R9 290X and R9 290 Owners Noise Discussion (Most Important Question)

[Aikouka]

Give the idle temps I'm seeing now though, I will definitely be looking at some aftermarket cooling before the Phoenix summer arrives again. Not sure if it'll be water cooled or not, I saw some full card water blocks, but no closed loop systems that I'd prefer.

I know Accelero made that hybrid water+fan setup, but it only uses a single 120mm radiator, which I would probably be a bit leery of using with this card. However, what about this item from Swiftech? To be clear, this isn't a closed-loop system, but rather a combination pump + reservoir + radiator (2x120 or 3x120). You could combine that with a full block, and it should handle the R9 290 (or 290X) fairly well.

To expand on this, my HD 5870 was also stock cooler, and it was considered loud at the time, but I never once thought of replacing it unlike the cooler on my HD 7970, it was holding back my OC's because of acoustics.

I switched to ATi back with the 4870 and kept with them for a 5870 and a 6950. What made me switch back to NVIDIA was that I got tired of the fan noise. It wasn't necessarily loud, but the reference blowers made this rather irritating mechanical whirring noise.

 

[Stuka87]

I switched to ATi back with the 4870 and kept with them for a 5870 and a 6950. What made me switch back to NVIDIA was that I got tired of the fan noise. It wasn't necessarily loud, but the reference blowers made this rather irritating mechanical whirring noise.

Thats why I stick with non-references cards. MSI and Sapphire cards with open air coolers run cool and quiet.

We just need to wait for open air coolers to show up on 290/290X cards.

 

[smackababy]

I know Accelero made that hybrid water+fan setup, but it only uses a single 120mm radiator, which I would probably be a bit leery of using with this card. However, what about this item from Swiftech? To be clear, this isn't a closed-loop system, but rather a combination pump + reservoir + radiator (2x120 or 3x120). You could combine that with a full block, and it should handle the R9 290 (or 290X) fairly well.

A 120 would not give a huge performance boost for OC, but it would keep the card in acceptable heat range (<30C ambient temps) and be much quieter. Now, I wouldn't put that in a loop with a CPU unless I had some serious radiator (I am planning around 350w cooling for each card, plus a CPU).

I switched to ATi back with the 4870 and kept with them for a 5870 and a 6950. What made me switch back to NVIDIA was that I got tired of the fan noise. It wasn't necessarily loud, but the reference blowers made this rather irritating mechanical whirring noise.

I had a 2 5870s, but I can't comment on their loudness because mine were watercooled from life until death.

 

[LegSWAT]

The guys at AMD should think twice about their stock cooler, or hire sb who does! I'm not saying they need to hire a team of top industrial designers tweaking every single nozzle flexion for a futuristic looking design, as nVidia does, but rather think about their long-term business strategy. I'm more than sure that they could easily charge 50-100 bucks on top of both their R9 290 SKUs if they had a more efficient, less noisy stock cooler, resulting in more satisfied customers that would more likely develop some sort of brand attachment. I personally wouldn't buy a card that could easily ruin one of the very features it's marketed for in the first place, i.e. the greatness of True Audio.

Oh and btw. ever thought that die heat will be more and more of a problem with higher transistor densities (another metric next to noise which Hawaii excells in)? Let's see what 20nm high-end GPUs will bring to the table in that regard!

 

[krumme]

I concur with this, I've used AMD blowers on the 4800 series, 5800 series and 7970. If they stay 45% or less, its quite fine inside a case. The noise level ramp up very fast above 45%. I game with speakers thats why my noise threshold is lower than people who game with headphones.

For a fractal node 304 would you recommend blower or nonref? 7970/290 class perf?

 

[Aikouka]

A 120 would not give a huge performance boost for OC, but it would keep the card in acceptable heat range (<30C ambient temps) and be much quieter. Now, I wouldn't put that in a loop with a CPU unless I had some serious radiator (I am planning around 350w cooling for each card, plus a CPU).

That's true, but unfortunately, I don't think the Accelero Hybrid is even an option right now anyway.

The 2x120 variant of that Swiftech unit might be sufficient. It might seem a little pricey at first, but considering that most AIOs skimp wherever possible (aluminum vs. copper, weaker pumps, etc.), it'll probably be better in the long run.

I had a 2 5870s, but I can't comment on their loudness because mine were watercooled from life until death.

