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

MOOGLEYS · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:13

Just installed the card and so far I'm very happy. I see no difference from the 290x other than for some reason it's a lot quieter ?

Happy so far but will have a better play later. The 780 is on the desk standing by just in case..

LtMatt · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:15

MOOGLEYS said:
Just installed the card and so far I'm very happy. I see no difference from the 290x other than for some reason it's a lot quieter ?

Happy so far but will have a better play later. The 780 is on the desk standing by just in case..

Might be the bios switch. I think one is silent mode (977mhz stock core) and the other is performance mode, faster fan and a slightly faster core clock speed. (maybe 1040mhz?)

MOOGLEYS · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:18

LtMatt said:
Might be the bios switch. I think one is silent mode (977mhz stock core) and the other is performance mode, faster fan and a slightly faster core clock speed. (maybe 1040mhz?)

I think it's in position 1 on both cards. I though it was either UEFI or Legacy but I could be wrong ?

LtMatt · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:21

MOOGLEYS said:
I think it's in position 1 on both cards. I though it was either UEFI or Legacy but I could be wrong ?

Not 100% sure but i think Shankly mentioned something about a performance mode and slightly different clock speeds with the MSI 290 gaming cards. Can't remember off hand specifically.

MOOGLEYS · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:24

LtMatt said:
Not 100% sure but i think Shankly mentioned something about a performance mode and slightly different clock speeds with the MSI 290 gaming cards. Can't remember off hand specifically.

Just found this seems it is Legacy and UEFi.

This little switch lets you switch between a UEFI-enabled BIOS and a legacy BIOS. Unlike the AMD reference design, there is no quiet and performance BIOS. Both BIOSes run the same clock speeds and fan settings.

It's very quite compared to the 290x even though they use the same cooler. Running heaven it hardly makes a noise.

Steampunk · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:34

The MSI Gaming OC BIOS switch changes between UEFI and Legacy versions of the BIOS. There is no difference in speed.

I did find that the UEFI BIOS gave a black screen on boot if the onboard VGA was enabled, but that seems to have been fixed in a newer motherboard BIOS. I think UEFI is supposed to be faster for bootup and resume from sleep, but Legacy is more compatible.

LtMatt · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:34

MOOGLEYS said:
Just found this seems it is Legacy and UEFi.

It's very quite compared to the 290x even though they use the same cooler. Running heaven it hardly makes a noise.

Hmm, that's odd. Maybe Shankly can clear it up.

EDIT

Maybe its something to do with the MSI APP that comes with the card.

Steampunk said:
The MSI Gaming OC BIOS switch changes between UEFI and Legacy versions of the BIOS. There is no difference in speed.

I did find that the UEFI BIOS gave a black screen on boot if the onboard VGA was enabled, but that seems to have been fixed in a newer motherboard BIOS. I think UEFI is supposed to be faster for bootup and resume from sleep, but Legacy is more compatible.

Furry muff. I wonder if thats the same on my reference vtx cards?

Frenzy · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:41

So I got a 290 now, which app should I use? MSI AB or Trixx? Should I flash my bios?

I have the MSI 290 Gamer edition Twin frozr.

LtMatt · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:47

Frenzy said:
So I got a 290 now, which app should I use? MSI AB or Trixx? Should I flash my bios?

I have the MSI 290 Gamer edition Twin frozr.

What's with everyone getting 290's all of a sudden?

Use afterburner. Don't bother with bios flashing, that ship has sailed.

Frenzy · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:59

Cheers matt

I saw a deal on the 290 and I couldn't refuse! £280... pretty sweet, especially considering I sold my 7970 for £200(still pending)

LtMatt · 10 Apr 2014 at 13:59

Frenzy said:
Cheers matt

I saw a deal on the 290 and I couldn't refuse! £280... pretty sweet

Crackling deal. £20 cheaper than i paid for reference, though i did get £40 back through selling two copies of bf4.

humbug · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:03

Frenzy said:
Cheers matt

I saw a deal on the 290 and I couldn't refuse! £280... pretty sweet, especially considering I sold my 7970 for £200(still pending)

Is that reference or AIB?

Frenzy · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:24

humbug said:
Is that reference or AIB?

This one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-239-MS

This is the 7970 I had

http://uk.msi.com/product/vga/R79702PMD3GD5OC.html

With

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cooling/34809-arctic-accelero-xtreme-7970-vga-cooler/

You can still get that 290 for around the price I paid. I would have bought it from ocuk but I couldn't see them price matching £50 difference... Also the free next day guaranteed delivery for free kind of sealed it for me.

Already checked if I could unlock the card, I can't

Damn 801s!

humbug · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:26

Frenzy said:
This one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-239-MS

Nice

I got this one for £300

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-166-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Frenzy · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:31

humbug said:
Nice

I got this one for £300

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-166-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Yeah I saw a few people going for them but I've never owned a power colour. The MSI warranty is pretty nice so I was happy to settle with them

Oh I got hynix chips on the MSI. I haven't overclocked the card yet but will do as soon as I get home!

humbug · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:40

Frenzy said:
Yeah I saw a few people going for them but I've never owned a power colour. The MSI warranty is pretty nice so I was happy to settle with them

i have run this one for a year, almost to the day http://www.powercolor.com/us/products_features.asp?id=430

The cooler is not much good but is able to keep the card cool enough, the card its self is solid, runs 1200 / 1600 24/7, its never complained. its more reliable and stable than the Gigabyte 7870 WF i had before it.

They are an underdog brand but they do make very good solid GPU's, as good as any but without the premium brand price tag.

I don't know about the warranty, its probably not that good although there is no reason why it shouldn't be, i might have bought your MSI had i spotted it, as it is Gigabyte seem to have the best warranty, but i'm not impressed with the build quality of their cards TBH.

Frenzy · 10 Apr 2014 at 14:57

Yeah I thought the warranty would be a bonus when I come to sell the card again, hopefully I won't have to rely on it. I fully expect to sell this card when the new GPUs are out at the end of the year/early next year.

It all just seems to be pot luck with the quality of card you get these days, no matter the manufacturer. I tend to focus on resale value and warranty is a part of that.
Saying that if the card is cheap enough I'm willing to try something like powercolour.

It is funny though, I bought an Asus r9 290x on release from ocuk. I couldn't get the damn thing to work. I realised I was buying something I just didn't need, so I returned it.
I now had the same issue with this 290, couldn't be coincidence so I investigated it a bit more. It turns out the new r9s just didn't want to work with my gigabyte z68 so I was forced to upgrade to z77 chipset, not too bad considering it only cost me £20 in total (these 2600ks rock still).

MOOGLEYS · 10 Apr 2014 at 15:36

Just noticed this on my new MSI 290. Backplate is bent up and what looks like chew marks on the heatsink above which is not touching the component its supposed too. Looks like someone has tried to bend the heatsink back down.

Back it goes...

Frenzy · 10 Apr 2014 at 15:54

Wow, that's pretty poor.

LtMatt · 10 Apr 2014 at 16:09

Shocking. Did the packaging look like it had been opened Moogs? Did you get it from OcuK?