Hey all

I was having problems with my awesome 290 tri-x black screening, now it is dead, no signal. Looking at some online reviews I seem to have my symptoms replicated in quite a few places (Random black screen crashes at idle or under load, then eventually the card not giving out a signal ever again).

Totally gutted as the performance was phenomenal coming from my 5850.

Anyways, I am a little worried about getting that same card again, what would I be looking at paying for a card by Nvidia that would perform like the card i'm now returning? Not too well up with Nvidia at the moment.

Also what is the next best R9 290 as apposed to the Sapphire tri-x? It seemed to get the best reviews for quietness (which I can attest to) and "Bang for Buck".

Cheers guys.

PCS+ is on par with the Tri-X from what I've read, though I haven't had a Tri-X personally.
The only problem for me was the backplate made it difficult to take the card out.

My 290 Tri-x has done exactly the same although I had no black screens. It just worked perfect and then whilst browsing this forum the screen went black and that was it dead.

@ the op I would rma and try again,could have been a faulty batch? id certainly try a different gpu if same thing happens second time around

Best 290 as far as I am concerned is this one.

rolypolyman said:

Best 290 as far as I am concerned is this one.

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After sending 3 back faulty I'm going to have to disagree...

What is going on here? I am reading the same problems with the gigabyte and now Moogleys had problems with the MSI.

I really want this to be a case of "My card is fine so i wont post how fine it is on the internet" and that us unfortunate few seem to be more than we really are, but I am losing confidence. It all seems to be related to black screens :/

I cant stomach the thought that I will need to splash out another £180 to get a 780ti, and I really wouldn't be happy with a 780 looking at the benchies compared to the 290.

Damn you AMD giving me a taste of that power for that price.

rolypolyman said:

Best 290 as far as I am concerned is this one.

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I agree two of mine are superb

MOOGLEYS said:

After sending 3 back faulty I'm going to have to disagree...

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Furry muff. Love mine though.

rolypolyman said:

Furry muff. Love mine though.

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All from same place so could have just been a faulty batch.

MOOGLEYS said:

After sending 3 back faulty I'm going to have to disagree...

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Same went through 4 different 290x not long after release before going to nvidia

rolypolyman said:

Best 290 as far as I am concerned is this one.

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Crap cooling, guy on here was having problems with the top card throttling in Xfire (whereas I have to hammer my system even in the hot weather for mine to get to 90c, 4c below throttle-point. Same case and fans as mine)

JediFragger said:

Crap cooling, guy on here was having problems with the top card throttling in Xfire (whereas I have to hammer my system even in the hot weather for mine to get to 90c, 4c below throttle-point. Same case and fans as mine)

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Nothing wrong with mine gaming they sit nice in the 70s
Very quite and very cool, but I do believe since I bought mine msi have changed the cooler.

shankly1985 said:

Nothing wrong with mine gaming they sit nice in the 70s
Very quite and very cool, but I do believe since I bought mine msi have changed the cooler.

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Haven't you left about 12 PCI slots between yours to keep them cool though?

GoogalyMoogaly said:

Haven't you left about 12 PCI slots between yours to keep them cool though?

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That would be crossfire, no matter what setup you have GPUs wise these get hot really hot. Because they push hot air into the case.
No cooler out there can stop the hot air rising and sucking into the top card. Is a downfall of custom GPU coolers and multi gpu configurations.

How I have mine setup they like running in single GPU configuration temp wise.

You show me anyone on here running 290s in crossfire that is using a custom cooler and staying cool.
OP wants a single GPU not two so he will have no issue, should he want to use the Msi card. But then again it seems buying early has gotten me the good cards.
Not going to happen it's a fact of life heat rises.

Heat does not rise or fall as it is just a transfer of energy. Hot air rises as it is less dense than cold.

Or simply if you run sli/crossfire use lots of fans to force the air out...

Yeah hot air is what I mean. No matter what the top GPU will always feed from the bottom GPU. The closer the worst.
IIt's one good factor of buying the ref cards because they put all there hot air out the back.

shankly1985 said:

Yeah hot air is what I mean. No matter what the top GPU will always feed from the bottom GPU. The closer the worst.
IIt's one good factor of buying the ref cards because they put all there hot air out the back.

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I was just being annoying

Tbh if you intend to go crossfire 290's anything other than reference cards or water cooling will result in some serious heat.

The heat coming from under my desk with a single 290 was quite intense. Two would be horrible in this heat.

xfired cards have always been hot,thats why I only use 1 single gpu

just cba with the hassle,then theres the microstuttering,idk if its been fixed since

wazza300 said:

xfired cards have always been hot,thats why I only use 1 single gpu

just cba with the hassle,then theres the microstuttering,idk if its been fixed since

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Used crossfire for almost 3 years now and yet to have a problem with stutter.
The only real issue I have had is some games either don't work well with xfire or need driver. But that's very rare.