Unigine Valley 1.0 Benchmark Thread ** Post your scores**

[Z15CAM]

Card is an AMD Reference GIGABYTE GV-R929XD5-4GD-B Radeon R9 290X.

There is something about this Elpdia Ram. It appears to be made to run at exactly 1500Mhz. Pushing it to 1501 or dropping it to 1498 you loose 100 points in the Bench. I can't say if changing the CPU's core voltage affects it.

I'm hitting a stone wall at 1195-1500 with an Artifact Free 2976 Bench. Man so close to that 1200-1500 Mark.

1195 Mhz & 1500 Mhz ='s a 2976 Score

Note the ripple in the Base Line?

The Ripple carry's through into the Bench Run.

If I change the speed of the fan the frequency of the voltage spikes appear to vary accordingly. Any comments about this observation as the anomaly is prevalent in my Bench Charts and must certainly be messing with my results. I have to run the Fan at 95% to keep temps below 88C and does she HOWL - LOL - Perhaps I should try a different outlet from the XFX 850W Pro Black Edition PSU to power the card if the fan is not the issue?

Fan Speed varied between 5142 and 5198 rpm during the bench according to GPU-Z. Core and Memory Clock held constant at 1195 and 1500 under load except for 1major blip where GPU-Z reported one entry at 572 - 150 Mhz when the temp was 82C and voltage at 1.094 - That I attributed to the BaseLine spiking I'm referring too. If it where Throttling I would think there would be a series of entry's in row not just one or two isolated incidents during the Bench. Look at the effect of a spike near the end.

At least I got a good reference to comparre results with the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III which I will be installing sometime this week once my EnzoTech Heat Sinks come in. The Xtreme III should be considerably smoother and should not create them spikes, if that's the case.

My next Bench Post in this thread should be considerably better and looking forward to breaking that 3000 Mark - I hope - If it doesn't - At least the Card will be a lot QUIETER ;o)

PS:

I can't say if that 156mv CMD Line Off Set Tweak really does much as I note the VDDCI [V} in GPU-Z tops out at 1.258v's but it appears to have got me by the 1170 - 1500 ='s 1935 Score in my last post.

The 12v rail begins at 11.88v and holds steady at 11.50v's under load. Temp reaches a Max of 86C - If that's accurate - Well under a range where you would expect the GPU to Throttle.

In all honesty I think its the Reference Fan spinning at Sonic RPM and ripping everything apart causing them spikes in the voltage line. Again if any knows or has an idea what may be causing this - Let me know as I have not did any Video Card over Clocking for a number of years and things are considerably different today.

I've had this card up to 1300 - 1550 MHz through a Bench with intermittent artifacts, no taring and close to 94C with scores around a lousy 2880 but never a Crash. She's a wylie beast that needs to be tamed.

-------------------------------------------
I can confirm the CMD Line tweak for AB appears to work and adds more GPU voltage off-set.

Running a CMD Line to establish a +156 off-set - where a +156vm-1195-1500 profile - I see Max voltage incidents of 1.258 to 1.273 averaging say 1.234 for the run in GPU-Z compared to AB's optimum +100vm off-set +100vm-1195-1500 profile the Max voltage incidents were 1.219 to 1.227 averaging say 1.210 or say on average a +.036vm Off-Set difference between AB's Optimum +100vm Core Voltage and the CMD +156vm Tweak.

The +100vm-1195-1500 run was full of artifacts compared to the tweaked +156vm-1195-1500 run was artifact free.

According to GPU-Z the MAX Temp between the +100vm Vs +156vm profile runs appear to be 76-80C / 78-86C when under stress.

