AMD Radeon R9 290X with Hawaii GPU pictured, has 512-bit 4GB Memory

[drunkenmaster]

Watch the video - even under normal loads its significantly noisier than most other cards.

AMD really do need to work on those reference coolers/sheaths.

In non Uber mode it's barely louder than anything else and no louder than a 7970, in fact seemingly quieter despite increased performance, power and core size. uber mode often gives zero performance benefit, it's mostly silly and pointless. Even so the difference between the uber mode and 100% was absolutely monumental so talking about 100% fan being relevant is daft, it's not. Under neither mode will it get anywhere near 100% fan or that noise, not ever, not even remotely close.

Will AMD ever get the fans right, always so noisy I wonder why they even release the stock models

Again in quiet mode(which sacrifices between 0 and 3% performance on average I would say with only a couple games showing 5%) it is incredibly quiet, what you can physically set the fan noise to, that it doesn't get anywhere remotely close to in any even heavy use situation is completely irrelevant. You have to go out of your way to make the card that loud. It would never hit that noise under any game, nor furmark. Here's a hint, most fans if you put enough power into them can make that noise, where it's actually used is the only relevant information. It's quieter than a 7970/680gtx in use in normal mode, which are pretty quiet cards.

 

[MrMarvelous]

I do wonder how performance will be with GTAV when it's finally released.

Hopefully better that GTA 4 with any card.

All joking aside, it should be able to run fine even on 'older' cards like the 7970 and 680, it's a console port and hopefully R* will do a good job with it.

 

[Gibbo]

In non Uber mode it's barely louder than anything else and no louder than a 7970, in fact seemingly quieter despite increased performance, power and core size. uber mode often gives zero performance benefit, it's mostly silly and pointless. Even so the difference between the uber mode and 100% was absolutely monumental so talking about 100% fan being relevant is daft, it's not. Under neither mode will it get anywhere near 100% fan or that noise, not ever, not even remotely close.

Hi there

Quiet mode is upto 40% and will cool the card fine at stock in any circumstance, unless you live in an oven.

Uber mode is upto 55% and it still OK, but audible, this will allow some overclocking at stock voltage.

If your adding voltage you need 70-100% fan if your going to run at 1200/6400 speeds, this is loud. Plus we'd advice water or a better cooler.

 

[humbug]

Hi there

Quiet mode is upto 40% and will cool the card fine at stock in any circumstance, unless you live in an oven.

Uber mode is upto 55% and it still OK, but audible, this will allow some overclocking at stock voltage.

If your adding voltage you need 70-100% fan if your going to run at 1200/6400 speeds, this is loud. Plus we'd advice water or a better cooler.

What are the stock volts on them? i know the HD 7K boost cards had 1.256v which is WAAAAAYYYYYY to high, you only need 1.18v to run them at 1150Mhz which also drops temps and power consumption dramatically.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Hi there

Quiet mode is upto 40% and will cool the card fine at stock in any circumstance, unless you live in an oven.

Uber mode is upto 55% and it still OK, but audible, this will allow some overclocking at stock voltage.

If your adding voltage you need 70-100% fan if your going to run at 1200/6400 speeds, this is loud. Plus we'd advice water or a better cooler.

Yup, pretty much the case for any AMD gpu, the fan won't go at all close to 100%, and mostly never beyond 50-55% unless you forcibly put it there for a benching run.

Gibbo, can you try undervolting one and see where you get. As said the default voltage on my 7970 is 1.13v but I can run at 1Ghz easily at 0.98v, which drops noise, power, temp quite noticeably. My general experience is AMD have always been conservative with the limits and thus up the volts too much. I wouldn't be surprised to see the ability to bring down temps/power/noise on stock or small overclock with lower voltage.

 

[Steampunk]

My problem with the previous AMD stock cooler is that even at idle speeds (24 percent) it still has a rattley, whirring quality to it. It may be quiet, but in a system that is aircooled with quality, temp controlled fans, the stock AMD radial fan is inherently noisier, with a more annoying quality of the sound. Actually running games just makes it worse, but the stock cooler isn't really as quiet as it should be at any speed.

AMD could have got around this by a better quality cooler, ideally dumping ball bearings for fluid bearings, and maybe with a bigger, slower fan.

I suppose for those of us who value quietness for the majority of the time when our systems are not running games, we'll just have to wait for the non-stock coolers to arrive.

