$250 R9 290 Installed :)

[kawi6rr]

My 290 came in yesterday, Saphire Tri-X it replaced my 280x which was already a great card but the $250 price of the 290 was too good to pass up. Install was easy I already had the 14.11 drivers from the 280x and the 290 recognized it and ran fine with it but I downloaded the new 14.11.2 driver pack uninstalled the 14.11 rebooted installed 14.11.2 rebooted and the 290 was showing up in Catalyst with the new drivers.

While the Asus DC II 280x was a great card my 290 not only runs cooler but it’s also quieter then the 280x. Fired up MWO played a game then went into setting and bumped the graphics up to highest quality and while it looked good with the 280x the details are noticeably better now on the 290 it really did make a difference. I didn’t check the FPS on the 290 I’ll do that today but my 280x would hold at 60fps easily.

It’s a bummer the reference card cooler wasn’t better because the Saphire Tri-X’s cooler is amazing when it comes to noise and cooling.

I guess I’ll be selling the game bundle codes, I’ll probably post something in the sales section in the next few days.

 

[Ryanrenesis]

Awesome! I'm acquiring two R9 290 Tri-X's for $550 tonight. Going to put them into Crossfire and hope to God I can maintain 120 FPS @ 1080p in a majority of games.

I got an open box EVGA Supernova G2 1000W for $120 just to support the GPUs lol

I'm just hoping there's no "microstutter" or some stupid incompatibility or driver issues that people would say about AMD.

 

[kawi6rr]

From what I've been reading lately is that crossfire is getting better and people have been pretty happy with it.

 

[WT]

Early Christmas for you guys ! What CPUs are you pairing up with these cards ?

 

[RussianSensation]

Awesome! I'm acquiring two R9 290 Tri-X's for $550 tonight. Going to put them into Crossfire and hope to God I can maintain 120 FPS @ 1080p in a majority of games.

I got an open box EVGA Supernova G2 1000W for $120 just to support the GPUs lol

I'm just hoping there's no "microstutter" or some stupid incompatibility or driver issues that people would say about AMD.

There are always some driver issues with both SLI/CF, especially on launch games. The reason people consider SLI/CF is that it's a compromise for getting a lot more performance when a single-GPU isn't available to provide such speeds. However, you need the latest profiles and sometimes this takes time to come out. Some games will never have SLI/CF support such as Company of Heroes 2 or UE4 games. Also, there will be a lot of games where you will have to turn down MSAA/some IQ settings to hit 120 fps because they are just too demanding to hit 120 fps (Crysis 3, Metro LL, Tomb Raider, FC4, etc.)

Congrats on your new cards. Let us know how they are (noise/temperatures) and your experience. Were you able to sell that 780 for a good price? Make sure to not redeem any of the game coupons or rebates until the last minute in case you decide to return the cards if they aren't satisfactory to you.

 

[kawi6rr]

Early Christmas for you guys ! What CPUs are you pairing up with these cards ?

Im using just a single R9 290 with a water cooled FX 8350. This system has been running everything I need to do with ease, been very happy with it. And now with the 290 it's even better

 

[Ryanrenesis]

There are always some driver issues with both SLI/CF, especially on launch games. The reason people consider SLI/CF is that it's a compromise for getting a lot more performance when a single-GPU isn't available to provide such speeds. However, you need the latest profiles and sometimes this takes time to come out. Some games will never have SLI/CF support such as Company of Heroes 2 or UE4 games. Also, there will be a lot of games where you will have to turn down MSAA/some IQ settings to hit 120 fps because they are just too demanding to hit 120 fps (Crysis 3, Metro LL, Tomb Raider, FC4, etc.)

Congrats on your new cards. Let us know how they are (noise/temperatures) and your experience. Were you able to sell that 780 for a good price? Make sure to not redeem any of the game coupons or rebates until the last minute in case you decide to return the cards if they aren't satisfactory to you.

Sold the GTX 780 for $330 cash after a month of use. I bought it for $349.99 after rebate, but with Canadian taxes, it cost me $395.50 in total.

 

[Remobz]

Is the 290 overkill for 1080p gaming with a 60hz monitor?

 

[raghu78]

Is the 290 overkill for 1080p gaming with a 60hz monitor?

Not at all. in the recent games like Dragon Age Inquisition, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, AC Unity, Farcry 4 when maxed out with MSAA or SSAA you cannot hit 60 fps with R9 290.

 

[Attic]

Is the 290 overkill for 1080p gaming with a 60hz monitor?

