R9 290 Hot and Loud

[Sansnom]

About a month ago I built a new system and I chose to buy the ASUS Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II OC graphics card. The problem is not only does this thing run very hot, it's also extremely loud. In not so demanding games there is no problem, but when playing games like Far Cry 4 or Battlefield 4 the card gets distractingly loud.

I can't imagine playing any games during the summer when the room temperature is going to be a lot warmer and the fan speeds will have to increase and probably even struggle to keep the card under normal temperatures. And this is with a card that is advertised as running 20% cooler and being 3x quieter than the reference.

Most people in the reviews said this card ran cool and quiet and just a few said it was loud. Maybe they haven't played any demanding games as I don't understand how anyone can say this card is quiet or cool. I tried playing around with GPU tweak to see how it sounds and anything above 65% fan speed produces way to much noise. For me at least.

Anybody else own this card and can comment on it? Or if anyone else owns a R9 290 from any other brand, feel free to share your experience and opinion on it.

I'd also like to know if it's a good enough reason to be able to get a refund? As I don't think there is actually anything "wrong" with the card.

Thanks!

 

[Silverforce11]

Return it, you must have a dodgy sample, even during the initial launch, Computerbase.de got a bad Direct CU & Gigabyte WF card that overheats and runs the fans at 100%.

The only good custom R290/X are from Sapphire: Tri-X, Vapor-X, Powercolor PCS+, HIS IceQ, XFX DD. There may be newer models, I haven't kept up to date.

The rest are sub-optimal, particularly Gigabyte, ASUS & MSI that re-use their heatpipe designed for GK110 big die (where all 5 pipes contact), with a copper shim/plate for the R290/X smaller die. It's not optimal to take a heatpipe design and put a shim on it.

 

[SimianR]

I thought the Asus DirectCU II OC was the one where they used an old cooler where one of the heatpipes didn't even make contact with the GPU. I might be mistaken, but I thought it was the Asus. If it's too late to RMA or return it, you can try undervolting it slightly. If you're really desperate, you can underclock it slightly and it will probably make a huge difference (900 core for example) though this would be a last resort.

 

[.vodka]

Well, that particular 290 has an issue with its cooler, because it's the same ASUS used for the 780ti, whose GK110 is bigger than the 290's Hawaii, resulting in two heatpipes unused in the 290:

Despite that, many reviews say this 290 isn't neither hot (70-75°C) nor loud (about 40-42 dB under load) as you've said yourself. Are you overclocking/overvolting it? What are your temperatures during gaming?

 

[Silverforce11]

Those poor heatpipe designs are running sub-optimal on Hawaii so they will amplify any deficiencies during production (heatpipe quality) and assembly (contact, good TIM) etc. Some sample will just be bad, see [H] and Computerbase.de that had bad ASUS DC [H] & Gigabyte WF.

If you want an R290/X, go after these: Tri-X, Vapor-X, Powercolor PCS+, HIS IceQ, XFX DD. These coolers were designed ground up for Hawaii's smaller die.

 

[Sansnom]

Return it, you must have a dodgy sample, even during the initial launch, Computerbase.de got a bad Direct CU & Gigabyte WF card that overheats and runs the fans at 100%.

The only good custom R290/X are from Sapphire: Tri-X, Vapor-X, Powercolor PCS+, HIS IceQ, XFX DD. There may be newer models, I haven't kept up to date.

The rest are sub-optimal, particularly Gigabyte, ASUS & MSI that re-use their heatpipe designed for GK110 big die (where all 5 pipes contact), with a copper shim/plate for the R290/X smaller die. It's not optimal to take a heatpipe design and put a shim on it.

I played around with the fan speeds using GPU Tweak to check the noise levels at different speeds and although I never checked the speeds the fans reached while gaming, judging by the sound they probably never went over 60%. But that's because the room is cool. The noise the fans produce at higher speeds is crazy compared to any card i've owned. That's why i'm worried about when the room temperatures get hotter in the summer. I can't really tell if I got a bad card or i'm just not used to it.

And yes, I've heard about the heatpipes on this particular card. But according to what i've read, it doesn't seem to cause much of a problem.

