So I've got a kinda dumb question, but my case is very well ventilated with lots of big (yet quite) fans. ...Knowing that I have good airflow in my case, would you guys recommend for me to buy a stock-290 (that ejects the heat out the back of my case), or wait to buy an aftermarket-cooled-290 (that simply throws the hot air around the case)??? I ask because I'm currently using two stock 5870's that throw the heat out the back of the case, and they seem to remove heat very well (and pretty quite IMO). ...Is the consensus that aftermarket is always better than stock?
It's not a stupid question. Question is.. how much will that airflow in your case help out the temperature of the card? If the card is bound to get hot anyways then.. I guess it will be up to you whether you want it or not, you know.. if it will get hot or not.. Not sure, maybe read up some R9 290 reviews and user comments/info too? See what the temps are about. If you think your case will do a good job handling the airflow and temps then I guess you could go for it. I mean it shouldn't really get hot if you have good airflow, right? Maybe 75.. 80C max.. don't know. 3d I think he meant that not every aftermaket cooler is the same.. + most of the cases have good airflow anyways so.. nowadays. There's no point in going watercooling for only 1 card. If it's a setup you'll have for a long time then sure but.. otherwise.. not. Depends on the user ofc. How much does a watercooling setup cost anyways, and how "loud" are they? The pumps I mean.. and radiators or whatever.
tbh i'd wait on getting a 290/x. seems it pot luck whether u get a dodgy card... i know it's tempting as I had one on order but cancelled last minute because I didnt feel at all confident in the product. yeah am sure there's loads out there who will disagree but there's enough out there with problems to make this an issue. p.s no official comment from amd regards why certain cards are crashing etc?
If I were you, I would wait for the ones with custom coolers. At this moment the black screen issue seems to be nuisance for R9 290(X). While you are waiting for the ones with custom coolers, there might be some new development for fixing this issue. Right now we don't know yet whether the issue occurs due to hardware or software problems. HD7870 issues last year was eventually found out to occur due to hardware problems. If AMD is seriously working on this black screen issue, the ones with custom cooling might have fixed hardware on the board. Also even if you are going to water cooling eventually, it is always good to have air coolers which can reduce the gpu temperature reasonably enough. In this sense I feel that the ones with custom coolers seem to be desirable for R9 290(X) cards.
Where do people get this "the 290 is too hot: non sense. Both my Sapphire 290s never pass 70c. Granted that is at 100% fan speed, using a custom profile in MSI AB. It really doesn't bother me because I have a really loud surround sound setup so when I'm gaming all I hear is immersing sound. To your question, the 290 is a beast for the performance you get and it's price.
When these go together, no wonder it's not hot. The card is targeted to run at 95C if you leave it on its own. So you're not hearing the card. Others do.
Why don't you people leave it on auto and let Msi AB adjust it for itself, or set a more agressive fan profile? Or in CCC.
At 65% fan, running Unigine Valley, my GPU's hit 89c as a max value. So, even at 65%, you won't have to worry about GPU throttling and yes, it is loud, but no where near what it is at 100%. If any of you have owned an 580xx/59xx, or 69xx Radeon Reference Cards, it's the same exact vapor chamber. In fact, I feel the fan on my 6970's got way louder than these at 100%.