Below is a CMD Line Chart I came up with to Over Ride AB's optimum core +100mV Off-Set: (USE at Risk)

MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,20 +200mv offset This gets HOT
MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,19 +156mv offset
MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,18 +150mv offset
MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,17 +144mv offset
MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,16 +138mv offset
MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,14 +125mv offset
MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,12 +113mv offset
MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,10 +100mv offset AB's Optimum Setting
MSIAfterburner.exe /wi4,30,8d,0 Return to 0

ROUTE to my MSI Afternurner Directory:
CD C : Program Files (x86)\SYSTEM TOOLS\AMD Radeon R9 290X\MSI Afterburner

NOTES: For every day establish an AB Profile of say +100vm-1170-1500 with a Fan Profile Enable at startup/minimized.

I also noted that when Fan is set Auto, upon closing AB the GPU Fan shuts down to minimum RPM as compared to when set Manual the Fan stays locked at the applied RPM when AB is closed.

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

Temp reaches a Max of 86C - If that's accurate - Well under a range where you would expect the GPU to Throttle.

i think i read somewhere that first throttling takes effect at 85°C
as you are at around that number with your highest temps, it might explain the spikes.
should be fine with the accelero, cause that thing cools it to around 65° - 70°C ithink i read somewhere else

 

[Z15CAM]

If you note the card is no where near 85C when you see voltage spikes.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

i think i read somewhere that first throttling takes effect at 85°C

No. Hawaii doesn't throttle until you hit the temperature limit. Not before, but right then.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

If you note the card is no where near 85C when you see voltage spikes.

If I remember correctly, Afterburner reports the actual voltage and not the target. So you will see varying voltage at different GPU loads, like vDroop on CPUs.

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

No. Hawaii doesn't throttle until you hit the temperature limit

yea, you´re right
i found it, its on a german site and it says 95°C
i read it in the printed version (pcgh, german hardware magazin) but they have the article on their website as well

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Gefor...e-257241/Tests/Radeon-R9-290-im-Test-1095627/


on another topic,
yey,i got me a switch, so i don´t have to use wlan or plug in plug out cables,
as my "old" system is up and running again

i changed my avatar, the old one was 3 "comic" popsicles, but it was hardly recognizeable
the new one is the true bArtolomeu dias, portuguese explorer, whose name i slightly changed for my internet persona

old amd setup

new amd setup

so i got me a r9 270x for my amd system, couldn´t wait for the custom r9 290s, gonna get one of those maybe in spring or summer, or when prices drop and give the r9 270x to my sister who is on a single hd 6870 right now
the new score for the amd rig ist not really better, but have a look at min fps, there´s no bad stuttering from overflowing vram in the middle of the benchmark, and the old cards drew like 150W each, now im probably at 150W for one card.
its real quiet and silent, too (sapphire dual-x r9 270x oc edition)
performance in final fantasy XIV a realm reborn is also much better, so alltogether, good deal

 

[Z15CAM]

I have to eat my words in regards to the Elpida Ram being locked at 1500Mhz.

One thing I observed from GPU-Z log is that the more you increase the GPU Frequency there appears to be more instances of throttling and it does NOT seem to be set at a specific Temperature. That is I see throttling instances as low as 75C with a +156vm-1200-6000 Profile where as the +156vm-1195-1300 profile appears to throttle over somewhere over 87C - Strange.

This Throttling phenomena appears to be holding my Valley Bench Score down to a MAX of approx 2975, that is whether I set frequencies at +156vm-1195-1300 or say +156vm-1200-6000.

This card is a definite BEAST and looking forward to mounting the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III which should keep temperatures below 70C and hopefully eliminate the cards strange throttling behavior.

OH! Them voltage spikes I observed in the Base GPU Voltage Line when the system was idling is caused by screen activity from the Unigine Valley Advertizing Bar rolling over promoting "Oil Rush". When I cover the Advertizing Bar over with the MSI Afterburner window - The Spiking stopped.

I believe I've about beat this Gigabyte Reference R9 290X to the limit - Next will be Benches using the Arctic Accelero R9 290X-Xtreme III. The EnzoTech Copper Heat Sinks came in today ;o)

 

[Z15CAM]

I have the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III installed and I and have done some preliminary Benches with it - I don't think anyone is going to be happy with my take on it - Give me another day or 2 before I draw a conclusion.

