Crossfiring two non-reference R9 290s on a mATX board

[TheNinjaNextDor]

exactly. Even if I where to lower the clock speeds a little I would probably still get enough performance.

If the ref cooler can cool them at all i dont think youll have to do that

[Guest]

Well yeah I imagine two R9 290s would well outperform a single titan in theory, same way my two 7970s probably do but that being said am I happy with them? Nah if I could turn back time I'd have got a Titan instead, also...

 

if I were you I wouldn't use a triple monitor setup.

This, its a bottomless pit to be honest.

[nj4ck]

If the ref cooler can cool them at all i dont think youll have to do that

I think what it really comes down to is getting the hot air out of the case ASAP. If a blower-style cooler can suck in enough air to cool the GPU while sitting right next to a second card, a custom-style cooler can do that, too. The problem is all the hot air being dumped into the case. With my setup, I'll have three 120mm intakes blowing at the cards from both the bottom and the front of the case, while three 120mm exhaust fans pull the hot air right out of the top and the back of the case.

 

Gives me a tiny glimpse of hope that this might actually work

[nj4ck]

Well yeah I imagine two R9 290s would well outperform a single titan in theory, same way my two 7970s probably do but that being said am I happy with them? Nah if I could turn back time I'd have got a Titan instead, also...

 

This, its a bottomless pit to be honest.

why? I imagine crossfire and sli can be a pain in the butt, but why would triple monitors be?

[D3MON]

Hi forum,

 

I'm having trouble deciding how to set up my planned 5760x1080 gaming rig. I've decided that I want to go with two R9 290s in crossfire. The problem is that I already have most of the hardware I'm going to be using and it's not exactly ideal for what I'm planning to do. I have a 4670k, sitting on an ASrock Z87M-Extreme4 motherboard inside a Fractal Arc Mini R2, the windowed version.

 

Since the motherboard is mATX, I don't have extra space between the two PCIe slots like you would on many ATX boards, so the cards are going to be sitting very close to eachother. Do I need to buy the super-loud reference cards, in order to keep the temperatures within acceptable ranges? I'd like to get the MSI Twin Frozr cards, but since they are non-blower designs, I'm afraid they might get a *little* hot in there. 

I'm running two 120mm intakes in the front of the case, another 120mm intake in the bottom, an H100i exhausting in the top and another 120mm exhaust in the back. 

 

Anybody have any experience with crossfiring custom cooled cards in such a small rig? As previously mentioned, I'd like to avoid the reference cards because of how loud they are, but I'm willing to make compromises if there's no way around it.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

nj4ck

so long as you have some cool air coming in and some hot air coming out the msi cards should be fine, people over exxagerate on temps way too much, im a silence/temp freak but i know that so long as cool air comes in and hot air gets out the cards coolers will do thier thing of exchanging the heat.

people have taken the whole "they run at 95*c at stock" thing and the "at 100% fan speed theyre very loud" thing and run off in thier imaginations and blown it out of proportion, watch jayztwocents video on the msi 290 and see for yourself how these cards ACTUALLY run, bear in kmind using msi afterburner/power tune will give you a bit more leeway than even he shows depending on wether you would like more performance or lower temps or lower noise and if so how much.

ive been thinking about doing the same sort of thing but with itx but there isnt a single itx case with a decent layout, they all put the psu above the cpu which is retarded, or you get the prodigy which is the size of the matx 350d as far as i can tell.

if your still unsure buy 1 and try it, or get the biggest card you have now, overclock the bageesus out of it and put the fan down til you can barely hear it then see how it is for temps, should give you a rough idea.

the final option would be watercooling, you can fit a full loop in a 350d and that case has allot of wasted space in the front and side still..

30% fan speed in open air at 1ghz gives 77*c

60% fan speed at 75*c while overclocked and overvolted, whats a typical 780ti temp and fan speed?

im guessing at stock with 2 of them back to back you could maintain 70*c at 50% fan speed and it still be silent, those fans dont need to spin fast to move allot of air.

[fringie]

Wouldn't liquid cooling be the solution then?