The AMD R9 290 (non x) Thread

[Gibbo]

Meh.

I'll use gpu tweak to get out the best clock I can get, then probably wait for afterburner until I use it as my 24/7

Also when benchmarking, make sure your 2D speeds match 3D, gives a little boost in scores.

 

[Boomstick777]

After my voltage locked 7970's and 2 dead msi 7970's, I'm glad

You got a 290? How does it compare to your old card? Really considering moving to a 290 / 290X.. The 290 seems like a bargain for it's price.

 

[Martini1991]

You got a 290? How does it compare to your old card? Really considering moving to a 290 / 290X.. The 290 seems like a bargain for it's price.

From a 780 I wouldn't bother to be honest, it's a nice card, worth it over my 7970 easy.

 

[Tute]

Excuse the lack of case, it's on it's way.

I'm yet to hear the fan ramp up at all.

 

[Martini1991]

Also when benchmarking, make sure your 2D speeds match 3D, gives a little boost in scores.

Not entirely sure how you do that?

 

[Gibbo]

Excuse the lack of case, it's on it's way.

I'm yet to hear the fan ramp up at all.

Give it some action and report your max temps, fan speeds and if you had any throttling please.

 

[Martini1991]

Memory clock so far is at 1650 right now!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Excuse the lack of case, it's on it's way.

I'm yet to hear the fan ramp up at all.

Running on a SFF 450W PSU too.

 

[Gibbo]

Memory clock so far is at 1650 right now!

That's very good as sapphire is elpida, the Hynix ones tend to clock a bit better as in do 6600, so your elpida is good.

 

[Martini1991]

How do I do the 2D clocks?
I've uninstalled GPU Tweak for now, I'll just run 1100/1600 till Afterburner, then use 1200/1600 as my 24/7.

 

[dom99]

I'll post some pics and my thoughts on it tomorrow, just installed it.

A strange thing happened though, after installation, my CPU seemed to think it had been changed and set itself back to stock clocks which I had to set back (i5 4670k @4.4ghz)

Not had this happen before, might have knocked the heat sink when installing the card but not sure it would have caused that, any ideas?

 

[Nickyyy]

Just ordered mine! Can't wait to get one!

 

[Tute]

Give it some action and report your max temps, fan speeds and if you had any throttling please.

I'll do some tomorrow - for now I can report that the ST45SF CANNOT handle this card in Furmark. It just turns off as soon as you start rendering.

Had a bash on FIFA 14 and it does ramp up and get audible, but it's not irritating - more like the sound of massive airflow rather than a distracting spinning fan.

 

[orange_smurf]

Intresting read over at extremetech AMD’s Radeon R9 290 has a problem, but Nvidia’s smear attack is heavy-handed

The article also comments on fan speed settings...

Maximum fan speeds below 50% will not maintain review frame rates. This appears to be true for both the R9 290 and R9 290X. AMD may have thought they could still deliver superior performance overall by designing a card that would burst and then idle at a lower frequency. It works with the 290X because that GPU sets an Uber fan profile of 55%. The 290′s default 47% is close — but not quite high enough. If you want full performance out of one of these cards, you’re going to have to push the fan speed higher than 47%.

Our tests indicate that 50% should do it for the R9 290. A new driver should be available today <edit:7th Nov?> that helps with the problem across both retail cards and AMD’s own reference designs.

 

[Panos]

@50% fan even my 7950PCS+ is overheated and throttles (or crashes) at 100% use. And burns almost half the power than a 290X.

That is why there is the "AUTO" mode, to let it go to 100% fan speed before starts throttling at 70C. (which never happens with the PCS+ cooler to exceed 80% fan and 50C under full load).

Hard setting to 50% fan such cards, asks for trouble

 

[flopper]

Just ordered mine! Can't wait to get one!

planning to get one asap I sold off my 7970.

 

[DeathofRats]

What is the power requirement on a pair of 290s? I have a good quality Corsair AX860, which I'm told will handle a pair of 780s, but the 290s are a bit hungrier. (I've an oc'd i5-2500k too)

Still can't decide whether to return my Phantom and wait for the non-ref 290s to be released

 

[teppic]

What is the power requirement on a pair of 290s? I have a good quality Corsair AX860, which I'm told will handle a pair of 780s, but the 290s are a bit hungrier. (I've an oc'd i5-2500k too)

Still can't decide whether to return my Phantom and wait for the non-ref 290s to be released

That's plenty. A single card will draw 200-250W depending on load, but two aren't going to be maxed out normally, and there'd still be plenty of power left in the PSU.

 

[sadbuttrue]

I'll post some pics and my thoughts on it tomorrow, just installed it.

A strange thing happened though, after installation, my CPU seemed to think it had been changed and set itself back to stock clocks which I had to set back (i5 4670k @4.4ghz)

Not had this happen before, might have knocked the heat sink when installing the card but not sure it would have caused that, any ideas?

My board does a single reboot when powered on after a graphics card change. It's possible your board detected this as a failed overcclock.

 

[orange_smurf]

@50% fan even my 7950PCS+ is overheated and throttles (or crashes) at 100% use. And burns almost half the power than a 290X.

That is why there is the "AUTO" mode, to let it go to 100% fan speed before starts throttling at 70C. (which never happens with the PCS+ cooler to exceed 80% fan and 50C under full load).

Hard setting to 50% fan such cards, asks for trouble

I agree... but 100% fan speed is relative to what the supplier sets as the MAX for that hardware. Out the box we expect hardware to perform at it's maximum under load. By default the AMD driver settings for the 290 are set to run MAX fan speed of 47%. At this speed the card throttles under load which is part of the problem.