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

thefogo · 20 May 2014 at 19:44

oweneades said:
Assuming they are reference and you are running the "auto" fan profile they will run at up to 94 degrees (and throttle depending on load) to keep the noise in check.

Yeah both reference.
I've heard they're supposed to be very loud even at 94C though, but that isn't the case. They're about the same noise as my OC'd 780 Ti.

Mr_Orange · 20 May 2014 at 19:47

LtMatt said:
Try this.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25247146&postcount=5

I couldn't find any AMD certificates when i looked. The symptoms were slightly different from that thread as when the screen went black it stayed black rather than going back to a low resolution.

kingy666 · 20 May 2014 at 20:24

Last night I posted that my new/second hand Asus reference 290 was running at 94 degrees at about 60% fan speed on afterburner and asked here if it was worth re-applying some decent thermal paste to the cooler. So that is what I have just done. I took off the heat sink and the thermal paste was just a thick wad of what seemed to have the consistency of grey plastacine. There was far too much. I cleaned it all off using some 2 part arctic cooling thermal paste removal liquid and the actual copper of the heat sink that touches the GPU is a bit shoddy as it just doesn't even look flat and seems very scratched. But, I applied I thin covering of MX-2 to the GPU and carefully put it back together I have just run Planetside 2, which is what I was playing last night when it got to 94 degrees and tonight it has reached 76 degrees with the fan hitting 53%. Ambient temp is certainly a bit lower tonight but not that much. Just goes to show how bad that thermal paste and the application method is that AMD use.

thefogo · 20 May 2014 at 20:28

kingy666 said:
Last night I posted that my new/second hand Asus reference 290 was running at 94 degrees at about 60% fan speed on afterburner and asked here if it was worth re-applying some decent thermal paste to the cooler. So that is what I have just done. I took off the heat sink and the thermal paste was just a thick wad of what seemed to have the consistency of grey plastacine. There was far too much. I cleaned it all off using some 2 part arctic cooling thermal paste removal liquid and the actual copper of the heat sink that touches the GPU is a bit shoddy as it just doesn't even look flat and seems very scratched. But, I applied I thin covering of MX-2 to the GPU and carefully put it back together I have just run Planetside 2, which is what I was playing last night when it got to 94 degrees and tonight it has reached 76 degrees with the fan hitting 53%. Ambient temp is certainly a bit lower tonight but not that much. Just goes to show how bad that thermal paste and the application method is that AMD use.

That's a pretty huge difference. Might look into doing that with mine.

kingy666 · 20 May 2014 at 20:38

I should have taken a picture of the 'gunk' on the GPU as it was pretty bad but my phone does not want to save any pictures for some reason. I did put just the thinnest smear of paste on. I have arctic silver 5 and MX-2 and opted for MX-2 as my AS5 seems to have gone a bit watery. My warranty is now void as I destroyed the little sticker on the heat sink screw but the card is second hand anyway

Gerard · 20 May 2014 at 20:40

kingy666 said:
Last night I posted that my new/second hand Asus reference 290 was running at 94 degrees at about 60% fan speed on afterburner and asked here if it was worth re-applying some decent thermal paste to the cooler. So that is what I have just done. I took off the heat sink and the thermal paste was just a thick wad of what seemed to have the consistency of grey plastacine. There was far too much. I cleaned it all off using some 2 part arctic cooling thermal paste removal liquid and the actual copper of the heat sink that touches the GPU is a bit shoddy as it just doesn't even look flat and seems very scratched. But, I applied I thin covering of MX-2 to the GPU and carefully put it back together I have just run Planetside 2, which is what I was playing last night when it got to 94 degrees and tonight it has reached 76 degrees with the fan hitting 53%. Ambient temp is certainly a bit lower tonight but not that much. Just goes to show how bad that thermal paste and the application method is that AMD use.

Id put money on it being the same on my 7990, seen some pics of people taking the heatsink off and being confronted with the same grey plasticine looking crap you describe. I found one review claiming the 7990 has the same "phase changing" stuff as the 6990 but considering that card ran into the 90's obviously it didn't do much despite amd's claims of it being 10c cooler with it.

Wouldn't at all surprise me if its the same stuff on the r290.

