290X with Accelero Xtreme IV

[zyxtomatic]

I've got a reference Sapphire 290, reflashed with a 290X bios. I got tired of the terribly loud hair drier that is the stock cooler, so I swapped it out with an Accelero Xtreme IV:
http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/accelero-xtreme-iv.html

After reading reviews of other similar coolers that lacked direct heatsinks on the RAM and VRMs (like the Kraken G10), I decided to *also* install a set of heatsinks on the RAM and VRMs:
http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/heatsink-accelero-xtreme-7970.html

I used Arctic Alumina thermal epoxy to glue on the heatsinks. (Yup, permanent.) Unfortunately, I did not first try the Accelero without the extra frontside heatsinks for comparison. That Accelero is such a pain to install that I didn't want to do it twice. So, I can't comment how effective it would be by itself using only it's unusual backplate cooler without the extra frontside heatsinks.

Heat-related machine specs:
Antec P180 case
1x 120mm intake fan, front (Noctua NF-S12A PWM)
2x 120mm exhaust fans, rear and top (Noctua NF-S12A PWM)
Intel 3570K cpu, stock cooler, no overclock

The case fans are linked (via motherboard bios) to the cpu temp, so the hotter the cpu gets the faster the case fans spin.


----Results----
I ran the Unigine Valley benchmark and let it loop for about 20 minutes during each run to make sure everything was heat soaked.

Stock cooler, "quiet" mode (40% max fan speed, still pretty loud despite the name)
Notice the substantial underclocking of the gpu:

Stock cooler, "uber" mode (55% max fan speed, very loud)
Notice how the gpu is still underclocking itself a little:

Accelero + heatsinks, custom fan profile to make them spin 100% at full load (pretty quiet even at full load):
Notice the gpu running at the full 1000 MHz:

I haven't done any overclocking tests, as that's not really something I care about at this point. I just wanted something quiet and that kept the card cool enough so it wouldn't underclock itself. This cooler works great for that. It keeps the gpu in the 60s, and it keeps the VRMs well within a reasonable temperature range.

One problem I am running into, though, is that this is the sort of cooler that dumps all the GPU heat into the case interior, relying on the case fans to exhaust it all. (Compared to the reference cooler which dumps the heat out the back of the case.) With the GPU running at 100% load, it's dumping such a massive amount of heat into the case (200+ watts) that the case interior heats up significantly, making the cpu heat up significantly, which makes the case fans ramp up to 100% to keep it all in check. That can get pretty loud, which is exactly the opposite of where I wanted to be. So I've effectively exchanged a very loud stock gpu cooler for some loud (but tolerable and less annoying) case fan noise.

I also have an NZXT Kraken G10 water cooling bracket and an Antec Kuhler 620 water cooler sitting in a box that I might swap out for the Accelero at some point as a test. The Kuhler will dump the gpu heat out the case, and the extra heatsinks glued onto the RAM and VRMs should help cool them, which is a major weak spot with the Kraken G10 system. Or, I could put the Kuhler on my cpu, which might be a better idea as I'm still using the stock Intel cpu cooler. Either of those options would reduce case temperatures and thus case fan noise.

Update: After running with the Accelero setup for a while now and doing some good gaming sessions, I'm finding the case fan noise to be less of an issue than I feared. In benchmark/stress-testing scenarios, the gpu (and often cpu depending on the stress test being used) run at 100% load the entire time, creating a huge amount of heat, causing the fans to ramp up. During normal gaming, though, there are typically periods of heavy load interspersed with periods of light load. This allows temps to stay at a low enough level that the case fans never really ramp up too high. If you're curious, my current game of choice (and thus the use-case in question here) is a heavily modded Skyrim running a quality-oriented ENB. Outdoor scenes will bring most video cards to their knees, the 290 being no exception. However, things like the menu screens, inventory screens, and interiors (dungeons, houses, etc) have significantly less load on the gpu. Since you are typically going back and forth between all of these things in the game, the case temps don't have a chance to really build up too high.

 

[Silverforce11]

Definitely go with the AIO solution with the Kraken G10, all that heat out the case with some good silent fans on the rad = win.

Plus you can use it in place of one of the normal case exhaust.

CPUs just dont dump as much heat into the case (besides massive suicide OCs) to bother 2 exhaust fan setups.

