The Cause Of And Fix For Radeon R9 290X And 290 Inconsistency

[de5_Roy]

how is the cooling fan's (of the ref. cards) longevity affected by the speedup? will it last as long as pre-speedup or less?

 

[somebodyspecial]

I cant stand all this variable clock rate BS ever since it was introduced in nvidia and amd cards. the card throttles in the most demanding scenario's, where you need it not to throttle, so the "boost clock" speeds are just there to inflate benchmark figures without any improvement in real world performance. On my cards, i force a stable clock speed with Nvidia inspector, negating boost clock, games run more stable and predictably, the way it should be.

p.s. the add for nail fungus you have on your page toms, nearly made me vomit. please no more nail fungus adds!!!!!!!

The difference is NV guarantees you won't go below what they advertise, and perhaps give you whatever is there extra free (there way ALWAYS means at very least you get what you paid for OR MORE). AMD seems to be the complete opposite of this strategy.

good point, at least in reference to the 290(x) cards, nasty marketing, slows down when the going gets tough. performance is going to be extremely variable depending on your airflow setup/ambient temps. the 7xxx series and other 2xx series work the same as the nvidia cards with the boost clock. still BS though, the boost clock causes crysis games to crash, at least in the case of my gigabyte cards (although crysis 2/3 does warn on the disclaimer factory overclocked cards may not be stable in their games). Would be interesting to see long duration stability of these cards under load. 90c is too hot, they will develop micro cracks in the solder in under a year. i see many RMA's in the future for the 290 series.

Nah, no RMA's. Everyone ran home to change the fan or water block them...So no warranty J/k...But true for some. I marvel every time I see someone say "just water block it" as if we are all buying these without a care in the world if it dies the next week. I usually just spend an extra $10-20 on a great OC card and be done with it to keep warranty. My XFX 5850 can be sold WITH warranty transfer to the new user...LOL. I love that. Not sure if they still do it, but I'll be looking at XFX for my maxwell purchase (assuming AMD doesn't get some gsync like stuff or license it).

I love that I can sell my card to a neighbor etc and tell them, and it's still under warranty! I think mine was 10yr or lifetime transferable. AWESOME, and it's in a dust free machine so someone will get a decent like new card and due to heat (lived in AZ/TX with it) I can't exactly go balls out so it's barely been worked in that regard. Friggin room gets too hot at regular speeds here in AZ, OCing is pretty out most of the year if I don't want to drive myself out of the room doing it. The guts of my PC's (as a custom buider pc business owner for 8yrs...LOL) get treated to nice cool settings, while I on the other hand, get ROASTED in the room. It doesn't help that I crunch a lot of 1080p vids these days either.

I wonder about durability also though. Personally I wouldn't buy one, I'd spend more to avoid the heat etc. But I understand the value here for some. It's a lot of perf for the money if you can get over the issues. IF you have to spend to get over them though, it's not such a great deal. At best I'd wait for NON ref models if I was on a tight budget. I couldn't buy REF. No way. 95 doesn't sound as safe as 83 or 81 no matter what AMD says that will affect lifespan (and perhaps other parts in your PC). Period. The question is how much? That accelero 3 toms used is $75 at newegg I think. I'd rather buy a 780 OC and ride at 81c.

 

[ojas]

Good job! Though in the AMA they said that cards don't have a minimum, so technically the clocks could go even lower.

 

[jdon]

@itzsnypah They shut down. I know this from personal experience. Please don't ask how. /shudder

 

[catswold]

dup post, sorry. Damn that refresh.

 

[CaptainTom]

Tom's should do a 290X vs 780 Ti review when the non-reference coolers come out. In this review they should put fans to 100% and overclock both of them so we see a real world comparison...

 

[catswold]

Tom's should do a 290X vs 780 Ti review when the non-reference coolers come out. In this review they should put fans to 100% and overclock both of them so we see a real world comparison...

That would be quite useful. I suspect that both cards are capable of amazing performance with a proper cooling solution.

