R9 290 *Complete* review list

[Silverforce11]

Coil whine happen to all cards, its just the nature of the capacitors. If its really bad, you can RMA it, but I heard some brands don't do RMA for coil whine...

 

[AlNasty]

No whine and I use a 1440p monitor.

Yeah, I wonder if I will still get it once my 1440 shows up. I only get it when fps is real high, using a 1080 at the moment.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Coil whine happen to all cards, its just the nature of the inductors. If its really bad, you can RMA it, but I heard some brands don't do RMA for coil whine...

Fixed that for you..

 

[blackened23]

Coil whine happen to all cards, its just the nature of the capacitors. If its really bad, you can RMA it, but I heard some brands don't do RMA for coil whine...

I've had plenty of cards without coil whine. Oddly enough, 7970s were notorious for coil whine while i've used tons and tons of NV cards without such issues. Although, I did have a buddy with a coil whining 670. It basically coils down to component quality on the PCB, and we all know NV cheaped out on the 670. But none of the 700 series products or 680s i've used have had coil whine.

In fact, I used a couple of 7000 cards that had coil whine so unreasonably loud that it was basically impossible to ignore. To me any card with such characteristics is an instant RMA. I'd hope AMD went to school to eliminate the coil whine problems on their reference PCB, but it seems a lot of newegg reviews are complaining of coil whine yet again. Then again, a lot of people are getting cards without coil whine, or maybe they just turn vsync on so they don't hear it. Shrug.

 

[Abwx]

I've had plenty of cards without coil whine. Oddly enough, 7970s were notorious for coil whine while i've used tons and tons of NV cards without such issues. Although, I did have a buddy with a coil whining 670. It basically coils down to component quality on the PCB, and we all know NV cheaped out on the 670. But none of the 700 series products or 680s i've used have had coil whine.

In fact, I used a couple of 7000 cards that had coil whine so unreasonably loud that it was basically impossible to ignore. To me any card with such characteristics is an instant RMA. I'd hope AMD went to school to eliminate the coil whine problems on their reference PCB, but it seems a lot of newegg reviews are complaining of coil whine yet again. Then again, a lot of people are getting cards without coil whine, or maybe they just turn vsync on so they don't hear it. Shrug.

Coil whine is due to the coil quality and has nothing
to do with power supply design , hence i m skeptical
that you never experienced it with Nvidia cards since
coils suppliers are the same few for all cards manufacturers,
but anyway nice try of fud by implying that coil whine
is due to neglected design on the electronic level,
that is , from AMD in your sayings...

 

[Silverforce11]

It's not the PCB, its the components, power circuitry and capacitors. @ Cookie, I've fixed a coil whine card by using hot glue on the caps before, it prevents micro-vibrations as its charged and de-charged, the resonating vibrations cause the "whine".

No matter how expensive your card is or how awesome you think its crafted, Coil Whine will exist in a small % of cards due to the vibrations occurring within the human ear's hearing range.

This is why its commonly reported, if you have coil whine, turn on vsync to prevent high loads (or vice versa, cranking up settings to cause more load, its essentially changing the GPU load), causing less/more vibrations in the components, moving their resonance beyond (up or down) the human hearing range. You dog will still hear it though.

ps. Blackened, you need to cool it on your anti-AMD crusade. Trying to lay the coil whine blame on AMD is uninspiring even for the most loyal of NV fans.. because we've all been around long enough to know the causes behind it.

 

[blackened23]

Anti AMD crusade? More like, anti bad product crusade. Loud coil whine is a bad product regardless of brand, period. If I can't hear it, I dont' care. Like I said, i've had both AMD and NV products with unreasonably loud coil whine but it is much more prevalent on the AMD side. Sorry, it's just the truth and you can read through all of the GTX 700 series reviews versus the 7970 / 290X reviews at newegg for anecdotal evidence. And, like I said, I used some 7000 series cards myself with coil whine so unreasonably loud that it would be insane to expect any user to put up with it. Don't let the truth bother you. And don't tell me loud coil whine is acceptable, because that's a load of garbage. I've used TONS of GPUs without a BIT of perceptible coil whine. And then i've used some products with coil whine so freaking loud that I can hear it across a room. If you're telling me the latter is acceptable, yeah, I don't freaking think so.

