TTL's R9 290X Review.

[eshbop]

Seriously, people are too concerned over the temperature in their rigs, period. And not just in regards to this GPU. Yeah, the cooler you can keep a chip the less voltage is needed to maintain the same clocks, but that is only going to come in to play if you are trying to squeeze every last mHz out of it. My system doesn't suddenly become unstable because the CPU is running at 85C, instead of the normal 65-70C. Do some testing, find out for yourself. Plus this is an external exhaust cooler, people are overstating the effect on the rest of the system.

 

If your components are running within recommended temps it does not really matter. Volts are what kills things.

 

You need to remember, it's the chip that is 95C. This does not mean that the cooler is exhausting 15C more than what a 780 does. Say, if I run my GPU fan at 100% or 30% the temperature of the GPU will be different, but the same amount of heat is being produced.

[Saladin]

Seriously, people are too concerned over the temperature in their rigs, period. And not just in regards to this GPU. Yeah, the cooler you can keep a chip the less voltage is needed to maintain the same clocks, but that is only going to come in to play if you are trying to squeeze every last mHz out of it. My system doesn't suddenly become unstable because the CPU is running at 85C, instead of the normal 65-70C. Do some testing, find out for yourself. Plus this is an external exhaust cooler, people are overstating the effect on the rest of the system.

 

If your components are running within recommended temps it does not really matter. Volts are what kills things.

 

You need to remember, it's the chip that is 95C. This does not mean that the cooler is exhausting 15C more than what a 780 does. Say, if I run my GPU fan at 100% or 30% the temperature of the GPU will be different, but the same amount of heat is being produced.

I have to disagree. First, the issue isn't whether the temps will kill components immediately, but whether they will effect them overtime. Of course having the temps rise a bit briefly isn't a huge deal, however if it is constant then given a large sample size (many users) you will probably see an effect, not to mention that I for one am NOT comfortable with my CPU running at 85c as in your example. Second, as a person who IS trying to 'squeeze every last MHz' out of my system temps are of a concern, given the location of this discussion I would expect there to be others with like mind. Third, voltages and temperatures are linked, electrical resistance is expressed as heat waste in the system, and when those temperatures are high circuits degrade. Fourth, no GPU cooler is perfect, the 290x cooler cannot exhaust all of the heat out the back of the case, no GPU cooler does (not even the reference Titan cooler which is widely considered to be one of the best). Fifth, you need to take into account that the heat, whether exhausted or dumped into the case will also warm up the air around the case. At least for me this is of concern given that my computer is in a small room, the room is already noticeably warmer when the computer is a load and I am running a 660 ti, the addition of a 290x would in all likelihood make the room uncomfortable, unless the card is under water but that is not the point. Finally, I view the temps of the 290x as related to one or both of the following; a sub-par cooler or a an overvolted card (we saw both of these before with the Nvidia 480).

[IsaaX]

The issue I have with the 95c temp isn't just that its the temperature of the card, but that the card is in my rig. The card would sit right over my chip set, it would effect temps in the case, possibly CPU core temps, drive temps, ram temps, ect. 95c may not kill the GPU but it isn't 'healthy' for the computer as a whole. Until we see some crazy efficient non-reference cards (that some how deal with exhausting that heat) or put that card underwater I have no interest in the 290x, the thermals are just unacceptable. Just because the card is stable at 95c doesn't mean that the back of the card isn't stupid hot or that all the heat is exhausted out the back, it doesn't work that way. A card that runs at 95c WILL effect the temps of your other components, the heat has to go somewhere, think about the case temps after 2-3 hours of hardcore gaming (personally terrifying).

 

My thoughts exactly. Even IF non-reference models appear later, all that heat just ends up in your case and the rest of your components end up running hotter. This is something that a lot of people who are hoping for a non-reference model don't seem to realize. It ends up effecting thermals system wide unless you slap a water block on it or run 3+ case fans at full tilt to try to suck in as much colder  air as possible inside the case which ends up becoming an acoustical nightmare.

 

I was so ready to buy this card just to play BF4 with it and pop my 780 into another build I have planned. Price/Performance gave me a nerdgasm, but damn them thermals.....

[afa7336]

My thoughts exactly. Even IF non-reference models appear later, all that heat just ends up in your case and the rest of your components end up running hotter. This is something that a lot of people who are hoping for a non-reference model don't seem to realize. It ends up effecting thermals system wide unless you slap a water block on it or run 3+ case fans at full tilt to try to suck in as much colder  air as possible inside the case which ends up becoming an acoustical nightmare.