 

[MasterMace]

Issue of the Golden Sample. Which card is needed to best match the Golden Sample, and how much does that cost, versus the MSRP?

 

[Mousemonkey]

I'll be looking at XFX for my maxwell purchase (assuming AMD doesn't get some gsync like stuff or license it).

Not going to happen, XFX and Nvidia parted ways a few years back.

 

[clonazepam]

Chris Angelini, for the love of science and all that is tinkering, swap the coolers on the press and retail cards, and verify. Thanks. You know you want to.

 

[DrKlahn]

Why are you testing a $550 flagship card vs. it's competitors in the mode designed to throttle performance in favor of acoustics (Quiet mode)? Why is this not being brought to our attention in these articles? This investigation should have been published before any of these findings made their way into your articles.

I honestly don't know anyone who is a PC gamer that buys a $550 graphics card and runs it in it's slowest mode. If you want to prove your integrity go back and edit these articles pointing out that you decided to favor acoustics over performance. Or better yet flip the mode to Uber and rerun the tests. I know I'm not alone in assuming that the card was being run in it's performance mode when testing against a competitors flagship.

This whole situation is shady at best.

 

[DrKlahn]

Double post from comments

 

[jimmysmitty]

I never understand why ANYONE will buy the reference design cards.... even for the GTX780, the aftermarket cooler is way better and quieter than the stock fan.

Because to a CPU overclocker, the aftermarket cooler is crap? I just had the same style cooler on another card cause a factory-built PC overheat its CPU. As in thermal throttling. And the CPU was liquid-cooled!

The type of cooler your praising blows heat into the case, rather than out of the case. They're just a bad design concept done right, as opposed to a good design concept that's poorly executed.

I think it depends on the cooler design and how your system build is. Even when I was Bitcoin/Litecoin mining 24/7 my CPU never went above 32c idle or 50c under regular load, which is what it runs around normally.

I have a HD7970 Vapor-X just for reference.

I never understand why ANYONE will buy the reference design cards.... even for the GTX780, the aftermarket cooler is way better and quieter than the stock fan.

Well, reference card usually has the highest component quality..
That means more durable and has longer life than common 3rd party cards (xfx, zotac, his, polor, and another lowly cheap brand)..

i've still running my 4 years old 5850 reference card..overclocked to 1ghz since out of box, and cooled by mk-13..well, no issue until today, and still rock..

So then getting a Sapphire would be equal to or better than getting a reference board since Sapphire designs the reference board.

And as for higher quality components, not always true. The Sapphire Dual-X uses the reference board (on the HD7970) but the Vapor-X uses a custom PCB that has their black diamond chokes which are considered way better than the reference setup. As well it has more VRAMs which means a more stable voltage etc.

The reference is a good starting point but companies like Asus and Sapphire, for example, normally make better than reference designs.

 

[clonazepam]

Did you earn the title of Dr, buy it, or just give it to yourself? If there had been any shadiness on Tom's Hardware, there would have been no response from AMD. AMD reacted immediately. That alone is very telling.

The author was very clear throughout all of the articles which mode was being used. Did you not read the articles thoroughly?

 

[catswold]

Why are you testing a $550 flagship card vs. it's competitors in the mode designed to throttle performance in favor of acoustics (Quiet mode)? Why is this not being brought to our attention in these articles? This investigation should have been published before any of these findings made their way into your articles.

I honestly don't know anyone who is a PC gamer that buys a $550 graphics card and runs it in it's slowest mode. If you want to prove your integrity go back and edit these articles pointing out that you decided to favor acoustics over performance. Or better yet flip the mode to Uber and rerun the tests. I know I'm not alone in assuming that the card was being run in it's performance mode when testing against a competitors flagship.

This whole situation is shady at best.

While I disagree with your "shady" characterization, I agree with your premise. No power user I know is the least bit concerned with how quiet they can make their systems. First thing I alter on my card is the fan profile, to make it as agressive as I can.

I figure running the fan at a relatively high speed keeps you from taxing your GPU by minimizing the rise in temps under heavy use.

