AMD's Hawaii based FirePro W9100

[Silverforce11]

The majority of those cards will go to Rendering/Cloud/HPC Servers, noise is not the first thing they care about.

Even if that is the case, they will care about the heat output and power consumption. Running Hawaii at 94C is not a smart idea, period. If they have a good cooler, they will reduce power use and heat output, multiplied by a lot of cards in a cloud server, would mean reduced aircond requirements and overall reduce costs for the entire centre.

If AMD took the effort and spent a tiny bit extra on a better cooler, they would have launched an amazing product. As it is, it's gimped.

 

[3DVagabond]

A better cooler isn't going to make a difference in the aircon costs. It's only going to reduce power consumption by negligible amount.


This is with what is arguably the most effective cooler available currently for the 290X. Add to that it is open air, which would hinder the performance in in multi card array, and it doesn't make any sense at all.

 

[Silverforce11]

That's an OC model, probably pushing it harder at higher clocks and not tuned for efficiency.

Here's another OC model:

I know from experience as well as reading other sites, Hawaii can use 20-40W less when its running cooler at the same clocks/vcore. 94C is not good for leakage.

You cannot justify putting such a bad cooler on a $3999 product. AMD needs to learn their lesson, or else their future generation will still retain the same crap reference design. Unacceptable on R290/X premium cards as it was, definitely a disgrace at a $3999 card.

 

[el etro]

It not happened only one time:

R9 290x DCU -> 78°C



R9 290@1.1Ghz on NZXT Kraken(49°C of temp):

 

[3DVagabond]

That's an OC model, probably pushing it harder at higher clocks and not tuned for efficiency.

Here's another OC model:

I know from experience as well as reading other sites, Hawaii can use 20-40W less when its running cooler at the same clocks/vcore. 94C is not good for leakage.

You cannot justify putting such a bad cooler on a $3999 product. AMD needs to learn their lesson, or else their future generation will still retain the same crap reference design. Unacceptable on R290/X premium cards as it was, definitely a disgrace at a $3999 card.

It not happened only one time:

R9 290x DCU -> 78°C
Review

R9 290@1.1Ghz on NZXT Kraken(49°C of temp):

OK guys, now let's stack 4 of them up on an EATX board (or SSI EEB or whatever) and see how effective they are. The reference cooler is actually more versatile.

I'm not saying it's an awesome cooler all I'm saying is you have to look at the whole picture.

Most graphics artists would love to have one card of this caliber in their workstation. In which case neither the noise or the heat is really an issue. As far as server racks, as has already been pointed out they have a different cooler for those.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Umm, these are workstation cards, done in render farms. There's going to be much louder noise from other things then FirePros.

 

[Silverforce11]

OK guys, now let's stack 4 of them up on an EATX board (or SSI EEB or whatever) and see how effective they are. The reference cooler is actually more versatile.

I'm not saying it's an awesome cooler all I'm saying is you have to look at the whole picture.

Most graphics artists would love to have one card of this caliber in their workstation. In which case neither the noise or the heat is really an issue. As far as server racks, as has already been pointed out they have a different cooler for those.

I'm not talking about open air coolers. I'm referring to an actual good blower, which costs a bit more to implement, re: Titan style.

As long as its running at ~80C (and not 94C) you will save power, have much less heat output, and less noise. What would it cost AMD extra? $20?

@DarkKnightDude its a workstation card, used for many purposes not only in render farms or cloud servers. Lets be realistic.

 

[DarkKnightDude]

Alright, lets be realistic. Nobody cares unless its not fast. Hell some of the Quadro 6000s run at 90C and I don't remember much anyone upset about it

If you're so angry about this, go ahead and design a cooler for them for an extra 20 dollars. I doubt it'll stay $20.

Remember workstation cards =/= video cards

 

[Silverforce11]

Remember workstation cards =/= video cards

No, its worse, because NV has total dominance of this market and if AMD wants even a chance to chip away at it, they need to show up with a better product and put more effort into it than this ear buster.

This product is a perfect representation with whats wrong with AMD. Excellent engineers, poor management.