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They're coming... Windforce 290X pictured

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Inb4 loads of comments about how these proper cooled 290x's are gonna beat everything! :p
 
If I don't plan on water cooling, is it generally worthwhile waiting for the more 'enthusiast' custom cards (ie: Lightning, Toxic) or are the 'standard' custom ones sufficient (ie: Windforce, MSI Gaming, Asus DC II)? In other words, is there sufficient performance gain on air to justify extra wait and expense? I plan to play with overclocking but only for gaming, not benching.
 
Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X OC Edition Sports WindForce 3X “450W” Cooler
The Non-Reference designs will be here around next month to fix these issues that are currently faced on the reference models. We have already seen an MSI Lightning Radeon R9 290X and ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II in the works and today we get to take a look at Gigabyte’s custom solution.
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The Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X OC edition known as the GV-R929XOC-4GD will feature 2816 Stream processors, 64 ROPs and a 4 GB GDDR5 memory running across a 512-bit interface clocked at 5 GHz effective speed. The core for the custom card would be maintained at 1040 MHz which is 40 MHz higher than the reference variant but will also allow some decent overclocks thanks to its custom PCB design fitted with top notch components and a beefy cooler that does its job greater than any reference solution.
The Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X OC ships with the company’s high-performance WindForce 3X cooler which comes with a triple fan design shroud design which push air towards large central aluminum fin array heatsinks interconnected with 6 copper heatpipes dissipating heat from the base plate. The WindForce 3x has the is able to dissipate upto 450W of heat so don’t worry about heat when doing some overclocking on this beast. The cooler also produces much less sound at 15.9 dB lower than the reference models operating in “Quiet Mode”. The extra cooling will ensure that the PowerTune technology operates at optimal state with lesser clock speed variation and adequate cooling performance.
Launch and price date were not mentioned but you can expect a price of around $600 US for the non-reference models when they launch around CES 2014 or earlier.


Read more: http://wccftech.com/gigabyte-radeon-r9-290x-oc-edition-sports-windforce-3x/#ixzz2myFwe6Zw
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Some more info :)

@ Daftbrown, Overclocking is generally within a couple of fps depending on the core and memory clocks. People tend to go with custom cards like the DCII/WFX3/Twin Frozr for noise reasons and then you get the Lightnings/Matrix for those who bench or just want the best.
 
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i think the chance of them having enough stock is... slim lol
we know what that means for prices :o
 
I afford myself a little look at the 780ti range every now and again... But I need to see some benches for customs of those compared to custom 290xs first. Patience has won out so far (I had a pre-order on the reference 290x) it would be a shame not to hold out a little longer. Of course there is also the Mantle question... and my main game at the moment BF4 is broken anyway - I can wait. Just about. I think. Hope... Must.... just... a ... little... longer....
 
Thank goodness, I've been seriously considering just getting something else over the weekend, but I can probably wait 2 weeks. Hurry up.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
16db quieter than the reference.. just loud still are the stock 290x's? Would this then eliminate any possible watercooling should you choose to later?
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Those who are gonna watercool are always more likely to buy reference unless it's a Lightning / Classified model.

Cheaper, block compatability, no strange bios level voltage controls...

Buying say a Windforce and then sticking a waterblock on it would be an odd choice. Buying a Classified and doing the same would be understandable.
 
So a question related to the subject.

I bought a ref 290 (lovin it so far, pretty loud at 53% fan but its ok for now). Will it be possible for me to mount custom cooler from non-ref 290? Or is my only option WCing it/using custom cooler like arctic accelero or gelid icy vision? I assume that people will buy the non-ref cards and still put them under water, thus there will be after-market coolers available for sale (right?)
 
Rusty0611 said:
Those who are gonna watercool are always more likely to buy reference unless it's a Lightning / Classified model.

Cheaper, block compatability, no strange bios level voltage controls...

Buying say a Windforce and then sticking a waterblock on it would be an odd choice. Buying a Classified and doing the same would be understandable.
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Depends on circumstances and change. I bought 670 windforce with no intention of watercooling until much later by then it was too late.

That said, the windforce range are pretty impressive to say the least.
 
I could see a watercooler going for a model with a large VRM cooling setup already in place on a separate mounting to the block and a nicely designed PCB.
 
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