 

I was so ready to buy this card just to play BF4 with it and pop my 780 into another build I have planned. Price/Performance gave me a nerdgasm, but damn them thermals.....

 

That, plus even with the reference card, it can blow all the air it can out the back, but SOME heat will and has to remain. Its that simple. How much that effects the motherboard, and all other components around is yet to be seen. I don't think it will do damage mind you, but is it going to be hotter then what other cards create?

 

But non-reference, that's going to be interesting. And if what TTL said, we have quite some time to wait till we actually see them.

[Saladin]

That, plus even with the reference card, it can blow all the air it can out the back, but SOME heat will and has to remain. Its that simple. How much that effects the motherboard, and all other components around is yet to be seen. I don't think it will do damage mind you, but is it going to be hotter then what other cards create?

 

But non-reference, that's going to be interesting. And if what TTL said, we have quite some time to wait till we actually see them.

Yeah, I really want to see some benchmarks of the 290x with a water block on it. I wonder if it can be overclocked much if temperatures are controlled or if it becomes unstable. Would also be great to see how it compares to water cooled 780 and 780 ti cards.

[afa7336]

Yeah, I really want to see some benchmarks of the 290x with a water block on it. I wonder if it can be overclocked much if temperatures are controlled or if it becomes unstable. Would also be great to see how it compares to water cooled 780 and 780 ti cards.

 

Well, as I've said under water is a little tricky. I mean for us, yes it might be good to know. But for normal people, its nothing they should really know. I mean, we're talking maybe 10% or less actually watercool. Its kinda like knowing what a processor does under LN2, in my opinion.

 

That said, heck yeah, put it under water, and put a 780 under water and see what it can do without the temp limits.

[beebskadoo]

The bottom line is, this card is a good effort from AMD and competes well with the 780. It fails in some areas but it's also significantly cheaper and AMD is known to be the better price to performance option. They cut corners with the thermals on the card itself, but somehow I doubt these cards can run at any higher temperatures. Reviewers are already running into stability issues when this card gets a mild overclock. Will this be remedied by liquid cooling or aftermarket heat syncs? I really don't know but we will find out really soon for sure. This card could end up being an OC dream or it could be less of an overclocker than we expect. The card is already throttling itself back down to 800 ish MHz in some games after only 5 minutes. Which even then the card runs at 95C. Regardless which BIOS setting you use, the card still clocks down after it heats up, and the fans have to be manually set if you want to reach 60% fan speed or higher.

Clock for clock the 780 is keeping up with it, but where the 780 shines is in cooling. Even with the stock 780 cooler it's able to ruin cooler and OC better. Yeah it's more expensive (for now) but wait till November hits, the 780ti thus supposed to fill in that price point this pushing the 780 down in price. I'm not a fanboy, like Tom I really hoped this card destroyed everything else on the market. But at the end of the day it's more of a marginal win which disappoints me.

Look at 7970, it is still kicking ass in games. It was the best card they have ever released period, now we are back to leapfrogging performance gains.

It's been 2 years since 7970... they both can be doing better than they are.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

[Purple]

Card is hot and noisy.

 

Then wait for 3rd party, it'll make it much cooler and quieter, then AMD is in the best position possible.

 

Tom's first part of his video was done a week or two ago, then he did the discussions at the end with the pricing which was a day or two ago.

 

I agree with him that RIGHT NOW, you should buy a 780, but in a week or two when custom coolers come out, it's best to get the 290X.

 

Couldn't have said It better myself. I would NOT buy a 290x now.

[Humbug]

The bottom line is, this card is a good effort from AMD and competes well with the 780. It fails in some areas but it's also significantly cheaper and AMD is known to be the better price to performance option. They cut corners with the thermals on the card itself, but somehow I doubt these cards can run at any higher temperatures. Reviewers are already running into stability issues when this card gets a mild overclock. Will this be remedied by liquid cooling or aftermarket heat syncs? I really don't know but we will find out really soon for sure.

Judging by history there is no doubt that the thermal performance will be massively improved with the arrival of aftermarket heat syncs from the board partners. Whether this translates into good overclocks will then depend on other factors apart from temperature. But at least the cards will stop throttling.

