Replace 670sli with 290 xfire for 5760x1200?

[digitaldurandal]

Looking at the value on used 290s right now I am considering purchasing two to replace my 670s.

A few questions for xfire users.

I read a [H] review saying the tables have flipped for titles that are not brand new, and now AMD has less variance in frametimes than Nvidia.

I have also read from the early 290s that the standard cooler was loud. Are there certain models I should steer clear of? Is it not worth getting two 290s with the standard cooler? The price sure is tempting.

Does anyone have any experience with 290 xfire and eyefinity (or at least over 1200p resolution?) How are the recent drivers?

 

[night.fox]

ref cooler 290's, 290x are loud if you choose to crank up fan speed to maintain temps.

if you dont set up fan profile, performance will be affected as the 290's are design to downclock inorder to maintain temperature.

dnt get ref cooler 290's if you dont plan to put them in water. get the sapphire tri-x or vapor-x but better get the tri-x cause board is referrence making easier for wc if you choose that later.

290's needs alot to breathe and they need a very good airflow.

i know a guy at ocn. he run crossfire 290's (watef cooled) for 1440p eyefinity. i am running quad 290's for 1600p eyefinity. but trifire has better performance than quad althought this is because they are seriously bottlenecked by my cpu. planning for x99 build soon as long as ddr4 prices will be lowered. i hope.

 

[digitaldurandal]

290's needs alot to breathe and they need a very good airflow.

I have good airflow. I have a Raven rv03 case which has airflow going from the ground to the ceiling and the graphics cards blow upwards out of the case.

How much of a hit is the temperature related downclock? I do not plan on using watercooling. Maybe I need to research some of the non reference coolers.

However the price on the non reference brings us close to the refernce 290x used prices. Would I be better off getting two 290x's and letting the downclock instead?

 

[guskline]

night.fox, I'm waiting for the delivery of my second Sapphire Tri-x R9 290 (bought both used) to run both in xfire in the rig below. I also purchase EK waterblocks and 3slot series terminal to run them watercooled below.

Some criticize this move by claiming you are wasting a great cooler but with the price of these gpus dropping so much, the fact that they are natively clocked at 1000Hz core and 1300 memory AND have a reference board, makes the deal too good to pass. I'll try to assemble this weekend and post you with results.

 

[Jacky60]

Well you get incredible performance from 290 crossfire but in my opinion the compromise of turning down settings isn't worth it for eyefinity or 4k. I had 290 crossfire last Dec and flawless performance at 1920/1200 and 2560/1440 performance. Never a problem and while they aren't super quiet the noise isn't nearly as bad as some suggest. Been trifire since June and that meant a leap up in performance but a bit of stilting sometimes in games (I have mobo without plx chip and the third card was running pcie3 x 4.0) Now I have quadfire and yesterday received a 4k monitor. In Crysis 3 and Arma3 MP the cards don't have the memory to keep going at the same settings. I'm CPU bound and the 4k experience is much less attractive and fun than 2560/1440. From my experience you'd need 6gb or more vram for eyefinity and or 4k to run well. I might be spoiled but I can't get used to turning settings down or swivelling head in game and feeling dizzy. The 290s certainly got hot and need good ventilation but they are great bang per buck.
I never once had a temperature related down clock and with you case config it sounds like ref cards may well be fine. Non-ref cards dumping all that heat in the case which will soon be an issue in crossfire as my back plates git very hot after protracted gaming sessions. My 290s are all reference.
Now everything is now super-smooth. If I were you I'd pick up a pair of reference 290s used and see how you go as long as you don't mind dropping quality settings.

 

[guskline]

Jacky60: As usual great and informative post. I only have a single Achieva Shimian 27" 2560 x 1440 monitor in my rig below. Trying to find a second GTX780 Classified with a Hydro-Copper block was near impossible so I went the R9-290 CF route (the 780 classified is running in my water cooled AMD 8350 rig). I already had a used but pristine Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X so purchasing a second one made sense. and now cents! In addition, I have tons of rad capacity so water cooling them avoids the issue of dumping tons of heat from non-ref 290s into the case. I'll keep you posted.

 

[wand3r3r]

I have 290x crossfire but not eyefinity.

Noisewise, it's audible and makes a fair amount of noise. It's (reference and uber mode 55%) almost like having my DCUII card close to 100% for comparison. I bought mine intending to mine so "needed" reference.

I would have bought two tri-x or DD (for example) otherwise, but you do need extremely good cooling to get that heat out. If you only space them side by side in adjacent slots they will put out a ton of heat and likely affect the "upper" card. I'm not sure how the vertical case affects that. Note I don't have two aftermarket 290/x's to test, but I've seen it with an aftermarket under/over a reference card before (it worked best with the reference under the aftermarket iirc).

The r9 crossfire is amazing since you can put the two cards in any slot, provided your MB supports it and case fits. This is a definite bonus!

Additionally, the XDMA crossfire scales better, and is smoother than current NV SLI setups. They really nailed it with the new cards.