 

[nitromullet]

This is cool for sure, but my problem with any aftermarket cooler is that I don't want to spend $120+ on a cooler for an R9 290 that I paid $260 for. With the mining cards flooding the market good deals are abound, but spending too much on an aftermarket cooler sort of negates the value aspect. Might as well get a new Sapphire Tri-X card or a GTX 780 for the money.

 

[zyxtomatic]

Definitely go with the AIO solution with the Kraken G10, all that heat out the case with some good silent fans on the rad = win.
Plus you can use it in place of one of the normal case exhaust.
CPUs just dont dump as much heat into the case (besides massive suicide OCs) to bother 2 exhaust fan setups.

I had considered G10 for exactly that reason, but at some point I wouldn't mind playing around with some overclocking on my 3570K cpu. I'm normally well past the overclocking days of my youth, but since I have an unlocked cpu and a water cooler sitting here, I figured it might be interesting. However, virtually nothing I run is ever cpu-constrained, so leaving the cpu at stock speeds and concentrating on the gpu does make more sense.

 

[zyxtomatic]

This is cool for sure, but my problem with any aftermarket cooler is that I don't want to spend $120+ on a cooler for an R9 290 that I paid $260 for. With the mining cards flooding the market good deals are abound, but spending too much on an aftermarket cooler sort of negates the value aspect. Might as well get a new Sapphire Tri-X card or a GTX 780 for the money.

Agreed. This is a bit of a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I picked up this 290 card on Ebay from a retired litecoin miner who was selling a large batch of them, so it was a great deal. Then to find out it was one of the unlocked models that could be reflashed to a 290X just made the deal sweeter. However, I wasn't prepared for just how ridiculously loud the reference cooler would be. At that point I was in it for the long haul and made the decision to shell out the money for a replacement cooler. It was either that or ditch the 290 card and go back to my old gpu, but at that point I was already addicted to the additional performance of the 290.

If I was doing it all over, I'd definitely choose a card that has a quiet stock cooler rather than deal with these expensive aftermarket coolers. That being said, the cards like the Tri-X you mentioned almost always dump the heat back into the computer case, so you're left needing substantial case airflow like I'm running into with this setup. A 290/290X pumps out 200-250 watts of heat at full load. That's no small effort to exhaust out of your case!

 

[Silverforce11]

Look at my sig, Ghetto Modding for dirt cheap yields close to a proper water loop, 10C over ambient.

Its the best way to go for buying ebay cheap reference R290/X

 

[nitromullet]

Agreed. This is a bit of a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I picked up this 290 card on Ebay from a retired litecoin miner who was selling a large batch of them, so it was a great deal. Then to find out it was one of the unlocked models that could be reflashed to a 290X just made the deal sweeter. However, I wasn't prepared for just how ridiculously loud the reference cooler would be. At that point I was in it for the long haul and made the decision to shell out the money for a replacement cooler. It was either that or ditch the 290 card and go back to my old gpu, but at that point I was already addicted to the additional performance of the 290.

If I was doing it all over, I'd definitely choose a card that has a quiet stock cooler rather than deal with these expensive aftermarket coolers. That being said, the cards like the Tri-X you mentioned almost always dump the heat back into the computer case, so you're left needing substantial case airflow like I'm running into with this setup. A 290/290X pumps out 200-250 watts of heat at full load. That's no small effort to exhaust out of your case!

All good points. Totally agreed on the stock cooler. It's a shame AMD paired an otherwise awesome card with a hairdryer for a cooler. As for me, I'm probably just going to deal with the noise/throttling.

 

[lopri]

I've had a little bit of success reducing noise by undervolting mine. After reading some basics about these cards I tried various settings to reduce its noise while maintaining the performance, and it briefly fooled me when I set the fan speed @42% and the clock speed did not decrease. I soon realized that only happened when room temperature was 70 F or below. (lol) Yesterday I lowered the voltages for both the GPU and memory by 50 mV using Afterburner, and I ran Unigine Valley for 30 minutes with fan speed 44% without much performance loss (917~947 MHz). Room temperature was 75 F. It's still loud but better than stock 47% that sometimes goes up to 49%. I will keep an eye.. (ear?) on it.

I totally got my 290 by accident and had absolutely no prior plan to purchase. It's by far the fastest 3D card I've had, approx. 50~80% faster than 670/7950 under GPU limited scenarios. Despite many shortcomings of this card (especially by my usual standard) I think I am going to keep it as it is just like nitromullet plans to do. Also I am in agreement with him that $100+ cooler kind of beats the whole "value" aspect of my impulse buy.

