R9 290x Crossfire Review - performance, cooling, noise, energy [WIP]

[Faceman]

Ok, great, I may consider doing it in a month or two. I hope you don't mind if I PM you to ask any questions down the line!

 

Not at all, happy to help!  Add me.

[Meladath]

Sorry to hijack,,.,.Curious if you know quickly offhand if the Gigabyte 290X (triple fan) is compatible? - http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4919#ov

/It's got 4 main screws on the back, with two smaller ones further down where the VRM's are.

I have a really hot core (after reseating/pasting) up to 87*c and vrm @ 104*c and I want it lowered...

Msg me if possible to keep this thread clean if need be... Many thanks.

 

87c STOCK? Holy crap thats absolutely insane. I have my Tri-X overclocked to 1100/1500 and It almost never gets over 80c (haven't changed thermal paste), I know the Tri-X cooler is a bit better than the gigabyte but not by that much at all.

[SkilledRebuilds]

87c STOCK? Holy crap thats absolutely insane. I have my Tri-X overclocked to 1100/1500 and It almost never gets over 80c (haven't changed thermal paste), I know the Tri-X cooler is a bit better than the gigabyte but not by that much at all.

Tell me about it!

RMA'd my 72*c MAX R9-290 OC, got back a 290X, but man... o man... it's hot as hell.

Finding out tonight if its a reference pcb when I get home,.. to find out if I can easily watercool it.

/Edit: I have REF!@!!!!! - Watercooling is a GOGO!!

[blackadder]

i didn't know the pcs 290 looked so good. great review i look forward to seeing the rest. 

[Hero7750]

My uncle recently upgraded from a single r9 290 to 2 r9 290x's. He got them for ana amzing price too. 2 r9 290x's with the waterblocks pre-installed for 540$, you cam't go wrong with that! Plus the cards do run really well.

[Tacitus]

i didn't know the pcs 290 looked so good. great review i look forward to seeing the rest. 

They are very nice looking indeed! Here's another shot:

 

 

My uncle recently upgraded from a single r9 290 to 2 r9 290x's. He got them for ana amzing price too. 2 r9 290x's with the waterblocks pre-installed for 540$, you cam't go wrong with that! Plus the cards do run really well.

 

Great value. I'm considering doing the Kraken G10 mod to my top card. If and when I do I'll report back

[FellTheSky]

since you're at it, you could confirm this

 

 

Seems like downsampling on battlefield 4 shows the true power consumption of the card:

 

" We went from 860W on our overclocked Tri-X GPUs to a massive, unexpected 1050W. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the power meter ticking at 1050W, as this is something I would've expected from a 3-way CrossFire setup. "

[Tacitus]

-snip-

 

I couldn't confirm power consumption in that precise game, as I do not have nor play BF4.

 

I can confirm power consumption rises with supersampling, but again, in my system with both cards at 100% usage in a gaming scenario I never saw above 700W from the wall.

 

I'll take a look at that review and see what I think because for some reason it does say in that chart "higher is better" which obviously is not the case.

 

EDIT: could you link me to that review actually?

[FellTheSky]

I couldn't confirm power consumption in that precise game, as I do not have nor play BF4.

 

I can confirm power consumption rises with supersampling, but again, in my system with both cards at 100% usage in a gaming scenario I never saw above 700W from the wall.

 

I'll take a look at that review and see what I think because for some reason it does say in that chart "higher is better" which obviously is not the case.

 

EDIT: could you link me to that review actually?

 

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/37/sapphire-radeon-r9-290x-tri-x-overclocked-power-consumption-numbers/index.html

 

There you go. Im not sure either of the results as they are not validate by any other hardware reviewer out there. But i havent seen anyone pushing the cards to the limit on a game like battlefield 4 multiplayer. Since the CPU is very stress on a 64 players map, and the gpus are also because of the supersampling, it doesnt sound like a impossible scenario

[Tacitus]

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/37/sapphire-radeon-r9-290x-tri-x-overclocked-power-consumption-numbers/index.html

 

There you go. Im not sure either of the results as they are not validate by any other hardware reviewer out there. But i havent seen anyone pushing the cards to the limit on a game like battlefield 4 multiplayer. Since the CPU is very stress on a 64 players map, and the gpus are also because of the supersampling, it doesnt sound like a impossible scenario

 

A 450W EXTRA from just an overclock to me seems ridiculous. I am not convinced. With that said, they're putting an extra 200mv through the cards, whereas mine are at stock voltages.

 

It might well be, but I don't think many people who own the cards will be putting that much voltage through them. I certainly am not altering my voltages.

[ErickS89]

Not bad. Glad you found out the power requirements. Hopefully more people will read this and FINALLY realise that hawaii reallyy does not draw anywhere NEAR as much power as people like to make out. The 780Ti usually drew like 10-20w less than the R9 290X, which no one seemed to care about, but 290/X? YOU NEED A NUCLEAR REACTOR. Silly fanboys, oh well, rant over.

Looks like you have had a good experience! AMD's multi monitor support is far better than nvidia's imo, you should upgrade this thread with those results when you can.

In terms of just 3 monitors they're about the same, but it's when you want more AMD is the way to go! Of course quadro cards can do more than 3, Nvidia really needs to bring that down to the consumer cards!

I love it when people say "you need a crazy psu" to power an AMD card, I just sit back and laugh! The 300 series looks promising, is it the messiah? Who knows, hopefully a 390x beats down a 980, as I have no problem going team red buuuut I also like my sheild..

[SkilledRebuilds]

I did find it funny when the 300w argument kept coming up.

 

I have that now on my voltage modded 290 overclock... so it's nothing new...or outrageous in any way...

 

Spikes past 300w are common enough when pushing them.

[Hero7750]

Of course 3 overclocked gpu's are going to draw a shit ton of power, I don't know why people are suprised.

[combine1237]

I have done the g10 kracken mod for 2 290x's in the air 540 if you have a giant air cooler like a d-15 or such it is a pain to fit all the tubing for the cards everywhere as the tubing must either be fairly long or there will be issues geting them all.

[Tacitus]

I have done the g10 kracken mod for 2 290x's in the air 540 if you have a giant air cooler like a d-15 or such it is a pain to fit all the tubing for the cards everywhere as the tubing must either be fairly long or there will be issues geting them all.

 

Thanks for informing me of this. I have the stock Intel CPU cooler!

 

How did the modding go? Smooth experience for you?

[combine1237]

Thanks for informing me of this. I have the stock Intel CPU cooler!

 

How did the modding go? Smooth experience for you?

yep, typing this from my tablet now, but it went pretty well, temps both below 65 c on all card parts when benchmarking and with one card it was about 52 c. definite noise improvement as it allows me to run all my fans more silently, the swoosh of the water cooler pump has a really nice ambient noise in my opinion too. The worst part is if you have a huge tower cooler, you are going to need to have long tubes as the lack of a bottom fan mount really hurts the 540 in my case, but the mod really helps because of the lack of the side or bottom fan and allows the gpus to dump their heat outside if they lack a blower. all in all it cost me about 120 usd to do the mod for my two cards and it was well worth it in my opinion due to the crossfire temps and noise.