HI there
OK I have what some could argue the perfect review, a comparison of the Asus 290X DC2 compared to the Asus 290X reference card. Even better both of these cards use Elpida memory, so we can see if Asus's new mosfet controller for the memory helps to improve overclocking mileage. Plus of course we can see how the DC2 cooler compares to AMD's reference cooler.
First of all, a bit of eye candy:-
First Thoughts
OK first impressions are what a piece of engineering, the card is superbly put together, nothing feels cheap on this card at all, it is built like a Porsche or Mercedes in the graphics card world. The cooler is absolutely massive, particular in height compared to others and the included backplate looks great. So pretty excited to get this one fired up and in the machine.
The cooler, performance, noise levels etc
As stated previously the best most powerful cooler I've tested to date is the Sapphire Tri-X and I have to say the Asus DC2 is the only cooler so far that can match the Tri-X cooler, its performance is equal to the Sapphire with fans at 100%, it is also equal to the AMD reference cooler as well, infact better. But one big plus for the Asus is at 100% fan, the noise is still bearable, it is by no means quiet, but it does not sound like a hairdryer or hoover like the reference card does at 100%. The Sapphire is also pretty loud too, but again quieter than reference. Where the DC2 beats them all is that 50% fan speed you will still be below 90c in temperature and pretty much in silence, I am yet to see a cooler as efficient as the DC2 with such low fan speeds, superb work Asus. The Asus DC2 is I'd say the quietest cooler out there.
I did some mining test, a great way to build up heat, here are the results between the Asus DC2 and reference, you can see the DC2 can maintain temperatures at half the noise level.
The backplate also works very well, it does not heatsoak at all and is clearly helping remove heat from the card, so another thumbs up there.
Overclocking
On the core this card was not particular fond of voltage like my reference card with the air cooler, typically 1.35v was the optimal voltage for this card which could get the core to 1200MHz but with artefacts, 1170MHz was max artefact free core speed. Whereas my reference card which likes voltage right upto 1.41v is happy to push to around 1200MHz core artefact fee and on towards 1220ish for benching. This is simply down to the silicon lottery though and nothing to do with the card/PCB designs.
Now lets talk memory overclocking, my reference card has Elpida memory, which is know to not clock quite as good as SK-Hynix memory, it will achieve 6200Mhz before I get the famous black screens in gaming, benching etc. Now the Asus DC2 has a new power design for the memory, mosfet moving away from AMD's Direfet, I was dubious about this move by Asus as AMD's Direfet is premium kit. So this DC2 card is also equipped with Elpida memory but more impressively the card was happy to run black screen free without any issues at 6600MHz, I even had it bench stable at 6800MHz and it even tried to bench at 7000MHz. This I have never seen from an Elpida card previously!
So was it the mosfet improving the overclock, or was it just lucky to get some decent clocking Elpida, or did maybe Asus just increase the voltage to the memory on the DC2. What I'd really like to see is a SK-Hynix DC2 equipped card to see if 7000-7400MHz would be possible, something I shall keep my eyes open for on incoming stock.
Right now it does look like Asus mosfet is a better solution to AMD's but to be 100% on this we need to see more reviews and more results from end-users to see if the Asus DC2 is taking Elpida RAM further than AMD reference cards could.
The cooler also had no issues with handling the card overclocked with lots of voltage and was still able to remain very quiet whilst gaming and not so bad under mining, though be warned for mining you should always run at stock speeds or slower for best performance.
Benchmark Results
Crypto-Mining - Asus DC2 with 100% fan which is not that loud
Crypto-Mining - Asus reference with 100% fan, stupidly LOUD!
Crypto-Mining - Asus reference with 55% fan, still louder than Asus DC2 fan at 100%
What does this tell you? Well it tells you the DC2 cooler is bloody excellent, its vastly quieter than reference cooler but also far more powerful. For everyones info I can reduce the DC2 fan speed down to 50% under mining and still remain under 90c, this is very close to being very quiet indeed. The reference card will over-heat with anything less than 55% which is louder than the DC2 fan at 100%.
In short the DC2 cooler is not only extremely efficient due to superb fans, but its cooler is also very powerful as well.
Heaven stock results Reference VS DC2
Heaven OC Results (Reference @ 1200/6200 VS DC2 @ 1200/6500)
You can see the DC2 card is a few FPS faster at stock, simply because it comes at higher clock speeds out of the box. Overclocked the DC2 still has a small lead over the reference due to a 300MHz superior memory overclock, but at 1080P it only gives a marginal improvement in performance. Overclocking in general gives very good gains on both cards and I'd recommend a gaming overclock on the DC2 of 1100-1150MHz core and 6000MHz memory, for a decent 10% or so performance boost.
Conclusion
+ One of the best custom coolers on the market, largest heatsink, powerful quiet fans, pretty much unbeatable, only really matched by Sapphires Tri-X cooler.
+ Near silent running, even when gaming!
+ Very cool running, idles around 40c and typical load 60-70c
+ Looks superb!
+ Hotwire function for elite overclockers, we shall test this in the future.
+ Ability to pick your own colour scheme (Red or Gold)
+ Power connector LEDs
+ Great out the box performance
+ Great for mining in multiple card configurations as the cards can cool themselves OK even when close to each other.
+ A great card for crossfire!
- Expensive
- Elpida memory
- Good mining performance, but not excellent, due to Elpida memory
Out of all the 290X out there, if you can stretch your budget to meet the price, its one of the best out there, especially if you want both a cool and quiet card when gaming. If your benchmarking or mining, the Sapphire and MSI are better due to Hynix memory, though they don't guarantee as such, if Asus had Hynix it would be the perfect card.
Overall 8/10 (would be 10/10 if it was £50 less and had Hynix RAM)
Any questions, just ask!
