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The AMD R9 290 (non x) Thread

Tute said:
Is it wrong as well that I actually think the stock cooling on the 290 and 290X is really smart looking? There's something about a huge black and red cooler that just looks good.

Then again I also like the Titan/780 stock cooler for it's metallic feel and look.

I may need treatment. :D
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Perfectly normal. I think the same about both cards. I'd like to see a picture of the 290X with the red lights on, not seen one yet. I guess its because its hard to see when its in the case.
 
I would go as far as to say that if my case had a window I'd always look to buy a stock cooler card of one of the models above over the non-reference designs.

The only others that really take my fancy are the Sapphire Vapor-X and Toxic coolers, especially the 280X. Gorgeous.

I also have a soft spot for the 5870 Vapor-X. Always wanted one of those at the time.
 
LtMatt said:
Believe the people here that own the cards. If you keep it at 55% or lower its fine and no louder than your typical graphics card. This is normally good for an overclock of 10-15% on the core and as much on the memory as your card can take. This is what 290X users have been saying in the owners thread. I can also confirm that 55% on a reference 7970 was fine. 60% or higher and it gets damn loud though!
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Solid advice.

Having come from 2x7950's overclocked to my 290, yes the 7950's get more fps however not enough more for me to put up with the usual crossfire niggles, this is perhaps more relevent in an eyefinity setup than single screen.

As an OWNER of a 290, the fan is quieter than my 2x7950's which both use quiet coolers up until you take it to 60% fan at which point its as loud as my 2x7950's under load.

Crossfire is great for high numbers but not always so great for actual user experience, the 290/290x can get close enough to what you can do with 7950's whilst still having the benefits of been a single gpu. Factor in the price and the 290 is no question the best price/performance.
 
I've taken possession of one of these this morning, installed it and had a bit of a muck around with it. I'm using the 13.11 beta 9.2 drivers released yesterday.

Findings so far (with the side of the case still open).

1) I started Valley up and let it loop until the card hit 95 degrees. At stock settings the card will hit 95C and start throttling, as 47% fan speed is not enough to keep it below 95C.

2) 47% fan speed is definitely audible but not horrific. More of a whooshing air sound than the mechanical sound of the fan spinning. I game with headphones on so fan noise isn't that great an issue for me. I can see why some people would find it unacceptable though as everyone has different tolerance levels. I've tried a number of fan speeds to gauge what it sounds like and for me, anything above 55% is going to be intolerable. At stock clocks the fan speed shouldn't get anywhere near 55% when using a custom fan profile.

I'm going to have a play around this afternoon to see what sort of clocks I can get at stock voltage before either the card gives up or the cooler gets too loud. :p
 
vUNREALv said:
Solid advice.

Having come from 2x7950's overclocked to my 290, yes the 7950's get more fps however not enough more for me to put up with the usual crossfire niggles, this is perhaps more relevent in an eyefinity setup than single screen.

As an OWNER of a 290, the fan is quieter than my 2x7950's which both use quiet coolers up until you take it to 60% fan at which point its as loud as my 2x7950's under load.

Crossfire is great for high numbers but not always so great for actual user experience, the 290/290x can get close enough to what you can do with 7950's whilst still having the benefits of been a single gpu. Factor in the price and the 290 is no question the best price/performance.
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Agreed. I think for multi monitor the 290 is probably the better choice but on single screen 7950 crossfire takes it, just. Crossfire on single screen is hassle free these days what with frame pacing etc.
 
Yeah I have to say single screen gaming has less crossfire niggles than multiscreen in my experience.

I've found my sapphire 290 can do 1150 core clock with the stock volts, well its been looping valley for over an hour at that clock.

Gonna move on to the memory next see what that can do.
 
Tute said:
Honestly, I run a miniITX system with the case on the desk next to me. If the card was noisy it'd get DSR'd for a 280X/GTX770 in an instant. In fact I was braced for it.

But it's just... not really noisy at all?

It partly worries me as I feel I'm missing something and I'm going to get an awful shock outside of the DSR timeframe.
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At 47% it's audible, not what I'd call noisy though.
 
Tute said:
Is it wrong as well that I actually think the stock cooling on the 290 and 290X is really smart looking? There's something about a huge black and red cooler that just looks good.

Then again I also like the Titan/780 stock cooler for it's metallic feel and look.

I may need treatment. :D
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I like the look of the R290, it feels more solid than I expected.
 
Would this card make a nice upgrade from a 6950 1GB?
Really only want it to play BF4 at 1900 x 1200 with my i5 setup
 
Seems 1130/1450 is the maximum my MSI R290 will do at stock voltages, so that's just shy of 20% on the core and 16% on the memory.

I've put the side of my case back on now and temps were hovering around the 85C mark at 55% fan setting whilst looping Valley, so there may be a wee bit of scope to back the fan profile off a bit. I may however just leave it at that level as I can't hear it with headphones on. ;)

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Mean Mr Mustard said:
Seems 1130/1450 is the maximum my MSI R290 will do at stock voltages, so that's just shy of 20% on the core and 16% on the memory.

I've put the side of my case back on now and temps were hovering around the 85C mark at 55% fan setting whilst looping Valley, so there may be a wee bit of scope to back the fan profile off a bit. I may however just leave it at that level as I can't hear it with headphones on. ;)
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Mine is stable at 1150/1375 on stock volts it seems, nice bump in performance with these kind of overclocks :)
 
hmmm very tempted just concerned about the temp issues i've been hearing soo much about, anyone had any issues here?
 
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