Tonester0011 · 20 May 2014 at 20:54

kingy666 said:
Last night I posted that my new/second hand Asus reference 290 was running at 94 degrees at about 60% fan speed on afterburner and asked here if it was worth re-applying some decent thermal paste to the cooler. So that is what I have just done. I took off the heat sink and the thermal paste was just a thick wad of what seemed to have the consistency of grey plastacine. There was far too much. I cleaned it all off using some 2 part arctic cooling thermal paste removal liquid and the actual copper of the heat sink that touches the GPU is a bit shoddy as it just doesn't even look flat and seems very scratched. But, I applied I thin covering of MX-2 to the GPU and carefully put it back together I have just run Planetside 2, which is what I was playing last night when it got to 94 degrees and tonight it has reached 76 degrees with the fan hitting 53%. Ambient temp is certainly a bit lower tonight but not that much. Just goes to show how bad that thermal paste and the application method is that AMD use.

No different than what mine was like, the VRM covering wasn't a pad either it was thick and took ages to clean off.

humbug · 20 May 2014 at 23:23

kingy666 said:
I should have taken a picture of the 'gunk' on the GPU as it was pretty bad but my phone does not want to save any pictures for some reason. I did put just the thinnest smear of paste on. I have arctic silver 5 and MX-2 and opted for MX-2 as my AS5 seems to have gone a bit watery. My warranty is now void as I destroyed the little sticker on the heat sink screw but the card is second hand anyway

Be very careful with Arctic Silver 5, it has silver dust in the paste, it has been known to be conductive.

thefogo · 20 May 2014 at 23:25

Will post a pic of my new cards tomorrow.

wazza300 · 20 May 2014 at 23:26

mx4 tends to be the best for gpu's,(for me anyway)idk if anyone has had better results with any other paste?

Orangey · 20 May 2014 at 23:40

The Noctua stuff isn't bad and it comes with their heatsinks (or used to).

Geeman1979 · 21 May 2014 at 00:28

I've used the GC-3 Extreme Performance Thermal Compound in the past which works well.

oweneades · 21 May 2014 at 07:44

thefogo said:
Yeah both reference.
I've heard they're supposed to be very loud even at 94C though, but that isn't the case. They're about the same noise as my OC'd 780 Ti.

Based on my own testing I would say anything up to 50% is acceptable. Noticable above my other case fans (Define R3) but not intrusive. 50-60% is tolerable but getting to the point where I would be annoyed without headphones. Above 60% is too loud in my opinion and the less said about 80-90% the better.

LtMatt · 21 May 2014 at 07:50

thefogo said:
Yeah both reference.
I've heard they're supposed to be very loud even at 94C though, but that isn't the case. They're about the same noise as my OC'd 780 Ti.

Don't let Broomstick hear you say that. Pun intended.

thefogo said:
Will post a pic of my new cards tomorrow.

oweneades said:
Based on my own testing I would say anything up to 50% is acceptable. Noticable above my other case fans (Define R3) but not intrusive. 50-60% is tolerable but getting to the point where I would be annoyed without headphones. Above 60% is too loud in my opinion and the less said about 80-90% the better.

Agree. I actually don't even mind up to 55%, but 60% and onwards is loud!

thefogo · 21 May 2014 at 08:02

Yeah above 50% starts to become a bit loud.
It doesn't hit 50% though. Maybe it will when I have a long session.

LtMatt · 21 May 2014 at 08:11

thefogo said:
Yeah above 50% starts to become a bit loud.
It doesn't hit 50% though. Maybe it will when I have a long session.

It will, don't worry about that. What were you playing and what were the temps like? Vsync on or off?

thefogo · 21 May 2014 at 08:16

I played BF4 for about 40 minutes. V sync off of course.
I tried 150% resolution scale and ran out of vram

I'll stick with 125%

LtMatt · 21 May 2014 at 08:26

thefogo said:
I played BF4 for about 40 minutes. V sync off of course.
I tried 150% resolution scale and ran out of vram
I'll stick with 125%

What were the temps like? That sounds pretty good for crossfire.

thefogo · 21 May 2014 at 08:33

Hovering between 90 and 94.

LtMatt · 21 May 2014 at 08:35

thefogo said:
Hovering between 90 and 94.

That's pretty good for the fan speed. What were fps like?

Get some decent paste on there (Gelid GC Extreme) and away you go.