The AMD R9 290 (non x) Thread

flopper · 14 Nov 2013 at 19:05

sportbilly said:
Will be really interested in your experience with eyefinity and crossfire with 290.

I currently have a 6990 and eyefinity. I'm hovering between a 7990 if I can find one for near £399 again or just to go for 2 x 290 pro which is tempting given the frame pacing fixes are supposedly built into the hardware rather than having to wait for driver fix on 7xxx series. Plus 4gb ram instead of 3gb will help at high res.

What have you upgraded from ?

Cheers

single 290
eyefinity 120hz 5040x1050 3x1680x1050 screens.
had issues with my 7970 due to using apple active adapters.
with this 290 I need one of them for displayport so using apple adapter with minidisplay to displayport.
just installed it heh will get back with tests

Avenged7Fold · 14 Nov 2013 at 19:14

MSI and Saphire absolutely fine with changing coolers, as long as the original cooler is undamaged and re-attached before sending the card off to RMA. As long as any fault is unrelated to the cooler, both brands will honor the RMA. The stickers on the PCB do not cover any screws and so don't have to be removed to change cooler.

a66as · 14 Nov 2013 at 19:29

Im going to order a new card tommorow, whats the diff between 290 (non x) and 290x? for 1080p am better of going 290 (non x) right?

flopper · 14 Nov 2013 at 19:43

a66as said:
Im going to order a new card tommorow, whats the diff between 290 (non x) and 290x? for 1080p am better of going 290 (non x) right?

yes, 290 pro is the way to go there

Confused Stu · 14 Nov 2013 at 21:17

sin said:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290_crossfire_review_benchmarks,4.html

But dont forget lots psu go higher then rated just look up your psu

sin said:
If this is your psu it can do 931.2 w max

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/XFX-PRO-750-W-Power-Supply-Review/1182/8

Thanks. My figures are from a cheap plug-in wattage meter, and PSUs are rated based on what they can supply to the PC rather than what they can pull from the wall - so my rig pulling 600W from the wall would equate to 510W being supplied out of my 750W (assuming 85% efficiency). The review you've linked to shows their test one pulled 919W from the wall to provide the full 750W in the PC.

Still gonna take it easy installing the cards when I get them. I am painfully aware I have very little wriggle room with only a 750W, but it's a great, solid little unit and I don't want to have to pay out for a more powerful PSU if I don't have to. Will find out this weekend.

One time I did try putting 1.3v through my 7970's to try to run 1200/1500 on the cards for one run of Sleeping Dogs benchmark. The PC still froze despite the volts - don't think one of the cards was happy going above 1150 on the core - but the wall meter did register 933W at one point!

dom99 · 14 Nov 2013 at 22:38

MartynB85 said:
Can you remove the coolers on the Sapphire's and keep warranty?

I have pre-ordered an MSI 290x @ £388 (not OCUK), but stock isn't due until next Tuesday, should i cancel and order a 290 and save £80?

Lol I pre-ordered the exact same card at £388 but soon as the 290 dropped I cancelled, couldn't justify the extra money plus it was obvious they weren't going to have any stock for ages

thewanted · 14 Nov 2013 at 22:39

Well I'm confused.

With Afterburner v3 beta 17, I can get my 290 up to roughly 1150/1500 with +80mV, but my Firestrike score is sub-10000 (it was 10400 earlier) and BF4 runs like crap.

If I use Overdrive, I can get it up to the same clocks without increasing the voltage, and BF4 runs fine. I still need to run 3DMark but I cannot bear to watch it again for 15 minutes to check for artifacts.

EDIT: The desktop started to glitch so I've set everything back to stock. I'll have another play over the weekend.

red eye · 14 Nov 2013 at 23:36

my gpu usage is bouncing from 0 to 30%, is this normal for idle?
im asking becuase my temp at idle is 60c, scaned with malwarebytes and mse found nothing

MartynB85 · 15 Nov 2013 at 00:09

dom99 said:
Lol I pre-ordered the exact same card at £388 but soon as the 290 dropped I cancelled, couldn't justify the extra money plus it was obvious they weren't going to have any stock for ages

I think I may do the same, god knows when their stock will arrive

Tis a good price though, and my 7950 is still going strong, can't make my mind up :rolleyes:

zpaf · 15 Nov 2013 at 10:10

flopper said:
hit 1155mhz on air with msi ab b17
artefact free with 3dmark there.

