PowerColor PCS+ 390 Experience

[jayquez]

I just bought a PowerColor 390 PCS+.
My set up:
Z97 Gaming7
i5 4590
EVGA P2 750W
4x4GB
PowerColor 390 PCS+
First impression of the card to me was great, it had gotten great reviews. It seems the card is known for it's quiet and effective cooling. I installed the card and no real issues at first.
I started OCing the card +100mv and +50% power, but was only able to get stable core clock of 1080 (at this point 3d mark starts artifacting) and 1575 for memory (Kind of low, ASIC score was only 67%)
I started running benchmarks, the core temp reached almost 78 degrees, and fans were not that quiet + coil whine. However when I checked the temperatures on other site's reviews, they were hovering around 71, 72. Powercolor support didn't offer me much help (recommended a 1200w PSU...for real??).
So I guess my question is, are these stats really low for that card? Is this even a legit reason to RMA a card? I don't want to [speak badly of them] since technically the card does what it says it does. I am guessing it is not but it's just very disappointing.

Profanity isn't allowed in the technical forums.
-- stahlhart

 

[96Firebird]

Most review sites test on open bench, not in a case. What case do you have, and what does the airflow look like? Also, what are your average ambient temps? 78°C isn't really that hot for a GPU, although like you experienced, it is higher than some reviews.

 

[jayquez]

Firebird, I have the Define R5. The temperatures aren't as worrying to me as the fact that even at +100mv I was only able to get a measly +60 on the coreclock before artifacting (which does not warrant such a high temperature increase).

 

[MeldarthX]

Firebird, I have the Define R5. The temperatures aren't as worrying to me as the fact that even at +100mv I was only able to get a measly +60 on the coreclock before artifacting (which does not warrant such a high temperature increase).

I'm wondering if you're actually getting +100mv to it; sounds like maybe not. Something's not right with that oc.

my 290 PCS+ is at 1100; it will do 1150 with +50mv and 50% power. I just keep it at 1100 as that's fast enough.....

what are you using to OC?

 

[wilds]

+100mV increases temps by quite a bit even with stock clocks. Your card isn't a great overclocker, but try undervolting it at stock speeds since it may be a nice undervolting chip.

Your card is guaranteed to run at speeds out of the box, so any additional gains are just a bonus. You could return it, but I doubt you would notice any real performance boost in games OC'd vs Stock.

I honestly can't tell the difference in games with my card at 1000 MHz or 1100 MHz. Undervolting is a lot of fun and you may have a very efficient card.

Edit: 1100 should be possible without adding much voltage.

 

[jayquez]

Meldarth, I am using MSI afterburner. Is there anything else I can use to check if it is actually doing the +100mv?

 

[jayquez]

+100mV increases temps by quite a bit even with stock clocks. Your card isn't a great overclocker, but try undervolting it at stock speeds since it may be a nice undervolting chip.

Your card is guaranteed to run at speeds out of the box, so any additional gains are just a bonus. You could return it, but I doubt you would notice any real performance boost in games OC'd vs Stock.

I honestly can't tell the difference in games with my card at 1000 MHz or 1100 MHz. Undervolting is a lot of fun and you may have a very efficient card.

Edit: 1100 should be possible without adding much voltage.

Yep definitely not possible... artifacts at 1080 and benchmarks won't even load up at 1100. What are the advantages of underclocking? I am not too worried about the temperatures (Just that if adding 100 mv only nets me a max of +60 coreclock and a couple more degrees it's definitely not worth it)

 

[Geforce man]

did you try overclocking before increasing the voltage? I've had better luck without over volting. In fact I gained 100Mhz OC on my card by UNDERvolting.

 

[jayquez]

did you try overclocking before increasing the voltage? I've had better luck without over volting. In fact I gained 100Mhz OC on my card by UNDERvolting.

Yes I started at no increase of voltage got to about 1050 noticed issues, went up to 100 got to 1100 before heaven stopped loading up. Went down to 1080 saw artifacts in 3DMark and then went down to 1070. I didn't realize though that underclocking can net you gains as well? How far did you undervolt?

 

[Elixer]

So I guess my question is, are these stats really low for that card? Is this even a legit reason to RMA a card? I don't want to [speak badly of them] since technically the card does what it says it does. I am guessing it is not but it's just very disappointing.

No, not a legit reason to RMA it.
You just got a chip from the chip lottery that doesn't have very much headroom.
It does what the box advertises, and that is about it.
So, nothing wrong with it.
And yeah, you can get coil whine by o/c'ing and pushing more volts. Also nothing new here, and it is something you caused.

 

[jayquez]

No, not a legit reason to RMA it.
You just got a chip from the chip lottery that doesn't have very much headroom.
It does what the box advertises, and that is about it.
So, nothing wrong with it.
And yeah, you can get coil whine by o/c'ing and pushing more volts. Also nothing new here, and it is something you caused.

