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Buying GPU help decide!

Vote for the best card!

  • MSI Twin Frozr R9 290

  • Gigabyte Windforce x3 OC R9 290

  • Powercolor PCS+ R9 290

  • Sapphire Tri-X R9 290

Results are only viewable after voting.
X

xantek

Junior Member
After some research, I've decided that for my $420 I will be best off with a r9 290. However, I do not have any clue as to which "flavor" (brand) I should purchase. I keep hearing mixed reviews on all the cards. Here is a list of some of the cards around my price range:

  1. MSI Gaming Twin Frozr R9 290
  2. Powercolor PCS+ R9 290
  3. Gigabyte Windforce x3 OC R9 290
  4. Sapphire Tri-X R9 290

Help me decide! I'll be using it for gaming on 2 1200p monitors, or 1 1440p monitor, paired with i7-4770k and the msi z87-g45 gaming mobo.
 
Personally like the looks of the MSI best, but I have to vote for the Sapphire because of the performance and headroom
 
I did a lot of research before I bought my cards and the Tri-X cards were consistently reviewed and rated as the best of the aftermarket coolers. Now since then the new Vapor-X line has come out, so that may be the current big dog, but you can't go wrong with the Tri-X.
 
Just a tip - MSI may be having some trouble with the fan bearings on its cards, and Gigabyte seems to have issues with fan failure as well. The PCS also has some mixed reviews and is oddly a 2.5 slot cooler, which is unnecessary.

So the Sapphire seems like the obvious choice, but you haven't listed the XFX, which gets glowing reviews and is very inexpensive right now.
 
Termie said:
Just a tip - MSI may be having some trouble with the fan bearings on its cards, and Gigabyte seems to have issues with fan failure as well. The PCS also has some mixed reviews and is oddly a 2.5 slot cooler, which is unnecessary.

So the Sapphire seems like the obvious choice, but you haven't listed the XFX, which gets glowing reviews and is very inexpensive right now.
Click to expand...
:thumbsup:

I second the xfx, otherwise the tri-x.
 
wand3r3r said:
:thumbsup:

I second the xfx, otherwise the tri-x.
Click to expand...

I have one of each currently 🙂

The DD hands down is the sexiest looking 290 on the market.

The TriX is fugly compared to the DD....At least to me.

CAM00108.jpg


If I was to sell one or the other it would be a hard choice to make.

The TriX does have the edge being a cherry picked ref design card sporting Hynix memory.

The DD is the quieter card even with the fans cranked up.

The DD downside is the vrm cooling compared to the TriX or even the ref coolers. If your anal about vrm temps then you'll either have to use a custom fan profile with the DD or just get the TriX.
 
I like both XFX and Gigabyte, I've had faulty cards from Sapphire before so I'm a little wary of buying a Sapphire card now.
 
I would probably avoid msi for sure, the fan bearing issue does carry to other cards I guess cause my tf3 7850 ended up having a faulty fan. Short fun experience with xfx 6770 and a 6850 showed me I didn't need a stove top to cook eggs, just run a game and make breakfast at the same time.

Think when I pick up a 290 I would go for a tri-x, seems to have a lot of good reviews.
 
The DD has the worst VRM cooling of all of them. XFX aims to amaze with their terrible designs generation after generation.
My blown VRM after 5 days of use @ stock clocks is testament to that.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk..."R9+280x"&_nkw=R9+290+-"R9+280x"&_sacat=27386

Strike the MSI and the XFX aftermarket coolers off the list. They both fail at cooling their VRMs properly. The DCUII Does as well.

The rest of them are acceptable with the Tri-X being the only one that can come close to matching the VRM cooling capability of the stock reference cooler.
 
Communism said:
The DD has the worst VRM cooling of all of them. XFX aims to amaze with their terrible designs generation after generation.
My blown VRM after 5 days of use @ stock clocks is testament to that.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk..."R9+280x"&_nkw=R9+290+-"R9+280x"&_sacat=27386

Strike the MSI and the XFX aftermarket coolers off the list. They both fail at cooling their VRMs properly. The DCUII Does as well.