3dmark11 score.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7489081

Why so much difference on gpu score ?

1150/1450 with asus r9 290 non X

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4770K,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. MAXIMUS VI IMPACT

Steampunk · 15 Nov 2013 at 10:51

zpaf said:
Why so much difference on gpu score ?

Different drivers, or CPU bound.

Martini1991 · 15 Nov 2013 at 10:52

Think I'm just going to run mine at 1150/1400MHZ 24/7.

thewanted · 15 Nov 2013 at 11:02

Martini1991 said:
Think I'm just going to run mine at 1150/1400MHZ 24/7.

Is that with stock volts? I can do 1100/1400 with stock volts, but I didn't try 1120/1450.

Martini1991 · 15 Nov 2013 at 11:04

I can do 1100MHZ stock volts.

richiesimms · 16 Nov 2013 at 08:01

Thinking about getting two of these when they have better coolers.

Two questions, will a 5 year old 1000w enermax galaxy run them?
Its getting on a bit and I`m wondering whether it would have the required connectivity.

And would my i7 920 bottleneck them too much?

Orangey · 16 Nov 2013 at 10:13

richiesimms said:
Thinking about getting two of these when they have better coolers.

Two questions, will a 5 year old 1000w enermax galaxy run them?
Its getting on a bit and I`m wondering whether it would have the required connectivity.

And would my i7 920 bottleneck them too much?

The PSU should be fine although I would test its 12V output, sometimes PSUs can degrade and get wobbly over that much time especially with heavy use.

I think the CPU should be replaced really, the 2500K is a good bit faster, then Haswell is a good bit faster than that... 4770K would be a good upgrade at this point.

ICDP · 16 Nov 2013 at 11:58

Orangey said:
The PSU should be fine although I would test its 12V output, sometimes PSUs can degrade and get wobbly over that much time especially with heavy use.

I think the CPU should be replaced really, the 2500K is a good bit faster, then Haswell is a good bit faster than that... 4770K would be a good upgrade at this point.

From an i7 920 a Haswell 4770K is a decent jump for everything but gaming and upgrading would be a waste of money IMHO. 4770K is not one single ounce faster than 2500K or 2600K for max detail gaming and only marginally faster than a i7 920 with a decent OC. Once the details in games are turned up it is impossible to tell the difference between mid and top end CPUs. As a test I played MLL at 3.4GHz on my 4770K and it had identical performance to the same CPU overclocked to 4.5GHz

I went form a 2600K that does 4.7Ghz to a 4770K at 4.5GHz and even before I bought it I knew it was going to be a monumental waste of money. A 2500K with a decent OC is only marginally slower than 2600K.
Heaven 4.0
Valley 1.0
Hitman
Tomb Raider
Metro Last Light
Skyrim with mods
Arma III

Not one single game or benchmark showed improved performance going from 2600K to 4770K, PCIE 2.0 to 3.0 etc. My GPU is a GTX780 at 1250 core.

Anyone thinking of going from 2600K to 4770K and expecting any performance increase save your money

http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?page=0&itemid=1123

I would suggest even an i7 920 with a decent OC will hit the GPU bottleneck long before the CPU bottleneck gets close.

MartynB85 · 16 Nov 2013 at 12:14

Avenged7Fold said:
MSI and Saphire absolutely fine with changing coolers, as long as the original cooler is undamaged and re-attached before sending the card off to RMA. As long as any fault is unrelated to the cooler, both brands will honor the RMA. The stickers on the PCB do not cover any screws and so don't have to be removed to change cooler.

Is this only when bought from OCUK though?

flopper · 16 Nov 2013 at 12:19

ICDP said:
Not one single game or benchmark showed improved performance going from 2600K to 4770K, PCIE 2.0 to 3.0 etc. My GPU is a GTX780 at 1250 core.

Anyone thinking of going from 2600K to 4770K and expecting any performance increase save your money

http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?page=0&itemid=1123

I would suggest even an i7 920 with a decent OC will hit the GPU bottleneck long before the CPU bottleneck gets close.

went from a 2500k to 4670k, noticeable.
much better chipset with the z87 was my main reason to upgrade.
with win 8.1 the machine works the way I want it

thewanted · 16 Nov 2013 at 13:03

Can anyone with crossfired 290s please confirm what kind of performance increase they get in BF4 @ 1440p when enabling the second card?

I'm very tempted to order another one, but I'd like to hear someone's personal experiences before doing so.