290X Winforce 3X

[Skurge]

http://www.hardware.fr/news/13491/gigabyte-r9-290x-windforce-se-montre.html

A small OC of 40mhz, but it should keep that speed 100% of the time. They state 15dB quieter than the reference card in quiet mode.

Soon.

 

[Silverforce11]

All these custom cards look the same as the current ones for the 280X (which was the same as the 7900 series), hardly any design changes and it doesn't need it. IceQ x2 on r290 drop its temps massively as well as power use by 30-40 watts. Think about it, that much less power use puts it into the 7970 Ghz TDP range.

Its amazing that AMD held off letting their partners release custom cards since we know it doesnt need major changes to cooling designs. Very strange indeed.

 

[Atreidin]

Its amazing that AMD held off letting their partners release custom cards since we know it doesnt need major changes to cooling designs. Very strange indeed.

Did AMD actually have an explicit requirement for AIBs to delay custom cards?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Nice to see a proper cooler. Not much OC tho for this "450W" card. A mere 4%.

I wonder if the AIB delays is due to chip quality.

 

[lehtv]

Nice to see a proper cooler. Not much OC tho for this "450W" card. A mere 4%.

You mean "450W" cooler. Should leave plenty of potential for manual OC, who cares about factory OC.

 

[Attic]

I'm imagining Crocadile Dundee on the different 290x coolers.

"That's not a cooler, THIS is a cooler"

Do want.

 

[rtsurfer]

Nice to see a proper cooler. Not much OC tho for this "450W" card. A mere 4%.

I wonder if the AIB delays is due to chip quality.

You mean you didnt see people put custom coolers on the reference cards and OC them to 1170~1200 Mhz.

That is a pretty decent OC in my book, unless you know, your Intel or Nvidia can be OC to 2000Mhz...

 

[thilanliyan]

IceQ x2 on r290 drop its temps massively as well as power use by 30-40 watts. Think about it, that much less power use puts it into the 7970 Ghz TDP range.

Did someone manage to put the IceQ X2 cooler on a R9 290? I have two of those coolers here, but I thought because of the rotated die of the 79XX, it wouldn't work with the 290?

 

[el etro]

My bet: all cards averaged 1150 Mhz overclocked, like a bunch of reference 290x goes.

Windforce 2.0 is a mediocre(not bad, only average) aftermarket technology. Let's see what the revision 2 of this technology turn over this game.

 

[RaulF]

Did AMD actually have an explicit requirement for AIBs to delay custom cards?

Yup.

people keep saying that with no proof or source. For all we know is just availability from tsmc to aib.

Everyone has to remember AMD has quite a few contracts to fulfill. And pc gpu are most likely their top priority right now. Most likely consoles are.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Whatever deal you thought these aftermarket 290/290x were going to be just forget it. With the bitcoin litecoin thing going on retailers are jacking the prices of all r9 cards to the moon. 20% increases at minimum, bf4 no longer being offered with some cards, etc.. I'm going ps4 as soon as I can find one at retail.

 

[XiandreX]

I'm imagining Crocadile Dundee on the different 290x coolers.

"That's not a cooler, THIS is a cooler"

Do want.

LOL thats a great reference to one of my favorite movies.

 

[rtsurfer]

Whatever deal you thought these aftermarket 290/290x were going to be just forget it. With the bitcoin litecoin thing going on retailers are jacking the prices of all r9 cards to the moon. 20% increases at minimum, bf4 no longer being offered with some cards, etc.. I'm going ps4 as soon as I can find one at retail.

Sadly.
You are right.

Lets hope the AIBs dont get too greedy...

 

[RaulF]

Sadly.
You are right.

Lets hope the AIBs dont get too greedy...

Could be fixed by retailers by limiting the amount per person to be purchased.

But money talk bs walks.

 

[hyrule4927]

Nice to see a proper cooler. Not much OC tho for this "450W" card. A mere 4%.

I wonder if the AIB delays is due to chip quality.

The "450W" capacity of the Windforce is a pretty arbitrary number anyway. Arctic Accelero is only listed as having a 300W cooling capacity, but it is clearly superior to the Windforce.

 

[blackened23]

Windforce 2.0 is a mediocre(not bad, only average) aftermarket technology. Let's see what the revision 2 of this technology turn over this game.

Say what? I've only seen acoustic benchmarks on the nvidia side but the Windforce cooler is pretty impressive, easily one of the best GPU coolers on the market. I'd expect the same paired with the 290X.

As a basis of comparison for noise performance, as I don't have AMD 290X aftermarket data: note that the windforce cooler is significantly quieter than the reference as shown here:

I fully expect the WF rev 2 on the 290X to perform just as well. It's a great (and quiet) cooler.

 

[Skurge]

Say what? I've only seen acoustic benchmarks on the nvidia side but the Windforce cooler is pretty impressive, easily one of the best GPU coolers on the market. I'd expect the same paired with the 290X.

As a basis of comparison for noise performance, as I don't have AMD 290X aftermarket data: note that the windforce cooler is significantly quieter than the reference as shown here:

I fully expect the WF rev 2 on the 290X to perform just as well. It's a great (and quiet) cooler.

Rev2 was the one on previous gen AMD cards, It wasn't great tbh. The 450W cooler is the newer one.

 

[OCGuy]

Clock increase is better than I thought....

 

[el etro]

Say what? I've only seen acoustic benchmarks on the nvidia side but the Windforce cooler is pretty impressive, easily one of the best GPU coolers on the market. I'd expect the same paired with the 290X.

As a basis of comparison for noise performance, as I don't have AMD 290X aftermarket data: note that the windforce cooler is significantly quieter than the reference as shown here:

I fully expect the WF rev 2 on the 290X to perform just as well. It's a great (and quiet) cooler.

There's three editions i know for Windforce:

- The first version(no reviews i know)


- Windforce 2(Belial's guide to 7950 unmasked the badness of the cooler, techpowerup states too his mediocre performance. The stronghold of Windforce cards were all the time the unlocked voltage and the good overclocking rate and golden rate from the selected chips(See HardOcp review for 7970 Windf too see it))


- and now the new 450w revision of Windforce 2(The one that started to come with GTX 780 Ti???).

 

[3DVagabond]

Could be fixed by retailers by limiting the amount per person to be purchased.

But money talk bs walks.

They could price them $549.99 (limit of 2) $599.99 (3 or more).

 

[Sunburn74]

Asus also has revealed images of a custom 290x. One with its direct CU II cooler, which has been so highly touted in the press

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-290x-directcu-ii-radeon,25303.html

 

[RaulF]

Asus also has revealed images of a custom 290x. One with its direct CU II cooler, which has been so highly touted in the press

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-290x-directcu-ii-radeon,25303.html

Theres a thread about it already. Someone posted that the sapphire toxic actually does a much better job than the asus coolers in prior comparable cards.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2357186

 

[blastingcap]

Theres a thread about it already. Someone posted that the sapphire toxic actually does a much better job than the asus coolers in prior comparable cards.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2357186

I will never buy another Sapphire card again unless the price is amazing or unless it's a reference card, due to their TRIXX being sloppy compared to MSI AB and not updated enough. It wouldn't even work with one of my Sapphire cards, wtf?

 

[RaulF]

I will never buy another Sapphire card again unless the price is amazing or unless it's a reference card, due to their TRIXX being sloppy compared to MSI AB and not updated enough. It wouldn't even work with one of my Sapphire cards, wtf?

I can't comment on their software. I never did OC outside of CCC.

The last cards i had 6950 sapphire didn't give me any problems.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I don't see why it matters, you can use AB for sapphire cards?