Sapphire r9 290 Reference ,Aftermarket Cooling Options Help!!

[Tasos22]

Hello everyone!!

So as the title says i have a sapphire r9 290 reference card and i want to change the cooler on the card.
Air Cooling is my best bet from what i have seen.
From all the research i have done i have come across this 3 solutions:

WaterCooling options:
Option One:
Nzxt Kraken G10 + Corsair Hydro h75 135 Euro
Or
Option Two:
Corsair HG10 + Corsair Hydro h75 150 Euro

Issue with this two options:
The issue with this options are the Vrms1 and Vrm2 temperatures.
Because i live in Greece the weather here especially in the summer is too hot so room temperature can go up to 35c in the summer.
So alot of people are saying that u can adress this issue by using Vrm and Ram heatsink sold by Gelid or some other once, but for me cause there is no store that sells heatsinks of any kind, my only option is to buy them from ebay/amazon etc but then i would have to pay ~25-30 euros for taxes to ship them here in greece.

Air Cooling Options:
Raijintek Morpheus + 2 great silet fans 110 Euro
Issues:
Gpu takes up to 4 pci slots.

Reviews:
Water cooling:
Kraken G10 review
Corsair hg10 review

Air Cooler :
1st review , just look for the numbers(its in german)
2nd review
3rd and most detailed review i can find

 

[Robert Cook]

I think the water cooling options are good, as they are not too much more, and will help keep your GPU as close as possible to the ambient temperature. however, I am unsure of the best way to deal with the VRM heat issues due to the lack of ability to ship on in, for that reason, the raijintek may be a good idea as it is decked out with heat sinks galore, and should be able to cool the card very well, If you are ok with not using crossfire, then get that. But please note that crossfire with the water block ones will be a tight affair too. I am sorry I can not really say which one is better, I hope I can help though with the decision making.

 

[Tasos22]

I think the water cooling options are good, as they are not too much more, and will help keep your GPU as close as possible to the ambient temperature. however, I am unsure of the best way to deal with the VRM heat issues due to the lack of ability to ship on in, for that reason, the raijintek may be a good idea as it is decked out with heat sinks galore, and should be able to cool the card very well, If you are ok with not using crossfire, then get that. But please note that crossfire with the water block ones will be a tight affair too. I am sorry I can not really say which one is better, I hope I can help though with the decision making.

I ordered the morpheus with 2 Corsair 120mm SP Fans. At the end of the day for me i think this was the best choice i could make , i will probably get the same results on the core maybe a difference on ~5-9c plus the vrms will be way better and i will have room to OC my card with no worries for the vrm.
Thanks alot of the reply , i really appreciate the help!!!

 

[AdviserKulikov]

The Morpheus is an objectively better cooler unless you intend to crossfire (If you don't have a crossfire capable motherboard, but have the space for it in your case, get this cooler).

What are you actually looking for in terms of performance increase? If you're looking for better performance, you're better off saving up and getting another R9 290 and putting them in crossfire. If you're looking to tinker around, pick whichever one looks coolest. If you're just trying to see how hard you can push your card not caring about gains, then fiddle with the overclocking settings no need for a cooler.

Overclocking with lower temperatures only does so much, changing to high end coolers will get you maybe another 15% performance if you push really hard and know what you're doing. This comes at the risk of hardware failure and stability issues.

 

[Tasos22]

The Morpheus is an objectively better cooler unless you intend to crossfire (If you don't have a crossfire capable motherboard, but have the space for it in your case, get this cooler).

What are you actually looking for in terms of performance increase? If you're looking for better performance, you're better off saving up and getting another R9 290 and putting them in crossfire. If you're looking to tinker around, pick whichever one looks coolest. If you're just trying to see how hard you can push your card not caring about gains, then fiddle with the overclocking settings no need for a cooler.

Overclocking with lower temperatures only does so much, changing to high end coolers will get you maybe another 15% performance if you push really hard and know what you're doing. This comes at the risk of hardware failure and stability issues.

Look at the moment i am not even able to play a single game on my rig from my point of view.
My card is geting to 90-95c in a 10 min battlefield 4 gameplay and its insanly way to loud to be able to play more than that , u just end up with a headache.
All that heat is throttling the hell out of this card witch means i loose a ton in performance.
So To answer your question i was just looking for a good way to get my card under normal temps with no noise what so ever and with no issue with the vrms etc.
I decided to go with the morpheus just because i can get the same results i would with a watercooler (maybe i will be 5-10c highter) but i will be in a much safer temp zone and with no throttling and no noise.
The morpheus + 2xCorsair SP120MM fans cost me 100 euros exacly.
The way i see it is that i made the righ choice.
As for crossfire i am not really a fan of the whole idea plus i am running with the coolermaster v550s 80plus gold psu so crossfire is out of the question for me.
Let me know what your opinion , did i make the right choice?

 

[AdviserKulikov]

I wasn't aware your heat issue was so bad, if it's overheating to those levels, I would have been inclined to do a return and see if something was faulty with the unit.

But considering it's a reference model that typically lives at 70C under load at 22C ambient temperatures it might be failing to properly cool under 35C room temperatures should there be even a minor problem with the system.

 

[Robert Cook]

As put by tasos, It is very warm in Greece, so cooling has to be its best, the Morpheus has great VRM and Core cooling, so it is the best for this build.

 

[Tasos22]

I wasn't aware your heat issue was so bad, if it's overheating to those levels, I would have been inclined to do a return and see if something was faulty with the unit.

But considering it's a reference model that typically lives at 70C under load at 22C ambient temperatures it might be failing to properly cool under 35C room temperatures should there be even a minor problem with the system.

The card is working as it was supposed to and there is no issues with my system.
Look the r9 290 and 290x Reference once are suppose to run up to 95c , thats their normal temp under load.
As put by AMD they are refreshing the votls on the card every 10ms for maximum performance and another think is that the card is writing data to all of its 16 memory chips all the time so thats the reason the card is running that hot.
Anyways i think by going with the morpheus plus the corsair fans i will finaly be able to get 100% of my cards power plus with no vrm issue and no noise.