Although the GPU Temp is down and it's quiet, I seeing VRM Temps over 100C just for moderate Benching.

 

[Kenmitch]

I have the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III installed and I and have done some preliminary Benches with it - I don't think anyone is going to be happy with my take on it - Give me another day or 2 before I draw a conclusion.

Although the GPU Temp is down and it's quiet, I seeing VRM Temps over 100C just for moderate Benching.

Been playing around with my XFX 290 last day or two. Its unlocked but havent flashed 290x bios yet. Any suggestions on which bios is best?

Noise wise I was expecting way worse. 60% is tolerable to me.

 

[Z15CAM]

Kenmitch: Guess your thinking about unlocking the shaders ... etc of them early 290's - but I've no clue where to find BIOS's for the R9 200 series.

The only one's you'll find are probably from Enthusiast's whom have extracted a 290X Bios for uploading in some Far Away Forum.

I'll send you mine - But I haven't looked into a utility that will do it as I'm too busy trying to control this Monster.

Find the utility, I'm game and welcome to the Head Ache ;o)

I maybe one step ahead of you but I'm considering giving it up (as if) and sell rock bottom for a 512 Bit 4GB Ram card that will do 1200 - 1600 Mhz @ 156mV with an i7 idling at 1600 Mhz through a Valley Bench Valley scoring 2976 under 90C with the Stk AMD cooling solution that sounds like a 747 taking off. Perhaps I should post a Bench with the i7 pinned at 5Ghz's.

This card is a conundrum and love playing with it. Geez - I hit 115C Vrm (GPU at 88c) with the Accelero III and the card didn't blink and still hit a 2976 Valley Bench with the CPU at 1600Mhz's - Simply amazing.

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

I have the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III installed and I and have done some preliminary Benches with it - I don't think anyone is going to be happy with my take on it - Give me another day or 2 before I draw a conclusion.

Although the GPU Temp is down and it's quiet, I seeing VRM Temps over 100C just for moderate Benching.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290-accelero-xtreme-290,3671-4.html

looks like you have to let the cooler run at 100%=12v which is still pretty quiet, according to the review

 

[Z15CAM]

Yes it's taking a constant 12v. The Xtreme III may be OK for the average user one click away from a QUIET Disaster but for the Enthusiast - FORGET IT - The Stk Whirlwind AMD cooler, in spite of it's terrible racket, is far Superior .

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

oh, really? so for maximum overclock you recommend the amd cooler?
i don´t really care for quiet that much

you say you let it run at 1195 and it doesn´t go over 88°C at 95% fan
how loud is that really?

is it any tolerable? i mean amd lets the cooler run at a maximum of 47% and the reviews say that´s crappy
i´ve seen videos of it running, but those depend on speaker volume...

in the summer, i sit next to a mobile air conditioning unit and that´s really loud, compressor and all, but i can tolerate that
i´ll wait for the custom designs anyway, but direct heat exhaust definitely has its merits

on another notice, just for interest:

put my amd/amd system on the 21:9 monitor (2560x1080) and the intel/nvidia system on my 3xfull hd monitor phalanx that was powered by the amd/amd system before
sadly, with these settigs, vram runs full during the rainy part of the benchmark, 2Gb cards, but for games it should be fine
most of it plays around 30, during the rain it really goes down to 3-4fps for some seconds--> memory full

 

[Z15CAM]

how loud is that really?

To say it mildly - "It's LOUD" but performes consderably then the Generic Accelero Kit. The Accelero does keep the GPU Cool at 67C but the VRM Temps get HOT at 106+C where the AMD Cooler at 95% keeps the GPU Temp below 88C and the VRMs around 68C.

Now if Arctic built a Kit with a Base Plat to fit the R9 to contact the VRM's that would be nice.

