R9 280x Cooling issues...? And GPU Recommendations

[Ophixis]

Due to the price fluctuation of the 280x I have been trying to find a card for no more than $400. I was going to buy a 280x but many amazon reviewers have posted about high throttling and VRM cooling issues, then it jumped up in price. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Some say that updating their bios fixed this issue, but I am not sure whether it will run properly on my Asrock Extreme Pro 4 motherboard. Does anyone know if this card would have problems with my motherboard? I want a card with at least 3gb ram for my multiple monitor setup. Any recommendations would be great. I have been looking at many of the 4gb 770's but I only have 290mm of space in my case. Any suggestions for a GPU under $400 with 3gb ram+ and under 290mm would be great. I know I have a lot of questions and this is a lot to ask but thanks in advanced! 

[FlakeyBanana]

the amd cards have been in short supply due to their immense populate in Cryptocoin mining

[Scia]

Add another 50$ and get a 290 Better anyways

 

Rocking a watercooled 290x and I'm not missing my 680SLI ^^

[ShogunZ]

A 290 would also need watercooling and stuff and the aftermarket ones will probably be even more expensive. I'd say wait for the price to drop back on the 280x.

[Najuno]

Add another 50$ and get a 290 Better anyways

 

Rocking a watercooled 290x and I'm not missing my 680SLI ^^

 

You can´t really recommend a R9 290 as is right now without a third party air cooler or a custom water cooled loop... and not everybody is willing to remove a heatsink and risking that the warranty is gone.

 

In genreal I would say a R9 290 but wait for the board partners to release their custom coolers (unless you like to have a hot air gun in your rig) in January.

 

GreetZ Naj

[Scia]

You can´t really recommend a R9 290 as is right now without a third party air cooler or a custom water cooled loop... and not everybody is willing to remove a heatsink and risking that the warranty is gone.

 

In genreal I would say a R9 290 but wait for the board partners to release their custom coolers (unless you like to have a hot air gun in your rig) in January.

 

GreetZ Naj

 

Depends on setup / noise sensitivity.

 

And the easiest way to get around voiding warranty is ot buy from boardpartners that do not put breaking seals on.

 

Palit does for example [Had it on one of my 680s] while Gigabyte doesn't. So IF you had to RMA it, be sure the clean the TIM off the ram and put the stock cooler back on -> Problem solved

[Najuno]

Depends on setup / noise sensitivity.

 

And the easiest way to get around voiding warranty is ot buy from boardpartners that do not put breaking seals on.

 

Palit does for example [Had it on one of my 680s] while Gigabyte doesn't. So IF you had to RMA it, be sure the clean the TIM off the ram and put the stock cooler back on -> Problem solved

Sorry but setup/ noise sensivity? I´ve got a R9 290X from Asus myself in my 2nd rig... UBER mode on the standard heatsink is a bad joke...

 

And this was not my point here. Not everyone is like us that has the expirience and no problem at all to modify their own hardware.

 

So problem solved ?!? I don´t think so...

 

That´s why I recommend in general a solid cooling solution from a board partner. And if that means people have to wait a bit, well better than the standard crap.

[Scia]

Sorry but setup/ noise sensivity? I´ve got a R9 290X from Asus myself in my 2nd rig... UBER mode on the standard heatsink is a bad joke...

 

And this was not my point here. Not everyone is like us that has the expirience and no problem at all to modify their own hardware.

 

So problem solved ?!? I don´t think so...

 

That´s why I recommend in general a solid cooling solution from a board partner. And if that means people have to wait a bit, well better than the standard crap.

 

Ofc it's better to wait for AM coolers. I'm just saying that people really over hate on the crappy stock cooler. Yes, it's not that awesome, but I've seen worse ^^ [Reference cooler on 680 was insanely loud, I could hear it 4 stories down] ^^

[Najuno]

Ofc it's better to wait for AM coolers. I'm just saying that people really over hate on the crappy stock cooler. Yes, it's not that awesome, but I've seen worse ^^ [Reference cooler on 680 was insanely loud, I could hear it 4 stories down] ^^

 

That´s true the crappy stock cooler doesn´t mean the card is bad. But it only reveals its potential with a really good cooler.

 

I was already bothered by the reference cooler of my GTX 780 Ti in my main rig. As soon as a waterblock was out there I bought it, and it was just half as loud as my R9 290X in UBER mode hehe.

 

IMHO the third party coolers from the board partners are the easiest way to achieve good results with a graphics card but if you really want to see what especially a highend card can do put it under water... I managed to overclock my GTX 780Ti (just for benchmarking) to almost 1350 mHz (and yes I know I´m blessed for I´ve won the silicon lottery haha ).

[SixtyDashOne]

Not sure what the 280x cooling issues are, I have the Sapphire Vapor X overclocked 100mhz on both the gpu and the mem and it rarely gets over 60c when gaming. Although my case has decent cooling with a nice big 200mm intake fan that is pretty much pointed right at the card, plus a 140mm mounted on the drive cages that is aimed in its general direction. I think the 280x is a great buy when the prices come down, otherwise wait and see with the non-reference 290.