I can safely say that water cooling was never on my mind back then, and knowing what I know now about water cooling, that was probably a good thing.

 

[Silverforce11]

For a fractal node 304 would you recommend blower or nonref? 7970/290 class perf?

That case is similar to the SG05, from my own experience, in such a small case it was fine with a reference blower, only needed the main 120mm intake fan to keep it cool. Once i put an OC 7950 open design into it, the case overheated. I needed to mod a second 120mm exhaust fan (drilled holes on the on the roof, attached Antec Kuhler's water CPU cooler, exhausting outside).

The Node 304 already has a slot for an intake and exhaust 120mm, so it should be fine with either reference blowers or open design.

The real problem with the R290/X blower is it limits your OC, because at 45% fan speed, its tolerable.

 

[AdamK47]

One thing that AMD should have done is opened the end of the card to get cool air in just like the 780 / Titan have. Makes sandwiching cards for multi-GPU configs a lot easier to cool.

 

[krumme]

That case is similar to the SG05, from my own experience, in such a small case it was fine with a reference blower, only needed the main 120mm intake fan to keep it cool. Once i put an OC 7950 open design into it, the case overheated. I needed to mod a second 120mm exhaust fan (drilled holes on the on the roof, attached Antec Kuhler's water CPU cooler, exhausting outside).

The Node 304 already has a slot for an intake and exhaust 120mm, so it should be fine with either reference blowers or open design.

The real problem with the R290/X blower is it limits your OC, because at 45% fan speed, its tolerable.

The node 304 have two 9cm intakes and one 14cm out. I guess that means non ref is best then in your experience? (Btw have a 400w bq e9 ps i know you guys is dying from hearing that but i tend to use my ps all the way lol)

 

[Ieat]

Thats why I stick with non-references cards. MSI and Sapphire cards with open air coolers run cool and quiet.

We just need to wait for open air coolers to show up on 290/290X cards.

Open air coolers aren't a panacea for a card dumping this much heat. Sure the reviews will show decent drops because most of them are done on an open bench. But when some unsuspecting users put the cards into their mid towers or matx builds their going to be in for a rude awakening. I've tried a 7870 MYST and that crappy MSI 7950 reference card in my mid tower and both ran about 10-12c higher with about 20% higher fan speed then they did on my open bench.

 

[Ieat]

One thing that AMD should have done is opened the end of the card to get cool air in just like the 780 / Titan have. Makes sandwiching cards for multi-GPU configs a lot easier to cool.

I think the best solution for sandwiched cards was what Nvidia did for the gtx 480 and 470. Cutting those intake holes into the pcb worked really well when I sli'd a pair of 470s. But I guess they ditched it because of the cost.

 

[Bateluer]

I know Accelero made that hybrid water+fan setup, but it only uses a single 120mm radiator, which I would probably be a bit leery of using with this card. However, what about this item from Swiftech? To be clear, this isn't a closed-loop system, but rather a combination pump + reservoir + radiator (2x120 or 3x120). You could combine that with a full block, and it should handle the R9 290 (or 290X) fairly well.

You're referring to the Acelero Hybrid? I'd looked it a few days ago, but the 3 Egg rating on Newegg made me a little wary. And it didn't have 290X compatibility listed then, but it does now on the Arctic website.

I was looking at these water blocks for the 290X.
http://www.ekwb.com/shop/blocks/vga-blocks/ati-radeon-full-cover-blocks/radeon-rx-200-series.html

If I'm reading the specs right on the Swiftech MCR-X20, the fittings and hoses will be compatible? A dual 120mm radiator would fit easily on the top of my Define R4 case, I believe.

Not a cheap solution though. 160 for the MCR-220 with pump, and another 130 for the block. Does the Swiftech include hoses and coolant?

 

[Silverforce11]

Open air coolers aren't a panacea for a card dumping this much heat. Sure the reviews will show decent drops because most of them are done on an open bench. But when some unsuspecting users put the cards into their mid towers or matx builds their going to be in for a rude awakening. I've tried a 7870 MYST and that crappy MSI 7950 reference card in my mid tower and both ran about 10-12c higher with about 20% higher fan speed then they did on my open bench.

Thats because you have poor air pressure in your case, stagnant warm air hangs around too long.

A good case setup with either high constant airflow or high pressure means you can dump CFX or SLI heat in the case, it doesn't matter, it all gets pushed out instead of staying around.

