R9 290X OC with stock cooler

DStruct

DStruct

DStruct

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Hi All

I am wondering what the safe overclocks are using the R9 290X stock cooler via AMD OverDrive

Has anyone any experience with this, done all the testing already and perhaps wrote a blog about it?

Not after anything too crazy or else I would have bought a 3rd party cooler and prepared to do all testing myself

Simply want a little boost thats all

Many thanks
Lee
 
I really wouldnt overclock a 290x on stock cooler bud, they can get so hot already i think youll end up just thermal throttling, especially in this weather (if your UK).
 
You should be fine to get a decent overclock with the stock cooler.

I swapped the thermal pads and changed the TIM for some really good stuff, and that allowed me to hold the card at around 1100Mhz with a lower fan speed.
 
Cheap? £40! That aint my type of cheap haha
Nah its ok I will take the first guys advice and leave it alone

Can I ask another question though, which AMD driver is the most stable? I am googling the question but all the threads I am getting are talking about 13.12 and stuff they are 2 year old drivers but they are old threads so surely something abit more recent just as stable has been released since.

Can anyone recommend one please?

Many thanks again
 
AdamScott85 said:
If you want to keep the card, remove the stock cooler and replace it with something cheap like a Gelid.
Click to expand...

On second thoughts you do make a good point for a few reasons, I mean this card does get damn hot 85 degrees just now. The small room that I use the PC in gets extremely hot and uncomfortable so it makes me wonder if its this graphic card heating up the entire room...... could that even be possible lol
 
AdamScott85 said:
If you want to keep the card, remove the stock cooler and replace it with something cheap like a Gelid.
Click to expand...

Guess it depends on your card, you must have had a pretty decent card to manage that. If i had attempted it on either of mine they would have turn into 2 door stops :)

I assume if Xanity is thinking about using overdrive then he isnt gonna be thinking about changing pads and paste.

If you want to attempt an overclock just download Unigine Heaven and GPU-Z, install them and run Heaven in windowed mode while using GPU-Z to check the temperature.

If your temp is below 85C then your probably ok to overclock a little, open up AMD Global Overdrive then just drag the gpu clock slider across 20mhz at a time until it either crashes Heaven or you start to see artifacting on screen then take it back 20 Mhz. Then do the memory slider the same. After each adjustment tab back to heaven and have a close look at it to check its not artifacting, and then tab to GPU-Z and check the temp is still 85 or below. Don't trust the temp sensor shown in AMD overdrive, that was miles out with my 290s, might have been an odd case but i would at least check the temp matches GPU-Z first before you rely on it.

Once you've settled on a max speed either determined by max temp, fan noise or stability then just test it in a few games to make sure its stable in them too, if your games start crashing then drop the speeds until they stop it.
 
Lol you've already reposted since i started writing that last post, thats what i get for starting a post then going and making a cuppa, like you just said your card is already hot so i would just leave it be or add some extra cooling if your happy with the card.
 
When I used to have the old r9 290x cards I replaced them with some gelids and it made a hell of a difference.The Accelero coolers are better but more costly. Changing the coolers to some gelids is really easy but you will have to get a seperate kit of vrm's but they are only cheap. You would get the temps down about 30 degrees at load if you use the gelids. They no longer sell the gelid Icy Vision Rev 2 coolers on ocuk but easy to find for £30 odd pound. You would need to buy the Gelid Rev.2 ICY Vision Enhancement KIT for AMD R9 290/290X Board (CL-R9290-01-A) for about an extra £9 ish but believe me it would be well worth it but both temperatures and noise. With the kit that comes with it and the extra kit there is plenty of bits for you to do the job. You would need to remove the old pads and clean them as you go.

If you need any advice changing the cooler pm me mate.
BluD I agree with you that he may not be looking at changing the cooler mate but I wanted to let him know it's pretty easy honestly and well worth doing. I have changed to the gelid on 6 different cards and can do it in under 30 minutes now. The first time it could take an hour maybe?
 
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Nah something is definitely up with my PC, keeps hard locking when playing a game. Started happening 3 days ago now its doing it everytime without fail, I havent overclocked I promise lol
 
Seeing as this forum is actually active full of helpful users, I will post my original post with my problem that I posted on the AMD forum in the correct category on OC forum.
Have been totally ignored on the AMD forum, hopefully will be helped here
 
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