Gigabyte R9 290X WindForce X3 OC edition arrives in lab

These things have the worst airflow and fans, I use to own two (670s) and the fans rattle like mad all the time and they just spread heat all in your case.

 

The fans are pretty good actually. Its like an accelero but with better cooling potential, The accelero has 2000 rpm , this can go up to 4000, only when they reach like 70% you start to notice them but it will never get that high , i've seen on my 760 max was 58% and the temps never exceeded 64 degrees...and the 760 version has less cooling potential because of less heatpipes.

Odd thing is that this card(R290X) has only 8 and 6 pin, was expecting two 8 pins.

 

the fans are good but the the airflow / heat spread will cause heat induction to other components in the computer casing

 

Only if you have bad airflow in your case.

 

Still only 300W of power available.

 

WTF? Once you reach 60%, this starts to get quite loud and every % after that make the card much noisier.

Mine do too, sometimes at really low idle rpm. Definitely not the most quietest card in full load and does get up to 79c and fan RPM to 2800-2900.

I'd be interested to know if re-applying the past on that card would make difference. Gigabyte did put excessive amount in 780 Ti.

 

I preffer Asus' Direct CU II over the WForce

 

This ^

I never had a problem with heat using this style of fans that Msi, Asus, and Gigabyte use. The reference blower style heat sink is horrible, IMHO.

 

It must be your cooler then, or maybe the 780 fans are louder than the 760 but i doubt that, when i set mine to 60 i can barely hear it and i have my case on my desk. I do have some noisy high cfm fans on my case so i guess that must have made my noise tolerance higher but still as i said the card when at 60% is barely audible, it makes a pleasant "humm" at 70+ it then starts to be more noisy.

Also your temps are definately too high you should check your paste.

 

Deleted, sorry all, i just remembered

 

Interesting, I looked at OCUK and it still shows as a pre-order planned (Or estimated.) for release on 17th January.

http://www.********************/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-132-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

No doubt though that black screen issue will need some better fix than the early attempt with 13.11b/13.12 WHQL unless it's a problem in the actual GPU, hardware instead of software.
(Or maybe this is a reference PCB again with just a custom cooling setup.)

EDIT: Didn't know that Overclockers UK was a censored site, interesting.

 

Agreed. My 670 Windforce runs at minimum rpm even when gaming. My case is an FT02 though...

 

Noticed they also have some of the Sapphire Tri-x 290x's in as well, but you can only find that out by going to the actual product page to buy.

 

Those new windforce coolers look absolutely fantastic!

They should sell them separate as well! (Unlikely but would be cool... no pun intended lol)

 

Same here, and with those same mentioned brands as well. I also had a GTX470 with ref blower which was replaced by a Windforce 570. Despite the WF not exhausting the air out, my case was actually cooler than when the 470 was in it. Will never buy a ref cooled card gain.

 

the DCU2 on my 680 is amazing, minus the amount of space the 3 slot cooler takes up.

The new ones are only 2 slots it looks like right?

 

Yeah, he specifically closed the case while benching and max temp @ Vally was 83C with 50% fan speed and it looked really quiet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Awc7S4sJs#t=736


I bet if set @ 60-65% it would knock down another 4-7C

 

I have a gigabyte windforce 3 560ti 448. This is runs so much damn cooler then my previous 560ti with a reference cooler. Almost 20c difference. I have a 120mm that blows air inside to the car. One of my front 120s suck the heat out from the back of the card. Crysis 3, BF4, and games like that with a 850c it will reach 65c with 60% fan speed. Its a quiet card and it is my first gigabyte card. I really do like it alot. Wish I could find an exact one for sli.

 

My 670 windforce 3 is great, pretty much silent until above 50% fan speed and they never go above that on the fan curve (Card usually around 50-60 degrees), definitely no rattling at any speed, in fact i'll check now....

Yep, at 100 they're pretty loud, but it's cheap case, no rattling, bring temps from 35 degrees c to 28 in about 30 second, with no increase to the mobo or cpu temp.