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

[donald4president]

Anyone else notice the title differences between AMD GPU related articles and NVIDIA GPU related articles? Especially when end user data is opposing? Hmmmm......

 

[Darkresurrection]

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.

Now someone at last, clarified the situation thanks for shedding some light here I enable uber mode when I play as well, everyone does i suppose... altogether its funny, a 400$ beast that kills gtx 780 and challenges 1000$ gtx titan, well I don't think it is loud, because it is in my case, and I dont hear anything, even if it is...The beast has to roar a little bit... LONG LIVE AMD

 

[Memnarchon]

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!?

Since you don't trust Tom's Hardware that gave an Elite award to 290X:

Yeah I barely called maxing out unless the ideal for you is not 60FPS but 40...
Also since you don't know what delusion/al means in English: Delusion

And now about the video. He tests 3dMark so I don't see the point of linking it. Also the mighty reviewer lets say he is more red minded than clear minded... :
91XtremeRT

heat means nothing. amd is more stable, hence why amd has the overclock world record. amd is the only cpu to reach 5.0 ghz out of the box. power consumption????? lol. the price difference between amd and intel, and with the increases electricity use on amd, it would take 30 YEARS of use for the amd to surpase the intel in price. do the math, its fact.. you dont have any valid or factual points in yur entire statement. more power consumption means nothing if that increase is 50 cents a month lol.

And I can type more but lets just stop this. It isn't going anywhere is it?
You are not taking solid proofs from respectable sites and you take a 1000views youtube video that the uploader has an AMD evolve background and talks like this in his comments as a trustworthy evidence...

 

[Memnarchon]

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.

Do you think they should bury the truth that even AMD admitted?

AMD Radeon™ R9 290 Series - PowerTune update to reduce variance of fan speed / RPM

 

[eklipz330]

they should start selling cards without coolers, and cut the price down appropriately...this would open up a huge market on after-market coolers, and it would cut down on problems like these, as well as cost on reference coolers which may be thrown out anyway

 

[eklipz330]

they should start selling cards without coolers, and cut the price down appropriately...this would open up a huge market on after-market coolers, and it would cut down on problems like these, as well as cost on reference coolers which may be thrown out anyway

 

[Darkresurrection]

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!?

Since you don't trust Tom's Hardware that gave an Elite award to 290X:
Yeah I barely called maxing out unless the ideal for you is not 60FPS but 40...
Also since you don't know what delusion/al means in English: Delusion

And now about the video. He tests 3dMark so I don't see the point of linking it. Also the mighty reviewer lets say he is more red minded than clear minded... :
91XtremeRT

heat means nothing. amd is more stable, hence why amd has the overclock world record. amd is the only cpu to reach 5.0 ghz out of the box. power consumption????? lol. the price difference between amd and intel, and with the increases electricity use on amd, it would take 30 YEARS of use for the amd to surpase the intel in price. do the math, its fact.. you dont have any valid or factual points in yur entire statement. more power consumption means nothing if that increase is 50 cents a month lol.

And I can type more but lets just stop this. It isn't going anywhere is it?
You are not taking solid proofs from respectable sites and you take a 1000views youtube video that the uploader has an AMD evolve background and talks like this in his comments as a trustworthy evidence...

Since when 3d mark is not an authentic benchmark!? red minded!? huh!!! you are angry, I can smell your confusion...is you gtx titan doing any better in the benchmark you sent!?

 

[Memnarchon]

Since when 3d mark is not an authentic benchmark!? red minded!? huh!!! you are angry, I can smell your confusion, where did you take that joke from, is it a benchmark!? well look at this benchmark to see the power of r9-290x http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-review/12 well what anandtech is not reputable!? :lol: that is maxing out my friend

Well as you can see I am not angry. And why should I be? We are just talking here. Or at least I try.... I don't need to personally insult someone in order to try to prove what i say.

3Dmark is a nice benchmark but its only 1 benchmark. Although AMD GPUs favor from this, its a nice benchmark. I thought I would see more but I didnt. And his 3Dmark score is low anyway, I saw higher numbers with stock 290X, so he might be bottlenecked by the CPU.

Don't you see what I typed about that guy? Did I lied anywhere?

Also the links about anandtech you post. You realise that at PC you can change the video settings right? You know that you post links of low,medium and high with FXAA and not even close to Very High + MSAAx4?
Anyway I think you are overeacting to something like this and you need to calm down a bit.

 

[Darkresurrection]

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.

Do you think they should bury the truth that even AMD admitted?