I had this 7950 @ 1.2ghz (we all know how much power it uses when OC, easily 300W to 350W) in a tiny SG05 mITX case, ran perfect.

 

[smackababy]

You're referring to the Acelero Hybrid? I'd looked it a few days ago, but the 3 Egg rating on Newegg made me a little wary. And it didn't have 290X compatibility listed then, but it does now on the Arctic website.

I was looking at these water blocks for the 290X.
http://www.ekwb.com/shop/blocks/vga-blocks/ati-radeon-full-cover-blocks/radeon-rx-200-series.html

If I'm reading the specs right on the Swiftech MCR-X20, the fittings and hoses will be compatible? A dual 120mm radiator would fit easily on the top of my Define R4 case, I believe.

Not a cheap solution though. 160 for the MCR-220 with pump, and another 130 for the block. Does the Swiftech include hoses and coolant?

No, on the hoses or coolant. You're going to have to purchase 4 barbs (G1/4), two for the rad / pump combo and 2 for the GPU block. And you will have to purchase tubing that fits the barbs you purchased. Generally, 1/2 Inner Diameter (ID) is the best for performance.

Barbs are roughly $3 each and tubing is another $2 per foot (I'd get at least 5, just in case, but the length you're using depends on your case). As for coolant, a gallon of distilled water and a $7 silver kill coil would do the trick. If you're really interested, make a post in the Cases & Cooling section and a bunch of us will help you out.

 

[Stuka87]

Open air coolers aren't a panacea for a card dumping this much heat. Sure the reviews will show decent drops because most of them are done on an open bench. But when some unsuspecting users put the cards into their mid towers or matx builds their going to be in for a rude awakening. I've tried a 7870 MYST and that crappy MSI 7950 reference card in my mid tower and both ran about 10-12c higher with about 20% higher fan speed then they did on my open bench.

I have been running my 7950 @1100MHz for nearly 2 years now. It has never gone over the mid 60's for temps, and it sits right below my OC'ed Phenom II x4. The CPU never goes over mid 50's. Its not hard to have a case with proper airflow.

 

[Bateluer]

No, on the hoses or coolant. You're going to have to purchase 4 barbs (G1/4), two for the rad / pump combo and 2 for the GPU block. And you will have to purchase tubing that fits the barbs you purchased. Generally, 1/2 Inner Diameter (ID) is the best for performance.

Barbs are roughly $3 each and tubing is another $2 per foot (I'd get at least 5, just in case, but the length you're using depends on your case). As for coolant, a gallon of distilled water and a $7 silver kill coil would do the trick. If you're really interested, make a post in the Cases & Cooling section and a bunch of us will help you out.

Thanks. I might.

 

[RussianSensation]

Open air coolers aren't a panacea for a card dumping this much heat. Sure the reviews will show decent drops because most of them are done on an open bench. But when some unsuspecting users put the cards into their mid towers or matx builds their going to be in for a rude awakening. I've tried a 7870 MYST and that crappy MSI 7950 reference card in my mid tower and both ran about 10-12c higher with about 20% higher fan speed then they did on my open bench.

How good is your case? A case with great airflow has very little penalty, and sometimes the open air card results in drops in temperatures because the card dissipates heat faster and the case fans push it out quicker. A reference card heats up heavily on the top and all that heat flows towards the CPU socket.

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/853-18/thermographie-infrarouge-systemes.html

 

[VulgarDisplay]

One thing that AMD should have done is opened the end of the card to get cool air in just like the 780 / Titan have. Makes sandwiching cards for multi-GPU configs a lot easier to cool.

They did. If you look on the end of the shroud there are 3 intake ducts.

 

[Ieat]

How good is your case? A case with great airflow has very little penalty, and sometimes the open air card results in drops in temperatures because the card dissipates heat faster and the case fans push it out quicker. A reference card heats up heavily on the top and all that heat flows towards the CPU socket.

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/853-18/thermographie-infrarouge-systemes.html

Its a Rosewell Blackbone. 3 120mm fans at 1100 rpm. Pretty much the biggest case I can fit where it needs to go and can hold a fair number of HDs. Admittedly, the temps I mention were with 4 hard drives in the lower bays. I have since used an 3.5" to 5.25" adapter to move 2 drives away from the intake fan so temps would likely be better now. But I don't think my set up was really that far off from a normal user.

 

[Ieat]

Thats because you have poor air pressure in your case, stagnant warm air hangs around too long.