Yeah I'm not going to RMA it because of being terrible at ocing, but it does have coil whine even at stock clocks. I'm just wondering if there is something I am missing and not just because the card sucks I got isn't good.

 

[Techhog]

did you try overclocking before increasing the voltage? I've had better luck without over volting. In fact I gained 100Mhz OC on my card by UNDERvolting.

I'm going to assume that you have a Maxwell card. Maxwell is weird with voltage and shouldn't be compared with other architectures.

 

[Elixer]

Is Vsync on or off with the coil whine?

 

[jayquez]

Is Vsync on or off with the coil whine?

I am not sure, I am mainly getting it during the high fps tests in 3Dmark.

 

[MeldarthX]

Meldarth, I am using MSI afterburner. Is there anything else I can use to check if it is actually doing the +100mv?

try traxx; its never failed me; also is the checkbox for AMD overdrive checked? I know sometimes OCing won't take or voltage won't go if it isn't.

also if its a new card and new drivers; try reinstalling afterburner. I know they sometimes break after new driver installs and need to be reinstalled.

 

[MeldarthX]

I'm going to assume that you have a Maxwell card. Maxwell is weird with voltage and shouldn't be compared with other architectures.

Umm...Radeons are known for being extremely good undervolters. AMD tends to put them with higher volts than needed. That's also for cpus

 

[Zstream]

I am not sure, I am mainly getting it during the high fps tests in 3Dmark.

Turn it on and save on the return. Or set your fps to a limit of 100 or so. All it does is increase prices for the rest of us if you return.

 

[jayquez]

try traxx; its never failed me; also is the checkbox for AMD overdrive checked? I know sometimes OCing won't take or voltage won't go if it isn't.

also if its a new card and new drivers; try reinstalling afterburner. I know they sometimes break after new driver installs and need to be reinstalled.

Ok I will give those things a try. I was able to keep the temperatures at about 70 during firestrike by running fans at 100% but it still start artifacting after 1080 core or any additional memory clocking.

 

[jayquez]

Turn it on and save on the return. Or set your fps to a limit of 100 or so. All it does is increase prices for the rest of us if you return.

Sorry what do you mean turn it on and save on the return? I know it is unfair to powercolor because technically the card does what it's suppose to, so I will just suck it up to bad luck and keep the card.

 

[Udgnim]

be sure the coil whine is from the GPU and not the PSU

I switched a while ago from a 7850 to a R9 290 and got coil whine

eventually realized it was my PSU but I thought it was my GPU for a while. getting a new PSU fixed the coil whine along with some other problems I was experiencing.

 

[Geforce man]

I'm going to assume that you have a Maxwell card. Maxwell is weird with voltage and shouldn't be compared with other architectures.

MSI r9 290 gaming 4g. -69 mv at 1000mhz. Nice and cool and much lower power consumption!

 

[wilds]

jayquez, I forgot your 390's memory is at a higher clockspeed than the 290 series. If you were to lower your memory speed around 290 speed you may be able to increase core clock. Lowering memory clock may lower performance depending on the game so it may not be a good idea.

 

[Zstream]

Sorry what do you mean turn it on and save on the return? I know it is unfair to powercolor because technically the card does what it's suppose to, so I will just suck it up to bad luck and keep the card.

Vsync or fps limiter

 

[3DVagabond]

It's not unusual for a card to quiet down after a burn in period. Maybe you'll get lucky?

 

[RussianSensation]

Ok I will give those things a try. I was able to keep the temperatures at about 70 during firestrike by running fans at 100% but it still start artifacting after 1080 core or any additional memory clocking.

Are you using HWMonitor or GPU-Z to actually confirm that your GPU voltage is increasing from its stock? You need to be confident that when you increase the GPU voltage in MSI After-burner, and press Apply, that it actually does something or otherwise you might be overclocking on stock voltage.

Also, always isolate GPU from memory overclocking when you are trying to figure out which component is causing instability. Since more often than not memory overclocking produces less benefits in performance, it's better to just keep memory clocks stock and work on the GPU clocks first. Only after you have found a maximum stable GPU frequency should you start looking at overclocking the memory.

It does look like you followed the same process as Guru3D did, which suggests that your card just isn't a good overclocker. I suppose if you can get 1070-1080Mhz, that's till 7-8% over stock -- better than nothing.

As far as coil whine goes, unfortunately it's been an issues for many years across both NV and AMD. Even when AIBs try to use higher quality components, it doesn't guarantee that there will be no coil whine. What you can do is try to set an FPS cap maximum.

If the coil whine bothers you that much, you could try to RMA the card for this reason and see if PowerColor will accept it as a valid reason. If you are still within your 30-day return period, maybe return/exchange it with the retailer? Finally, you could always sell the card and get something else.