Besides, I have a window unit in my room that runs on high all the time just to keep the room at a reasonable temp.

 

[Darkresurrection]

do you wanna start the war again really!? AMD is not a thief like Intel or Nvidia, AMD cares for enthusiasts more than Intel or Nvidia...

If you are talking about overpriced products: AMD FX 8-Core Black Edition FX-9590 $829.99 plus shipping¹

I am not surprised to see this article at Toms, they don't like AMD and who knows why, I have my r9-290 delivered today, didn't notice such a joke, Toms is being ridiculous...

Really? In case you didn't notice Tom's Hardware gave an award at 290X, while in a few days, it gave nothing to the faster, colder, quiter 780ti.
And you should be glad that people like Chris are doing this, so you can have your 20% performance back, cause AMD reacted with new drivers after Chris (and maybe other reviewers too) told them about the problem.

who do I thank!? Chris!? I thank AMD because it let me max out crysis 3, enable every single option in that demanding game and enjoy the super smooth experience only for 600$ fx 8350+r9 290= 600$ it's a shame gtx titan is 1000$ + an intel 240$ cpu=1200$ now who cares for enthusiasts? Time to grow up lads hadn't it been for AMD, you would buy your now 240$ cpu, for 1000$ and your 1000$ gpu, for 2000$ go thank AMD for that...I was testing my card no problem as such, maybe AMD sent me the press card huh!? Toms was that brazen to find that issue alone...Nobody knew about it, not AMD not Sapphire, Not Asus, Toms knew about it much to your surprise, that awar could have been a part of the plan, so that people like you can reply here...Disappointing... well I know I am going to be banned, you are good with AMD you are banned, no wonder everyone supports Toms here

 

[lp231]

p.s. the add for nail fungus you have on your page toms, nearly made me vomit. please no more nail fungus adds!!!!!!!

Donate your half of your life savings to Tom's Hardware and maybe we won't see nail fungus ads 😛 😀

 

[SkateZilla]

Just RedMod the Sucker, Problem solved, 1.2GHz at less then 70^C

Though the Fan RPM Spikes and Wind-Downs sounds like a bad fan, either motor or bearing. or PowerControl

 

[MichaelJX]

No no no!!!! It's a big lie, I own an r9-290x, never had such a problem right from the beginning, I don't know what your intentions are, at least I can say I have not faced such a problem, the fan is working fine, no inconsistencies, as an r9-290x I don't confirm this.

 

[DrKlahn]

Did you earn the title of Dr, buy it, or just give it to yourself? If there had been any shadiness on Tom's Hardware, there would have been no response from AMD. AMD reacted immediately. That alone is very telling.

The author was very clear throughout all of the articles which mode was being used. Did you not read the articles thoroughly?

It's not in the test setup notes or the graphs. Tell me on this page where it mentions the fan mode:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659-2.html

You can distill this whole issue by saying "the mode design to throttle performance in favor of acoustics, is throttling it more than it should". The reason why other sites weren't reporting it or jumping on it is they were likely more concerned with the cards performance and hadn't noticed that the conservative mode was not consistent.

So rather than putting in a caveat that they are seeing an issue and will report on it when they have actual findings to report we get a "Golden Sample" sample scandal that puts a competitor in a bad light. All over a variance in Quiet mode.

Am I glad the cards will behave better for consumers? Sure. Am I glad that Tom's brought this up? Yes. Do I think they handled it appropriately. No.

The Dr. title was bestowed by a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude.

 

[subzero-maniac]

hmmm,Suspicious...I mean why haven't any r9-290x users reported this problem, I have this card, it is running well without any issues, the fan RPM is accurate and I am a 24 hour gamer too, if this problem had existed, I would have noticed it for sure, anyhow thanks for the article. however it just made me smile, and it made me sure that tomshardware, is nothing but a magazine these days, no integrity in your articles recently

 

[DrKlahn]

hmmm,Suspicious...I mean why haven't any r9-290x users reported this problem, I have this card, it is running well without any issues, the fan RPM is accurate and I am a 24 hour gamer too, if this problem had existed, I would have noticed it for sure, anyhow thanks for the article. however it just made me smile, and it made me sure that tomshardware, is nothing but a magazine these days, no integrity in your articles recently

If you ran the card in the performance mode (Uber) you would almost assuredly not see this. That is why it is not being reported by other sites. That is why it is not being brought up in the multi-page posts on other forums.

