R9 290 Temps

[User 10045]

So I'm thinking of getting the ASUS 4gb R9 290, the one with the single fan and the flashy case. I read alot about it running extremely hot so I wanted to ask, Does it run very hot and are these temperatures safe and don't damage the GPU? Thanks

 

[IRyannHD]

It will run MUCH hotter than a non reference card, and that card runs hot anyway, I really don't advise getting the reference card, personally I prefer the looks of the ASUS card much better anyway, but that cooling design is inferior in comparison to say ASUS's design. I mean it's designed so it can run but it will always run hotter than it needs to in comparison to a non reference card. They wouldn't release a cooling solution that doesn't work...It's just much less efficient.

 

[Damn_Rookie]

The key problem with the reference design card is that the high temperature it runs at leads to instability in the core clocks. It gets so hot that the core clock ends up spiking downwards (sometimes by hundreds of MHz) to keep things under the 95 degree Celsius temperature target. Plus of course there's also the fact it's very noisy, which depending on your sensitivity to this issue, can be a very big problem.

I wouldn't personally recommend getting the ASUS non reference design though. ASUS cheaped out sadly, and just reused the cooler from the nVidia 780 and 780ti. This is a problem because the GPU chip itself in the 780 and 780 ti is noticeably larger in surface area than that in the R9-290. When the cooler is mounted on the R9-290, some of the heat pipes don't actually make contact with the GPU which leads to poor cooling, especially when in a case

(Source - Yes this is for the 290X, but the chip and the cooler are the same, so the results are still useful. The ASUS example was the hottest when tested inside a case, and had the highest VRM temperature as well. It was also one of the louder ones tested, so the high temperatures weren't due to the fan being run too slowly).

If I was going to buy a R9-290 myself, it would be one of the other non-reference designs, like the MSI Gaming, or the Sapphire Tri-X or the new Sapphire vapor chamber one.

 

[IRyannHD]

The key problem with the reference design card is that the high temperature it runs at leads to instability in the core clocks. It gets so hot that the core clock ends up spiking downwards (sometimes by hundreds of MHz) to keep things under the 95 degree Celsius temperature target. Plus of course there's also the fact it's very noisy, which depending on your sensitivity to this issue, can be a very big problem.

I wouldn't personally recommend getting the ASUS non reference design though. ASUS cheaped out sadly, and just reused the cooler from the nVidia 780 and 780ti. This is a problem because the GPU chip itself in the 780 and 780 ti is noticeably larger in surface area than that in the R9-290. When the cooler is mounted on the R9-290, some of the heat pipes don't actually make contact with the GPU which leads to poor cooling, especially when in a case

(Source - Yes this is for the 290X, but the chip and the cooler are the same, so the results are still useful. The ASUS example was the hottest when tested inside a case, and had the highest VRM temperature as well. It was also one of the louder ones tested, so the high temperatures weren't due to the fan being run too slowly).

If I was going to buy a R9-290 myself, it would be one of the other non-reference designs, like the MSI Gaming, or the Sapphire Tri-X or the new Sapphire vapor chamber one.

The ASUS non-reference has a fantastic cooling design, and the contact from the heat pipes are fine, not sure if you received a duff or something but I owned a a 290 for a while and never reached above 50-60C. Not to mention their amazing customer service. Especially over MSI and sapphire any day.

 

[Damn_Rookie]

Here's a nice picture to illustrate the problem. As you can see, only the central 3 heat pipes make any direct contact (and only 1 of those makes complete contact, the other two only making partial contact). That's because it was designed for a much bigger chip (the GK110 used in the 780 and 780ti):

ASUS rushed out a card with a cooler that wasn't specifically designed for the chip. There's a reason why some of the more recent to come out 290s and 290Xs have better cooling; the manufacturing companies took the time to design a cooler specific for the chip.

I'm very pleased that you're enjoying your 290, but I'm not making this up. There are better coolers. That link to Tom's Hardware test of various cards in actual cases (something a lot of sites don't do - they only use an open test bench, which benefits the ASUS card, as the link showed) demonstrated that the cooler isn't as good as some of the others available. The ASUS one is still obviously better than the reference one though.

Oh, and don't get me started on the current state of ASUS customer service. Have you seen how many complaints there have been about it over the past 3-6 months?

Source: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_290X_Direct_Cu_II_OC/4.html

 

[IRyannHD]

Here's a nice picture to illustrate the problem. As you can see, only the central 3 heat pipes make any direct contact (and only 1 of those makes complete contact, the other two only making partial contact). That's because it was designed for a much bigger chip (the GK110 used in the 780 and 780ti):

ASUS rushed out a card with a cooler that wasn't specifically designed for the chip. There's a reason why some of the more recent to come out 290s and 290Xs have better cooling; the manufacturing companies took the time to design a cooler specific for the chip.

I'm very pleased that you're enjoying your 290, but I'm not making this up. There are better coolers. That link to Tom's Hardware test of various cards in actual cases (something a lot of sites don't do - they only use an open test bench, which benefits the ASUS card, as the link showed) demonstrated that the cooler isn't as good as some of the others available. The ASUS one is still obviously better than the reference one though.

Oh, and don't get me started on the current state of ASUS customer service. Have you seen how many complaints there have been about it over the past 3-6 months?

Source: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_290X_Direct_Cu_II_OC/4.html

Agreed the cooling is better for the bigger chips, although it still keeps it cooler than some brands. Although some heat is absorbed by the outer pipes. I haven't seen the insides of MSI's cooling solution but I've only heard bad things (mostly, and bad experience with their GPU's) from MSI so going off my experience from ASUS that's what I recommended, but thank you as I now know something new

I'm not using my 290 anymore, my brother needed a good card to 3d render with so I gifted my 290 to him, I then decided to buy a 770 as for now it's all I need and does a fantastic job.

But yeah go with a non-reference card, the cooling is much better.

 

[Damn_Rookie]

Oh I agree that ASUS make many good products, and have made many great graphics cards. I'd happily recommend the vast majority of them. Their coolers are normally some of the best, so it's such a shame that they rushed this one and reused a cooler they already had without making modifications to it first.

And you're a very generous brother, giving yours your 290!