Going from 2x290 ref to 290 trifire.

[Jacky60]

Going to get another 290 to go tri-fire. Pretty sure I'll go 2 slot aftermarket cooler e.g. Gigabyte windforce or similar. Have two ref design 290s and have MSI GD65 z87 mobo, which slot do you think is best for the open non reference card and why? I was going to go for middle slot to keep more 'open air' between two ref designs but the top card will then ingest pre-warmed air from mid card. Case has loads of airflow btw.

 

[wand3r3r]

When I had a reference card and aftermarket card in the same case it made a huge difference which order you put them in. If I remember correctly the aftermarket had to be on the top to avoid filling the reference card with hot air. The reference cards are good because they expel the hot air instead of recycling it in the next card up. The 290/x's are hot cards though and even with dual reference cards my upper card needs a higher fan to avoid throttling. Note, this is referring to mining which is more generally more intensive than gaming.

tldr; The order is critical.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

If you have a side panel fan choose one with high static flow and test it as an intake and an outtake.

 

[Jacky60]

If you have a side panel fan choose one with high static flow and test it as an intake and an outtake.

Thanks

 

[OCGuy]

Has the AT member with that sweet tri-fire setup (295x2 + 290) posted any benches with the third GPU enabled + disabled?

I am looking around the Google and don't see any good reviews on this, and am interested in just how improved the scaling is.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Has the AT member with that sweet tri-fire setup (295x2 + 290) posted any benches with the third GPU enabled + disabled?

I am looking around the Google and don't see any good reviews on this, and am interested in just how improved the scaling is.

Probably close to 30% maybe more. [H] did the quad fire review and it had 4@50% over the 2. With 4th card scaling down I'm betting near 30% for 3 over 4.

 

[RussianSensation]

Has the AT member with that sweet tri-fire setup (295x2 + 290) posted any benches with the third GPU enabled + disabled?

I am looking around the Google and don't see any good reviews on this, and am interested in just how improved the scaling is.

295X2 review

295X2 + 290X review

Conclusion:
"In several cases, TriFire with three GPUs is enough to give us the highest gameplay experience and performance. In all cases QuadFire is faster, but that doesn't always mean the highest gameplay experience. TriFire was "maximizing" the experience in many games, especially in Eyefinity. TriFire provides a more performance for your money, whereas QuadFire doesn't always scale up in efficiency as much. AMD Radeon R9X TriFire proves to be the winner in terms of best value and performance for Eyefinity and especially 4K resolutions."

Having said that, R9 290 non-X in TriFire would be an even better value. Once overclocked, R9 290 and 290X have nearly identical performance and when you take into account 80-90% scaling on the first 2 cards and 70% on the 3rd card, any major difference will wash out. Spending extra on 3x 290Xs is a waste, especially when R9 290 dips to $350-370.

 

[OCGuy]

Thanks, seems like the scaling of a 3rd GPU (depending on your situation) isn't as much of a worthless money-pit as it has traditionally been. :thumbsup:

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Thanks, seems like the scaling of a 3rd GPU (depending on your situation) isn't as much of a worthless money-pit as it has traditionally been. :thumbsup:

Definitely. Dual card is near 100%. The new XDMA crossfire is awesome.