List of 3rd party coolers compatable with the AMD 290s

[Marine-RX179]

So far we have more or less talked about 3rd party cooling for the AMD 290 here and there, but it's kinda all over the place...so I thought I would make a thread listing all the 3rd party coolers that has already listed to be compatible with the 290s and easy for everyone to see. If it's anyone know of any other I didn't mention, or see error in my list feel free to add.

Arctic Accelero Hybrid: Around £70~ (plus cost of optional extra fans)

Prolimatech MK-26: Around £50~ (plus cost of two fans bought separately)

Arctic Accelero Xtreme III: Around £50 plus additional cost on vram sinks, as it only provide enough for 3GB (12pc) (Pic borrowed from Terminal_Boy)

Gelid Icy Vision Rev 2: Around £30~

I would love to get the Prolimatech MK-26, but not sure if I like the idea of having 5 slots blocked, and would make crossfire in the future definitely a no-go. The Arctic Accelero Xtreme III seem to take 4 slots, and rest seem to take around 3 slots.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Got my unlocked vtx3d coming monday, going to try the stock cooler and if im not happy im going for a accelero hybrid, got a corsair 800d and could fit two easy enough i think

If it is DPD, it's gonna be Tuesday

Mine unlocked VTX should be arriving on Tuesday. I gonna do the same and try the stock cooler first, if it is really too much, I think I'll just get either the Gelid of the Extreme III. I would love to try the Accelero Hybrid, but I got a feeling that performance wise, it's not gonna worth double the price of the Gelid...just saying

I gotta a feeling that even of the stock cooler is ok, it'd best to upgrade to a 3rd party cooler at some point. This is because although the GPU may be able to stand 95C without issue, considering the heatsink is a block shared with the memory as well, I think it might harm the memory in the long run. I mean the idea of having heatsink on the memory is to help with cooling them...but when the GPU is running so hot and heating up the heatsink so much, it may actually be counter-productive to have the heatsink block in contact with the memory as well. Just my two cents.

 

[Marine-RX179]

I find it interesting that the Gelid shuns convention and pulls air onto the GPU as opposed to away.

Not sure what is it you are saying, but most non-blower coolers blow cool-air into the heatsink of the coolers to push the heat out from the heatsink, and this heat in turn is move away by the airflow of the case.

Finally Marine upgrades his GPU. Never thought we'd see the day.

Not got the card yet. Fingercross that the card I get is problem-free

 

[Marine-RX179]

Also wanted to ask if you've looked at the Alpenföhn Passive DRAM / VRAM Chip Coolers Marine? I'm interested in the VRM cooler in it as it looks like you can screw it down onto the VRM with some paste on there ofc opposed to holding it on with tape.

Yea I recall people mentioning that, but since I don't have direct knowledge on this matter, so I don't think I'm in the position to recommend it. It'd be best if someone who knows more about it to add the details to this thread.

 

[Marine-RX179]

The gelid looks good value but only if it performs

From the following discussion, it seem to perform quite well:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1439731/bored-of-waiting-for-none-ref-290x-check-this-simple-cheap-fix

But I think some people did mention the vrm sink coming loose or something because of the tape not attaching the heatsink well enough, so might need to look into getting the Alpenföhn Passive DRAM / VRAM Chip r7slayer mentioned above.

 

[Marine-RX179]

OK so I've gotten my VTX flashed to 290x card yesterday. I've left the card completely at stock (not even increased the power limit) and ran Valley bench on loop for nearly an hour, and the temp is better than I thought it'd be.

Note that I have set up a custom fan profile on MSI Afterburner with minimum 30% fan speed, and 50% fan speed on 90C, and this is the result:

I have to say, while 89C is not "great" temp, but bearing in mine I've set the fanspeed max at just 50% at 90C, so it is definitely better than what I'd expect. The VRM temp is not too bad as well I would think.

My case is arounds 1 metres away from me on the floor, and at fanspeed of 50% and 55%, while I can hear it, but if you were gaming with the speakers on at even normal level (not loud), the noise is not instrusive; however for people who got their case on the desk at ear level, then the noise would may be too much for them. I've also ran Heaven on loop for an hour with max fanspeed set to 55% at 90C, and it was only hitting 86-87C max.

I would like to point out my case has "extremely good" airflow with lots of fans (and cool air being directly feed to the stock cooler's intake), so I would imagine for people that only got "good" airflow might get around 3-5C higher in temp if using the same settings as mine above.

As it stand, I find 50% fanspeed is not too bad for me, and is enough to keep the GPU temp *just* below 90C. I would imagine if I gonna do high overclock on this card, I gonna have to increase the fanspeed.

If I'm completely honest, cooling wise the stock cooler up to the job, however the problem is turning the fanspeed up too high, the noise level would become unbearable. Also I would imagine during the summer time, while turning up the fanspeed MAY BE enough to keep the card cooled, but the noise level would be hitting unbearable level...so what I'm trying to say is, while I can use the card at reasonable noise level during the winter, I would imagine the need for getting a 3rd party cooler is just a matter of time.

Edited: Have tried tweaking a little more, and found that put the profile of fanspeed up ro 55% at 80C and 60% at 90C I was manage to keep the temp not exceeding 85C in Heaven most of the time. It's a bit louder, but still not instrusive enough along the use of the speaker at normal level volume. The temp is definitely at a better place at 85C max than just 1-2C short of 90C.

