Thinking of picking up a 290 to replace my GTX 580. Now, my 580 when gaming, I set the fan to 75% and it's damn loud but I don't hear it with my headphones on. The noise of the 290 appears to be even worse and I hear of coil whine issues.
Are there currently any aftermarket coolers available?
There is no aftermarkets out yet, but I assume there will be. For what it's worth, I don't hear mine when gaming and I don't use headphones. I also don't have heard any coil whine and I've hit like 900FPS in menus. I can only hear the card when I exit BF4 and it is only for a few seconds before the fan ramps down. It is silent below like 90C.
But, my case is closed and not right next to my head, so I don't mirror the reviewers in my "tests".
If having a hot card would upset your CPU temps, I'd avoid it right now. But, noise isn't as bad as people want to make it out to be.