AMD R9 290 Noise levels

smant · 2 Mar 2015 at 16:34

I've been looking for a good "bang for buck" graphics card, and the R9 290 seems incredible at it's current price point of a little over £200.

That said, reviews keep complaining about noise, and Anandtech even recommended against it because of the noise.

So how loud is it? My PC resides in the living room, and the other half quite often watches TV while I play - I don't particularly want to start annoying her

The last card I remember having that was loud was an ATI 6950, which was pretty annoying, but not unworkable - although that resided in my study rather than the living room.

Can anyone compare it to the 6950? Can you set fan speed profiles by game/application?

My gut feel is that I could probably live with it for that much performance per £, but any help/input from current owners would be much appreciated.

cheesyboy · 2 Mar 2015 at 16:36

Only the "reference" cooler is super-noisy. The non-reference designs are much better.

smant · 2 Mar 2015 at 16:41

cheesyboy said:
Only the "reference" cooler is super-noisy. The non-reference designs are much better.

Ah I see - looking at them, most aren't using the reference design, presumably for that reason?

Is there any concern with card length in non-reference design? I only have a mini tower (Dell Vostro 260).

meldarthx · 2 Mar 2015 at 16:56

I have PCS+ 290; and its quieter than my old 7870 LE; that got loud when trying to cool lol...its a beast of a card.

make sure you got the space

Tri-X is also awesome card; MSI gaming supposed to be quiet same with XFX DD...

Ummm hmmm...measure; as I didn't and I've had to remove cage with 3 hd's and placed my new card into second pci-e slot until I get a new case LOL

los · 2 Mar 2015 at 16:58

I have a 290 tri-x, in all honesty it seems about the same as my 970 galax was. Well except it had a rattly fan.
Although the tri-x is a long card

SiDeards73 · 2 Mar 2015 at 17:01

Tri-X is one of the longer 290's, i have one and its fairly quiet, i had a reference 290 prior to that and it was horrendously loud.

I hear the MSI Gaming gets decent votes for low noise and performance and its a normal size card.

snips86x · 2 Mar 2015 at 17:03

I've got a reference 290 and I have no complaints. It's idle at 40c with the fan in silent operation and when gaming, the GPU hits 80c with the fan at 60% of it's total speed.

I have however got 2x120mm fans on the bottom of my case bringing in cooler air, which helps, but creating a custom profile, or even using AMD Overdrive to change the fan profile, will improve the basic profile bringing lower temps/fan noise.

Geeman1979 · 2 Mar 2015 at 17:05

cheesyboy said:
Only the "reference" cooler is super-noisy. The non-reference designs are much better.

This^

None of the custom cooled range should be overly loud.

snips86x · 2 Mar 2015 at 17:09

cheesyboy said:
Only the "reference" cooler is super-noisy. The non-reference designs are much better.

Geeman1979 said:
This^

None of the custom cooled range should be overly loud.

but they dump all the heat in the case!

Geeman1979 · 2 Mar 2015 at 17:10

As long as you've got sufficient cooling it's all good.

LoadsaMoney · 2 Mar 2015 at 17:45

Ive got the MSI Gaming, its very quiet, and not as long as other cards, its just under 11 inches (ooh er

)

savagesam117 · 2 Mar 2015 at 19:04

I've got an MSI too, can runs pretty cool and since installing the fan controller now super quiet! I can't hear my pc in my room with nothing else on it's that quiet!

bigcee · 2 Mar 2015 at 19:18

Apologies for my ignorance savagesam, is the fan controller a software solution or a component? Thanks

savagesam117 · 2 Mar 2015 at 19:26

it's the vga fan controller thing on on the msi website

win8.1 · 2 Mar 2015 at 19:27

As a person who has had both the Msi gaming 290 and the Vapor x the Vapor x is much better at cooling partly due to the three fans rather than the two on the Msi. The Tri-x would not be far behind the Vapor and if I was buying now that or the PCS would be what I would get. The better cooling would be worth it for me.

savagesam117 · 2 Mar 2015 at 19:29

I've got the beastly msi with 3 fans that requires a crane to install, that thing is cool

Digital X · 2 Mar 2015 at 19:47

I have a PCS+ 290 and all I can hear is my stock cooler.

Squink · 2 Mar 2015 at 20:20

smant said:
That said, reviews keep complaining about noise, and Anandtech even recommended against it because of the noise.

Anandtech's first experience was with the poorly designed reference cooler and that's probably the first review that Google threw up for you. Try looking for Anandtech's Tri X review for an opinion on the cooling that AMD's partners have added.

I assume you have a reasonably hefty power supply to run it? I can't offer you any advice on your more specific questions though.

smant · 2 Mar 2015 at 20:22

can one of you guys with a 290 tell me how much clearance you have between the motherboard and the card behind the slot?

I can make the space length wise by drilling a few rivets and removing an unused HD cage, but my concern is that the block for power switches/LEDs is right behind it.

sprite1275 · 2 Mar 2015 at 20:58

savagesam117 said:
I've got the beastly msi with 3 fans that requires a crane to install, that thing is cool

Yea I got one of them. I used a Chinook to hover it in place and then a telescopic forklift to push it into the pcie slot.

Lightning, vapour x, PCs are the coolest quietest cards.