Also I've tried 100% fanspeed, and it was able to keep the temp in Heaven at just 70C...but of course it was loud as hell.

I've already order the Gelid Icy Vision Rev 2...will report back once I received and installed it. Was originally thinking of getting the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III, but it is a) only comes with enough ram sink (12) for 3GB of vram so would require getting Alpenföhn Passive DRAM / VRAM Chip Coolers (£12), and would put the cost up to a total of around £60, whereas the Gelid comes with enough ramsink (16) for 4GB of vram and cost just under £33 delivered. Also the Xtreme III would be too long to fit into my CoolerMaster 690II Advanced case, as I've current have a fan mounted on the side of the drive-cage, so that's 25mm shorter in length available for the graphic card and removing that fan could be a bit of pain for me, due to the way how the screws are screwed in.

 

[Marine-RX179]

So...I had a bit more play today on the VTX (unlocked) 290x, and played around with fanspeed and overclocking a bit, trying to find the best balance between voltage/temp, overclock and fanspeed, and I have settled on using 1100/1500 for now, which required a slight bump in voltage of +30mV (upped from 1250mV to 1280mV), and change the fan profile to speed up sooner at a lower temp (70C at 50%, 80C at 55%, 90C at 60%)...and here's the results of running Heaven on 1920 res, 4xAA, Extreme Tesselation for 45mins, and it never went above 55% fan speed and 81C:

My room is around 18-19C.

This should do me nicely till my Gelid Icy Vision Rev2 arrive I had a look on its manual in advance...the installation seem straightfoward enough.
http://www.gelidsolutions.com/products/guides/Rev.2 Icy Vision_installation_manual.pdf

 

[Marine-RX179]

Thats pretty damn good marine. To be running at 1100/1500 which is a 10% core overclock + 20% memory overclock and only 81c. Not bad at all. Pretty sure thats about the temp of a titan/780 at stock. Vrm temps looking good as well.

Yea...I guess the bottomline is each person's tolerance to noise is different. 55% fan speed (3000rpm) could be too much for people that put their PC on their desk at ear-level, but for my circumstance as I've mentioned I have the PC on the floor around 1 meter away from me, the 3000rpm noise level is not that bad. But for high overclocking, it definitely require better cooling. I've trying 1175MHz on the core clock with the voltage on +100mV (1350mV), but it artifact very quickly as soon as the temp hitting 87C+; I've try having the fanspeed at 100%, and it managed to keep the temp at around 71-72C max, and I don't think I noticed any artifact...but of course, the noise was crazy loud

 

[Marine-RX179]

I'm still in shock that you upgraded from your 5850. What's going to happen to the old boy? I have a feeling it will end up on your mantle piece.

Well, they don't exactly sell for much these days, so I might just keep it as spare, like how people use to have a spare 8800GT/8800GTX lying around ready to step-in should the main card need to be out for rma/repair/replace

 

[Marine-RX179]

OK...so I've installed my Gelid Icy Vision Rev2 cooler last night. I haven't tested on stock clock, but after lot of of testing, I've settled for 1.30mV 1140/1550 for 24/7 for now.

As you can see (above result is from running Heaven at max settings for 1920 res 8xAA Extreme Tessellation etc), the GPU temp has dropped hugely...however, the issue has now become vrm1 temp getting too hot instead when using to high voltage, which is why I am using 1.30mV only to keep the temp below 90C. I have to say this, while the stock cooler is indeed loud, but due to the blower design with the fan intake sitting right next to the vrm1 and blowing cool air sideway into it directly in narrowed space, it's actually doing a far better job at cooling the vrm than possibly all the 3rd party coolers...shame the same cannot be said about GPU temp.

I'll probably grab the Alpenföhn Passive DRAM / VRAM Chip Coolers from OcUK to replace the vrm heatsink that comes with the Gelid and see if it would help with lowering the temp of vrm1. I managed to bench Sleeping Dogs at 1200/1570MHz stable with not artifact no blackscreen (can't push any higher on the stupid elpida rams) on 1.412mV:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25403326&postcount=314
...but the vrm1 was hitting as high as 127C

Oh and ignore the fanspeed reading of 4000rpm...it's because the fans on the cooler is not pwm, so it's running at a constant 2000rpm or something.

I'll add the result for stock 290x later.

 

[Marine-RX179]

ok here's the results for stock clocks on stock voltage 1.25mV in Heaven (40mins loop) I promised:

 

[Marine-RX179]

You could buy a spot cooler to point at the VRMs. e.g.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-007-AN

I've already got a 120mm fan right in front of the card blowing into it (from right to left). I think it's more of the case needing a bigger sink for the vrm.

I think that the Arctic Hybrid is probably gonna be the best of both worlds for cooling the GPU and vrm. This is mainly because unlike all the other coolers, the vrm are not cooled by the "2nd hand air" which are usually the case of the fan blowing through the main heatsink of the cooler and with the "heat" "cooling" the vrm, but is actually cooled directly by the "fresh" cool air...if you know what I mean. But of course, that cooler would cost more than double the price comparing to the Gelid.

IMO...GPU cooling wise, ANY half decent will be able to keep the GPU cool enough without issue...but it is only till you have one of such cooler fitted, the challenge is no longer about cooling the GPU, but the vrm1 instead. So basically what I'm trying to say is...for people that want the best performance on cooling the vrm, the Arctic Hybrid is probably the best choice (if don't mind the cost), or DIY one of the ghetto Hybrid cooling like in Boomstick's thread.