[OC3D.NET + Guru3D] MSI R9 290X Lightning Review

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Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
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http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/msi_r9_290x_lightning_review/1

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_r9_290x_lightning_review,1.html


Looks like a Boss card. I would love to see what this card could do underwater. Glad to see MSI decided to focus more energy on the Memory this go round. Looks to be the best R9 290X yet.

03135038795l.jpg


03135038411l.jpg


03162559695l.jpg
 
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rtsurfer

Senior member
Oct 14, 2013
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Now lets see how much is the price & availability.

Miners, please stay away from this card. Please..

Ideally I want this to come out at $650.
Many people on overclock.net are predicting $850, which would keep me the heck away from it.

Anyone who sees these in retail please post here ASAP.
 
F

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
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In other news, looks like the GTX 780 Lightning has disappeared from the US market. Not sure if they have gone discontinued or what?
 
el etro

el etro

Golden Member
Jul 21, 2013
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1080Mhz stock clock. Performance wise is a bit above custom AMD cards(from the review data).

Temperatures at 70°C on gaming, ties 780 Lightning temperatures. No noise information.

8+8+6 pin power cfg. We need to see this card in action the overclockers hands.

No price information.
 
R

rtsurfer

Senior member
Oct 14, 2013
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Erenhardt said:
It did in scrypt-mining thou... ;) sorry rtsurfer
Click to expand...

Lol...

Its alright. Just please post here if you see one in stock.

I do not see much impact of memory speed while scrypt mining on my 780 Classy, is it an AMD only thing...?? I have mine at -502 Mhz from stock. (Yes that is 502 Mhz less than stock speed).

Also, anyone have some data on Samsung having tighter timings, lower mhz vs Hynix looser timings, higher mhz. It is has been a point that has beem brought up on other forums, but nobody seems to have concrete numbers.
 
wand3r3r

wand3r3r

Diamond Member
May 16, 2008
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This would be a fun card to play with. Just do a little mining at night. Hmm.

It would be awesome at msrp but that may not be happening at least not yet.

I'm curious how this mines with the good memory.

^ memory has a huge impact on mining on AMD cards with e.g. Cgminer.
Often it's due to timings and there are clear points where it's better.
 
M

Mondozei

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2013
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In Sweden the price would be around 549 dollars for Americans when adjusting for our import duties, 25% VAT tax etc. (Sweclockers as source).

The main boost seems to be on the memory side. Hawaii seems like a pretty bad architecture to OC on the core clock.
 
Elfear

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
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Looks like a killer card but I couldn't see how many power phases MSI gave it. Did I miss that?
 
3

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
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Good review overall. Especially considering Tom isn't exactly an AMD fan. We need for the "video card pros" to get a hold of one and do a more in depth review.

I hope it's not too expensive. The actual gaming difference between everything from the 780/290 on up is really inconsequential and not worth big bucks for the difference.
 
F

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
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Elfear said:
Looks like a killer card but I couldn't see how many power phases MSI gave it. Did I miss that?
Click to expand...

It's not mentioned in Tom's review. HERE it's mentioned there are 12 GPU phases.

Looking at the card, I see 12 GPU phases + 3 memory phases and 2 PLL phases.

So 12+3+2

03135039810l.jpg


Stock PCB is 5+1+1

Radeon-R9-290X-PCB.jpg


I would like to see some vrm temperatures. Since there are more GPU phases, voltage ripple should be down and same with vrm temps. Heat generated would be spread out over 16 phases vs. 5 on the stock card when at full bore.
 
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Elfear

Elfear

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May 30, 2004
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Face2Face said:
It's not mentioned in Tom's review. HERE it's mentioned there are 12 GPU phases.

Looking at the card, I see 12 GPU phases + 3 memory phases and 2 PLL phases.

So 12+3+2



Stock PCB is 5+1+1
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info F2F. Looks a lot better than the reference design but I'm still curious why MSI went with lower specs on the 290X than the 780 which is 16+3+1 and a cooler capable of dissipating 550W. I was under the impression that Hawaii used more power than a cut down GK110.
 
