MSI 290/290X Gaming Edition Thread

Marine-RX179 · 14 Jan 2014 at 12:23

Gibbo said:
Yep seems true.

Though Hynix generally is a little better, but at the same time good Elpedia will clock better than poor Hynix etc.

The MSI Lightning card I tested had Hynix, it did 7000MHz just on the memory OC, 6800Mhz was rock stable, so their dedicated power phase for memory definitely helps.

My OcUK VTX unlocked 290x can't manage anything further than 5600MHz on the memory clock without getting black screen even with increased voltage and that's with Elpida memory. Can't exactly say I'm happy, considering I paid a price premium and it's not any faster than a 290 that the memory clock can hit 6000MHz+.

In regard to power phase, I thought all the reference PCB are the same...so for my poor overclock on the memory, is it down to power phase issue on the PCB, or I just had bad luck and got duff memory? I even took your suggestion of using separate rails from the PSU to the PCI-E 6pin and PCI-E 8pin...and it doesn't help. Anything else I can do to push the memory clock higher? I'm not expecting miracle like 6600-6800MHz, but I was expecting to get 6000MHz at least...seeing the results from your 290/290x overclock thread back then with 6200-6400MHz on the memory clock. I recalled you mentioning the Elpida memory was only able to hit 5600MHz initially, but once voltage control was available, having Elpida or Hynix memory didn't matter too much anymore, as they would all hit 6000MHz+ without issue...

Buckster · 14 Jan 2014 at 12:58

Was going to order one of these until I read the linked thread

Might wait in the tri-x to come in stock

LtMatt · 14 Jan 2014 at 13:07

Marine-RX179 said:
My OcUK VTX unlocked 290x can't manage anything further than 5600MHz on the memory clock without getting black screen even with increased voltage and that's with Elpida memory. Can't exactly say I'm happy, considering I paid a price premium and it's not any faster than a 290 that the memory clock can hit 6000MHz+.

In regard to power phase, I thought all the reference PCB are the same...so for my poor overclock on the memory, is it down to power phase issue on the PCB, or I just had bad luck and got duff memory? I even took your suggestion of using separate rails from the PSU to the PCI-E 6pin and PCI-E 8pin...and it doesn't help. Anything else I can do to push the memory clock higher? I'm not expecting miracle like 6600-6800MHz, but I was expecting to get 6000MHz at least...seeing the results from your 290/290x overclock thread back then with 6200-6400MHz on the memory clock. I recalled you mentioning the Elpida memory was only able to hit 5600MHz initially, but once voltage control was available, having Elpida or Hynix memory didn't matter too much anymore, as they would all hit 6000MHz+ without issue...

Got some test results coming up. 1250mhz 320gb bandwidth vs 1625mhz 416gb bandwidth.

pprest123 · 14 Jan 2014 at 13:48

It has arrived.

wapcatlet · 14 Jan 2014 at 13:53

My MSI R9 290 Gaming Edition arrives tomorrow.
I will be gaming at 1440p.
Currently I am running an old Core i5 750 at stock speed. Is this going to severely bottleneck the GPU?
Would a bit of overclocking alleviate the problem or is it a case of upgrading the mobo/CPU?

LtMatt · 14 Jan 2014 at 13:53

pprest123 said:
It has arrived.

pprest123 · 14 Jan 2014 at 13:55

That's a relief (unless I am blind..) but it appears as if they have put thermal pads on the VRMs

LtMatt · 14 Jan 2014 at 13:56

pprest123 said:
That's a relief (unless I am blind..) but it appears as if they have put thermal pads on the VRMs

Even my reference cards have thermal pads so im sure yours will mate.

the1gooner · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:13

wapcatlet said:
My MSI R9 290 Gaming Edition arrives tomorrow.
I will be gaming at 1440p.
Currently I am running an old Core i5 750 at stock speed. Is this going to severely bottleneck the GPU?
Would a bit of overclocking alleviate the problem or is it a case of upgrading the mobo/CPU?

I was running an i5 760 when I first got my 290X and you will be fine if you overclock your 750 a bit.

I overclocked my i5 760 to 4.0Ghz and the difference between it and the i7 4770K I replaced it with is minimal, in benchmarks at least.

Desgaizu · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:15

Hmmm I got my 290 msi gaming edt this morning, ran a bunch of tests. It has great temps 77c max and is pretty much silent.

Also mine shows vrm temps just fine...

and idle

oh and proof of card I guess

LtMatt · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:19

Desgaizu said:
Hmmm I got my 290 msi gaming edt this morning, ran a bunch of tests. It has great temps 77c max and is pretty much silent.

Also mine shows vrm temps just fine...

and idle

oh and proof of card I guess

Congrats.

I bet the person whoever said 'it has no vrm temp sensors' is running an old version of GPU-Z or something.

pprest123 · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:23

Yeah.. that's odd. I can see VRM temps too! (mine's a 290X)

nitram100 · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:23

LtMatt said:
[/spoiler]

Congrats.

I bet the person whoever said 'it has no vrm temp sensors' is running an old version of GPU-Z or something.

The guy who mentioned this on another forum said he had an email from MSI confirming it lol :rolleyes:

Mine is being delivered from OCUK tomorrow, looking forward to it.

edgedemon · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:23

Desgaizu said:
Hmmm I got my 290 msi gaming edt this morning, ran a bunch of tests. It has great temps 77c max and is pretty much silent.

Also mine shows vrm temps just fine...

oh and proof of card I guess

Thanks for taking the time to do that and clear up the VRM issue, nice to see 77C at 100% load.

LtMatt · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:23

pprest123 said:
Yeah.. that's odd. I can see VRM temps too! (mine's a 290X)

Well i guess that settles it then. Hows the card?

nitram100 said:
The guy who mentioned this on another forum said he had an email from MSI confirming it lol

Mine is being delivered from OCUK tomorrow, looking forward to it.

Ha. They probably just said that to get rid of him. "Yeah yeah sure mate, no vrm temp sensors. Thank you come again. Next!"

pprest123 · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:23

LtMatt said:
[/spoiler]

Congrats.

I bet the person whoever said 'it has no vrm temp sensors' is running an old version of GPU-Z or something.

A guy said he emailed MSI about it and they told him it had no VRM sensors :S

pprest123 · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:25

http://imgur.com/diFj1wZ Here it is in my system

Excuse the horrible cable mess in the back (my first build where I've put some effort into cable management)

LtMatt · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:28

pprest123 said:
http://imgur.com/diFj1wZ Here it is in my system

Excuse the horrible cable mess in the back (my first build where I've put some effort into cable management)

Nice. Can't even see the cables you mention, you did a good job of cropping them out.

That card does look a bit lonely, especially when you see all those unused pci-e slots.

pprest123 · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:31

LtMatt said:
Nice. Can't even see the cables you mention, you did a good job of cropping them out.

That card does look a bit lonely, especially when you see all those unused pci-e slots.

I'll more than likely pick another one up later

northun_munky · 14 Jan 2014 at 14:33

Whoop Whoop! Just had confirmation of delivery for tomorrow!!

Having sold both 7850's in readiness for the ETA date of the 10th, I'm now suffering from BF4 withdrawal!

On a side note, did anyone else notice that the minute they arrived at the warehouse they dropped by £12 to £367.99? I've sent them a web note about it.