MSI R9 290X Lightning Review: The Right Way To Cool Hawaii

[firefoxx04]

Im waiting for water block manufacturers to start selling cards with blocks pre installed. Thats the most annoying part about cooling a card is having to finally buy one and then pay even more to get a block.

blocks already installed will help prevent miners from buying them too, that way you little sissies will stop crying about the evil bitcoin miners.

 

[RedJaron]

there is no reason to ditch VGA completely. A single DVI-I output would improve the compatibility of the card without changing the out layout too much. 2 DVI-D are a compromise, if not downright stupid.

How so? This is a top-shelf card. You're saying someone would buy a brand new $600+ GPU only to plug it into an old and likely low-res monitor?

VGA jacks may make sense on low-end cards since the casual users are the ones to likely still have older displays. I'd hazard a guess that nearly all moderately tech savvy people at this point have moved over to DVI or better.

 

[Jsmooth1992]

Admin$: "I used to be a huge fan of AMD and was excited for the 290x because of its performance for the price. But this card is slower and more expensive than the 780ti. I can't justify purchasing a slower card for more money just because I am loyal to the AMD brand. Sorry AMD, I just bought my asus direct cu ii gtx 780ti for 709$ at frys (they matched amazon). It was the right choice too. Probably the next to go will be OC'd 8350. Its just not the XP 3200+ days anymore"

I don't know why I can't quote you properly so I'll just copy and paste.

For the last time, it's not AMD's fault as to how vendors like MSI, GB, Sapphire etc price their boards. They make the chip, and 3rd party companies make aftermarket solutions for the Hawaii GPU. If anything, you should be blaming MSI. Give credit where credit is due; don't take away from AMD the great chip they made. Yes their reference cooling sucked. Yes it runs ridiculously hot. Thank you MSI, GB, ASUS etc for making partner boards, but don't blame AMD for how MSI prices their products.

My 2 cents.

Also I agree with your choice of the 780Ti. This lightning 290X just doesn't make sense at that pricepoint.

 

[redgarl]

I just want to point out how silly the 780 Ti is priced. People, this card trades blows with the 780 Ti while giving you an extra GB of VRAM. It should cost at least as much as the 780 Ti. Or better yet, the other way around!

I had Sapphire R9 290x and currently owns Ti 780 windforce 3X OC, bought the R9 @ black friday, sold it during the mining craze and replaced it with the TI.
Always been an AMD/ATI supporter (from 9500 pro, X850XTX, 4870, 5870, 6970, 290x; I did have 8800 GTS in there somewhere), I have to admit the TI gave me substantially better 'overall' experience with modern games (SC2, LoL, AssCred, Infinity, X-com):

1. Games just run! No hiccups on settings, no manual tweaks to get MSAA to work. GEFORCE EXPERIENCE is substantially better than RAPTR.

2. Frame rate 'feels' more stable. Granted I only run 2560 x 1600 or 2560 x 1080 @ 60hz nowadays. Nvidia Adaptive V-sync is better than AMD's plain V-sync.

3. None of my games PLAYABLE settings to come close to using the 3GB. I think Nvidia choice here is quite balanced. Yes I can load textures, AA, etc to get it past 3GB mark, However by then the FPS would have dropped down to 30s. For 60 or 120 FPS, I think 3-4GB is just perfect.
Maybe SKYRIM mods can breach the 3GB, I don't have that game. I honestly don't understand running SLI / X-fire with only 3-4GB 'effective' memory. By the time 4K takes hold, the TI will already be sold anyway, potentially for MAXWELL version of it.

4. Actual gaming power consumption at 60 and 120FPS are lower with the TI (overclocked at that). However, if you run both to max OC and load (i.e. sub 60 FPS), TI roughly equals the R9 on power draw, albeit with less cooling requirement. It seems Nvidia have the better TDP design overall.

5. Nvidia SHIELD!, bought it on an impulse. Now I think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

I just want to point out how silly the 780 Ti is priced. People, this card trades blows with the 780 Ti while giving you an extra GB of VRAM. It should cost at least as much as the 780 Ti. Or better yet, the other way around!

I had Sapphire R9 290x and currently owns Ti 780 windforce 3X OC, bought the R9 @ black friday, sold it during the mining craze and replaced it with the TI.
Always been an AMD/ATI supporter (from 9500 pro, X850XTX, 4870, 5870, 6970, 290x; I did have 8800 GTS in there somewhere), I have to admit the TI gave me substantially better 'overall' experience with modern games (SC2, LoL, AssCred, Infinity, X-com):

1. Games just run! No hiccups on settings, no manual tweaks to get MSAA to work. GEFORCE EXPERIENCE is substantially better than RAPTR.

2. Frame rate 'feels' more stable. Granted I only run 2560 x 1600 or 2560 x 1080 @ 60hz nowadays. Nvidia Adaptive V-sync is better than AMD's plain V-sync.