I'm eyeing the possibility of removing the Alu-Fins from the AMD Cooler Base Plate and fitting the Accelero to it as the Plate as does bolt on nicely onto the PCB to make firm contact with the vRams and VRMs.

I suppose AMD AIB Partners will come up with a similar solution - Whenever they get around to it.

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

you might want to try out the original cooler with some real good thermal paste,

i read somewhere on a german site that thermal paste appliance on the first sold cards differed a lot between the single specimens, so that some cards ran cooler some hotter
(in addition to fans spinning at different speeds at the same setting)

looked like the paste had been manually applied and with different skill, some cards obviously had too thick a layer

in any case they got an impressive temp improvement using some high quality retail thermal paste, i think it was like 5°C for a given clock and fan setting

 

[Pandora's Box]

3 R9 290's at 1100Mhz core, 6000mhz mem. cpu @ 4.4ghz

 

[IEC]

Stock Radeon 290 with bad cooling and a stock 3570k:
51.1 fps



When I build my watercooling setup I might OC...

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

3 R9 290's at 1100Mhz core, 6000mhz mem. cpu @ 4.4ghz

valley doesn´t really seem to scale with third cards...

other than that, nice work station board, i first thought this shouldn´t be so good for tri fire, as most z77 boards have only 16 pcie lanes,
never thought about workstation boards, even though i have a xeon, lol
are those4 290s on stock cooler?
direct heat exhaust is obviously good for crossfire, but it has got to be loud
thinking of getting one 290...
does the 290x flash still work? did it work for many people?
one has to get one without laser cut i presume?

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

Stock Radeon 290 with bad cooling and a stock 3570k:
51.1 fps

as i understand the reviews, you don´t have to really oc,
just crank up the rpm of the fan (if you can tolerate the noise) and it will clock much higher without being regarded "overclocking", in regard of warranty etc
it might even run cooler than it now does, if you go to say 100% fan speed, but that has got to be loud
it will always run as high as possible without hitting 95°C or what ever temp target is set
(95°C being default) or running into power target

then you can raise power target and voltage, now that would be overclocking in the case of r9 290/290x (raise power target, i´m not sure, might be warranty covered, too)
i see you got 9000+ posts, don´t want to lecture anyone, other peolpe might be interested, too,
for years, all i did in forums was read stuff, one can find answers to almost any question, without even asking, because somebody already did.
you probably tried performance at full fan power anyway before i said so

good luck with the water loop,
i´ve never done that, but i´d sure like to try, maybe next build

 

[Pandora's Box]

valley doesn´t really seem to scale with third cards...

other than that, nice work station board, i first thought this shouldn´t be so good for tri fire, as most z77 boards have only 16 pcie lanes,
never thought about workstation boards, even though i have a xeon, lol
are those4 290s on stock cooler?
direct heat exhaust is obviously good for crossfire, but it has got to be loud
thinking of getting one 290...
does the 290x flash still work? did it work for many people?
one has to get one without laser cut i presume?

the three 290's are on stock coolers. it can get loud if I let the frame rate run wild and don't lock it to 80fps or so. fan speed above 60 = tornado.

i havent messed with the 290x flash.

 

[Elfear]

780 Lightning at 1440/1675 and 4770k@4.7Ghz

 

[RaulF]

Please update my score.

Thank you.

I could probably push it further, but i will leave it as is for now. Maybe with an non ref cooler i will push more, or water cooled.

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

780 Lightning at 1440/1675 and 4770k@4.7Ghz

even higher clocks, than in heaven 4.0 (obviously possible, much more demanding)
just realized, 1350MHz is in your signature, so that´s your 24/7, i suppose
nice

 

[RaulF]

780 Lightning at 1440/1675 and 4770k@4.7Ghz

That's pretty nasty.

 

[Elfear]

That's pretty nasty.

Thanks. The core overclocks very well but the memory is another story. Not so important for actual gaming but it matters for synthetics.