 

[Attic]

290 crossfire has the potential to be very noisy and it will be in a default type setup.

A few ways to alleviate the noise.

1) Water

2) Ensure motherboard has triple spacing between PCI Express x16 slots, many do now, not too long ago most had double space. Triple space will help a lot for airflow and temp of top card.

3) Good side fan

4) Undervolt cards/Underclock cards


Performance on 290 xfire is incredible.

 

[Jacky60]

Attic makes good points RE:spacing between cards is important as is a side fan. 290 ref crossfire in demanding games certainly wasn't silent but I just turn the game volume up and I live with a relatively high level of ambient noise anyway (city centre). I have noticed how relatively quiet and peaceful it is in here since going 295x2 crossfire apart from the sound of gunfire.

 

[Sohaltang]

From my experiance with 780ti's you want one of each. The bottom card should be a reference blower type card and the top should have a good dual or triple fan cooler. If the bottom card is not reference it will blow heat right into the upper card. Even with reference on bottom the upper card will still pick up extra heat. The upper card should have a well designed cooler to compensate.

Not sure if your looking at new or used. If your going new you might as well purchase the 295x2 for 999$. It's already water cooled, over 1 ghz, and reasonably quiet. Should be a little faster than the 290'sCF too as they GPU are 290X's. If you check the valley bench thread my 295X2 on a day one small overclock is 98.83% of PandoraBox's trifire 290's. 5106 vs 5166

 

[night.fox]

I have good airflow. I have a Raven rv03 case which has airflow going from the ground to the ceiling and the graphics cards blow upwards out of the case.

How much of a hit is the temperature related downclock? I do not plan on using watercooling. Maybe I need to research some of the non reference coolers.

However the price on the non reference brings us close to the refernce 290x used prices. Would I be better off getting two 290x's and letting the downclock instead?

What is your mobo? I had raven rv 03 before and i replace the two fans with AP182 and they do get the job done. Ref cooler gpu's is better for RV03 case as this case is optimized for air cooling.

If you decide to get 290X ref cooler, you can set to uber mode which is allowed the fan to crank up to 40? or 50 percent cant remember.

I have read this before:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/12/13/4_weeks_radeon_r9_290x_crossfire/2#.VBJe9IZA-y8

suggest you read cause they used ref 290x and RV03 case

night.fox, I'm waiting for the delivery of my second Sapphire Tri-x R9 290 (bought both used) to run both in xfire in the rig below. I also purchase EK waterblocks and 3slot series terminal to run them watercooled below.

Some criticize this move by claiming you are wasting a great cooler but with the price of these gpus dropping so much, the fact that they are natively clocked at 1000Hz core and 1300 memory AND have a reference board, makes the deal too good to pass. I'll try to assemble this weekend and post you with results.

you can always sell your tri-x cooler .

From my experiance with 780ti's you want one of each. The bottom card should be a reference blower type card and the top should have a good dual or triple fan cooler. If the bottom card is not reference it will blow heat right into the upper card. Even with reference on bottom the upper card will still pick up extra heat. The upper card should have a well designed cooler to compensate.

Not sure if your looking at new or used. If your going new you might as well purchase the 295x2 for 999$. It's already water cooled, over 1 ghz, and reasonably quiet. Should be a little faster than the 290'sCF too as they GPU are 290X's. If you check the valley bench thread my 295X2 on a day one small overclock is 98.83% of PandoraBox's trifire 290's. 5106 vs 5166

780ti is great but the 3gb vram is too little in my opinion especially for eyefinity.

But you are right about the 295x2.

@digitaldurandal, like Sohaltang suggested, you might to have a look at the 295x2.

 

[guskline]

Just got my WC's Sapphire R9 290s (EK copper acetal blocks) running in rig below. Due to the # of fans etc moved to the PC Power&Cooling, now Firetechnology 1200W Silencer Mk III

 

[digitaldurandal]

What is your mobo? I had raven rv 03 before and i replace the two fans with AP182 and they do get the job done. Ref cooler gpu's is better for RV03 case as this case is optimized for air cooling.

If you decide to get 290X ref cooler, you can set to uber mode which is allowed the fan to crank up to 40? or 50 percent cant remember.

I have read this before:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/12/13/4_weeks_radeon_r9_290x_crossfire/2#.VBJe9IZA-y8

suggest you read cause they used ref 290x and RV03 case

Thanks for the advice night.fox and the article.

@Jacky60: I am not worried about the benefit/tradeoffs associated with Eyefinity. I already run it with the 670s so will be able to step settings up compared to what I run now, and honestly I am not really even in a place now where the settings bother me that much with the 670s and originally planned to wait to see what the next gen products brought, but with the 290s being about 200 used already I am tempted to get them and call it a year. Thank you for providing your experience for me though, great info.

@Attic: I don't want to do water cooling, it would somewhat defeat the purpose of getting the cards based on cost savings. I do have a motherboard with 3 slots which is nice, the primary and secondary are separated by the tertiary.

Will also look into the fans night.fox recommended for my case!

Thank you everyone