Yeah right. The 290X is a joke of a card. If the card needs Uber Mode and 100% fan speed to beat 780 OC's and Titans...give me 5 fps less on average and my ear drums.
I both agree and disagree with you on some of your points.
The fan at 55% isn't bad at all - I used 7970s fairly extensively, and while the fan at 55% manual speed was discernible - it wasn't a jet engine as some here make it out to be. Quite the opposite - it is very usable. I really feel like there's a lot of hyperbole floating around about the "uber" mode fan - people are posting youtube videos of 100% fan and yes, it is loud at that speed. But 55%? It's really not bad at all, although it isn't as good as the Titan shroud cooler. I also agree with you that AMD should have not skimped on the reference cooler, it is really unfortunate - they took their golden opportunity to make the 10/10 GPU and dragged it down with that stupid plastic cooler of theirs. Again, unfortunate.
On the other hand, 100% fan definitely is a dust buster. I can't see how anyone would be able to bear that much noise, it would drive me bonkers. I remember the 7970 fan was so ridiculously loud at 100%, I could hear it well into the next room. Crazy loud. 55% isn't bad though. Basically, this all boils down to AMD being stupid for not improving the cooler. I still think the 290X is a great card, and we do have AMD to think for prompting NV price cuts. But, again, they could have made a 10/10 GPU for the 550$ price but dragged it down with that stupid cooler. Ugh. If AMD wanted to go all out against NV, they could have, but didn't - they should have considering the excellence of the Titan shroud cooler.
Some AMD fans would be quick to state that AMD didn't want to overlap with AIB aftermarket shrouds. I call BS on this one. There is no blower cooler that will ever be as good as aftermarket for overclocking, thermals, and noise - even though the Titan shroud is outstanding, it isn't as good as aftermarket. But if you NEED a blower, NV gives you a good option for one. AMD doesn't. Unfortunate, unfortunate, unfortunate. I'm kinda torn on the 290X, I love the performance but can't believe AMD didn't go ALL OUT to make it a kick-butt product by every metric including thermals. And now with the 780OC price cuts some will definitely opt for the 780OC precisely because of AMD not going all-out with their product.