OK I have what some could argue the perfect review, a comparison of the Asus 290X DC2 compared to the Asus 290X reference card. Even better both of these cards use Elpida memory, so we can see if Asus's new mosfet controller for the memory helps to improve overclocking mileage. Plus of course we can see how the DC2 cooler compares to AMD's reference cooler.
First of all, a bit of eye candy:-
First Thoughts
OK first impressions are what a piece of engineering, the card is superbly put together, nothing feels cheap on this card at all, it is built like a Porsche or Mercedes in the graphics card world. The cooler is absolutely massive, particular in height compared to others and the included backplate looks great. So pretty excited to get this one fired up and in the machine.
The cooler, performance, noise levels etc
As stated previously the best most powerful cooler I've tested to date is the Sapphire Tri-X and I have to say the Asus DC2 is the only cooler so far that can match the Tri-X cooler, its performance is equal to the Sapphire with fans at 100%, it is also equal to the AMD reference cooler as well, infact better. But one big plus for the Asus is at 100% fan, the noise is still bearable, it is by no means quiet, but it does not sound like a hairdryer or hoover like the reference card does at 100%. The Sapphire is also pretty loud too, but again quieter than reference. Where the DC2 beats them all is that 50% fan speed you will still be below 90c in temperature and pretty much in silence, I am yet to see a cooler as efficient as the DC2 with such low fan speeds, superb work Asus. The Asus DC2 is I'd say the quietest cooler out there.
I did some mining test, a great way to build up heat, here are the results between the Asus DC2 and reference, you can see the DC2 can maintain temperatures at half the noise level.
The backplate also works very well, it does not heatsoak at all and is clearly helping remove heat from the card, so another thumbs up there.
Overclocking
On the core this card was not particular fond of voltage like my reference card with the air cooler, typically 1.35v was the optimal voltage for this card which could get the core to 1200MHz but with artefacts, 1170MHz was max artefact free core speed. Whereas my reference card which likes voltage right upto 1.41v is happy to push to around 1200MHz core artefact fee and on towards 1220ish for benching. This is simply down to the silicon lottery though and nothing to do with the card/PCB designs.
Now lets talk memory overclocking, my reference card has Elpida memory, which is know to not clock quite as good as SK-Hynix memory, it will achieve 6200Mhz before I get the famous black screens in gaming, benching etc. Now the Asus DC2 has a new power design for the memory, mosfet moving away from AMD's Direfet, I was dubious about this move by Asus as AMD's Direfet is premium kit. So this DC2 card is also equipped with Elpida memory but more impressively the card was happy to run black screen free without any issues at 6600MHz, I even had it bench stable at 6800MHz and it even tried to bench at 7000MHz. This I have never seen from an Elpida card previously!
So was it the mosfet improving the overclock, or was it just lucky to get some decent clocking Elpida, or did maybe Asus just increase the voltage to the memory on the DC2. What I'd really like to see is a SK-Hynix DC2 equipped card to see if 7000-7400MHz would be possible, something I shall keep my eyes open for on incoming stock.
Right now it does look like Asus mosfet is a better solution to AMD's but to be 100% on this we need to see more reviews and more results from end-users to see if the Asus DC2 is taking Elpida RAM further than AMD reference cards could.
The cooler also had no issues with handling the card overclocked with lots of voltage and was still able to remain very quiet whilst gaming and not so bad under mining, though be warned for mining you should always run at stock speeds or slower for best performance.
Benchmark Results
Crypto-Mining - Asus DC2 with 100% fan which is not that loud
Crypto-Mining - Asus reference with 100% fan, stupidly LOUD!
Crypto-Mining - Asus reference with 55% fan, still louder than Asus DC2 fan at 100%
What does this tell you? Well it tells you the DC2 cooler is bloody excellent, its vastly quieter than reference cooler but also far more powerful. For everyones info I can reduce the DC2 fan speed down to 50% under mining and still remain under 90c, this is very close to being very quiet indeed. The reference card will over-heat with anything less than 55% which is louder than the DC2 fan at 100%.
In short the DC2 cooler is not only extremely efficient due to superb fans, but its cooler is also very powerful as well.
Heaven stock results Reference VS DC2
Heaven OC Results (Reference @ 1200/6200 VS DC2 @ 1200/6500)
You can see the DC2 card is a few FPS faster at stock, simply because it comes at higher clock speeds out of the box. Overclocked the DC2 still has a small lead over the reference due to a 300MHz superior memory overclock, but at 1080P it only gives a marginal improvement in performance. Overclocking in general gives very good gains on both cards and I'd recommend a gaming overclock on the DC2 of 1100-1150MHz core and 6000MHz memory, for a decent 10% or so performance boost.
Conclusion
+ One of the best custom coolers on the market, largest heatsink, powerful quiet fans, pretty much unbeatable, only really matched by Sapphires Tri-X cooler.
+ Near silent running, even when gaming!
+ Very cool running, idles around 40c and typical load 60-70c
+ Looks superb!
+ Hotwire function for elite overclockers, we shall test this in the future.
+ Ability to pick your own colour scheme (Red or Gold)
+ Power connector LEDs
+ Great out the box performance
+ Great for mining in multiple card configurations as the cards can cool themselves OK even when close to each other.
+ A great card for crossfire!
- Expensive
- Elpida memory
- Good mining performance, but not excellent, due to Elpida memory
Out of all the 290X out there, if you can stretch your budget to meet the price, its one of the best out there, especially if you want both a cool and quiet card when gaming. If your benchmarking or mining, the Sapphire and MSI are better due to Hynix memory, though they don't guarantee as such, if Asus had Hynix it would be the perfect card.
Overall 8/10 (would be 10/10 if it was £50 less and had Hynix RAM)
Any questions, just ask!
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