Enthusiasts are by and large running this card for it's performance and are targeting the fan speeds appropriately. Tom's is choosing to run the card in it's conservative mode that favors acoustics. Why this is not being pointed out more clearly by them I don't know.

 

[Darkresurrection]

just look at this, you know that fire strike extreme tortures both cpu and gpu, should this problem exist at all, this guy wouldn't get such a good result just watch it for gratis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE4H5-kbOls ... well toms r9-290x and r9-290 owners all say no...how will you justify your article!?

 

[Memnarchon]

who do I thank!? Chris!? I thank AMD because it let me max out crysis 3, enable every single option in that demanding game and enjoy the super smooth experience only for 600$ fx 8350+r9 290= 600$ it's a shame gtx titan is 1000$ + an intel 240$ cpu=1200$ now who cares for enthusiasts? Time to grow up lads hadn't it been for AMD, you would buy your now 240$ cpu, for 1000$ and your 1000$ gpu, for 2000$ go thank AMD for that...I was testing my card no problem as such, maybe AMD sent me the press card huh!? Toms was that brazen to find that issue alone...Nobody knew about it, not AMD not Sapphire, Not Asus, Toms knew about it much to your surprise, that awar could have been a part of the plan, so that people like you can reply here...Disappointing... well I know I am going to be banned, you are good with AMD you are banned, no wonder everyone supports Toms here

Since you are a fanboy, trying to prove you that an FX8350 + R9 290 cannot max out Crysis 3, is pointless.

Also I see that telling you to thank people like Chris that making companies (I don't care which one) to realise and accept their problems and try to fix it instead of ignore it, is pointless also.

But to imply that people at Tom's Hardware hate or have something against AMD, while you have no proof and while AMD admitted their problem and released a driver to fix it, I am sorry but you are a delusional fanboy.

 

[Darkresurrection]

who do I thank!? Chris!? I thank AMD because it let me max out crysis 3, enable every single option in that demanding game and enjoy the super smooth experience only for 600$ fx 8350+r9 290= 600$ it's a shame gtx titan is 1000$ + an intel 240$ cpu=1200$ now who cares for enthusiasts? Time to grow up lads hadn't it been for AMD, you would buy your now 240$ cpu, for 1000$ and your 1000$ gpu, for 2000$ go thank AMD for that...I was testing my card no problem as such, maybe AMD sent me the press card huh!? Toms was that brazen to find that issue alone...Nobody knew about it, not AMD not Sapphire, Not Asus, Toms knew about it much to your surprise, that awar could have been a part of the plan, so that people like you can reply here...Disappointing... well I know I am going to be banned, you are good with AMD you are banned, no wonder everyone supports Toms here

Since you are a fanboy, trying to prove you that an FX8350 + R9 290 cannot max out Crysis 3, is pointless.

Also I see that telling you to thank people like Chris that making companies (I don't care which one) to realise and accept their problems and try to fix it instead of ignore it, is pointless also.

But to imply that people at Tom's Hardware hate or have something against AMD, while you have no proof and while AMD admitted their problem and released a driver to fix it, I am sorry but you are a delusional fanboy.

nah...you are, watch this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE4H5-kbOls ...and ok I am a fanboy, just look at the other posts, they have not had this problem either so I am not alone, now you see what delusion means...and what do you mean!? speak English please, you mean I can't max out crysis 3 on fx 8350+ r9-290!? well, it is sad because I can, and I play it smoothly, you can be sad about that, cause you have spent more and you cant!? well it is really sad, but be honest with people