** SAPPHIRE R290 PRO REVIEW & 1000+ IN STOCK!! **

[wolvers]

Clock for clock, yes.

Cheers.

Erm they'll probably think how many people are going to watercool these, a fraction of a percent of the buyers, and realise with the stock coolers they don't need to do anything right now.

Out of all of the enthusiast market, I would imagine that the percentage that wil pay that much extra for a quieter cooling solution AND settle for less performance is pretty slim. Most will not be bothered by the noise and still have change for a night out on the tiles, fit a better cooler or water cool it..........and have better performance that could get even better when Mantle arrives.

Nvidia must have thought they'd done enough when they dropped the prices after 290x launch, it'll be interesting to see if they have any more left in the tank. It really does show how much price gouging they do.

 

[rare]

When are we expecting to see non reference coolers on these cards? Is it going to be next year realistically?

 

[BurntProc]

I just want to see a decent 3 slot aftermarket cooler so I can fit one...

 

[TheRealDeal]

My God these cards are SCREAMING for an after market cooler! I'm debating whether to get a 780 or one of these but I can't be doing with the noise.

Just listen to how loud it is at 47% compared to the 780 at 52%!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659-18.html

The gtx780 at 80% where there's no thermal throttling is just as loud. I presume tom's were noticing the gtx780 throttling at 52% fan so had to turn the fan up to 80% to stop it.

 

[Buckster]

mmm - according to this - its only 1dB louder than my 480 SOC (Windforce cooler) at load - that was perfectly bearable

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290_review_benchmarks,13.html

 

[vUNREALv]

I doubt anything will come out louder than my 2 evga 480's in sli with reference coolers, I used to get hot sweats from them!

 

[Calneon]

I noticed the 290 comes with the bronze and silver AMD game rewards, does that mean the R290X comes with gold? The store page hasn't been updated.

 

[melmac]

This is seriously tempting me. I have a 680 GTX at the moment.

Change now and sell my 680 or wait until 20nm, hmmmmmm.

 

[chaparral]

mmm - according to this - its only 1dB louder than my 480 SOC (Windforce cooler) at load - that was perfectly bearable

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290_review_benchmarks,13.html

I would not believe any of guru3d sound tests as they seem to list almost every GPU at roughly the same DB..

 

[Rusty0611]

The gtx780 at 80% where there's no thermal throttling is just as loud. I presume tom's were noticing the gtx780 throttling at 52% fan so had to turn the fan up to 80% to stop it.

You don't need it on 80% to stop it thermally throttling lol. Not even while overclocked and overvolted.

I run mine at approx 70% fan and it just sits on 75-78c all day without moving. It thermally throttles noticeably at 85c. Both voltage and clock speed.

Prior to that from memory (I've flashed a boost disabling bios) it knocks down a notch at 75c but nothing to really make any noticeable dent on performance. Like a percent at most.

With mine and the bios I've got it just sits on constant voltage and clock speed which is much better if you want either a tight voltage set (i.e. on the edge of stability to keep temps down) or you want to run high overclocks. When you run high overclocks it will knock down by 13mV at 85c (which it will do on the stock fan profile if you're pushing it hard) and that 13mV will make your clock unstable when you're at 1200+.

 

[TheRealDeal]

You don't need it on 80% to stop it thermally throttling lol. Not even while overclocked and overvolted.

I run mine at approx 70% fan and it just sits on 75-78c all day without moving. It thermally throttles noticeably at 85c. Both voltage and clock speed.

Prior to that from memory (I've flashed a boost disabling bios) it knocks down a notch at 75c but nothing to really make any noticeable dent on performance. Like a percent at most.

With mine and the bios I've got it just sits on constant voltage and clock speed which is much better if you want either a tight voltage set (i.e. on the edge of stability to keep temps down) or you want to run high overclocks. When you run high overclocks it will knock down by 13mV at 85c (which it will do on the stock fan profile if you're pushing it hard) and that 13mV will make your clock unstable when you're at 1200+.

Tell that to Guru not me it's them that reckon they need 80% fan to stop the card throttling clocks back.

Edit sorry it's toms not guru.

