R9 280x or R9 290

Phil2008 · 22 Aug 2014 at 14:11

I can get a 280x for just under £200 and the 290 for about £330, but how much speed increase is the 290 over the 280x and is it worth spending over £100 more for the 290?

Phil2008 · 22 Aug 2014 at 14:23

Too meny fans, plus ideally I want a 1 fan design so it doesnt block up my pcie slot thats the next slot down from gfx card

Phil2008 · 22 Aug 2014 at 20:28

I might go down the ebay route for a change, as I can get a msi 290 with the 1 fan blower version for about £200 instead of £330 new, but the problem is, do you trust what ppl put,,, ummmmmmm?

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 08:12

thefogo said:
If you're going with a single card I would really recommend a 290 with a custom cooler instead.

I have had a look at a review for the msi 290 with the 1 fan and they say..... in the 20s idle and 80s load, can I get a better 1 fan cooler and are they easy to install?

If I dont get the 290, I will prob go for the XFX 280x or the 285 thats out in a few weeks. With the XFX 280x I have read that the temps are really low on that.

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 14:12

I have just ordered a brand new 290, im well chuffed, as this is my first high end gpu I have bought, and should last me a good few years hopefully. I have ordered this too,, does anyone know when its in stock? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-061-BX&groupid=1929&catid=2221

thefogo said:
Which one? The MSI cards have two fans.

This is the card I have ordered, so the fan is well away from my pcie x1 slot , thats the next one down from the graphics card

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 14:32

thefogo said:
That's the reference model. It runs pretty hot and loud.
Not sure what you mean about the fans, it's the same amount of slots as most other 290s so it doesn't matter.

The 6950 I have at the moment is a 1 fan blower card, the same as the 290 so Im hoping it will run as cool (38c idle, 75c load). This is what I mean about the slot problem. see how far the fan is away from the slot.....

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 14:48

thefogo said:
No the 290 will run at about 40C idle and 94C load.
Do you not have another pci-e x1?

One review read said "This is a great card,very powerful been playing assassins creed black flag with everything maxed out and the temps on a one 2 one profile set up on msi afterburner,temps ingame are only 69c, played battlefield 4 on ultra and again temps don't go pass 70c for the price its a great card I have tested every game and all my games run ultra with no problems and temps stay down below 70c make sure you have a full tower because its a beast of a card." So fingers crossed :eek:

My other pcie x1 slot is 2nd slot down so the gfx card is covering it.

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 15:12

yeah, I had to make a fan profile for my 6950 because the fan was hardly spinning up in games..

This is my profile I made for my 6950. Any higher then 50% and it gets quite noisy, but 50% fanspeed keeps it within 70-80c

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 15:37

I hope its ok Pleiades, let us know?

This is my 6950 in my system

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 15:42

Uncle Petey said:
What's going in the x1 slot?

nothing yet, but its my only x1 slot

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 16:03

Uncle Petey said:
Since you already have a soundcard, what could you realistically see going in there that would make you go for a loud ref cooler over a good non-ref card?
There are 2 slot non-ref cards out there too.

Its a X-FI sound card and I have had it for years, so I might upgrade that before too long as Im guessing the next OS might not support it or drivers will be dodgy. Iv heard loads of bad stories about the X-FI not working on different versions of windows, but so far I haven't had any problems touch wood. Now that I have said that, it wont work tomorrow :eek:

Im guessing the cooler on the 290 card will be more or less the same as on my 6950, and if thats the case I will be happy?

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 16:11

How come all highend nvidia cards use blower coolers if there rubbish?

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 16:17

Ah well if i get rubbish temps I will have to either send it back or buy a different cooler.. But I really wanted to keep the 1fan blower cooler, hope I havent made a mistake? I guess I could always change my order as it wont be shipped till tuesday?

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 20:24

Its back to the drawing board, I have cancelled the msi 290, and hell with the pcie x1 slot, I'll cross that bridge if I buy a pcie x1 card.

Im still after a 290. I was thinking http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-219-XF.
I was thinking if I could get a 290 that has real low temps, I could still use the pcie x1 slot, yeah the card will prob be covering up the first fan, but the temps shouldnt be shocking tho?

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 20:41

Im thinking tho more fans more dust?

edit: It wont fit in my case, its about 2cm too big

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 21:14

Yeah, my case has quite a good air flow with 2 120s at the front and 1 120 at the back. Plus there's not meny cables in the air flows path.

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 22:08

I was thinking I could go for a nvidia card the same speed as the 290, but nvidia has less memory and for 3 or 4gb of memory, its quite a bit more expensive then amd?

Uncle Petey said:
It does have a pretty restrictive front panel though.
Shouldn't be the end of the world or anything.

Yeah Ive thought about cutting the top hdd cage away once or twice.

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 23:14

Uncle Petey said:
Do you think the OP will ever come back?

Then again, he's been here since 2004, so I'm sure he's seen worse things than Tommy's cheeks.

Boo,, Im back..lol, You have to have a bit of a laugh on a bank hol, don't you?

Well I play mainly racing games, f1, grid autosport ect and a bit of Thief as I love sneaking about the place. I have just over £300 to spend if needs be and I want the card to last a fair few yrs?

Phil2008 · 24 Aug 2014 at 02:02

Uncle Petey said:
I wish you had a more suitable case, as I'd love to furnish you (on the MM of course) with a watercooled 290 full setup and all within your budget (well, near enough)

Bit of a random thought, but there it is...

I think my case is plenty big enough as I cannot do with these huge cases with enough room to swing a double decker bus round in, I like it just big enough to fit my stuff in but enough room to work in. I think the fractal design R3 case keeps my hardware cool enough?

Phil2008 · 24 Aug 2014 at 16:20

Ok guys, what do you think about the "XFX Radeon R9 290 DD Black Edition"? It looks very tasty, but some reviews say you have to be careful what one you get because some go up to 90c and others 70c load.

So do you guys know what version or model number I need for the cooler one, is there anyway to turn off the xfx light, and lastly am I making the right choice this time?