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** R9 290X Watercooling Thread **

JBod

JBod

JBod

Soldato
Joined
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Santa Monica, California
Thread title has stars and everything. So I worked hard this afternoon and watercooled my R9 290X. I have some initial results which I think are promising.

Firstly my setup, triple EK rad, XSPC bayres + pump, EK CPU block and EK GPU only block.... yes GPU only. I know a friend has already called me a loon for trying this. The loop goes rad -> cpu -> gpu -> bayres/pump.

Here is a picture with a water block:

wc-290x.jpg


I have added Alpenföhn heatsinks to everything that was cooled by the reference heatsink. No pictures of that yet - was too eager to test! Due to having a massive Xigmatek Elysium case there is a nice 200mm side fan blowing directly onto the card with plenty of other cool airflow from other various fans.

So quick test with initial results, I played some BF3 for a while and then dropped to window mode to take this screen shot:

bf3-wc-290x.png

Initial results are very promising! Next up is to get the ASUS bios on it and shove more volts up its backside.

It is a while since I have forayed into this area, what is the best tool to up the volts and clocks for a 290X?
 
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I would wait for MSI Afterburner to be updated, no need to flash the BIOS then....

In fact they're might be a new beta release that adds voltage support for the 290X
 
Triple rad and core only block at stock clocks? That temp seems high IMO.

Which rad and fans, and what's the fan speed? Nice work though BTW, no messing about. Straight in, no kissin! :D
 
wolvers said:
Triple rad and core only block at stock clocks? That temp seems high IMO.

Which rad and fans, and what's the fan speed? Nice work though BTW, no messing about. Straight in, no kissin! :D
Click to expand...

As almighty15 said it is doing the CPU as well. I can't remember which EK triple rad I bought it a year or two ago. Also I need to clean some dust off it :) I am using 3x Scythes I seem the recall.
 
JBod said:
I have added Alpenföhn heatsinks to everything that was cooled by the reference heatsink. No pictures of that yet - was too eager to test! Due to having a massive Xigmatek Elysium case there is a nice 240mm side fan blowing directly onto the card with plenty of other cool airflow from other various fans.
Click to expand...

Addicted said:
No cooling at all on vrms or memory? That is mental.
Click to expand...

TL,DR?
 
Scramz said:
I want a block for mine, what difference would a full block make over this?
Click to expand...

As others have said, its compatibility is exclusive to 290x and 290 reference cards only. It also provides active cooling to VRMs and RAM. Active MOSFET cooling would definitely not go unnoticed on a power muncher like this.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
As others have said, its compatibility is exclusive to 290x and 290 reference cards only. It also provides active cooling to VRMs and RAM. Active MOSFET cooling would definitely not go unnoticed on a power muncher like this.
Click to expand...

Thanks :D A full block it will be then
 
wolvers said:
Triple rad and core only block at stock clocks? That temp seems high IMO.

Which rad and fans, and what's the fan speed? Nice work though BTW, no messing about. Straight in, no kissin! :D
Click to expand...

Nah temps are fine considering it is cooling cpu as well. Very encouraging I would say. Only thing with that set-up is the VRM temps I would imagine will be a good 20-30c hotter than the core which might lead to stability issues if you push the overclock.

I presume you are intending to slap a full cover block on?
 
Five.Stars said:
Nah temps are fine considering it is cooling cpu as well. Very encouraging I would say. Only thing with that set-up is the VRM temps I would imagine will be a good 20-30c hotter than the core which might lead to stability issues if you push the overclock.

I presume you are intending to slap a full cover block on?
Click to expand...

Yea, depending how it goes.

My loonacy of years past:

I did that 3 days after the release of the NVidia 6800 Ultra - home made shim yo... which I now realise is almost 10 years ago... I feel old.


Edit: 3DMark 11 Basic/default bench at 1100 core and 1250 mem showed zero artifacts all the way through so I am confident that at stock at least the heatsink'd chips are not overheating. GPU temp never went above 52c. In fact touching each of the heatsinks during the bench showed them nothing other than warm to the touch*

* Worth noting that many years ago I seared the finger print off my index finger by doing the same thing with a glowing red 486 DX 2 66 chip.
 
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That's not encouraging at all for stock running with water cooling!

The 290x is a hot running core that's a bit inefficient, simple as that.
 
wolvers said:
That's not encouraging at all for stock running with water cooling!

The 290x is a hot running core that's a bit inefficient, simple as that.
Click to expand...

Mine is a mediocre water loop that has been running for about a year now. Holding 53c under full load on these GPUs pleases me, it leaves 40c headroom for added volts right? ;)
 
wolvers said:
That's not encouraging at all for stock running with water cooling!

The 290x is a hot running core that's a bit inefficient at getting the heat out, simple as that.
Click to expand...

:p
Actual arch efficiency of perf/power is yet to be properly seen imo
 
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