Is the reference 290x bearable at $175?

[Rarity]

I had a reference card and while the sound wasn't abysmal it was pretty bad by most standards. What fans are you using that are louder than a 290 stock cooler?

mix of corsair af120`s,sp120, af140  and the default 2 intake fans on the 780t ..with the 2 intake on the front ,bottom(added one)and exhaust being set to level 1 out of  3 on the built in fan controller .. this based on me playing bf4 and gta 5 ..

[don_svetlio]

I think my GTX 480 is quieter and cooler lel That makes me happy.

Nah, 480 is still the #1 space heater

[flibberdipper]

Nah, 480 is still the #1 space heater

Mine isn't bad, really. Highest load I've seen with a shitty TIM application was like 80C with the fan at a (fairly quiet) 70%.

[don_svetlio]

Mine isn't bad, really. Highest load I've seen with a shitty TIM application was like 80C with the fan at a (fairly quiet) 70%.

Consider yourself lucky - a guy I know got his to 102*C while playing Crysis 2 - ended with melted VRMs

[Octavialicious]

Its bearable 

I do however think $170 is a bit high

what? that's even a good deal for a reference R9 290....

[thekeemo]

what? that's even a good deal for a reference R9 290....

nah I got my 690 for that much. I got a 290x for 160 (US $ but I'm in Canada)

Local classifieds are better if you live in a urban area

[Octavialicious]

Local classifieds 

Exactly.... $170 for a reference 290X online is unheard of, and a reference 290 at that price is extremely uncommon

[thekeemo]

Exactly.... $170 for a reference 290X online is unheard of, and a reference 290 at that price is extremely uncommon

which is why you should buy locally?

[Octavialicious]

which is why you should buy locally?

which not all people can do, and a large portion of people buy used online. (Which is why it's silly for you to say it's a high price)

[Inkz]

You can probably try selling it for way higher than that and then buy a non reference card.  As for the actual question I would say yes, if you have a really good case or have a lower ambient temperature.

[iHardware Shelden]

$143.

How the devil.

We had $170 GTX 770s at our Micro, they messed up the prices and I almost bought one, still bummed I didn't :\

[afyeung]

We had $170 GTX 770s at our Micro, they messed up the prices and I almost bought one, still bummed I didn't :\

Now a days a 290 is around 70% more powerful than a 770 in recent games. Even the 780ti has been less than $200 on EVGA

[GzeroD]

Now a days a 290 is around 70% more powerful than a 770 in recent games. Even the 780ti has been less than $200 on EVGA

are you sure it's 70%? I thought it was closer to 30-35% (which is still a massive improvement)

[afyeung]

are you sure it's 70%? I thought it was closer to 30-35% (which is still a massive improvement)

Yes. That's why they don't even use lower end cards like the 770 in benchmarks any more. The 290 at stock speeds pulls far ahead even against the 780 in gta 5, and the 780 has built in overclocking with gpu boost 2.0. Not to mention that the 770 is a rebranded 680, the 290 is 2x as powerful as the 680 while a modern high end card like the 980ti is almost 4x as powerful as the 680.

[iHardware Shelden]

Now a days a 290 is around 70% more powerful than a 770 in recent games. Even the 780ti has been less than $200 on EVGA

Absolutely amazing, don't get me started on RAM prices

[GzeroD]

also for as down on the 290 as I may sound I would like to make it clear that at $175 it is an absolute steal.

[TheRandomness]

Lol. I don't have enough time or dremel skills to do that. Thinking of the accelero extreme 3. My current 290 can't clock high enough to match an overclock 290x anyways.

That moment when you hit +325 on the core with a (Sapphire) 290 at stock voltages... And everyone is complaining about the 290 X reference , what happened to the 6990? c:

[GzeroD]

That moment when you hit +325 on the core with a (Sapphire) 290 at stock voltages... And everyone is complaining about the 290 X reference , what happened to the 6990? c:

my first reference 290 could hit 1225 core stable (with the fan at 100% and an ac blowing into the case) by far the best core overclocker out of the 4 I have had but I had to throw quite a bit of voltage too get it there. sounds like you got a nice little golden chip there.

[jcsatro_805]

Good luck finding one. I've been looking for a long time and haven't found anything reasonable. The best I saw was a broken 290x tri-X, but the guy wanted over $100 for it. It sucks because I have a really good 290 that can OC to 1170Mhz but I have to have the fan so high that it isn't worth it. I could watercool it as I have a loop of the CPU but I would need a block and another radiator to add in the GPU ~$200

I got a Gigabyte Windforce 290x for $175 recently from craigslist, bug I doubt you will be able to find any in new condition for that price