R9 290X Owners Thread

[Kaapstad]

Kaapstad add me on the list.

A proud owner of a mighty Sapphire 295X2

Which for some of my colleagues doesn't make sense. One saw yesterday the card, asked the price and said "why not buy xbox one to play games, is cheaper".

(and that came from someone who buys the latest Apple toys all the time....lol).

I would like to put you on the list but this is the 290X thread and the guys over in the 295X2 owners thread would probably get a bit upset.

 

[Kaapstad]

OK. I will deactivate one of the GPUs then (no worries..)

I did think at one point about including 295X2 cards here because they are really two 290Xs on a PCB. Unfortunately that plan went out the window when loads of 295X2 threads sprang up.

 

[Kaapstad]

I hope someone can throw some light on this for me.

I noticed that since I updated the drivers ( it could have happened before but that is when I noticed this) that in CCC it now says :

3 GPU's (6 0 12)
2 GPU's (6 12)
2 GPU's (6 0)

I don't remember exactly what it said before but the numbers were a lot higher. Is this anything to be concerned about or do I ignore it ?

Mine says this for whatever it's worth:

12 6 0
12 0
12 6

Buggered if I know what it means, apart from something to do with pcie something or other

Nothing to worry about

Sometimes the numbers will change when updating drivers and they can change again when you reboot.

It is only where CCC gets a bit confused referring to the different cards but it does not effect performance.

On my motherboard the lowest number refers to the top card, the next highest number to the next card down and so on.

Here is mine

The above is what they normally are but when I change drivers they could be 0,12,6,14 or 0,12,6,22 or some other 4 numbers. Normally after a couple of reboots or restarts they will settle down to what you see in the pic.

It is nothing to worry about just ignore it.

 

[Kaapstad]

Well thanks to 8Pack, I now have a Asus RoG 290x card waiting to go into my system

Post some pics and I can put you on the "Roll of Honour" in the OP.

 

[Kaapstad]

Spoiler

can you add me to the Roll of Honour?

Welcome to the "Roll of Honour".

 

[Kaapstad]

Thanks buddy, it was fun getting it all together and being pushed to get it sorted has really had a big impact on me and I've got the bug now. I kinda wanna do this all the time but it's an expensive hobby

The worse part is sourcing all the stuff. It's never all in stock at any one time and has caused many a headache trying to get alternative stuff. Some of it has been a blessing as the alternatives turned out to be better than they first appeared.

I've got XSPC 90° rotary fittings for the external stuff, they were cheap but wow, the pics on the site don't do them justice.

Very impressive system you have got there, I will put it on the "Roll of Honour" in the morning when I get home.

If you are going to use external rads make sure you fit some Quick Disconnects as it makes life a lot easier.

I use external rads on mine and most of the time my cards don't get over 45c. There is a link to some pics of mine in the OP, the name of the link is "Paint it Black".

 

[Kaapstad]

Thanks very much Kaapstad.

Wow that's a heck of a setup you have there. I love the colour scheme I wish I had the room for rads like that and a 900D but I'm pretty restricted where the pc is situated. I'm hoping the combination of the case rads and an external quad 480 and photon 270 to replace my small res & pump will be able to get these temps down, just enough to not have to worry about them. With four cards I can understand why you went with such a setup and keeping them below 45° is a feat in itself.

Yeah I got the quick disconnects for the external setup, the same ones as in my rig. Like you say they are a must have. Pricey but the money gained back with saving coolant soon pays for it especially if you use the ready made stuff.

Which brand are your 290Xs please for the "Roll of Honour".

At the moment I have put you on the "Roll of Honour" as Ref Watercooled. If you can let me know the brand that would be great.

 

[Kaapstad]

Sorry I should'a said before, three Sapphire 290x Tri-X OC.

Thanks.

 

[Kaapstad]

With my 4 290Xs I use a semi parallel block.

With my 4 Titans they are cooled in series.

There does not seem to be any difference which ever way it is done, they both work fine.

 

[Kaapstad]

"Roll of Honour" updated.

Now get some waterblocks on them Matt.

 

[Kaapstad]

Just to clarify Kaap, 4x 290X XFX reference and 3x 290X XFX Black Edition DD. The other cards are all 290P's.

I have put them on as two separate entries and updated your name to AMDLtNVidiaMatt.

 

[Kaapstad]

Cheers. They're XFX reference though, not AMD. Not that it makes much difference i suppose.

Fixed.

 

[Kaapstad]

Keeping me warm in summer.

To be honest, one extra card makes little difference in terms of heat or noise output. I've been using three for ages so quite used to it now.

It's nice to have that extra grunt at 4k though. Battlefield 4 is a breeze at 4k ultra preset, the cards barely get over 40% fan speed with vsync on.

Stop being a wimp, turn the vsync off.

 

[Kaapstad]

Kaap got an update 290X shot for the OP.

Spoiler

Updated.

 

[Kaapstad]

EK Introduces Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290X Water Block

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to introduce a new Full-Cover water block for Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 290(X) graphics cards with amended (non-reference) Vapor-X circuit board design.

EK-FC R9-290X VaporX directly cools the GPU, RAM as well as VRM (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. Additionally this water block also directly cools exposed copper drain on the circuit board to achieve best cooling possible. The cooling engine features a very high flow design therefore it can be easily used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.


Base is made of nickel-plated electrolytic copper while the top is made of quality POM Acetal or acrylic (depending on the variant). Screw-in brass standoffs are pre-installed and allow for safe installation procedure. The cooling engine uses refined 0.6mm wide microchannel structure to even further improve the heat transfer while not sacrificing the famous low hydraulic restriction design.

Up to four EK-FC R9-290X VaporX water blocks can be interconnected with EK-FC Terminal which allows for hassle-free piping job.

In order to simplify the search for suitable and compatible water block EK is adding newly released graphics cards and motherboard from various manufacturers to EK Cooling Configurator database and compatible graphics cards are being added to the list on daily basis.

This water block is readily available for purchase through EK Webshop and Partner Reseller Network, together with an aesthetic retention backplate:

http://www.techpowerup.com/205394/ek-introduces-sapphire-vapor-x-r9-290x-water-block.html

 

[Kaapstad]

HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo 4GB GDDR5 Video Card Review @Mad Shrimps placed in OP.

http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/article/1000666/#axzz3FisTvtYg

 

[Kaapstad]

Can i have another entry in the OP please Kaap.

Spoiler

 

[Kaapstad]

HIS Radeon R9 290X Hybrid IceQ 4gb review @Legion Hardware placed in OP.


http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/his_radeon_r9_290x_hybrid_iceq_4gb_liquid_cooled,1.html

 

[Kaapstad]

HIS IceQ R9 290X iPower Hybrid iTurbo 4GB review @tech Spot placed in OP.

http://www.techspot.com/review/892-his-r9-290x-hybrid-iceq/

 

[Kaapstad]

And on the "Roll of Honour".