F

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
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Elfear said:
Thanks for the info F2F. Looks a lot better than the reference design but I'm still curious why MSI went with lower specs on the 290X than the 780 which is 16+3+1 and a cooler capable of dissipating 550W. I was under the impression that Hawaii used more power than a cut down GK110.
Click to expand...

Good question? I think they ran out of room on the PCB?

GTX 780 Lightning PCB

msi-geforce-gtx-780-lightning-4.jpg


R9 290X Lightning PCB

index.php



I also noticed that MSI is using all copper mosfets on the 290X. There are only using copper mosfets for the memory phases on the GTX 780 and then using their own DrMOS4 for the GPU phases...

Lightning-Power-Section.jpg


And the marketing to go along with it -

DRMOS 4 DrMOS 4 is the next-gen Mosfet which is used to deliver the power for the GPU. MSI DrMOS 4 does not waste much power, stays cool and is more power efficient than other powersaving solutions. Because DrMOS 4 is a 3-in-1 chip it delivers much more power with less components needed. This solution gives you the power to break world records.
 
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el etro

el etro

Golden Member
Jul 21, 2013
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Elfear said:
I was under the impression that Hawaii used more power than a cut down GK110.
Click to expand...

It is what i always wanted to know. To know the reality, we have to test 290x at the same performance levels with cranked up fan in order to operate in GK110 cards target temperature(75-80°C) and them see the power consumption difference. It always seemed that is 95°C temperature target that ruins 290(x) power efficiency.
 
Gloomy

Gloomy

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Oct 12, 2010
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el etro

el etro

Golden Member
Jul 21, 2013
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Gloomy said:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-and-290x,3728-4.html

All overclocked though :|
Click to expand...

Doubt still prevails, and suggesting good things.




See the 290x-TriX power consumption when temperatures are better?? Is a overclocked SKU too.
Look at 2010 GTX 480AMP results:





Now look at Intel processor power consumption(i7 2600k), by results hosted here:







Idontcare comments about the effect in other post:

Idontcare said:
I was just kinda blown away, I was not expecting the magnitude of the effect, when I saw the data.

Take for example the 2GHz chip at 1.290V and a cool 47°C, it consumes 68W. But let those temps rise from 47°C to 96°C and the power-consumption rises from 68W to 91W.

Consider that this 23W represents a 33% increase in power-consumption D: I just had no appreciation for how deleterious higher operating temps were for the power-consumption of the CPU.
Click to expand...





------------------------

Well, its not that suggests 290x will be more efficient than GTX 780, but it can make its power efficiency a little better.
 
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R

Rvenger

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator <br> Video Cards
Apr 6, 2004
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Elfear said:
Thanks for the info F2F. Looks a lot better than the reference design but I'm still curious why MSI went with lower specs on the 290X than the 780 which is 16+3+1 and a cooler capable of dissipating 550W. I was under the impression that Hawaii used more power than a cut down GK110.
Click to expand...


The quality of phases is key, not the amount. :)
 
Elfear

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
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Face2Face said:
Good question? I think they ran out of room on the PCB.
Click to expand...

The 290X PCB does look a little crowded. Do you know if there's an engineering reason they couldn't extend the PCB to add more power circuitry?


Rvenger said:
The quality of phases is key, not the amount. :)
Click to expand...

Makes sense. This is where my ignorance shows through. Are the copper mosfets used on the 290X better than the DrMOS 4 mosfets on the 780?
 
Attic

Attic

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2010
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Well that's dead sexy isn't it?

Hope Ryan here at Anandtech gets his hands on that and gives us more gooey stuff to read and talk about.

Anyone have a size read on those fans? From the review it looks like it was only give +63mv to hit 1150 on the core?, but other non reference seem to consistently do 1130-1140 with no additional volts. Wheres the max volt overclock?!?!
 
guskline

guskline

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2006
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Great review. Just love Tom's comments. The MSI R9 290X Lightning sounds the "REAL DEAL"!
 
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