Same gaming loop, different graphics card. The GeForce GTX 780 at stock speed and settings is a lot quieter, but it pays for it by reaching its thermal limit quickly. The fan needs to be pushed quite a bit to achieve consistent GPU Boost frequencies. Seventy percent are enough for a cold card, but once it’s warmed up, a fan speed of 80 percent is needed to maintain those higher clock rates. This is the only way to get an apples-to-apples comparison of the two competing graphics cards.

 

[RavenXXX2]

You don't need it on 80% to stop it thermally throttling lol. Not even while overclocked and overvolted.

I run mine at approx 70% fan and it just sits on 75-78c all day without moving. It thermally throttles noticeably at 85c. Both voltage and clock speed.

Prior to that from memory (I've flashed a boost disabling bios) it knocks down a notch at 75c but nothing to really make any noticeable dent on performance. Like a percent at most.

With mine and the bios I've got it just sits on constant voltage and clock speed which is much better if you want either a tight voltage set (i.e. on the edge of stability to keep temps down) or you want to run high overclocks. When you run high overclocks it will knock down by 13mV at 85c (which it will do on the stock fan profile if you're pushing it hard) and that 13mV will make your clock unstable when you're at 1200+.

Is that a reference 780? if so can I ask what ASIC it has and the 24/7 overclock you use.

 

[Rusty0611]

Tell that to Guru not me it's them that reckon they need 80% fan to stop the card throttling clocks back.

Edit sorry it's toms not guru.

I don't want or need to tell them that. I'm just correcting you or your information.

Is that a reference 780? if so can I ask what ASIC it has and the 24/7 overclock you use.

24/7 overclock is err 1220 ish on the core (can't remember the exact multiple of 13 it sits on) and 1750 memory. It is a reference 780 in a HAF X case (so good air flow). The ASIC is 77.7%.

My card isn't really quiet when I run my custom fan profile but I don't hear it over my headphones. If I'm playing a less intense game, I put the default profile back on and it is quiet and runs at around 85-87c. Which is fine for a 780. Because I've got a boost disabling bios, it doesn't throttle.

 

[TheRealDeal]

I don't want or need to tell them that. I'm just correcting you or your information.



24/7 overclock is err 1220 ish on the core (can't remember the exact multiple of 13 it sits on) and 1750 memory. It is a reference 780 in a HAF X case (so good air flow). The ASIC is 77.7%.

My card isn't really quiet when I run my custom fan profile but I don't hear it over my headphones. If I'm playing a less intense game, I put the default profile back on and it is quiet and runs at around 85-87c. Which is fine for a 780. Because I've got a boost disabling bios, it doesn't throttle.

That's all well and good but they are comparing the 2 cards in the same condition's on an open bench as do most review site's. You can bet most cards will run at lower fan speeds with lower temperatures in a good air cooled case. That's apples to oranges though.

 

[RavenXXX2]

1200+ on reference is very good. I hope my reference EVGA 780 SC can get near them clocks.

 

[Rusty0611]

That's all well and good but they are comparing the 2 cards in the same condition's on an open bench as do most review site's. You can bet most cards will run at lower fan speeds with lower temperatures in a good air cooled case. That's apples to oranges though.

No offence but I don't think you know what you're talking about. GPU Boost 2.0 is a piece of work... and I don't mean that kindly . You can't compare a nVidia GPU boost card and an AMD boost card in an apples to apples comparison because the boosts work differently. The best way to test it is to just leave the cards at stock out the box, and then run your benchmark. If it throttles a touch at stock (which it will do at 75c) then that is part and parcel of the performance at stock.

The point was (and is) is that you don't need the fan on 80% to stop the card thermally throttling even while overclocking and overvolting. I know this because I have one in my case now. I don't count the 75c step down as really throttling because it's really, really minor. Inconsequential almost. At 85c it does start to scale back a bit and that's when it will affect your FPS a bit. Perhaps not noticeably to the naked eye but within a percentage where you would call it significant.

Regarding the boost, there is a lot of misunderstanding about it from people who have not used a nVidia boost card before. Basically, it fluctuates the clocks up and down when you're in game. Up and down by 13 MHz all the time, fluctuating the voltage dynamically as well. Temperature is one input into the calculation of it but there are other parts as well such as load, power draw etc.