Of course, I hear that MSI considers loud coil whine "acceptable". If that's the case, no more MSI product purchases for me, that's for sure. In any case, many people here have reported no coil whine with their 290X cards, although some reviews at newegg seem to point it out. ::Shrug:: Maybe AMD has bad QA on some of their reference PCBs.

 

[24601]

Anti AMD crusade? More like, anti bad product crusade. Loud coil whine is a bad product, period. If I can't hear it, I dont' care. Like I said, i've had both AMD and NV products with unreasonably loud coil whine but it is much more prevalent on the AMD side. Sorry, it's just the truth and you can read through all of the GTX 700 series reviews versus the 7970 / 290X reviews at newegg for anecdotal evidence. And, like I said, I used some 7000 series cards myself with coil whine so unreasonably loud that it would be insane to expect any user to put up with it. Don't let the truth bother you.

Of course, I hear that MSI considers loud coil whine "acceptable". If that's the case, no more MSI product purchases for me, that's for sure. In any case, many people here have reported no coil whine with their 290X cards, although some reviews at newegg seem to point it out. ::Shrug:: Maybe AMD has bad QA on some of their reference PCBs.

Every single one of my cards has coil whine. The easiest way to tell is to use manually set fan control and hear the hilarious whine happen when you place actual load on the card.

My Sapphire has coil whine that's actually significantly (sounds like 3x as loud to me, which means more than 10dB) louder than the fans @ 100% speed.

 

[blackened23]

Every single one of my cards has coil whine. The easiest way to tell is to use manually set fan control and hear the hilarious whine happen when you place actual load on the card.

My reference 7970s didn't have a problem with whine when I owned them but I tried dual X sapphire 7970s and the whine was so loud that I could hear it outside of my computer room. It was INSANELY loud. And someone here is telling me that should be considered acceptable.

Yeah, I don't think so. If I can hear it above my system fans, screw that, it's going to be RMA'ed. I haven't had this issue with any GTX 680 or GTX 780 product, although have had a friend with a 670 emitting coil whine. It seems it can happen to any brand of GPU and there are ways that AIBs can prevent coil whine from occurring - or at the least, make it imperceptible. Apparently, some AIB's don't care and just expect their consumers to put up with coil whine that can be heard across a room. This is where the phrase "vote with your dollar" comes to mind.

Anyway, I digress from the whole coil whine topic, i'm done. Just my thoughts on whether it is acceptable to put up with extremely loud coil whine, and that answer is a hell no. So far some 290X cards don't seem to have the issue, although some do? Maybe it depends on differentiation at the AIB level.

 

[Silverforce11]

Anti AMD crusade? More like, anti bad product crusade. Loud coil whine is a bad product regardless of brand, period. If I can't hear it, I dont' care. Like I said, i've had both AMD and NV products with unreasonably loud coil whine but it is much more prevalent on the AMD side. Sorry, it's just the truth and you can read through all of the GTX 700 series reviews versus the 7970 / 290X reviews at newegg for anecdotal evidence.

ANECDOTAL ... so you are on a crusade.

Thanks for clarifying it.

Some of us have been around long enough to understand coil whine and its causes and understand its not specific to one brand or another. You on the other hand, appears hell bent on making every fault AMD's making.

 

[blackened23]

ANECDOTAL ... so you are on a crusade.

Thanks for clarifying it.

Some of us have been around long enough to understand coil whine and its causes and understand its not specific to one brand or another. You on the other hand, appears hell bent on making every fault AMD's making.