No, 1080P60 takes a lot of power to maintain a solid 60fps minimum on modern titles and 1080P60 at 60fps mins is a very nice place to be for gaming.

 

[Leyawiin]

Can you comment on coil whine/buzz? I'm getting pretty gun shy about buying any new GPU at this point (the MSI GTX 970 I bought and am returning has it pretty bad).

 

[kawi6rr]

Can you comment on coil whine/buzz? I'm getting pretty gun shy about buying any new GPU at this point (the MSI GTX 970 I bought and am returning has it pretty bad).

I don't here any type of whine or buzz just fan noise but I also have a few case fans as well. The 290 is actually quieter then my 280x.

 

[guskline]

Very happy with my 2 Sapphire Tri X R9 290s in CF and watercooled in my rig below

 

[Leyawiin]

I don't here any type of whine or buzz just fan noise but I also have a few case fans as well. The 290 is actually quieter then my 280x.

Thank you - appreciate the comment.

 

[bryanW1995]

Not at all. in the recent games like Dragon Age Inquisition, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, AC Unity, Farcry 4 when maxed out with MSAA or SSAA you cannot hit 60 fps with R9 290.

I can verify that 7970 at least isn't up to snuff on DAI with max graphics. Now I need to decide if I like the game enough to buy a new gpu for it...

I've seen some recent comments regarding "new cards" from both camps in 2015. Does anybody have any ideas on when those are coming out? Are they going to be more of the same iterative improvements that we've had for the past few years, or are we getting another 8800gtx?

 

[boozzer]

you need sli or cf of 290x or 980 if you want to do the crazy form of aa in DAI. other wise a 280x/770 is enough to get 60 fps 1080p

 

[Silverforce11]

Is the 290 overkill for 1080p gaming with a 60hz monitor?

It used to be overkill but all the recent games have really put it back to school. Anything R290X or 780ti class is now barely enough at 1080p.

 

[Ryanrenesis]

I got my two Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X's !!

One thing I noticed was one of the R9 290 has 2816 shaders (unified) while the other has 2560 shaders (unified). Wth? Both are product coded as R9 290... So strange. Anyway, I got a 26583 Graphics score on 3Dmark11 Performance Preset. Not sure if that's good or bad. Cards are still at factory clocks.

Second thing I noticed was a fan rattle/crackle at certain RPMs... I noticed the noise would stop when I pressed against the shroud near the beginning of the card. I realized at certain RPMs, the resonance of the fans would cause the plastic shroud to rattle at a very high frequency against the metal heatsink, causing a weird rattle noise. So I decided to put some tiny rubber pads where the plastic shroud meets the metal heatsink and now the noise is all gone

Circled in red were where the high frequency rattle was coming from

Such a design flaw should have been picked up by Sapphire QC...

 

[digitaldurandal]

2816 = 290x

 

[Ryanrenesis]

2816 = 290x

I doubt they sold me an R9 290x... I bought both of these for $275 each. Maybe bug in GPU-Z?

EDIT: Found the video of what the high-frequency rattle sounds like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftMCuoJN6K8
Starts at 0:28. That was EXACTLY how my card sounded like at certain RPMs.

 

[boozzer]

It used to be overkill but all the recent games have really put it back to school. Anything R290X or 780ti class is now barely enough at 1080p.

it feels like they up the hardware requirement with zero graphical fidelity to show for it.

 

[Actaeon]

Congrats. I picked up a pair of $299 R9-290Xs the other day. That price plus the bundle of games was too good of a deal to pass up.

 

[Silverforce11]

it feels like they up the hardware requirement with zero graphical fidelity to show for it.

This is what happens when they try to push global illumination and softer or darker shadows. TBH I cannot tell the difference enough to matter during actual gameplay, as such, I always disable those features in my games to save on power (I run vsync 60).

Also OP, I hope your case has good airflow. Two open air designs dumping 250W each along with your CPU is a lot of heat in a small space.

 

[Leyawiin]

EDIT: Found the video of what the high-frequency rattle sounds like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftMCuoJN6K8
Starts at 0:28. That was EXACTLY how my card sounded like at certain RPMs.

Well that kind of sucks. Did you see this video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EomL1oysVXs

 

[Ryanrenesis]

Well that kind of sucks. Did you see this video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EomL1oysVXs

Yeah I fixed it with a different method, I put some rubber pads on the contact between the plastic shroud and the metal heatsink and it fixed the issues so I'm happy now

Just disappointed that Sapphire has such a design flaw that requires us to do the handiwork to fix it.