R9 280x or R9 290

Qitarah · 23 Aug 2014 at 14:39

definitely get a 290.

thefogo · 23 Aug 2014 at 14:42

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

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.

thefogo · 23 Aug 2014 at 14:56

Sounds like he made a custom fan profile to keep temps down.
One-one profile would mean 70% fan at 70C, which is VERY loud.

metalmackey · 23 Aug 2014 at 15:05

Where is the review from?

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

Pleiades · 23 Aug 2014 at 15:21

Phil2008 said:
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?

Just won an auction for a Gigabyte 280X for £117, hasn't arrived yet so fingers crossed. There appear to be a lot of 280s about, whether it's due to the end of the 'mining' boom or just normal upgrading I don't know... average selling prices for 1 to 6 month old cards appears pretty low to me (£130-ish)...

Crossing my fingers it'll be OK: Gigabyte has a 3 year transferable warranty I believe...

Phil2008 · 23 Aug 2014 at 15:37

I hope its ok Pleiades, let us know?

This is my 6950 in my system

Uncle Petey · 23 Aug 2014 at 15:41

What's going in the x1 slot?

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

Uncle Petey · 23 Aug 2014 at 15:44

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.

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?

Uncle Petey · 23 Aug 2014 at 16:12

Their ref coolers are better than AMD's ye olde jobbie.
290's also run a little hotter.

Ragnahex · 23 Aug 2014 at 16:12

the nvidia blower coolers just work better and the 290 is a very very hot gpu (with the same blower that was designed for cooler ones). don't get the reference unless you are watercooling (i have 2 of them) they are bloody loud if you don't want them to throttle. But saying that enough people have said this so if you still want to get it then fair enough

Uncle Petey · 23 Aug 2014 at 16:16

Phil2008 said:
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?

I've had ref blower 5870/7970/290 and tbh, the tone of the 290 version is slightly less irritating/grating, but since the card runs hotter, you have to set the fan a bit higher or just accept the whole 'they're ok to run at up to 94°C' thing and leave the fan at up to 50% or so..

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?

metalmackey · 23 Aug 2014 at 16:29

As it says in Mortal Kombat...

Toastyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

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?

LtMatt · 23 Aug 2014 at 20:29

Phil2008 said:
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?

Not that there is anything wrong at all with the card you've picked, this is a better option for a few reasons.

1. Cheaper
2. Faster, cooler and quieter than most, but not all 290's/780's.
3. Guaranteed Hynix memory.
4. One of the best coolers available on the 290 series.