 

[lavaheadache]

I had a couple of those and the cards and they ran very cool and quiet. The heat pipes that dont touch the core don't greatly affect the performance. There is still plenty of heat transfer. If I were the op I would re-tim the card

 

[Sansnom]

I thought the Asus DirectCU II OC was the one where they used an old cooler where one of the heatpipes didn't even make contact with the GPU. I might be mistaken, but I thought it was the Asus. If it's too late to RMA or return it, you can try undervolting it slightly. If you're really desperate, you can underclock it slightly and it will probably make a huge difference (900 core for example) though this would be a last resort.

I thought about underclocking it slightly also, but I think I'm going to check if I can return it first.

Thing is, I'm not sure I could get a refund or in store credit if they judge the card is running properly. Because performance wise everything is fine. Maybe they are just all the same. I'm just trying to figure out if going through the hassle of returning the card is worth it and if I can get a refund for it. Anybody have any experience of returning something they bought online? Can they refuse to refund me and just ship the card back if they judge that it is functioning properly? I bought it from NCIX.

 

[3DVagabond]

Return it, you must have a dodgy sample, even during the initial launch, Computerbase.de got a bad Direct CU & Gigabyte WF card that overheats and runs the fans at 100%.

The only good custom R290/X are from Sapphire: Tri-X, Vapor-X, Powercolor PCS+, HIS IceQ, XFX DD. There may be newer models, I haven't kept up to date.

The rest are sub-optimal, particularly Gigabyte, ASUS & MSI that re-use their heatpipe designed for GK110 big die (where all 5 pipes contact), with a copper shim/plate for the R290/X smaller die. It's not optimal to take a heatpipe design and put a shim on it.

^^^This^^^

I'd actually try and stick to the Sapphires, myself. All of these recommendations are good though.

 

[Sansnom]

Well, that particular 290 has an issue with its cooler, because it's the same ASUS used for the 780ti, whose GK110 is bigger than the 290's Hawaii, resulting in two heatpipes unused in the 290:

Despite that, many reviews say this 290 isn't neither hot (70-75°C) nor loud (about 40-42 dB under load) as you've said yourself. Are you overclocking/overvolting it? What are your temperatures during gaming?

The card is factory overclocked and that's it. I didn't touch any of the voltages or clock speeds. I don't remember the exact temperatures under load, but they did seem pretty normal. Normal for a R9 290 that is.

 

[SimianR]

Sorry to sound like a broken record but, maybe just underclock it to reference R9 290 speeds (947 core) and see if it makes a difference. Couldn't hurt

 

[Silverforce11]

Return the card, if it can't run cool & quiet as advertised out of the box, its a dodgy sample. Do not waste your time playing with the settings and definitely DO NOT re-apply a new TIM, ASUS warranty is a bitch.

 

[itsmydamnation]

I have a DirectCU II OC 290 ( tri-x was out of stock and i wanted it now). my experence is nothing like you describe, and right now we are in the middle of an Australian summer, in a room with 2 PC's and a server (all oc'd :awe without AC. So yes something is wrong with your card.........................

 

[SimianR]

RMA or return it

 

[Pneumothorax]

How's your case ventilation?

 

[Sansnom]

I have a DirectCU II OC 290 ( tri-x was out of stock and i wanted it now). my experence is nothing like you describe, and right now we are in the middle of an Australian summer, in a room with 2 PC's and a server (all oc'd :awe without AC. So yes something is wrong with your card.........................

Thanks for your input. Good to know.

Finally decided to submit an RMA. After taking a closer look at the card after removing it, I noticed that one of the heatsink fins near the backplate appears to be bent. Anyway, going to be back on my old card for now. Hopefully this whole process doesn't take too long.

Appreciate all your responses, gonna update this thread on what happened.

 

[garagisti]

Thanks for your input. Good to know.

Finally decided to submit an RMA. After taking a closer look at the card after removing it, I noticed that one of the heatsink fins near the backplate appears to be bent. Anyway, going to be back on my old card for now. Hopefully this whole process doesn't take too long.

Appreciate all your responses, gonna update this thread on what happened.

Good luck!

 

[Headfoot]

You're going to need luck with ASUS RMA. I've never gotten them to fix anything so I stopped buying ASUS a while back

 

[el etro]

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