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Gigabyte change the cooling solution on the Radeon R9 290 (X)

Chewie said:
Hey Flight404 were you finally able to flash your card to the new F3L bios version? I've just tried to do it on mine today and I got the same problem, Gigabyte VGA@BIOS tool gives me an ID error.

I've also contacted Gigabyte (again) as they were recommending to flash to the new version...
Click to expand...
It was not possible to install the F3 BIOS due to ID errors.

I had it with Gigabyte. The card went 84 degrees celsius and throttling back to mid 700MHz, with a fanspeed of 54% (this started to get loud)
I mailed Gigabyte and the come with the answer:

Please install the VGA@bios Tool and check the installed bios version of your card.
Please note:
You can only update to a VBIOS version of the same series.
If your VBIOS version is:
F1, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F2-F9.
F10, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F11-F19.
F20, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F21-F29.

This is a big fail because the F3 BIOS is the first BIOS update for that card.

So I went back to the store where I bought the card and I replaced it with the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC.
This card is way better then the Gigabyte.

Performed some benchmarks with the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC:

- No throttling
- 74 degrees celsius on 1920x1080 8x MSAA
- Fans quit at 42%
- VRM1: 73 degrees celsius, VRM2: 57 degrees celsius

The Gigabyte R9 290 WINDFROCE:

- Throttling to mid 700MHz
- 84 degrees celsius on 1920x1080 8x MSAA
- Fans way louder at 52%
- VRM1: 120 degrees celsius, VRM2: 66 degrees celsius
 
Flight404 said:
It was not possible to install the F3 BIOS due to ID errors.

I had it with Gigabyte. The card went 84 degrees celsius and throttling back to mid 700MHz, with a fanspeed of 54% (this started to get loud)
I mailed Gigabyte and the come with the answer:

Please install the VGA@bios Tool and check the installed bios version of your card.
Please note:
You can only update to a VBIOS version of the same series.
If your VBIOS version is:
F1, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F2-F9.
F10, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F11-F19.
F20, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F21-F29.

This is a big fail because the F3 BIOS is the first BIOS update for that card.

So I went back to the store where I bought the card and I replaced it with the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC.
This card is way better then the Gigabyte.

Performed some benchmarks with the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC:

- No throttling
- 74 degrees celsius on 1920x1080 8x MSAA
- Fans quit at 42%
- VRM1: 73 degrees celsius, VRM2: 57 degrees celsius

The Gigabyte R9 290 WINDFROCE:

- Throttling to mid 700MHz
- 84 degrees celsius on 1920x1080 8x MSAA
- Fans way louder at 52%
- VRM1: 120 degrees celsius, VRM2: 66 degrees celsius
Click to expand...

Just to let you know flight404, couldn't flash my card to bios F3L either (device ID error). Informed Gigabyte, waiting for feedback...
 
ICDP said:
So R9 290X's all black screen and throttle do they? 1st I heard of it. All those people, myself included who use R9 290X cards with no such issues must be in the tiny minority. Right? ;)

I agree R9 290X non ref are overpriced compared to GTX780Ti but that in no way excuses the pricing on that overpriced card either. It's hard to believe a reference R9 290 is ~40%-45% cheaper and gives only ~15% less performance than 780Ti and R9 290X non-ref.
Click to expand...

I'm confident I could buy 3 or 4 reference 290Xs now and not have a black screen issue, but that doesn't mean the problem is in the minority.

Yes people only pipe up when they've got issues, and I'm sure there are plenty of happy 290X owners. I had no issues with my card at launch. But given the number of threads we've had in the last couple of months, there is definitely A issue, whether it be with the VRAM or somewhere else it's there, and it appears to be at least fairly wide spread.

With price though, I guess it's not fair to comment. If you think it's too expensive you don't have to buy it :)
 
Flight404 said:
It was not possible to install the F3 BIOS due to ID errors.

I had it with Gigabyte. The card went 84 degrees celsius and throttling back to mid 700MHz, with a fanspeed of 54% (this started to get loud)
I mailed Gigabyte and the come with the answer:

Please install the VGA@bios Tool and check the installed bios version of your card.
Please note:
You can only update to a VBIOS version of the same series.
If your VBIOS version is:
F1, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F2-F9.
F10, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F11-F19.
F20, it can only be updated with VBIOS versions F21-F29.