 

[humbug]

Yup, pretty much the case for any AMD gpu, the fan won't go at all close to 100%, and mostly never beyond 50-55% unless you forcibly put it there for a benching run.

Gibbo, can you try undervolting one and see where you get. As said the default voltage on my 7970 is 1.13v but I can run at 1Ghz easily at 0.98v, which drops noise, power, temp quite noticeably. My general experience is AMD have always been conservative with the limits and thus up the volts too much. I wouldn't be surprised to see the ability to bring down temps/power/noise on stock or small overclock with lower voltage.

Dropped mine from 1.256v @ 975Mhz to 1.18v @ 1150Mhz and shaved 12c off the temps, it never goes over 70c on a silent fan profile now, it used to pass 80c on the same profile.

Its to completely insane to think AMD thought it needed that many volts, @ 1350Mhz maybe, it does 1225 on 1.20v.

 

[Buckster]

Be interesting to see what boost clocks people are getting in normal cases

The 290 Pro will that only be available with reference cooler at start ?

 

[Gibbo]

Be interesting to see what boost clocks people are getting in normal cases

The 290 Pro will that only be available with reference cooler at start ?

Yes.

But we are working on have some Tech Labs cards pre-made ready for your convience.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Yes.

But we are working on have some Tech Labs cards pre-made ready for your convience.

Is that with the Prolimatech MK-26 cooler?

 

[Gibbo]

Is that with the MK-26 cooler?

Yes.
Shall be quite a price premium however, because we void our warranty as we have to epoxy the ram sinks on, thus voiding any warranty we'd have, so OcUK would be covering warranty and of course we have to cover our risk to an extent.

Of course I shall be testing first, it might not be good enough, which case we won't offer to sell them or recommend it, we are in R&D now and shall be testing later.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Yes.
Shall be quite a price premium however, because we void our warranty as we have to epoxy the ram sinks on, thus voiding any warranty we'd have, so OcUK would be covering warranty and of course we have to cover our risk to an extent.

Any chance we'll be able to see some overclock results with that?

Does the warranty cover for removing heatsink/cooler still stands with the MSI cards if people do it themselves?

 

[dom99]

wish I had free delivery here, going to probably buy one tomorrow (pay day!). I dont mind the stock coolers becasue they exhaust the hot air outside the case, plus I will defintily try undervolting.

 

[humbug]

Yes.

But we are working on have some Tech Labs cards pre-made ready for your convience.

Why not make up a few 290X with an inexpensive after market air cooler?

even one of these would bring the temps and noise down dramatically. add £30 on the price.....

 

[mmj_uk]

Dropped mine from 1.256v @ 975Mhz to 1.18v @ 1150Mhz and shaved 12c off the temps, it never goes over 70c on a silent fan profile now, it used to pass 80c on the same profile.

Its to completely insane to think AMD thought it needed that many volts, @ 1350Mhz maybe, it does 1225 on 1.20v.

It's to ensure they don't get a lot of RMA's, just because yours is stable doesn't mean they all will be... if AMD clocked them all at 1.18V they'd probably get a high return rate, especially in the early days of the product cycle.

They probably do a lot more thorough testing as well at the electrical level rather than just running a few games of BF3.

 

[Gibbo]

Any chance we'll be able to see some overclock results with that?

Does the warranty cover for removing heatsink/cooler still stands with the MSI cards if people do it themselves?

We are testing now.

Seems about 30c cooler with quiet fans compared to the stock cooler in quiet mode.

Shall do some clocking shortly.

 

[humbug]

It's to ensure they don't get a lot of RMA's, just because yours is stable doesn't mean they all will be... if AMD clocked them all at 1.18V they'd probably get a high return rate, especially in the early days of the product cycle.

They probably do a lot more thorough testing as well at the electrical level rather than just running a few games of BF3.

I know but 1.256v for 975Mhz? it runs that at 1.05v with an ASIC of 66.7%.

You might be right but i find it hard to believe any of them need those volts, i think 1.20v its reasonable.

 

[mrbios]

I think I'm definitely selling up my SLI setup for one of these once the non-reference cooler designs are out

 

[Jakus]

We are testing now.

Seems about 30c cooler with quiet fans compared to the stock cooler in quiet mode.

Shall do some clocking shortly.

Then stick it in a closed case and give us both sets of temps

 

[humbug]

Then stick it in a closed case and give us both sets of temps

Should be better in a closed case if you have good air flow.