The rest of them are acceptable with the Tri-X being the only one that can come close to matching the VRM cooling capability of the stock reference cooler.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you got a lemon on the DD. I won't argue about the inferior vrm cooling vs the ref or TriX as it's true.

I mined LTC with my DD 24/7 at stock clocks and undervolted for at least a month, maybe little longer. My rig was in the house with side panel off. I was using a custom fan profile with it. The vrm's did get close to 100c from time to dependent on ambient temp of the room.

DD needs case with really good airflow and a custom fan profile. The biggest issue with it is the core vs vrm temps. Core temps are very good, fan speed is based off the core temp. Pretty much need to set a ridiculus fan curve to keep vrm temps down.Something like 40% @ 40c to 100% @ 80c for example.

Can't go wrong with the TriX. To me it's noisey tho.
 
Kenmitch said:
Sounds like you got a lemon on the DD. I won't argue about the inferior vrm cooling vs the ref or TriX as it's true.

I mined LTC with my DD 24/7 at stock clocks and undervolted for at least a month, maybe little longer. My rig was in the house with side panel off. I was using a custom fan profile with it. The vrm's did get close to 100c from time to dependent on ambient temp of the room.

DD needs case with really good airflow and a custom fan profile. The biggest issue with it is the core vs vrm temps. Core temps are very good, fan speed is based off the core temp. Pretty much need to set a ridiculus fan curve to keep vrm temps down.Something like 40% @ 40c to 100% @ 80c for example.

Can't go wrong with the TriX. To me it's noisey tho.
Click to expand...

IMO noise should only factor in once it's passed the test of acceptable Core and VRM cooling.

The Core can easily handle 95C no problem for the entire GCN series and the entire Kepler series.

The VRMs however will go popping like popcorn if they get stressed to the 110-120C that the AIBs like to have them cook at with most of their aftermarket cooling solutions.
 
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I actually bought a HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X² Turbo and I'm very satisfied with it. It ranked above both XFX and Sapphire in closed case testing done by Tom's Hardware German team. Since I have a very well cooled case, I intentionally went for a more open heatsink design.
Can only recommend the HIS card, though it might be more difficult to get than the "mainstream" ones.
 
tulx said:
I actually bought a HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X² Turbo and I'm very satisfied with it. It ranked above both XFX and Sapphire in closed case testing done by Tom's Hardware German team. Since I have a very well cooled case, I intentionally went for a more open heatsink design.
Can only recommend the HIS card, though it might be more difficult to get than the "mainstream" ones.
Click to expand...

The HIS is ~$500 dollars, so that is out of the question for me. It looks good though!
 
xantek said:
The HIS is ~$500 dollars, so that is out of the question for me. It looks good though!
Click to expand...

Oh, my apologies, did not notice you're looking for "non X" cards. I'd go for the XFX one in that case.
They're all so close to each other in both performance and price that you can leave it up to "gut feeling" or just aesthetic choice, if you will, an you'll have a great card no matter which one you end up with.

I'd choose the XFX card probably because I just replaced my two trusty XFX 5870'ies which served me amazingly well for almost five years - that and it just looks so damn good.
 
Communism said:
Strike the MSI and the XFX aftermarket coolers off the list. They both fail at cooling their VRMs properly. The DCUII Does as well.
Click to expand...
What about the MSI Gamer R9 270 card? It has twin fans, and five eggs at Newegg.

Was thinking about getting a couple of those, but if they have VRM cooling issues, I'd rather not. I would be running them under 24/7 max distributed-computing load.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127769
 
VirtualLarry said:
What about the MSI Gamer R9 270 card? It has twin fans, and five eggs at Newegg.

Was thinking about getting a couple of those, but if they have VRM cooling issues, I'd rather not. I would be running them under 24/7 max distributed-computing load.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127769
Click to expand...

If it has the same fans as the MSI Gamer R9 290, then it should be fine, as the reason why it wasn't adequate for the R9 290 is because they cheaped out on the inductor coils and also went with slow spinning (for a 290) fans.

