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**WARNING: DO NOT BUY POWERCOLOR 290 PCS+ CARDS FOR MINING (NOW RESOLVED THESE CARDS ARE FINE)!!**

Sounds like this is the same issue with trying to mine with the stock BIOS on the MSI 290X Gaming Edition. It doesn't happen with the ASUS BIOS flashed, but with the MSI stock BIOS, it won't go to 1500 MHz on the memory or 1000 MHz on the core, without black screening or a driver recovery message. Unless the system is powered down totally and then cold booted, the card(s) aren't detected again.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25801559&postcount=65

Sounds like the MSI potentially has the same OCP thing, as the card sails through gaming and benchmarking, but mining is currently not amazing with the stock BIOS.

Gibbo has been great to flag this up with MSI, so hopefully a fix will be incoming for all.
 
Thanks for the honesty - my next purchase would have more than likely been a powercolor 290x as the 280x's I have are excellent.

Fingers crossed a solution comes :)
 
Mine just reboots, no need to reset or anything, no BSOD, just a reboot and all is well - possibly a PSU issue but its plenty powerful enough (although I cant remember how much I know its breater than 750W and a good make).
 
8 Pack said:
Real shame this as the card was great for both noise and over clocking in gaming and benching applications. I am hopeful Powercolor can fix this with bios revision.
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Do you own a 290 tri-x as well? I would really like to know how the cooler noise of both compare (at the same clocks and temperatures if possible). This would probably be tremendously helpful for a lot of gamers deciding whether to get a sapphire or powercolor card.
 
SpoCk0nd0pe said:
Do you own a 290 tri-x as well? I would really like to know how the cooler noise of both compare (at the same clocks and temperatures if possible). This would probably be tremendously helpful for a lot of gamers deciding whether to get a sapphire or powercolor card.
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The Tri-X and the PCS+ coolers are near identical in noise levels, you can't really call it to be honest. All I would say is the PCS+ with fans maxed out is 3-5c cooler than the Tri-X with all fans maxed out. No doubt simply because the PCS+ cooler is a 2.5-3 slot sized cooler.
 
TBirdUK said:
Mine just reboots, no need to reset or anything, no BSOD, just a reboot and all is well - possibly a PSU issue but its plenty powerful enough (although I cant remember how much I know its breater than 750W and a good make).
Click to expand...

You have a Powercolor 290 PCS+?
For us it is either driver not responding or OCP protection.

Reboot/shut down is more akin of poor PSU, but a 750W should be fine. We did our testing with a 1200W unit.
 
It's cool you are warning potential mining buyers, but as a non-miner I would still be put off.

Giving how hot these cards run I can imagine the OCP and OVP are there purely just to stop the card cooking itself, and with how much mining can stress a card.

And, Navin says this might be on MSI cards too? maybe you should test all the brands offering 290's and see whats going on.

Maybe they are all protecting themselves from warranty claims when these cards burn out after a month of mining if they were unlimited, or had higher OCP/OVP.
 
esoteric said:
It's cool you are warning potential mining buyers, but as a non-miner I would still be put off.

Giving how hot these cards run I can imagine the OCP and OVP are there purely just to stop the card cooking itself, and with how much mining can stress a card.

And, Navin says this might be on MSI cards too? maybe you should test all the brands offering 290's and see whats going on.

Maybe they are all protecting themselves from warranty claims when these cards burn out after a month of mining if they were unlimited, or had higher OCP/OVP.
Click to expand...

They don't run hot, its only the ones with the Ref- coolers that run hot. they should run at around 70c :)
 
esoteric said:
It's cool you are warning potential mining buyers, but as a non-miner I would still be put off.

Giving how hot these cards run I can imagine the OCP and OVP are there purely just to stop the card cooking itself, and with how much mining can stress a card.

And, Navin says this might be on MSI cards too? maybe you should test all the brands offering 290's and see whats going on.

Maybe they are all protecting themselves from warranty claims when these cards burn out after a month of mining if they were unlimited, or had higher OCP/OVP.
Click to expand...

Have you not read my guide to which card to buy?

Ive tested every single brand of 290 card in benchmarks, gaming and mining. It's already done! :p

The MSI's mine absolutely fine, I had one mining for about two weeks without issue. :)
 
Gibbo said:
Have you not read my guide to which card to buy?

Ive tested every single brand of 290 card in benchmarks, gaming and mining. It's already done! :p

The MSI's mine absolutely fine, I had one mining for about two weeks without issue. :)
Click to expand...

Gibbo, did you test the MSI with its stock BIOS, as it is that BIOS which has the issue with mining. With the ASUS BIOS on the card instead, there is no such issue. That is why you were going to send the details to MSI.
 
Navin said:
Gibbo, did you test the MSI with its stock BIOS, as it is that BIOS which has the issue with mining. With the ASUS BIOS on the card instead, there is no such issue. That is why you were going to send the details to MSI.
Click to expand...

Yes and again did not have any issues with mining on it, about 920 hash if memory recalls.

I needed the Asus BIOS to get stability at 6000Mhz memory OC, otherwise I just ran it at 1250MHz memory.
 
Gibbo said:
Yes and again did not have any issues with mining on it, about 920 hash if memory recalls.

I needed the Asus BIOS to get stability at 6000Mhz memory OC, otherwise I just ran it at 1250MHz memory.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gibbo, that's exactly it. I couldn't get 1000 MHz on the core or 1500 MHz on the memory without the ASUS BIOS. With the MSI BIOS, those speeds trigger the same OCP behavior, driver not responding errors.

I could get 920 hash with 947/1250, but almost 1000 hash with the ASUS BIOS, so the MSI BIOS is holding the card back.
 
TBirdUK said:
Mine just reboots, no need to reset or anything, no BSOD, just a reboot and all is well - possibly a PSU issue but its plenty powerful enough (although I cant remember how much I know its breater than 750W and a good make).
Click to expand...

Hmm, does still sound more like a power issue to be honest. Pop the side of your case off and get the PSU details. You might need to look at the 12V rails and the amps on each. Can you down clock/under volt the cpu and disconnect any non-essential hardware while testing the GFX card again? See if it still does it?
 
Thinking about ordering one of these. I don't mine and would be solely used for gaming. What temps did you see at the max overclock you mentioned earlier in the thread? Will be looking to stay with one card so the powercolour seems a good choice.
 
Hi there

We've done some more testing today, seems the first batch of cards had a GPU fault, not something we've actually seen before.

Testing a different batch and so far so good, happily mining at 860-880 hash and stable.
 
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