 

Like you said this is a good effort from AMD, they have done all the hard work technically and the architecture is obviously rock solid. Which makes it sad that they have skimped on the cooler (like TTL said). This is a top end card with so many transistors and such a big die; and yet they have given it the same cooler as the 270-x.

 

[Jumper118]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-055-TL&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752 hot gpu? solved

[beebskadoo]

Judging by history there is no doubt that the thermal performance will be massively improved with the arrival of aftermarket heat syncs from the board partners. Whether this translates into good overclocks will then depend on other factors apart from temperature. But at least the cards will stop throttling.

Like you said this is a good effort from AMD, they have done all the hard work technically and the architecture is obviously rock solid. Which makes it sad that they have skimped on the cooler (like TTL said). This is a top end card with so many transistors and such a big die; and yet they have given it the same cooler as the 270-x.

but if the rumors ate right than it's going to be months before we see any aftermarket heat syncs. TTL even said that Asus doesn't have a Direct CUII card ready until next year. AMD made a stupid decision by not giving the board partners the design of the board and mounting system in time for launch. This means that it's another stock cooler launch which presents problems when the thermals are balls.

TTL put his neck out there by sharing his true feelings without sugar coating it. Not every reviewer would do that and I applaud him for that.

Linus needs to do more in depth testing with more numbers and such. It doesn't need to be a video, it could be a review on the forum or something like that. But numbers are what we need.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

[beebskadoo]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-055-TL&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752 hot gpu? solved

How bout no.....

[Jumper118]

How bout no.....

yes it would run much cooler and quieter with the mother of all gpu heatsinks on it 

[Opsilon]

Voltage is not the only difference. And my MSI 670 card could actually change the voltages. GPU boost 2.0 is based more on a temperature target. The original GPU boost had no such functionality.

Yes the power edition cards could increase voltages, but the rest of them did not, and later version of lightning/power edition cards were limited, the 600 series did not have the temperature target based boost, true, but temperature did affect clock boost, and in that way the cards work in the similar fashion, the fact that the 700 series did have that temperature target, the boost was better, not only that but it also gave you a better control over your overclock, the gpu boost 2.0 was a refining process nothing revolutionary...

[Derangel]

The issue I have with the 95c temp isn't just that its the temperature of the card, but that the card is in my rig. The card would sit right over my chip set, it would effect temps in the case, possibly CPU core temps, drive temps, ram temps, ect. 95c may not kill the GPU but it isn't 'healthy' for the computer as a whole. Until we see some crazy efficient non-reference cards (that some how deal with exhausting that heat) or put that card underwater I have no interest in the 290x, the thermals are just unacceptable. Just because the card is stable at 95c doesn't mean that the back of the card isn't stupid hot or that all the heat is exhausted out the back, it doesn't work that way. A card that runs at 95c WILL effect the temps of your other components, the heat has to go somewhere, think about the case temps after 2-3 hours of hardcore gaming (personally terrifying).

 

I am runing two 670s right now. When I play a demanding game both cards can reach 70+c. That is a combined heat output of 140c and beyond. WAAAY above a single 290x. You want to know what effect that has on the rest of my system? Exactly nothing. Unless you are running everything at it's absolute peak thermal limit or you have terrible cooling in your case the extra heat isn't going to kill any other part in your computer or severely negatively effect your system. 95c is crazy hot for a single card to run, but people are over reacting just a tad about it. The GTX 480 didn't kill computers when it was used in single or multi-card configurations, the 290x won't either.

 

But what if you want to overclock that card. At the moment it would be a stupid idea to overclock the 290x unless you want temps in the range of 100C.

 

You simply can not go beyond 95c. There are no 100c temps from it because the card will throttle to stay under 95c, no matter what you do. This is likely why you can't OC the card on the stock cooler. The stock cooler is complete crap, it barely manages to keep the card from throttling with the fan at 100%.

[kuddlesworth9419]

I am runing two 670s right now. When I play a demanding game both cards can reach 70+c. That is a combined heat output of 140c and beyond. WAAAY above a single 290x. You want to know what effect that has on the rest of my system? Exactly nothing. Unless you are running everything at it's absolute peak thermal limit or you have terrible cooling in your case the extra heat isn't going to kill any other part in your computer or severely negatively effect your system. 95c is crazy hot for a single card to run, but people are over reacting just a tad about it. The GTX 480 didn't kill computers when it was used in single or multi-card configurations, the 290x won't either.

