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Buy a Replacement 290X?

BIG Phil

BIG Phil

BIG Phil

Associate
Joined
6 Jan 2007
Posts
70
I bought an MSI 290X Lightning (full fat variety not LE) in November but it started "blackscreening" and I had to RMA it. I did ask for a replacement but by the time OcUK agreed that it was faulty there were none of the same cards left and hence I have been refunded instead. This was also around the same time that the 290X Lightning LE jumped in price so I have been holding off ordering that.

I am also reluctant to re-order a card which has already cost me at least 10% of its value to get it delivered and then returned.

However I am keen to upgrade my HD6950 and ideally to stick with AMD as (oddly enough) I do use Tridef on occasion which I understand works best with AMD.

Is the Lightning the quietest of the 290Xs as I found it a bit like a hand dryer when powering the latest games at 1080p and "ultra" settings?

Would there be a better value-for-money upgrade than a 290X?

My budget is probably up to £300 (which was the cost of the 290X Lightning when I bought it).

Any advice would be gratefully received. Thank you.
 
BIG Phil said:
I bought an MSI 290X Lightning (full fat variety not LE) in November but it started "blackscreening" and I had to RMA it. I did ask for a replacement but by the time OcUK agreed that it was faulty there were none of the same cards left and hence I have been refunded instead. This was also around the same time that the 290X Lightning LE jumped in price so I have been holding off ordering that.

I am also reluctant to re-order a card which has already cost me at least 10% of its value to get it delivered and then returned.

However I am keen to upgrade my HD6950 and ideally to stick with AMD as (oddly enough) I do use Tridef on occasion which I understand works best with AMD.

Is the Lightning the quietest of the 290Xs as I found it a bit like a hand dryer when powering the latest games at 1080p and "ultra" settings?

Would there be a better value-for-money upgrade than a 290X?

My budget is probably up to £300 (which was the cost of the 290X Lightning when I bought it).

Any advice would be gratefully received. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Yes the Lightning is the coolest and quietest.
Not sure why yours sounded like a hand dryer, mine is barely audible.

The Lightning LE is still the best value for money one that I can see.
 
ghost.florian said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

These offer about the same performance as the 290X, and the fans turn off at low to medium load.
Click to expand...

and no its not on par with a lightning i have a msi gaming 970 which does 1544 on the core and it was slower in all the tests i ran after i swapped it out for my reference 290x in my htpc but was soo much quiter
 
It's not on offer is it, it's the actual price. They've gone from £239.99 to £289.99 down to £259.99 since early December if I remember correctly. I certainly wouldn't be rushing into buying one.
 
thefogo said:
Yes the Lightning is the coolest and quietest.
Not sure why yours sounded like a hand dryer, mine is barely audible.

The Lightning LE is still the best value for money one that I can see.
Click to expand...

It was fine when the fan speed was below 50% but it would start getting pretty warm with settings at maximum in some games and therefore would need more than 50% fan speed to keep it cool. At that point it got quite loud - much louder than my HD6950 ever does.

Thanks all for the advice but I might leave it for a while as the Lightning LE appears to have just leapt up in price to £290 and the 970s appear to have issues of their own at the moment.
 
If your board and psu will support it you could stick another cheap second hand 6950 in xfire for a short term solution until the new AMD 3xx cards come out.
 
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