This is a big fail because the F3 BIOS is the first BIOS update for that card.

So I went back to the store where I bought the card and I replaced it with the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC.
This card is way better then the Gigabyte.

Performed some benchmarks with the Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC:

- No throttling
- 74 degrees celsius on 1920x1080 8x MSAA
- Fans quit at 42%
- VRM1: 73 degrees celsius, VRM2: 57 degrees celsius

The Gigabyte R9 290 WINDFROCE:

- Throttling to mid 700MHz
- 84 degrees celsius on 1920x1080 8x MSAA
- Fans way louder at 52%
- VRM1: 120 degrees celsius, VRM2: 66 degrees celsius
Click to expand...

To me that's as though there's bad contact on VRM1 surely? If there is an issue with the cooler not making proper contact, is there any harm taking it off and checking? Not sure if that invalidates warranty with GB
 
Last edited:
Ok guys some news on my end. Gigabyte came back to me with what looks like a beta version of their VGA@BIOS utility, which allowed me to flash my card to the new F3L bios.

In short cooling of the card is now much improved...at the cost of silence. Basically what they did is go for a much more agressive fan profile, during my load test the card never went above 75°C but with the fans spinning at 64% and so clearly audible. I also noticed that the fans ramp up much earlier than before, which is a good thing, and that the default idle fan speed has jumped from 20% to 30% (which again is perfectly fine as at 20% they were spinning at a ridiculously low 500rpm).

All for all I'm disappointed as it seems that the card cannot just run cool and silent and in a way feel like I have a product which is not what I wanted in the first place :(
 
Last edited:
Ok guys some news on my end. Gigabyte came back to me with what looks like a beta version of their VGA@BIOS utility, which allowed me to flash my card to the new F3L bios.

In short cooling of the card is now much improved...at the cost of silence. Basically what they did is go for a much more agressive fan profile, during my load test the card never went above 75°C but with the fans spinning at 64% and so clearly audible. I also noticed that the fans ramp up much earlier than before, which is a good thing, and that the default idle fan speed has jumped from 20% to 30% (which again is perfectly fine as at 20% they were spinning at a ridiculously low 500rpm).

All for all I'm disappointed as it seems that the card cannot just run cool and silent and in a way feel like I have a product which is not what I wanted in the first place :(
 
Last edited:
77°C on full load with fans spinning at 67% :mad:

Other finding, the GPU temperature limit thresold setting in the Overdrive panel of the Catalyst drivers has disappeared.
 
Last edited:
Chewie said:
Ok guys some news on my end. Gigabyte came back to me with what looks like a beta version of their VGA@BIOS utility, which allowed me to flash my card to the new F3L bios.

In short cooling of the card is now much improved...at the cost of silence. Basically what they did is go for a much more agressive fan profile, during my load test the card never went above 75°C but with the fans spinning at 64% and so clearly audible. I also noticed that the fans ramp up much earlier than before, which is a good thing, and that the default idle fan speed has jumped from 20% to 30% (which again is perfectly fine as at 20% they were spinning at a ridiculously low 500rpm).

All for all I'm disappointed as it seems that the card cannot just run cool and silent and in a way feel like I have a product which is not what I wanted in the first place :(
Click to expand...

That sucks tbh, sounds like they still aren't making good contact or something, my 780 GHZ with the WF3 cooler running a max voltage clock only hits 30% speed max (17% idle) while keeping temps below 70C which is as good as inaudiable for all intents and purposes.
 
Response received from Gigabyte after raising to their attention the fact that even though the card runs much cooler with the new bios it has created a new problem, noise.

Answer : Dear xxx,

Please understand that we are not able to determine noise issue via e-mail. We suggest you can contact your original purchase retailer and let them to evaluate the noise volume.

Regards,
GIGABYTE

Not sure what to do as I don't think Overclockers.uk will/can do anything about it...
 
^^ lol

you'd think they'd know how loud "their" cards are at x% fan speed ? right ?

therefore they can only be suggesting that its ok unless the fans themselves are faulty
 
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