AMD R9 290 (Non-X, Pro, etc) Owners Club

tankskun · 19 Jul 2014 at 18:25

Need some help, upgraded from a 4gb 670 to the 4gb 290 and its running slower!

I must have messed up my install somewhere when I was fiddling with settings.
Atm I have no Mantle option in BF4. and can't even get a frame rate limiter program working. I plan to do a new windows install. What is the best driver 14.4 or 14.7beta? and which frame rate limiter program is the easiest to use?

Please help me pulling my hair out here. Edit my card is the Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce.

humbug · 19 Jul 2014 at 19:57

tankskun said:
Need some help, upgraded from a 4gb 670 to the 4gb 290 and its running slower!

I must have messed up my install somewhere when I was fiddling with settings.
Atm I have no Mantle option in BF4. and can't even get a frame rate limiter program working. I plan to do a new windows install. What is the best driver 14.4 or 14.7beta? and which frame rate limiter program is the easiest to use?

Please help me pulling my hair out here. Edit my card is the Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce.

The fact that you have low performance and no Mantle API suggests Microsoft is installing its generic driver.

If your planning a new windows install I would just do that, it should be ok after that.

tankskun · 20 Jul 2014 at 08:10

humbug said:
The fact that you have low performance and no Mantle API suggests Microsoft is installing its generic driver.

If your planning a new windows install I would just do that, it should be ok after that.

Done another fresh install. Your right, somehow previously Microsoft did manage to install its generic driver. This time I pulled my Lan cable out and installed from a pre-downloaded 14.4 driver version.

All working like a dream now. Holy **** Mantle is no joke. I'm getting about 90fps all on ultra @1080p playing BF4. Previously the GTX670 managed about 45 on ultra. Given my old 1055t a new life

LtMatt · 20 Jul 2014 at 09:05

tankskun said:
Done another fresh install. Your right, somehow previously Microsoft did manage to install its generic driver. This time I pulled my Lan cable out and installed from a pre-downloaded 14.4 driver version.

All working like a dream now. Holy **** Mantle is no joke. I'm getting about 90fps all on ultra @1080p playing BF4. Previously the GTX670 managed about 45 on ultra. Given my old 1055t a new life

Welcome to Mantle.

I'd use the 14.7 drivers mate, they're the fastest and the latest.

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/amd-catalyst-14-7-rc1-(14-200-1004-july-9)-download.html

~Mike~ · 20 Jul 2014 at 10:59

LtMatt said:
I can definitely see how that would lower temps.

I found out how Matt is keeping his xfire 290's cool

LtMatt · 20 Jul 2014 at 11:22

Haha, awesome ghetto mod!

BS Dave · 20 Jul 2014 at 23:32

Matt can I get some help overclocking my tri-x? In afterburner I can get 1100 on the core with +63 on the voltage, but if I touch the ram I seem to get crashes. Under load afterburner reports about 1.1 volt... Should I be adding more to get the ram to perform better? Oh GPU-z reports I have Hynix ram so I thought I would be ok...

LtMatt · 21 Jul 2014 at 07:03

BS Dave said:
Matt can I get some help overclocking my tri-x? In afterburner I can get 1100 on the core with +63 on the voltage, but if I touch the ram I seem to get crashes. Under load afterburner reports about 1.1 volt... Should I be adding more to get the ram to perform better? Oh GPU-z reports I have Hynix ram so I thought I would be ok...

Keep adding more vcore until the memory becomes stable. How far will it go on stock voltage? The memory won't give you much of a performance boost, so i wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. Sounds like you might have a bit of a stinker though.

BS Dave · 21 Jul 2014 at 07:57

I had 2 originally and both did about the same. Reference cards always seem to clock the best, but then you've got the noisy cooling.

Jimothy · 21 Jul 2014 at 07:58

Morning.

I picked up an ASUS R9 290 last month with my new PC, wondering if it's normal for the GPU usage % to jump around in such large steps? I can get a screenshot later this evening but MSI Afterburner seems to suggest that it's being erratic, or just not behaving like I expected it to.

Last night during a session of ARMA:III the GPU peaked at 100% (which isn't different from the norm) but this time it locked there, chugged up my system and continued to perform at 100% even when ARMA:III was closed down. A reboot 'fixed' the problem but I'm not convinced. Installed the latest beta drivers to see if they help - anyone else had this before?

Nocky24 · 21 Jul 2014 at 08:08

Jimothy said:
Morning.

I picked up an ASUS R9 290 last month with my new PC, wondering if it's normal for the GPU usage % to jump around in such large steps? I can get a screenshot later this evening but MSI Afterburner seems to suggest that it's being erratic, or just not behaving like I expected it to.

Last night during a session of ARMA:III the GPU peaked at 100% (which isn't different from the norm) but this time it locked there, chugged up my system and continued to perform at 100% even when ARMA:III was closed down. A reboot 'fixed' the problem but I'm not convinced. Installed the latest beta drivers to see if they help - anyone else had this before?

Have you enabled unified gpu usage in afterburner?

LtMatt · 21 Jul 2014 at 08:16

Jimothy said:
Morning.

I picked up an ASUS R9 290 last month with my new PC, wondering if it's normal for the GPU usage % to jump around in such large steps? I can get a screenshot later this evening but MSI Afterburner seems to suggest that it's being erratic, or just not behaving like I expected it to.

Last night during a session of ARMA:III the GPU peaked at 100% (which isn't different from the norm) but this time it locked there, chugged up my system and continued to perform at 100% even when ARMA:III was closed down. A reboot 'fixed' the problem but I'm not convinced. Installed the latest beta drivers to see if they help - anyone else had this before?

Nocky24 said:
Have you enabled unified gpu usage in afterburner?

Yep as Nocky says enable unified gpu usage monitoring to get a more consistent reading.

Jimothy · 21 Jul 2014 at 08:29

Alright, done! What does this alter on the readout and what should I specifically be looking for to indicate 'proper' working order of the card?
I'll have to get back to you after work regarding this now.
Cheers!

LtMatt · 21 Jul 2014 at 08:37

Jimothy said:
Alright, done! What does this alter on the readout and what should I specifically be looking for to indicate 'proper' working order of the card?
I'll have to get back to you after work regarding this now.
Cheers!

It just normalizes the gpu usage readout so it is more consistent and less erratic. You can setup a overlay while you game to monitor it, if you wish.

Noxia · 21 Jul 2014 at 11:35

Obligatory:

Not had any issues yet at 1440p but then I'm hardly playing cutting edge tech games.

Nocky24 · 21 Jul 2014 at 11:46

Noxia said:
snip

Enjoy! Great card

Farseer · 21 Jul 2014 at 12:44

Nocky24 said:
Enjoy! Great card

Yep, good looking card as well. It's a shame there isn't a red colour Sapphire 290 card to be more fitting to my system

The yellow wouldn't look too bad but the blue of the Vapor X not so much with the red of the rest of my system...

Noxia · 21 Jul 2014 at 13:08

I've always made systems with closed sides so I couldn't care less what anything looks like. I suppose that gives me an advantage somewhat.

SiDeards73 · 21 Jul 2014 at 16:47

I got naked earlier and cuddled my Tri-X while whispering romantic poems to it..... LtMatt has brainwashed me

BS Dave · 21 Jul 2014 at 21:49

So Lt how can i tell how many volts i'm putting through the card? Afterburner and GPU-z are both reporting a little over 1.1 volts but other people seem to be putting way more through there's. how much is going though your at stock?