[Tom's]290's can actually get chilly!

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Haserath

Senior member
Sep 12, 2010
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RussianSensation

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
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No surprises here. A reference cooler from AMD or NV has no chance against one of the best after-market open air coolers. AMD really should have allowed AIBs to launch their cards from day 1. Asus R9 290 DCUII with a factory pre-overclock of 1100mhz at $410 would have put the lights out on all $500 GTX780s. Missed opportunity by AMD.

Newer drivers + mild OC on a reference board and their R9 290 is 20% faster than the launch version they reviews. That means GTX780Ti performance for $475 and that's before after-market R9 290s with reasonable voltage control, upgraded VRM/power circuitry components. Not bad.

03-OC-FPS.png


hjalti8 said:
arctic cooling really needs to work on their vrm heatsinks..
Click to expand...

There is probably limited space for a much larger VRM heatsink. At the same time the VRMs were at 70*C at 12V, or a full 20*C below the 7V setting.
 
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FredNotFound404

FredNotFound404

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Sep 24, 2013
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I plan on getting a 290 and sticking a AC on it, I think only Windforce can compete with Arctic Accelero. Also I'm still expecting more news and info on those 290 that are unlocking into 290x.
 
F

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
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FredNotFound404 said:
I plan on getting a 290 and sticking a AC on it, I think only Windforce can compete with Arctic Accelero. Also I'm still expecting more news and info on those 290 that are unlocking into 290x.
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The Gigabyte Windforce 2.0 is actually rated to dissapate more watts. 450W vs. the Accelero's 300w. The vrm cooling will be much much better on the gigabyte card as well. Just look at the 280X for reference. The major benefit for the Accelero is the noise level, that's primarily because their fans don't spin very fast. If I were you I would wait for the Gigabyte card to come out... :\ I like the accelero's but their vrm cooling is the limiting factor when it comes to overclocking.
 
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RussianSensation

RussianSensation

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Sep 5, 2003
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The Giga will be a good cooler and they are unlikely to charge more than $30 for their after-market version. I wouldn't compare the Accelero's and Gigabyte's dissipation ratings though as Gigabyte's are pure marketing!

The Inno3D Chill cards use a cooler nearly identical to the Accelero 3 and it crushes Gigabyte's best in temperatures without much effort:
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/...gtx-780-ti-von-gigabyte-und-inno3d-im-test/3/
 
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blastingcap

blastingcap

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Sep 16, 2010
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Haserath said:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290-accelero-xtreme-290,3671.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290x-thermal-paste-efficiency,3678.html

They unfortunately only tested quiet mode on the stock cooler, but it goes to show how much a simple application of good paste can make a cooler.

And surprisingly the 290 was below 60C even at 1150Mhz... AMD really needs to focus on their cooler...

How high do VRM temps have to get before they limit overclocks?
Click to expand...

Does anyone know what happened to that copper in the http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290x-thermal-paste-efficiency,3678.html link? It's really scratched up.
 
el etro

el etro

Golden Member
Jul 21, 2013
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I don't know about gigabyte last revision of Windforce 2.0, but the first WF2.0 cards were reported to be not so good performers in terms of noise and power consumption. They became famous beacause their high overclock rate and good golden rate as reported by some tech sites. My advice is go for DCUII and Vapor-X versions.
 
Bateluer

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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I've been waiting for Toms to publish that article. Leaning strongly to getting the Extreme III for my 290X.
 
(sic)Klown12

(sic)Klown12

Senior member
Nov 27, 2010
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That article showing the improvment from just applying new T.I.M. is very interesting. I have two tubes of Gelid GC Extreme sitting here on my table that I should find a use for...
 
FredNotFound404

FredNotFound404

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Sep 24, 2013
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My problem with Gigabyte was I got burn with them, had to replace 2 times a 560 Ti the 1Ghz OC Version, the problem wasn't the cooler so to speak was the OC that was highly unstable, after the 2nd I just sold it and bought the 670 when it came out, now its time to sell the 670, I will play the waiting game since I'm curious to see if the non reference cards will unlock also.
 
chimaxi83

chimaxi83

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May 18, 2003
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I reapplied the TIM on both of my Gigabyte 290s while waiting for my second water block. After that, my temperatures at a locked 55% fan never exceeded 70C, and it really wasn't loud either. That's with the +100mV that Afterburner offers. I used the TIM that EK sends with their blocks. Max OC was only around 1225 MHz though, but that's still decent considering it's Crossfire.
 
Skurge

Skurge

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Aug 17, 2009
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chimaxi83 said:
I reapplied the TIM on both of my Gigabyte 290s while waiting for my second water block. After that, my temperatures at a locked 55% fan never exceeded 70C, and it really wasn't loud either. That's with the +100mV that Afterburner offers. I used the TIM that EK sends with their blocks. Max OC was only around 1225 MHz though, but that's still decent considering it's Crossfire.
Click to expand...

Did you get to 1225mhz with just +100mV?

Also wouldn't the fan be spinning lower than 55% as it's not reaching it's max temp. Unless you lowered the max temp?
 
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chimaxi83

chimaxi83

Diamond Member
May 18, 2003
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Skurge said:
Did you get to 1225mhz with just +100mV?

Also wouldn't the fan be spinning lower than 55% as it's not reaching it's max temp. Unless you lowered the max temp?
Click to expand...

Yes, I maxed out power limit, core voltage, and aux voltage, and reached 1225 on the core. My vram seems perfectly fine all the up to almost 1.7GHz (6800MHz), but after 1.5GHz I saw no increase in performance. These cards perform much better than the Sapphire 290X I had. That one barely cracked 1100MHz stable, even with Asus BIOS and increased Vcore, and had black screens galore.

I just manually set the fan at 55% and left it there.
 
3

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
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chimaxi83 said:
I just manually set the fan at 55% and left it there.
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I've seen others do this as well. Rather than letting the core get to 94°C and then have the fan ramp up to keep it there, just set the fan at a higher speed and the core stays cooler. Seems like a simpler and better way of doing it. Of course then the fan never ramps down during low usage.
 
RussianSensation

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
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BallaTheFeared said:
Evidently you weren't aware they increased the fan speed which is where the extra performance came from.
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The 20% increase in speed is between Accelero + Mild OC vs. a stock reference card. I am fully aware that the driver increased the stock fan speed from 40% to 47%. My main point was that there is an easy 15-20% increase in performance on the table with an R9 290 and that's before overvoltage. That's remarkable value since 20% on top of R9 290 gets you past GTX780Ti in performance. Once excellent after-market R9 290s come out, I think we'll see overclocks beyond 1.1-1.15ghz. I think 780Ti OC will only have a 16-18% lead over R9 290 OC. R9 290s OC >>>> 780Ti OC by 50-60%.
 
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