 

[TheRealDeal]

No offence but I don't think you know what you're talking about. GPU Boost 2.0 is a piece of work... and I don't mean that kindly . You can't compare a nVidia GPU boost card and an AMD boost card in an apples to apples comparison because the boosts work differently. The best way to test it is to just leave the cards at stock out the box, and then run your benchmark. If it throttles a touch at stock (which it will do at 75c) then that is part and parcel of the performance at stock.

The point was (and is) is that you don't need the fan on 80% to stop the card thermally throttling even while overclocking and overvolting. I know this because I have one in my case now. I don't count the 75c step down as really throttling because it's really, really minor. Inconsequential almost. At 85c it does start to scale back a bit and that's when it will affect your FPS a bit. Perhaps not noticeably to the naked eye but within a percentage where you would call it significant.

Regarding the boost, there is a lot of misunderstanding about it from people who have not used a nVidia boost card before. Basically, it fluctuates the clocks up and down when you're in game. Up and down by 13 MHz all the time, fluctuating the voltage dynamically as well. Temperature is one input into the calculation of it but there are other parts as well such as load, power draw etc.

He's comparing the 2 cards to where they no longer throttle the clocks in an open bench setup. It's not hard to understand that he put the fan rate to where the gtx780 would not throttle any more. No tweaks involved it's a straight out of the box comparison. I don't know why you think his test's have got anything to do with my understanding. I understand fully what tom was talking about.

Read what he says and that's it. Sure you can tweak but this was not the case here.

Noise Comparison with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 780

Same gaming loop, different graphics card. The GeForce GTX 780 at stock speed and settings is a lot quieter, but it pays for it by reaching its thermal limit quickly. The fan needs to be pushed quite a bit to achieve consistent GPU Boost frequencies. Seventy percent are enough for a cold card, but once it’s warmed up, a fan speed of 80 percent is needed to maintain those higher clock rates. This is the only way to get an apples-to-apples comparison of the two competing graphics cards.

I was not reporting my finding's so my understanding off an Nvidia card is not the point. I am sure you could get better temperatures in your case with a few tweaks on a r9 290x as well compared to these reviews.

 

[n00b_monkey]

hayup,
not sure if i have missed it somewhere or not, when do you guys think the non ref cards will be out?
very tempted with one of these.

 

[Rusty0611]

He's comparing the 2 cards to where they no longer throttle the clocks in an open bench setup. It's not hard to understand that he put the fan rate to where the gtx780 would not throttle any more. No tweaks involved it's a straight out of the box comparison. I don't know why you think his test's have got anything to do with my understanding. I understand fully what tom was talking about.

Read what he says and that's it. Sure you can tweak but this was not the case here.

I was not reporting my finding's so my understanding off an Nvidia card is not the point. I am sure you could get better temperatures in your case with a few tweaks on a r9 290x as well compared to these reviews.

So his test is pointless then really? What he's looking to achieve is pointless as the architectures and boosts of the cards work in different ways.

As I've said the headline conclusion that you have posted here regarding 80% fan is actually false. My point stands.

 

[TheRealDeal]

So his test is pointless then really? What he's looking to achieve is pointless as the architectures and boosts of the cards work in different ways.

As I've said the headline conclusion that you have posted here regarding 80% fan is actually false. My point stands.

Because Radeon R9 290X can be so bipolar, it’s important to spell out how we’re testing all of these cards today.

Typically, we run benchmarks in rapid succession. This means that the GPU remains warm after its first run. This matters very little to cards that operate at one clock rate. But it makes more of a difference on boards with Nvidia’s GPU Boost technology, which won’t stretch up as high when certain limits are exceeded. AMD’s clocking mechanism is even more sensitive to thermal and power conditions, necessitating an even more regimented approach to testing.

For every test we run, we spend five minutes in-game, playing, before launching our benchmark sequence. In a metric like Metro: Last Light, where we use a benchmark tool, we run multiple iterations prior to starting the measurement.

In this way, we’re sure the card is at its maximum operating temperature, yielding the lowest benchmark results, but best representing the experience you’d get from these cards after just a few minutes of playing your favorite title.

We’re also changing up the benchmarking a bit. In preparation for today’s piece, we re-ran every single test. We standardized settings across resolutions to better track scaling, and, again, we’re subjecting every board to five minutes of in-game time before firing up our testing sequence. As a result, we're presenting slightly different numbers from our 290X review, but the data should be more precise, too.

I can see why it was done when you read the way they tested all there games.