CryoVenom R9 290 Review: Water Cooling With A Warranty

[ihog]

Is that the max overclock you could get, or were you not really trying? A Delta temp of 23C leaves a lot of thermal headroom.

 

[sincreator]

Hey crash, here is a link to MSI's warranty policies: http://ca.msi.com/service/warranty About 1/3 way down the page they have this line: "The MSI product MUST be free of any physical damage due to improper installation or modification of ANY kind (this includes installing aftermarket parts) or the warranty WILL be VOID." Then the next line down "The product MUST be returned to MSI in the original factory configuration and condition. All aftermarket modifications must be reversed prior to sending in the product for repair or replacement."

It looks like if there is no damage caused during installation, the card would still be covered to me.... I actually asked about this a few years ago in thier forums, and was told the same thing by one of their mods. Damage during modding in any way = void warranty. No damage and the card would still be covered but has to have the stock cooler installed when you send it in for RMA is what the mod told me. Maybe you have some inside guys at MSI you could ask for clarification? I also thought EVGA had the same policy, but I could be wrong...

 

[hannibal]

It would be nice to know what is the ASIC quality? In water cooled cards it can be quite different than Air cooled! I also would have liked to see one really good Air cooled version too. We all know that the stock cooler is no good at all!

 

[Crashman]

Is that the max overclock you could get, or were you not really trying? A Delta temp of 23C leaves a lot of thermal headroom.

If by "trying" you mean applying extra voltage, no. I spent all my hours of overclocking testing stability at various clocks and stock voltage.

 

[Rhinofart]

Looks like somebodyspecial works for nVidia. ;0) The grass isn't greener over there dude. Gsync expanding the life of the card? LOL Gsync is a friggin' propriatary gimmick. It's a joke, just like all of your Pro Green pavement pizza. You sure are somebody special alright.

 

[c123456]

Is that the max overclock you could get, or were you not really trying? A Delta temp of 23C leaves a lot of thermal headroom.

If by "trying" you mean applying extra voltage, no. I spent all my hours of overclocking testing stability at various clocks and stock voltage.

Okay, so the CryoVenom R9 290 I got came with a sheet that had recommended overclock settings, which included a +30% voltage. Why didn't you follow the manufacturer's recommendation?

 

[cobra5000]

Consider a AIR cooled version somewhere in between the OC retail card and the water cooled card. OR just look at toms scores and compare to this article as they already mounted a $75 ACX to it previously.Buy NV and just avoid this hawaii crap. This clearly should have been a 20nm chip as hardocp says. Why do you have to fix a bad product? Just buy NV and get great drivers (no phase3 at least), Gsync to make your card live longer (playable in many games much longer), physx (not in much but looks great when it is included, Borderlands2 etc), low noise, low heat OC great out of the box. Even Mantle is useless in 2 weeks as GDC kicks off showing OpenGL already having the same, and DX coming with it in v12. We are having to fix this card because it was not designed properly.I'm scratching my head as to why anyone wouldn't just buy NV and avoid all the problems. Isn't that easier? Faster? Cooler? blah blah...All better on NV side and this thing won't be $600 ROFLMAO. They will look at other cards being sold and price accordingly above them (well duh, no company does you favors for free and expects to make profits, see AMD's entire company life...never made a dime overall).

Fanboy much? You should be thankful AMD is here or the already overpriced NV cards would start at $1000, not end at them.

 

[tcb1005]

Consider a AIR cooled version somewhere in between the OC retail card and the water cooled card. OR just look at toms scores and compare to this article as they already mounted a $75 ACX to it previously.Buy NV and just avoid this hawaii crap. This clearly should have been a 20nm chip as hardocp says. Why do you have to fix a bad product? Just buy NV and get great drivers (no phase3 at least), Gsync to make your card live longer (playable in many games much longer), physx (not in much but looks great when it is included, Borderlands2 etc), low noise, low heat OC great out of the box. Even Mantle is useless in 2 weeks as GDC kicks off showing OpenGL already having the same, and DX coming with it in v12. We are having to fix this card because it was not designed properly.I'm scratching my head as to why anyone wouldn't just buy NV and avoid all the problems. Isn't that easier? Faster? Cooler? blah blah...All better on NV side and this thing won't be $600 ROFLMAO. They will look at other cards being sold and price accordingly above them (well duh, no company does you favors for free and expects to make profits, see AMD's entire company life...never made a dime overall).

You DO realize that GSync is nothing but a proprietary way for NVIDIA to make money in licensing fees? As a matter of fact, AMD demonstrated Freesync, which, magically, requires no new hardware. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7641/amd-demonstrates-freesync-free-gsync-alternative-at-ces-2014

 

[Crashman]

Okay, so the CryoVenom R9 290 I got came with a sheet that had recommended overclock settings, which included a +30% voltage. Why didn't you follow the manufacturer's recommendation?

I didn't get that sheet AFAIK.

 

[Rhinofart]

Okay, so the CryoVenom R9 290 I got came with a sheet that had recommended overclock settings, which included a +30% voltage. Why didn't you follow the manufacturer's recommendation?

I didn't get that sheet AFAIK.

Check in your box / packaging. The Cryovenoms come from the factory OC tested for max results, and you just enter the information on the sheet into the ATI/AMD overclocking software, and voila.

 

[Crashman]

Okay, so the CryoVenom R9 290 I got came with a sheet that had recommended overclock settings, which included a +30% voltage. Why didn't you follow the manufacturer's recommendation?

I didn't get that sheet AFAIK.

Check in your box / packaging. The Cryovenoms come from the factory OC tested for max results, and you just enter the information on the sheet into the ATI/AMD overclocking software, and voila.

I just saw someone else's sheet, it said +30% power threshold. That's not voltage, that's the amperage limit. If you set this lower, you get more variability, which allows your card to slow to a crawl when you get into a tough scene.

No thanks. I used the maximum power threshold to keep the clock as high as possible when the rendering gets tough. As a result of having a HIGHER MINIMUM clock, I achieved a lower maximum clock. But maximum clocks are completely meaningless when they only occur on easy-to-render scenes.

Think about this like a big dually pickup that has 400 HP to push it through high speed highways but reduces it to 200 HP when you attach your trailer in order to preserve the cooling system. Why would anyone want the least power when they need the most, other than to brag "but I have 400HP" when they really don't?