3. None of my games PLAYABLE settings to come close to using the 3GB. I think Nvidia choice here is quite balanced. Yes I can load textures, AA, etc to get it past 3GB mark, However by then the FPS would have dropped down to 30s. For 60 or 120 FPS, I think 3-4GB is just perfect.
Maybe SKYRIM mods can breach the 3GB, I don't have that game. I honestly don't understand running SLI / X-fire with only 3-4GB 'effective' memory. By the time 4K takes hold, the TI will already be sold anyway, potentially for MAXWELL version of it.

4. Actual gaming power consumption at 60 and 120FPS are lower with the TI (overclocked at that). However, if you run both to max OC and load (i.e. sub 60 FPS), TI roughly equals the R9 on power draw, albeit with less cooling requirement. It seems Nvidia have the better TDP design overall.

5. Nvidia SHIELD!, bought it on an impulse. Now I think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

True until you aim for 4K. I would recommend 770GTX SLI over a 780 TI. It's cheaper, stronger and do the job at 1440p. 780TI SLI choke to death at 4K.

 

[redgarl]

I used to be a huge fan of AMD and was excited for the 290x because of its performance for the price. But this card is slower and more expensive than the 780ti. I can't justify purchasing a slower card for more money just because I am loyal to the AMD brand. Sorry AMD, I just bought my asus direct cu ii gtx 780ti for 709$ at frys (they matched amazon). It was the right choice too. Probably the next to go will be OC'd 8350. Its just not the XP 3200+ days anymore.

I get 2 Powercolor PCS+ 290x for 1200$ with taxes and shipping... and they destroy 2 780 TI in SLI at 4K. Honestly, the 780 TI, as good as a single card it is, is badly positioned between 1440p and 4K.

 

[swordrage]

Only one freaking gaming chart and that too normalised?
And 1080p for this card? At least make it 1440p

 

[forged]

that's probably why there'll be 780's coming out with 6gb...for 780 Ti "hopefully" ....base 780 6gb price is around 549 @evga...not bad compared to 780 with 3gb base price.

 

[PEJUman]

I get 2 Powercolor PCS+ 290x for 1200$ with taxes and shipping... and they destroy 2 780 TI in SLI at 4K. Honestly, the 780 TI, as good as a single card it is, is badly positioned between 1440p and 4K.

True until you aim for 4K. I would recommend 770GTX SLI over a 780 TI. It's cheaper, stronger and do the job at 1440p. 780TI SLI choke to death at 4K. .

yeah, I think 4K is beyond the reach of 780TI, but the displays are still a tad too much for me. I tried both SLI & Crossfire in the past; as far as triple 4870 at one point. I finally gave up on SLI/Crossfire due to heavy reliance on driver support, power consumption and Low 'effective memory': have to use 2x4GB to get 4GB effective, etc.

I tried blind testing myself (with a friend helping), and found that I can't distinguish any additional smoothness past 60Hz.

So nowadays I tend to simply game at 60Hz at 2560x1600, with adaptive V-sync on. I rather have some reserve GPU headroom so my FPS is very stable at 60. This save some power utilization in the process, since the GPU throttles back most of the time, and it only run more power if needed to maintain 60FPS @ heavy shader loads.

With that said, I think NVIDIA have improved substantially since I last time I tried SLI. but I am still leery on driver support requirements (think older, heavy games: Crysis 2, AssCred series, etc). I have healthy amount of backlog on games; DAMN YOU STEAM PROMOTIONS!!!

 

[PEJUman]

I get 2 Powercolor PCS+ 290x for 1200$ with taxes and shipping... and they destroy 2 780 TI in SLI at 4K. Honestly, the 780 TI, as good as a single card it is, is badly positioned between 1440p and 4K.

True until you aim for 4K. I would recommend 770GTX SLI over a 780 TI. It's cheaper, stronger and do the job at 1440p. 780TI SLI choke to death at 4K. .

yeah, I think 4K is beyond the reach of 780TI, but the displays are still a tad too much for me. I tried both SLI & Crossfire in the past; as far as triple 4870 at one point. I finally gave up on SLI/Crossfire due to heavy reliance on driver support, power consumption and Low 'effective memory': have to use 2x4GB to get 4GB effective, etc.

I tried blind testing myself (with a friend helping), and found that I can't distinguish any additional smoothness past 60Hz.

So nowadays I tend to simply game at 60Hz at 2560x1600, with adaptive V-sync on. I rather have some reserve GPU headroom so my FPS is very stable at 60. This save some power utilization in the process, since the GPU throttles back most of the time, and it only run more power if needed to maintain 60FPS @ heavy shader loads.

With that said, I think NVIDIA have improved substantially since I last time I tried SLI. but I am still leery on driver support requirements (think older, heavy games: Crysis 2, AssCred series, etc). I have healthy amount of backlog on games; DAMN YOU STEAM PROMOTIONS!!!

 

[BranFlake5]

Good to see prices coming closer back to normal. Also, this cooler is a pretty awesome fit for a 290x.

 

[forged]

this card is also affected by black screen plague...i'm returning my mine.

 

[Ahmadjon]

I think it's the most quiet and cool R9 290X card with non reference air cooler.

 

[skydanny]

Wow, it's look cool!