The actual direct touch heatsink to vrm contact is very good compared to other R9 270s.

Whether the MSI Gaming R9 270 is good in other areas I couldn't tell you, since all aftermarket AMD/ATi cards 280x and below are ninja changed constantly and with zero warning.

That's the main reason why I dumped all my cards below R9 290, since AMD/ATi non-reference cards are an ocean of bait and switches.

If you're running purely for "24/7 max distributed-computing load" I would suggest getting a reference R9 290 and running the 13.12 WHQL drivers with the fans forced to 100% (Deafening Sound Level Warning!!!).

It's definitely the best performance per slot and per dollar if you factor in the absolute crap-shoot the AMD/ATi aftermarket cards 280x and below are.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk..."R9+280x"&_nkw=R9+290+-"R9+280x"&_sacat=27386
 
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Go for whatever card fits in your case. My case is limited to 11inch cards roughly. Some of those cards push 12 inches
 
Communism is right about the XFX. They made a great card until they decided to thermal tape the VRMs to the plastic frame instead of a heatsink. It's so dumb.

For my vote, the MSI, Gigabyte, and Sapphire are all in the same ballpark as far as expected quality. I have the Gigabyte and it's been flawless. It does use 3x 75mm fans though, which means they need to spin faster to move the same air as a bigger fan. The Sapphire uses 3x 85mm and the MSI 2x 100mm. If you want uber silence the Windforce might be a touch loud. I have mine in a Fractal Design Define R4, which has a lot of sound deadening, and I can hear it through the case. The card does stay really cool though in the performance BIOS setting.
 
My Gigabyte 560Ti fans (Windforce) lasted me 24/7/365 up until last Dec (since 2009?), I went and bought 2 slim 80mm fans, took the fan top off the card and zip tied the two 80mm fans to the heatsink and voila. I rednecked my GPU.
 
Despoiler said:
Communism is right about the XFX. They made a great card until they decided to thermal tape the VRMs to the plastic frame instead of a heatsink. It's so dumb.

For my vote, the MSI, Gigabyte, and Sapphire are all in the same ballpark as far as expected quality. I have the Gigabyte and it's been flawless. It does use 3x 75mm fans though, which means they need to spin faster to move the same air as a bigger fan. The Sapphire uses 3x 85mm and the MSI 2x 100mm. If you want uber silence the Windforce might be a touch loud. I have mine in a Fractal Design Define R4, which has a lot of sound deadening, and I can hear it through the case. The card does stay really cool though in the performance BIOS setting.
Click to expand...

Communism's card was defective most likely. He's lucky it blew so early is my take on it.

I won't argue that the DD's vrm cooling is inferior to the ref or TriX design at all.

I was playing around today with both my rigs in the picture. My DD rig currently has no games installed so was stuck with Valley benchmark to compare temps.

I fired up valley benchmark on both rigs and let it loop for 45 minutes before I clicked the benchmark runs. I only did three benchmark runs on both cards but figured the cards would be warmed up enough before.

I decided to run the DD at the same clocks as the TriX just to see what would happen.

End results:

Max VRM 1 temps

TriX 68c

DD 82c

Conclusion the TriX temps are great....The DD gets a bad wrap but isn't as bad as some say.

Too be a fare comparison I really should have taken my rigs into the garage and blown out the dust from both cards. If I remember correctly the TriX was blown out last, the DD looks to have tighter fins and both are a little dusty currently....Added to my to do list.

The vrm temps on the DD did seem to improve with use. Maybe the design needs a good burn in....Mining seemed like the best option to me at the time and made me some $'s also.
 
Great info from Kenmitch!

The Sapphire is better, no doubt, but it's typically way more expensive. The XFX will perform the same and looks to be well within tolerances. So on a budget the XFX is still a great choice.
 
Imo, Tri-X is a great card for overclocking --- runs fast and stays cool. I sold my Asus gtx780 DCIIOC b/c I liked the 290 Tri-X more so. 🙂

Here's my card following ~3 hours of BF3:

BuCRil9.jpg
 
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