "MSI Radeon R9 290X LE Lightning Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card" sometime this wk with my new rig, any advice for me before i purchase it?

Thanks!