 

[wand3r3r]

I've had a little bit of success reducing noise by undervolting mine. After reading some basics about these cards I tried various settings to reduce its noise while maintaining the performance, and it briefly fooled me when I set the fan speed @42% and the clock speed did not decrease. I soon realized that only happened when room temperature was 70C or below. (lol) Yesterday I lowered the voltages for both the GPU and memory by 50 mV using Afterburner, and I ran Unigine Valley for 30 minutes with fan speed 44% without much performance loss (917~947 MHz). Room temperature was 75C. It's still loud but better than stock 47% that sometimes goes up to 49%. I will keep an eye.. (ear?) on it.

I totally got my 290 by accident and had absolutely no prior plan to purchase. It's by far the fastest 3D cards I've had, approx. 50~80% faster than 670/7950 under GPU limited scenarios. Despite many shortcomings of this card (especially by my usual standard) I think I am going to keep it as it is just like nitromullet plans to do. Also I am in agreement with him that $100+ cooler kind of beats the whole "value" aspect of my impulse buy.

I assume by "75C room temps" you mean core.

That's the thing, I have succumbed to the card due to the value proposition at the time, plus they generated coins.

If you have to pay $100+ for a cooler it might be edging into 780 territory and unless you get a great deal you're better off buying a custom card or a 780 imo. Then again when you are only paying $2xx for a 290 it's still 20%+ cheaper then a 780 even with a fancy cooler added on.

 

[lopri]

My bad I meant 75 F. Corrected, thank you.

 

[Makaveli]

This is cool for sure, but my problem with any aftermarket cooler is that I don't want to spend $120+ on a cooler for an R9 290 that I paid $260 for. With the mining cards flooding the market good deals are abound, but spending too much on an aftermarket cooler sort of negates the value aspect. Might as well get a new Sapphire Tri-X card or a GTX 780 for the money.

I c your point.

One thing to add when you go with the G10 you will probably be able to use it on your next card so think of it as an investment.

 

[Attic]

I would have thought 1x120 intake and 2x120 exhaust should be ok for that setup even with the 290 dumping heat in.

You can consider an upgrade of 120mm fans to phantek 120's, though noctuas should be good some of their fans are not.

Or mod the side panel for a 140mm fan mount and experiment with exhaust vs intake for temps, exhaust should work better particularly given the accelero will be pushing air out at the 140mm hole if you do it well.

You'd need a dremel and mount cutout and a 140mm fan that moves enough air without getting loud.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709027&cm_re=phantek_140mm-_-35-709-027-_-Product
This 140mm like others will mount to 120mm hole mounts. Note where the screw holes are (not at edge of standard square frame).

 

[zyxtomatic]

I would have thought 1x120 intake and 2x120 exhaust should be ok for that setup even with the 290 dumping heat in.

I should probably clarify that the 1 intake and 2 exhausts *are* enough to keep temps in check, just not silently. I have the case fan speeds (which are running via the motherboard fan headers) linked to cpu temp in the motherboard's bios. So the hotter the cpu gets the faster the case fans run (along with the cpu fan, of course). With my old gpu (a 7950 Dual-X model that also dumps the air into the case) I never noticed the case fans ramping up. With the 290 and the Accelero, though, they'll start ramping up after 10-15 minutes of heavy load. Thankfully, this doesn't occur all that often during gaming, as most games have light-load scenes and heavy-load scenes, so the gpu and cpu occasionally get a break and can cool down a bit. During benchmarking (like Valley or Heaven) the load is 100% the entire time, so the temps never get a chance to cool off, the heatsinks eventually heat soak, and then the case fans have to ramp up to keep things in check.

So to be totally honest, the case fan issue hasn't been a deal breaker so far, as it doesn't happen much during *normal* gaming, only during artificial load like benchmarks.

The case fans are Noctua NF-S12A PWM, if you're curious. I had read good things about them, so I figured I'd give them a shot.

 

[zyxtomatic]

Totally random question for all you guys: When people take screenshots of GPU-Z, why do they always take two separate shots, one for the upper portion of the tool (showing the gpu temps) and one for the lower portion showing the VRM temps? Do people not know you can expand the GPU-Z window to simply show everything?