Yeah. Okay. This is after I JUST STATED that it happens on both brands - A friend of mine had coil whine on a GTX 670. My point is, loud coil whine that can be heard across a room is not acceptable whether it's AMD or NV - and I do believe based on reports that it is more prevalent on AMD's side. AIB's can make changes to minimize how perceptible coil whine is, i'm sorry but some coil whine can be heard across a room while AIBs can take steps to ensure that coil whine is imperceptible. I am not sure whether the 290X has the coil whine issue, but I suspect it has everything to do with what AIBs are doing to minimize it. Stop seeing what you want to see and basing personal attacks on that. Coil whine that can be heard across a room is never acceptable, don't try to tell us that it is - I remember people would dab nail polish remover on their PCBs to eliminate the loud noise from coil whine, but consumers shouldn't do this. Either AMD/NV or the AIB should do such measures so the end user doesn't end up with a product that has coil whine so ridiculously loud.

BTW, there are different levels of coil whine like I said. I"ve used cards with INCREDIBLY loud coil whine, and others with imperceptible coil whine. What you seem to be stating is that coil whine is always acceptable. I would disagree with that, especially when AIBs and manufacturers can take steps, like I said, to prevent it from being perceptible to the human ear.

 

[Silverforce11]

Yeah. Okay. This is after I JUST STATED that it happens on both brands - A friend of mine had coil whine on a GTX 670. My point is, loud coil whine that can be heard across a room is not acceptable whether it's AMD or NV - and I do believe based on reports that it is more prevalent on AMD's side.

See, this is exactly the problem: Your reports are anecdotal. Its just as me saying NV cards tend to die more, spontaneously combust.. based on anecdotal evidence on the internet and forums full of people complaining about it (wasn't that long ago, re: 570 and 690)..

Or the so many threads on tech forums about how NV cards die more and they could be re-baked (!!) to come back to life, its due to shoddy soldering or PCBs... except in both cases, its NOT true at all and its down to isolated cases.

Nowhere did I say coil whine was acceptable. I just made the statement here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35733425&postcount=401

If its bad, RMA it. Just be-careful, some AIBs refuse to do it based on coil whine.

 

[Silverforce11]

Don't buy their cards, their cooler is sooo noisy!! (You apparently forget, many people who buy $550 REFERENCE cards have other plans for it.. hint: EK/Koolance OR people who DGAF about noise and prefer to have $$ for other things in life)

Now its starting to sound like "Don't buy AMD!! Their cards have horrible coil whine!!"..

Really, we get you hate AMD.

 

[Spidre]

Don't buy their cards, their cooler is sooo noisy!! (You apparently forget, many people who buy $550 REFERENCE cards have other plans for it.. hint: EK/Koolance OR people who DGAF about noise and prefer to have $$ for other things in life)

Now its starting to sound like "Don't buy AMD!! Their cards have horrible coil whine!!"..

Really, we get you hate AMD.

I really don't get what you're reading into. Black was talking about his experiences with coil whine, don't take it personally.

 

[DooKey]

I really don't get what you're reading into. Black was talking about his experiences with coil whine, don't take it personally.

The love of video card companies knows no bounds with some people.

 

[blackened23]

Don't buy their cards, their cooler is sooo noisy!! (You apparently forget, many people who buy $550 REFERENCE cards have other plans for it.. hint: EK/Koolance OR people who DGAF about noise and prefer to have $$ for other things in life)

Now its starting to sound like "Don't buy AMD!! Their cards have horrible coil whine!!"..

Really, we get you hate AMD.

The heck is your problem man? I'm willing to bet that i've spent more on AMD GPUs than you have in the past few years. What I don't do is buy a bad product - if a product has coil whine, then it is a bad product whether it is AMD or NV. My ref 7970s didn't have coil whine, while dual X sapphire 7970s had coil whine so loud that it could be heard across a room. Guess which one was a bad product which was RMA'ed? If a product has trade-offs that I feel is unacceptable and did not exist on prior products, I can certainly state that opinion. I never said don't buy AMD. I said I wouldn't find coil whine acceptable. WRT reference cards, I feel that AMD shouldn't have trade-offs. That's my opinion and my right to state it, I mean i'm not going to say that a product is perfect if it clearly is not. I also don't hate AMD. I do, however, feel that they could have done better with the 290X - the product is almost the grand slam product but come on, you don't think the quiet mode throttling issue receiving such bad press is an issue? You think people will just ignore this and praise the product? I mean these trade-offs shouldn't exist, and have expressed my opinion in the hopes that some monkey at AMD reads it and improves their product. The 290X could have been the perfect product. Instead, we have what we have now - tons of bad press. And that can't be a good thing.

