My Crashing r9 290 thread.

ChrisD. · 28 Dec 2013 at 18:29

Any difference at all?

Does that card have a BIOS switch on it?

jaydam · 28 Dec 2013 at 18:32

i wouldn't know?

This is the card i have purchased.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-243-MS

ChrisD. · 28 Dec 2013 at 18:35

Maybe it's only the 'X' that has it, but look around the crossfire connector for a little switch.

Orangey · 28 Dec 2013 at 19:03

The 290 has a BIOS switch but apparently both BIOSes are the same, no quiet/uber.

The switch is located about 5cm from where the xfire fingers would be, moving away from the PCIE bracket.

ChrisD. · 28 Dec 2013 at 19:08

The MSI 280X's I have have a switchable BIOS:

jaydam · 28 Dec 2013 at 19:18

ok so power it down switch it and power it up again?

ChrisD. · 28 Dec 2013 at 19:34

jaydam · 28 Dec 2013 at 20:05

ok ill give it a go

jaydam · 29 Dec 2013 at 22:52

just an update i havent looked for the bios switch yet but it does seem to have stabilized

it seems the game only stops when the card gets too hot now, i have seem lots of cooling talk with these cards and i can smell the heat coming from the card.

what cooling options do i have for this card?

Geeman1979 · 29 Dec 2013 at 22:56

Here's one.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18565851

Review of said cooler.

http://www.legitreviews.com/nzxt-kraken-g10-gpu-water-cooler-review-on-an-amd-radeon-r9-290x_130344

jaydam · 29 Dec 2013 at 23:00

Many Thanks,

Why these things are not cooled enough when out the box is beyond me,

i think this looks very good

budwozza · 30 Dec 2013 at 00:10

Do you have decent case cooling / airflow?

jaydam · 30 Dec 2013 at 09:14

Yes, A thermaltake with many fans. but i can still smell the card getting hot and can see the temp going up on misa.

Confused Stu · 30 Dec 2013 at 12:56

How high does the temperature get? At standard, the 290's are designed to run the fan at 20% until the card gets to 90C, then ramp the fan up until the card gets to 94C and the maximum fan speed set (47% at stock). If this fan speed can't keep temperatures under 95C, then the card will throttle it's clock speed to keep it under 95C.

If your card's are staying under 95C, then they're working as they're meant to and AMD have said there's no issue with running at that temperature for the life of the card. Obviously, at that kind of temperature the exhausted air will smell hot, but as long as your card's running 90C-94C it's officially nothing to worry about.

That said, it did take me a couple of weeks to stop panicking every time my card was at 80C when just surfing the internet! (crossfire + Eyefinity - the worst possible idle temperature combination)

jaydam · 30 Dec 2013 at 19:01

Aha this is very usefill information as when i smell burning it automatically makes me worry lol,

Thanks for the heads up.....

Confused Stu · 30 Dec 2013 at 19:12

jaydam said:
Aha this is very usefill information as when i smell burning it automatically makes me worry lol,

Thanks for the heads up.....

Understandable, and I'm not saying nothing's wrong, just worth checking. One of my 7970s (Gigabyte Wind force) smelled for about 2 weeks after I got it, but temperatures were OK (70C-80C) and eventually it stopped smelling. Many months later it's still going strong and unsmelly in my mates PC.

Definitely worth monitoring temperatures in Afterburner/GPUz and setting how your card's actually faring.

ChrisD. · 30 Dec 2013 at 20:32

Confused Stu said:
How high does the temperature get? At standard, the 290's are designed to run the fan at 20% until the card gets to 90C, then ramp the fan up until the card gets to 94C and the maximum fan speed set (47% at stock). If this fan speed can't keep temperatures under 95C, then the card will throttle it's clock speed to keep it under 95C.

If your card's are staying under 95C, then they're working as they're meant to and AMD have said there's no issue with running at that temperature for the life of the card. Obviously, at that kind of temperature the exhausted air will smell hot, but as long as your card's running 90C-94C it's officially nothing to worry about.

That said, it did take me a couple of weeks to stop panicking every time my card was at 80C when just surfing the internet! (crossfire + Eyefinity - the worst possible idle temperature combination)

You got a source for this information please?

Confused Stu · 30 Dec 2013 at 21:45

MilanoChris said:
You got a source for this information please?

The clock speed throttling when the card hits 95C is in every review. The fan staying at 20% until 90C is what I've observed on both of mine, just tried finding it mentioned in a review and my Google skills have let me down.

For the bit about being designed and safe to run at up to 95C, AMD state this http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/his_radeon_r9_290x_review,11.html and http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ama-toms-hardware,3672-3.html

systemerror · 31 Dec 2013 at 02:01

Hope you get this sorted, Shame to spend all that cash and still have problems.

Ronson12 · 31 Dec 2013 at 03:07

I wouldn't rely on the stock fan speeds as they let your cards get extremely hot under load.
My 6970 would hit 90c-100c using the stock speeds which seemed to just be 20% which is ridiculous while just gaming,you are better off setting your own fan curve in MSI afterburner.

Doing that my card stays at 60c in most games and hits 70c in one or 2 games.
I set the fan curve so that every 10c my fans go up 10% and Max out at 60% giving me 60c.

Why its set to a constant 20% fan speed is beyond me,that's the sort of speed you want for idling at the desktop which i get 35c.I could understand if it had 3 big fans,but your card and mine both have small fans.

What are your temps when this happens and during gaming