A good case setup with either high constant airflow or high pressure means you can dump CFX or SLI heat in the case, it doesn't matter, it all gets pushed out instead of staying around.

I had this 7950 @ 1.2ghz (we all know how much power it uses when OC, easily 300W to 350W) in a tiny SG05 mITX case, ran perfect.

Isn't the fact that you had to mod a case to get it to run properly just fueling my point? All I was saying was that it definitely has its drawbacks and isn't a "fix everything" solution for everyone.

 

[YBS1]

Has there been any early information as to when versions of the 290X such as Lightning, Toxic, etc. should hit?

 

[SimianR]

One thing I'm kind of curious about is whether the 47% fan on the R290 is enough to keep the card from throttling itself down in a closed case environment? I noticed most of the reviews have it in an open bench/case. I suppose with the blower venting air out of the back of the case it should reduce the heat build up in the case but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

 

[tential]

Really depends on the person.

When I used my 470 on reference air even though there was basically no fan noise itself, eventually you get to a point where the wind noise from the amount of air being moved through a narrow pathway gets annoyingly loud, even if the fan itself isn't loud.

Without headphones I was fine with my 470 upward of 2800 rpm, which was enough to run it around 760Mhz. After that though the sound of the air being moved got to me. With headphones though I could probably have lived with 100% except when there was nothing coming through them.

With my TF3 7950 50% is probably as high as I'd go without headphones, which is only 2200 RPM but the cooling capacity is higher anyways. With music playing and my headphones on I can't hear it at 100%.

That said I'm getting old so I don't like to wear my headphones all the time and I like a silent system so my cpu fans normally spin around 800-1200 RPM and the same for my gpu.

All this is open bench with about 2 1/2 feet distance to the pc which is at chest level on my desk.

Unless you're planning to go mitx, water cool, or multi card I wouldn't mess with reference. Wait for the aftermarket cards imo, get something with good vrm and ram cooling as I hear 290 series runs them rather hot.

I mean, aftermarket definitely would be the way to go, I just think the anandtech.com conclusion wasn't what I thought it would be. Not at all. It keeps comparing the R9 290 to the GTX 780 without really factoring ni the $100 price different (or factoring it in as much as I thought they would). I think Tomshardware, with the Aftermarket cooler really just shows how much of a difference in price there is between these two cards. You can get SO MUCH more performance out of this card that is already what like 96% teh performance of the 290x?

I think the R9 290 + Cooler is the best thing you could get right now. That price to performance ratio on that combo is unbeatable currently (until we see 780 TI stuff but I doubt that will deliver price to performance ratio).

I'm a little scattered right now though, gotta collect my thoughts some more, starving from coming back from the gym.

 

[Z15CAM]

(Most Important Question)

I normally stay from these posts BUT when AMD Reference or AIB R9 290's are an OC'rs Dream at $399/$450 until the 20nm Cards come out next summer considering will they be much better at a Higher Price?

What really gets me is that the AMD 290 may very well be the last of the OC'rs Dream where there is no Market after this where over 70C on the CPU and over 80C on the GPU we simply shut her down and look for a better solution in response to the Voltage we assign Vs the Wattage we draw compared to our ability to Dissipate Heat QUIETLY.

 

[Pariah]

I mean, aftermarket definitely would be the way to go, I just think the anandtech.com conclusion wasn't what I thought it would be. Not at all. It keeps comparing the R9 290 to the GTX 780 without really factoring ni the $100 price different (or factoring it in as much as I thought they would). I think Tomshardware, with the Aftermarket cooler really just shows how much of a difference in price there is between these two cards. You can get SO MUCH more performance out of this card that is already what like 96% teh performance of the 290x?

Why would Anandtech base their conclusion on anything else besides the actual hardware they tested? It would be dishonest and misleading to do anything else. When retail cards with aftermarket coolers are released, you can bet Anandtech will review those, and their conclusion might be totally different than the reference conclusion.

The $100 price difference between the 290 and 780 is irrelevant to anyone who agrees with Anandtech that the noise produced by the 290 is unbearable for everyday use. It's like choosing between an average looking average income woman and a rich smoking hot chick with similar personalities. Every guy is going to pick the smoking hot chick until you reveal that she has this odd habit of stabbing you in the leg every night while you are sleeping. Suddenly all her advantages don't matter because no one wants to put up with getting stabbed every night.