What is wrong with the non ref 290Xs ?

[Kaapstad]

I have seen a few reviews for non ref 290Xs and one thing really stands out about all of them, the poor overclocking headroom available to them.

Normally with a non ref card you expect better cooling, sometimes a better PCB and also better performance, what has gone wrong? With the first reference 290Xs if you had an Asus one or flashed the Asus bios onto another make you could reach a pretty good overclock on air.

Below is a link to a review of a non ref Asus 290X being overclocked, just check out the volts being used and the lack of clocks reached it is very very poor.

http://www.tweak.dk/review/ASUS_Radeon_R9_290X_DirectCU_II_OC_4GB/1837/5/1

It is probably the worst example I have seen so far but even the better non ref 290Xs don't seem to be able to match their reference counterparts.

What has gone wrong?

 

[LtMatt]

No idea but i can beat that core clock on a crippled 290 Pro card with undervolting so something is amiss. I don't think most sites use voltage control at all, or if they do they use it conservatively/foolishly. Most of them also couldn't overclock a gpu capably if their lives depended on it. They just whack everything up and if it doesn't work say it doesn't overclock well.

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

Surely thats a **** take , 1.4v and all it managed was 40mhz above its stock?

 

[LtMatt]

Surely thats a **** take , 1.4v and all it managed was 40mhz above its stock?

Lol it does sound impossible.

 

[Kaapstad]

Surely thats a **** take , 1.4v and all it managed was 40mhz above its stock?

I have never used 1.4v on mine but have reached 1260/1625 on some things.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Christ that's poor. Maybe the review sample is a poor example? Are there any more reviews? Frankly my interest in the R290 is swaying less and less with the delay of Mantle. Besides Kaaps quadfire results under heavy water I'm ready to wait out till the next batch.

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

Guru3d got 1175 with +100mv its definatly a **** take.

 

[Kaapstad]

Guru3d got 1175 with +100mv its definatly a **** take.

Even that is not very good but it is better than the link I posted.

 

[Mei]

i think there's just a lot of lame chips/cards right now
they vary so much!

i think reviewers need to start buying 5 cards or something lol

 

[ubersonic]

Guru3D managed to get the ASUS 290X to 1175 core/6184 RAM & Anand got the Sapphire Tri-X to 1125 core/6000 RAM, no idea if their any good, but OC's of 17.5/12.5% with less noise than stock sound okay to me /shrug.

all it managed was 40mhz above its stock?

It's stock is +50MHz over standard though, so it's a 90MHz overclock, or 9% which isn't that bad a number, the worst Haswell chips are around that level.

 

[LtMatt]

Guru3D managed to get the ASUS 290X to 1175 core/6184 RAM & Anand got the Sapphire Tri-X to 1125 core/6000 RAM, no idea if their any good, but OC's of 17.5/12.5% with less noise than stock sound okay to me /shrug.

Anand only used +0.050mv for their overclock. Sounds about right to me.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Problem also is that they obviously don't spend a great deal of time with them. Even a lot of the Ti reviews had fairly modest overclocks, and with no real ground work to look up to yet at time of review.

 

[Kaapstad]

Guru3D managed to get the ASUS 290X to 1175 core/6184 RAM & Anand got the Sapphire Tri-X to 1125 core/6000 RAM, no idea if their any good, but OC's of 17.5/12.5% with less noise than stock sound okay to me /shrug.

Mine all do quite a bit better on air and when I fit waterblocks to them they will be quieter too.

 

[Orangey]

I think they've rushed these designs to market after seeing the massive demand from the community. But don't you normally have to wait much longer for the decent ones anyway? I mean like the Toxic vs the Tri-X, Matrix vs DCu etc.

 

[Yaayuh!]

I always take the overclocks in reviews with a pinch of salt because of time required, fine tuning and environment.
Use them as a guideline.

Regardless, it does seem underwhelming with these.

 

[Mei]

maybe im being unfair but seems more like they not putting enough chips in the bin and more out the door bcos they so short

 

[LtMatt]

maybe im being unfair but seems more like they not putting enough chips in the bin and more out the door bcos they so short

I'm temped to look through those bins.

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

Even that is not very good but it is better than the link I posted.

Not very good compared to what?

 

[Kaapstad]

I'm temped to look through those bins.

I don't think you need to, your 290s seem to overclock very well despite your PSU.

With only about 7% difference between a 290X and 290P I think both your cards would have no trouble beating that Asus 290X I linked in the OP.

 

[Kaapstad]

Not very good compared to what?

All four of my ref 290Xs can do over 1200/1625 on air without even using max volts.