I have no idea what your problem is right now. Sounds like you're getting angry at me for having my own personal opinions when they don't perfectly align with yours. If that's the case, oh well. You can't agree with everyone.

 

[Abwx]

Not only coils whine.......

No bad feeling anyway..

 

[Silverforce11]

You are free to your opinions, but your posts were so biased against AMD, utterly obvious. With statements like:

"My point is, loud coil whine that can be heard across a room is not acceptable whether it's AMD or NV - and I do believe based on reports that it is more prevalent on AMD's side"

"Like I said, i've had both AMD and NV products with unreasonably loud coil whine but it is much more prevalent on the AMD side .... anecdotal evidence."

"Oddly enough, 7970s were notorious for coil whine while i've used tons and tons of NV cards without such issues."

 

[96Firebird]

So you are mad because he shared his personal experiences?

 

[blackened23]

So are the reviewers on newegg and amazon lying? Maybe, I don't know. There are more reports of this on AMD cards, that is a true fact - and a lot of these reviews are from verified purchasers. You are correct, it is anecdotal. Maybe they're lying. Do you think that 100% of these verified purchase reviewers are lying? I dunno. Maybe. If you're just going to get angry and accuse me of being biased for stating what i've seen at newegg reviews, you should put me on ignore. I am not biased, but by all means believe what you want....I didn't state anything non factual. The reviews are there for you to read - if I stated anything non-factual, i'll be happy to correct myself.

When it comes to coil whine, i'm impartial to brand. If it's nvidia and the coil whine is loud, it's going to be RMA'ed. If it's AMD and the coil whine is loud, it's going to be RMA'ed. There's no brand preference here. Coil whine that can be heard across a room isn't acceptable, don't get angry at my opinion because I feel that many would agree with me.

Let's back up here for a second: someone mentioned loud coil whine on their gigabyte 290 , and then the discussion turned to whether such coil whine could be deemed acceptable. My answer is no. Regardless of brand - if it can be heard above system fans and across a room, it should be RMA'ed. Do you think this coil whine on the gigabyte 290 is acceptable? You just need to calm down, stop getting angry, and realize that this isn't a problem that is acceptable. Seriously , why would you get angry about this. Seems like common sense to me.

 

[Silverforce11]

So you are mad because he shared his personal experiences?

His "anecdotal evidence" isn't just a personal experience, its referring to newegg reviews and whatever else to claim coil whine is a bigger problem on AMD cards.

Would it be trollish of me to suggest NV cards are prone to exploding?

Edit: I already stated if coil whine is an issue, RMA it. Personally I cannot stand coil whine.

 

[Imouto]

Dunno why you keep arguing with him. You're giving him another chance to post the same for 99th time.

 

[Silverforce11]

Dunno why you keep arguing with him. You're giving him another chance to post the same for 99th time.

I just like to see him do it for the 100th time.. you know, the reference cooler on the R290/X is just so awful, it deserves to be bagged at least 100 times.

 

[raghu78]

I just like to see him do it for the 100th time.. you know, the reference cooler on the R290/X is just so awful, it deserves to be bagged at least 100 times.

the loud cooler stuff is seriously exaggerated and overdone and its the same people over and over and over again.

 

[Rvenger]

Guys, let's not resort to personal attacks. Some of the posts in this thread are certainly starting to cross a line. Please respect others opinions.


We also don't need to be harping on the same thing over and over. Let's move on now.


-Rvenger