AMD Radeon™ R9 290 Series - PowerTune update to reduce variance of fan speed / RPM

According to AMD, the discrepancy is caused by adjusting fan speed based on PWM (pulse width modulation) instead of setting an RPM. If the driver tells the fan to run at 47%, but the fan is heavier or of a different make/model, then what the driver thinks is 47% is more like 40%. Thus, throttling.

The new driver is supposed fixed this by specifying RPM, not PWM. finished and gone... Toms is being ridiculous by posting this article...

 

[Darkresurrection]

Since when 3d mark is not an authentic benchmark!? red minded!? huh!!! you are angry, I can smell your confusion, where did you take that joke from, is it a benchmark!? well look at this benchmark to see the power of r9-290x http://www.anandtech.com/show/7457/the-radeon-r9-290x-review/12 well what anandtech is not reputable!? :lol: that is maxing out my friend

Well as you can see I am not angry. And why should I be? We are just talking here. Or at least I try.... I don't need to personally insult someone in order to try to prove what i say.

3Dmark is a nice benchmark but its only 1 benchmark. Although AMD GPUs favor from this, its a nice benchmark. I thought I would see more but I didnt. And his 3Dmark score is low anyway, I saw higher numbers with stock 290X, so he might be bottlenecked by the CPU.

Do you not see what I typed about that guy? Did I lied anywhere?

Also the links about anandtech you post. You realise that at PC you can change the video settings right? You know that you post links of low,medium and high with FXAA and not even close to Very High + MSAAx4?
Anyway I think you are overeacting to something like this and you need to calm down a bit.

The same benchmark r9-290x+ i7 4770k is run by alot of web sites and the score is 100 points more, I don't think its worth paying 150$ more to get 100 points more, no way fx 8350 bottlenecks r9-290x , don't start the cpu subject now...

 

[Memnarchon]

The same benchmark r9-290x+ i7 4770k is run by alot of web sites and the score is 100 points more, I don't think its worth paying 150$ more to get 100 points more, no way fx 8350 bottlenecks r9-290x , don't start the cpu subject now...

So from everything I wrote you saw only that I said the R9-290X could score more with a different CPU...

 

[DrKlahn]

Do you think they should bury the truth that even AMD admitted? ]

I think you publish your findings before casting aspersions. You certainly alert your readers you have found something that makes you uncertain of the results. But you wait until you publish your findings rather than making a nebulous claim with no data to back it up.

Can you honestly tell me that you feel that this variance in a mode that is intended to favor acoustics over performance really merited this type of reporting? Do you really feel that "Golden Sample" mud slinging is justified when running the card in performance mode makes it a non-issue? Do you feel that testing a flagship card in it's slowest mode vs. its competition is appropriate?

Again I think Tom's did everyone a favor by bringing this to light and getting it addressed. I just think it was handled badly.

 

[Darkresurrection]

The same benchmark r9-290x+ i7 4770k is run by alot of web sites and the score is 100 points more, I don't think its worth paying 150$ more to get 100 points more, no way fx 8350 bottlenecks r9-290x , don't start the cpu subject now...

So from everything I wrote you saw only that I said the R9-290X could score more with a different CPU...

no I read the whole, respectable, honestly, but I disagreed about the cpu, that was why I needed to reply

 

[Gurg]

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?

Talk about putting the cart before the horse. You are going to buy a $550 GPU with a maybe $10 worth of fans retail and throttle the card back to prolong the life of the crappy cheap fan?

 

[SessouXFX]

Wut? With that crappy fan on the reference card, you'd be better off using a portable fan to keep things cool. This is why I'm waiting to see XFX's solution to these cards.

 

[Memnarchon]

I think you publish your findings before casting aspersions. You certainly alert your readers you have found something that makes you uncertain of the results. But you wait to publish your findings before making a nebulous claim with no data.

So, you didn't notice that they have the data and clearly, nothing happened here...
Honestly, I am a man who always wants the truth to be out and not being burried. I cannot force people to be the same. And if you believe that the truth doesn't represent you, then I am afraid you are at the wrong site.

Can you honestly tell me that you feel that this variance in a mode that is intended to favor acoustics over performance really merited this type of reporting? Do you really feel that "Golden Sample" mud slinging is justified when running the card in performance mode makes it a non-issue? Do you feel that testing a flagship card in it's slowest mode vs. its competition is appropriate?

I beg your pardon, but I think AMD choose to use an "quiet" mode in a flagship card. And I agree with you that we don't need quit modes in high end gaming. So why AMD even created a quiet mode profile?

Again I think Tom's did everyone a favor by bringing this to light and getting it addressed. I just think it was handled badly.

Why do you think they handled it badly?

 

[logainofhades]

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.

People that plan on removing them an putting water blocks on them.

