R9 290

[NirK]

I am looking at buying a 290 but the thing that is putting me off is the power consumption, is there anything you can do with the 290 to make it better? On a review I saw some tweaking options in the catalyst control panel but I don't know what they do...

The idle power is ok, but the power consumption watching videos (which I do a lot from my PC) is extremely high, has AMD released any new drivers since the launch that has fixed or improved that? If not is there any tweaks you can do to get normal power consumption when watching videos... for example "techpowerup review - Blu ray power consumption : GTX 780 = 18w, R9 290 = 75w, also the multi monitor power consumption is bad.

Is there anything you can do about this? Changing the power settings or changing the config files etc?

 

[NirK]

You could see how far you can undervolt it on stock clocks, but that's something you would usually do if you were running crossfire and trying to keep temps down and is never a guarantee. If you're that concerned about power consumption I would opt for a 970. I've had a vapor-x 290 and my 970s in my possession the past week and there's nothing in it performance wise, but the 970s are noticeably cooler and consume less power. Both are good cards though.

Yeh I would like the 970 but the 290 is already the most expensive card I can afford, the difference between a 280x and 290 new is not much, actually some 280x cost more than some 290 for some reason, Maybe I could keep it at stock clocks and undervolt it, don't want to underclock the mhz because that sort of makes it pointless buying a fast card.. Do you know if there have been any driver updates to fix the blu ray / video power consumption? Or if you can do it by changing settings? On my 5870 I can change some settings such as idle clocks etc. in the config file.

 

[NirK]

Your 970=£250-£25 selling on the game=£225
290=£216-£50 selling on 3 games=£166

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-166-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

970 is cooler/less power/louder/bit faster@£225
290 is quieter/hotter/higher power/bit slower@£166

Depends how a system is ran but if it's for 24/7 use, Zerocore powers down the gpu and uses no power.

The op can work out whether he can claw back £69 of leccy over the time he plans on running a card.

I never looked at it like that..... I only want one of the games on the deal anyway so I could sell 2 of them which would make it cheaper, nice one.

 

[NirK]

Not even worth thinking about, seriously over a year it is nothing.

Just worked it out, at 50w more watching videos, 4 hours a day, every day, it would be about £1 a month or £12 a year, about 70w more gaming 4 hours a day about £1.50 a month or £18 a year so about £20-30 a year which thinking about it is not a lot lol. I don't spend 8 hours a day gaming and watching videos anyway so probably more like £20 a year compared to a 970. Still would be good if there was a fix for it... Or if you could tweak the config for a lower power etc.

 

[NirK]

I just don't understand the hyperbole about temperatures and noise.

I use a Powercolor PCS+ R9 290 @ 1125/1400 (a 20% over reference overclock) it struggles to get to 70 after 3 hours of gaming with V-Sync off. thats also with custom quiet fan profile. at stock it barely breaks 60c+

Probably because the stock coolers on release were **** and they ran at 95 degrees etc. With custom coolers they are good but the power is still one of the highest for any card and I am sure they could have made the video consumption a lot better than 75w when nvidia can do it at about 15w. Oh well in the scheme of things it is not a lot, for example a wall heater or an oven uses about 2-3kw lol.

 

[NirK]

Damn the games are just download keys so wouldn't get £50 for them... If you get a game with a download key, can you download it, play it, then sell the key? Or once you have entered the key you cannot sell it again?

 

[NirK]

Is the XFX a good card / brand? I know they do good PSU but not sure about GPU, some cards have overheating problems etc. is the XFX good?

Said in a review I just read that the VRM's get extremely hot, is this fixed?

 

[NirK]

I had an MSI Gaming R9 290, with their really good Twin Frozr Cooler. Card had no issues reaching 90C+ with the fans being very noticeably loud. And regardless of how good the cooler is, Hawaii produce stupid amounts of heat that after market cards will dump in your case.

Was that overclocked? In review I read it was about 75c or something for the MSI 290, I was thinking of leaving it at stock clocks and undervolting it a bit to stop the heat etc.

 

[NirK]

So if you register on XFX site do you get a LIFETIME WARRANTY on the 290 DD ?! You can keep sending the card back for repairs for the rest of your life if you want to ?!

 

[NirK]

Would seem your 290 had a hardware issue then.

This my two, 1 hour and 30 mins BF4 and 1 hour Alien... This with Vsync off and frame rate allowed to run upto 200fps.. lock that down to 120fps and temps will drop much lower..

What card is that? I want to know which is the coolest / best 290, with no broken fans or overheating VRM's etc.

 

[NirK]

For my budget (which is basically whichever 290 is cheapest, I think all I could get would be the XFX DD one or the MSI gaming. There might be some others about but does anyone know what the best 290's are? Usually its asus and gigabyte but they are also more expensive. What about the MSI 290 gaming?

I was planning on getting a 280x but now that some 290's are actually cheaper than the 280x's it would be silly to get a 280x, I just want one that is not loud, has good cooling, doesn't have overheating VRM's and is well built.

 

[NirK]

What case do you have?

Funny you ask because I just got it delivered today, its a fractal R4 with 3 intakes and 2 exhausts fitted, also removed the HD cage so it should be good enough, It has 3 x bequiet 140mm fans and 2 x scythe slipstream 1300rpm so that should be good enough.

 

[NirK]

Not bad at all, do take the top rack out, you will get better airflow, i even removed the unremovable bottom rack out of my HAF 912+

I have 200m intake and top fan, 120mm exaust which is also the CPU Cooling RAD, and a 120mm side fan.

IMO the Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB is the best card for its money, actually its the second best 290, only to the Vapour-X.

It has a large VRM cooler, its the only card with glued Coils to stop whining, the cooler is excellent, it has a nice and solid back plate, its one of the best cards there is.

Whats powercolour like? I have not read much about them, do they use good caps etc. like asus and gigabyte? Looks good though maybe I will get that one, also is it loud?

 

[NirK]

SAPPHIRE 4GB RADEON R9 290 TRI-X OC

Is this the best 290 available?

 

[NirK]

So if its an AMD reference board does that mean it is exactly the same as the original cards (that had the poor coolers) but basically with a better heatsink on it? I don't want to buy anything that has been downgraded from the reference board, some of the manufacturers add better components, caps etc. I assume that if its an AMD reference board that has not been changed then it should use decent quality bits and last for a few years.. But I think some people like MSI actually use worse parts so they can sell for cheaper..

 

[NirK]

I don't look that closely at them TBH, but it has been said that some AIB's do downgrade with cheaper components to increase margins.

I am not an expert either but I just want to make sure I get a good card that is not going to fail, the powercolour looks good in the review I read, can you set the fan profile to whatever you want with the 290? So if the default one is too loud you can set RPM at temperature? On my out of date 5870 there are not many options for changing the fan speeds except for 1 slider..

 

[NirK]

There is a fix for it, see above. stop reading reviews about early reference cards which have blower coolers

What fix do you mean? undervolting the card? That is an option but I was hoping it had been fixed in drivers or it is possible to change the cfg or something to make it better,