 

 

You simply can not go beyond 95c. There are no 100c temps from it because the card will throttle to stay under 95c, no matter what you do. This is likely why you can't OC the card on the stock cooler. The stock cooler is complete crap, it barely manages to keep the card from throttling with the fan at 100%.

Well I guess that is cool. Still a stock cooler that performs that badly is not good at all. I have never owned a GPU that exceeds 70C.

[Derangel]

Well I guess that is cool. Still a stock cooler that performs that badly is not good at all. I have never owned a GPU that exceeds 70C.

 

Most stock coolers are terrible. It is one of the first areas that Nvidia and AMD seem to cut corners on. The Titan style stock cooler is about the only one I can remember in recent history that is pretty good.

[Camsung]

Do you guys agree with his review? Is it that bad? I thought it would blow the 780 out of the water but that does not appear to be the case... It's also hotter, louder and has a really ugly reference cooler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lZ3Z6Niir4

 

Post Merged

Edited October 26, 2013 by Dim

[SteepGnomeKing]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/68470-ttls-r9-290x-review/page-6?hl=%2B290x+%2Bttl#entry942214

 

Topic discussion over there.

 

I agree though. Not what I thought it was going to be but it's held back by the thermals. So once aftermarket becomes available it will be a better test IMO

Really excited for the waterblock and aftermarket coolers to see what this card can really do.

 

But the titan killer thing is very annoying, like slick and TTL said the 780 beats the titan in some cases and is much more expensive. So it's not a 290x vs titan it's a 290x vs 780. That way the price comparisons isn't as great and is more realistic for the consumers.

[zip2k4]

Do you guys agree with his review? Is it that bad? I thought it would blow the 780 out of the water but that does not appear to be the case... It's also hotter, louder and has a really ugly reference cooler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lZ3Z6Niir4

 

It's enough for me to want to pick up 7990 at a close price point instead

[ltguy]

I am runing two 670s right now. When I play a demanding game both cards can reach 70+c. That is a combined heat output of 140c and beyond. WAAAY above a single 290x. You want to know what effect that has on the rest of my system? Exactly nothing. Unless you are running everything at it's absolute peak thermal limit or you have terrible cooling in your case the extra heat isn't going to kill any other part in your computer or severely negatively effect your system. 95c is crazy hot for a single card to run, but people are over reacting just a tad about it. The GTX 480 didn't kill computers when it was used in single or multi-card configurations, the 290x won't either.

 

 

You simply can not go beyond 95c. There are no 100c temps from it because the card will throttle to stay under 95c, no matter what you do. This is likely why you can't OC the card on the stock cooler. The stock cooler is complete crap, it barely manages to keep the card from throttling with the fan at 100%.

Two 70C heat sources dont create a 140C hot spot in your case. And no matter what cooler you have on this card that doesnt change the TDP of the card. I have a 5970 and 5870 trifire (almost 500 watts tdp total) and they have no problem heating up any room you sit the case in. I can only imagine what 2 R9 290X's would do.

[Equlix]

Two 70C heat sources dont create a 140C hot spot in your case. And no matter what cooler you have on this card that doesnt change the TDP of the card. I have a 5970 and 5870 trifire (almost 500 watts tdp total) and they have no problem heating up any room you sit the case in. I can only imagine what 2 R9 290X's would do.

open a window. #performance@allcosts

[Derangel]

Two 70C heat sources dont create a 140C hot spot in your case. And no matter what cooler you have on this card that doesnt change the TDP of the card. I have a 5970 and 5870 trifire (almost 500 watts tdp total) and they have no problem heating up any room you sit the case in. I can only imagine what 2 R9 290X's would do.

 

They help you save some money on your heating bill.

[R4STABAN]

I love a good honest TTL review like this.

 

He really stirs up the hive and makes the [insert brand] fanboys reveal themselves in threads like this

[Lukiose]

Regarding the thermal problem affecting your other components, i don't really see what people quoting that are trying to push >.>

The reference cooler is bad, yes, but it is also a blower style fan so all the hot air is expelled out of the case! Running @ 95c will therefore not affect your rig at all so that point is absolutely and utterly invalid.

 

@Saladin the air goes out of the case. 95c won't kill the card either, the only problem is that 95c is causing the card to throttle and it has more potential to draw out more performance, just not with the stock cooler - which is stupidly loud as well.