 

[tteksystems]

When I am ready to build a computer with high quality parts, I tend to over-think sometimes. But all of the news regarding the R9 series cards has left many impressions about AMD and their ability to produce a top of the line product that could quite possibly outperform what the competition offers within the same price range.

OK, so AMD gives you a card to test. The results are fantastic. And then you test the retail cards with varying results that do not impress. So AMD gives you the so called "Smoking Gun" and explained away the reason for the poor performance of the retail cards. Remember, these retail cards are ours to choose from. From where I sit, the performance should be within 3% of the AMD reference card without increasing the RPM's of the fans. Yes, there's hope for aftermarket cooling. But I read your first reveiw and I was hoping you AMD would come back with a solution that would not involve so much tweaking in order to get this card to run within 3% of the reference card. After all, the reference card was running as good as it was, "out of the box". So we have to expect this card needs strict guidelines and modifications in order for it to give the performance promised in the first place? I am truly an AMD fanboy. But that stinks

 

[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?

Talk about putting the cart before the horse. You are going to buy a $550 GPU with a maybe $10 worth of fans retail and throttle the card back to prolong the life of the crappy cheap fan?

i meant, without assumptions such as "if s/he's gonna buy $400-500~ gfx card then s/he's also gonna buy water cooling setup/moar fans/high end case/3rd party air cooler and so on".

 

[Quaddro]

Wut? With that crappy fan on the reference card, you'd be better off using a portable fan to keep things cool. This is why I'm waiting to see XFX's solution to these cards.

Wut..??
XFX..??
Are you sure..??

 

[scook9]

I just want to see what these cards are capable of with temperatures removed from the equation. Tom's PLEASE test both the 290 and 290x with a waterblock installed to make sure we are never hitting that thermal ceiling. I don't need any sort of best OC possible although you can do that too with the waterblock installed, I just want to see stock vs stock with temperatures completely removed from the equation.

Thanks!

 

[Gurg]

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

It sounds like a phenomenal board crying out for a RedMod. Recent post there however indicate that a shim is needed for the cooler to sit properly.

Imagine the performance of a $550 retail card is being curtailed due to a cheap noisy inconsistent inadequate fan probably costing less than $5. As you stated the fan may well be failing and lucky to have lasted through the tests.

 

[jimmysmitty]

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

No one cares if you prefer AMD, Intel or SiS etc. That's a personal opinion.

My question is why does everyone always pair Intel with NVidia when they do it like you have?

Honestly I haven't run NVidia in a long time, I do well with ATI/AMD. But I prefer Intels CPUs as they have better drivers, do more driver updates and normally perform a bit better while using less power.

The fact that you are getting all uppity over THG finding an issue and going to AMD is a sign that you are blind. Its a fact that in quiet mode some of the retail GPUs were having issues causing them to run at lower clocks. AMD admitted it and fixed it.

Still why anyone would go for a reference card instead of waiting for a superior after market cooling card is beyond me. Bragging rights?

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

You posted a video with a R9-290X. A r9-290 is not the same, its a bit weaker.

And Crysis 3? Meh.

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!?

Since you don't trust Tom's Hardware that gave an Elite award to 290X:
Yeah I barely called maxing out unless the ideal for you is not 60FPS but 40...
Also since you don't know what delusion/al means in English: Delusion

And now about the video. He tests 3dMark so I don't see the point of linking it. Also the mighty reviewer lets say he is more red minded than clear minded... :
91XtremeRT

heat means nothing. amd is more stable, hence why amd has the overclock world record. amd is the only cpu to reach 5.0 ghz out of the box. power consumption????? lol. the price difference between amd and intel, and with the increases electricity use on amd, it would take 30 YEARS of use for the amd to surpase the intel in price. do the math, its fact.. you dont have any valid or factual points in yur entire statement. more power consumption means nothing if that increase is 50 cents a month lol.

And I can type more but lets just stop this. It isn't going anywhere is it?
You are not taking solid proofs from respectable sites and you take a 1000views youtube video that the uploader has an AMD evolve background and talks like this in his comments as a trustworthy evidence...

Since when 3d mark is not an authentic benchmark!? red minded!? huh!!! you are angry, I can smell your confusion...is you gtx titan doing any better in the benchmark you sent!?

3DMark is and always has been considered synthetic and never a real mark of real world performance. I have seen times when NVidia beats AMD and in the real world, its the opposite and vice versa.

No real gamer considers 3DMark a good benchmark to show a GPUs real performance.

 

[heydan]

Can you make a review of the R9 290x and 290 with water cooling?, it would be great to see the performance/noise level/power consumption comparison with stock cooler.

 

[heydan]

Can you make a review of the R9 290x and 290 with water cooling?, it would be great to see the performance/noise level/power consumption comparison with stock cooler.