Under performing 290x?

[ColorfulPotato]

Sorry for the question.

Bench marked my GPU that I bought a little over a month ago from PCCG. XFX 290x, core edition. Felt like it's been under performing since date of purchase, but I've never really looked into it. Seem to be getting 8,000 on Firestrike, when comparing it to people with the Graphics card and CPU, they seem to be getting 10,000+.



Just came here to confirm whether it's under performing or just doing it's normal job. Specifications are listed in the benchmark (PSU is an Antec HCG 750m). It runs around 90C and does get fairly loud, but I read that was normal for this GPU.

Thanks for reading, not sure if I missed important information.

 

[BigBadBeef]

What about gaming benchmarks? Is everything "okie day" there?

 

[NiCoM]

Here's the simple answer, your GPU is hitting it's thermal limit which makes it run slower, therefore the lower score.

Now for the more complete answer.
Your GPU can only take a certain ammount of heat, if it runs any hotter then theres a big chance that it will shorten the life of the GPU. That's also the reason why most cards have a thermal limit at 85C, 90C and 95C (85 is mostly Nvidia, AMD tends to set their limits higher).
The Stock cooler is limited at 95C, your aftermarket one might have it set to 90C because of the aftermarket cooler. When your GPU hits it's thermal limit, it lowers it's clocks to generate less heat, that does also mean you'll get less performance while it's cooling itself down.
setting the limit to 95C might give you a SLIGHT increase in performance, but i wouldn't think that is a viable option.

Your cooler is a open cooler design, which means that the temps highly depends on your case airflow, if you want to fix the heat issue you might want to add a fan or two to your rig.

Now i hope this helped you understand why you're getting a lower score, please pick as solution if you feel like it!

 

[nikoli707]

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/2527133
this is my score with a regular 780. were looking at the graphics core here, the total score isn't really what we want. yours is 10056 and mine is 11959.

i would say your a little low. though hawaii chips seem to be scoring low on all benchmarks. i would try ddu to make sure there are no driver conflicts.

http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/

 

[BigBadBeef]

Just don't confuse him, okay? What really matters is that it works where its supposed to, doing the tasks within expected parameters... GAMES! Not synthetic benchmarks.

 

[ColorfulPotato]

@BigBadBeef, I have nobody with identical (or close to identical specs to compare gaming benchmarks), but average FPS in Metro LL is 30-40 FPS which seems to be low when compared to others with the GPU (maxed out, 1920x1080p).

Benchmarks are used to reflect the GPUs performance and are a good representation of how decent the GPU will perform in gaming situations, no?

@NiCoM, retested the benchmark and temps seem to be fine, never really going over 89C. I do doubt the Thermal limit has been set any lower than 90C. Fan speed was at 45% at most, but the GPU seems to be 100% load all the time while running the benchmark.

@nikoli707, ah alright. Thanks. Guess it isn't doing as bad as I initially thought, but still seems to be a bit low as you said. I'll try reinstalling the drivers later on in the day and report back here.

 

[nikoli707]

@BigBadBeef, I have nobody with identical (or close to identical specs to compare gaming benchmarks), but average FPS in Metro LL is 30-40 FPS which seems to be low when compared to others with the GPU (maxed out, 1920x1080p).

Benchmarks are used to reflect the GPUs performance and are a good representation of how decent the GPU will perform in gaming situations, no?

@NiCoM, retested the benchmark and temps seem to be fine, never really going over 89C. I do doubt the Thermal limit has been set any lower than 90C. Fan speed was at 45% at most, but the GPU seems to be 100% load all the time while running the benchmark.

@nikoli707, ah alright. Thanks. Guess it isn't doing as bad as I initially thought, but still seems to be a bit low as you said. I'll try reinstalling the drivers later on in the day and report back here.

use msi afterburner and create a slightly more aggressive fan profile, or at least a fan profile that you can tolerate. i usually do this first as for most cards i don't mind a little bit more noise than factory. also for me when I'm gaming, i have the volume up and i don't notice the fan anyways. whatever suites you, you can play around with the fan curve and at least get your thermals down. like big said, if your at 89c, your card could be thermally throttling the clocks. if you leave msi afterburner open, run fire strike and let it finish, then look at the hardware monitor and scroll down to he core clock, you should see a solid line saying your card is holding 1000mhz. if the line is jaggy or is stepping down to 900mhz or 850mhz, then you are throttling.

 

[ColorfulPotato]

@BigBadBeef, I have nobody with identical (or close to identical specs to compare gaming benchmarks), but average FPS in Metro LL is 30-40 FPS which seems to be low when compared to others with the GPU (maxed out, 1920x1080p).

Benchmarks are used to reflect the GPUs performance and are a good representation of how decent the GPU will perform in gaming situations, no?

@NiCoM, retested the benchmark and temps seem to be fine, never really going over 89C. I do doubt the Thermal limit has been set any lower than 90C. Fan speed was at 45% at most, but the GPU seems to be 100% load all the time while running the benchmark.

@nikoli707, ah alright. Thanks. Guess it isn't doing as bad as I initially thought, but still seems to be a bit low as you said. I'll try reinstalling the drivers later on in the day and report back here.

use msi afterburner and create a slightly more aggressive fan profile, or at least a fan profile that you can tolerate. i usually do this first as for most cards i don't mind a little bit more noise than factory. also for me when I'm gaming, i have the volume up and i don't notice the fan anyways. whatever suites you, you can play around with the fan curve and at least get your thermals down. like big said, if your at 89c, your card could be thermally throttling the clocks. if you leave msi afterburner open, run fire strike and let it finish, then look at the hardware monitor and scroll down to he core clock, you should see a solid line saying your card is holding 1000mhz. if the line is jaggy or is stepping down to 900mhz or 850mhz, then you are throttling.

Set the fan profile to 50% after reinstalling the GPU's drivers using DDU. Ran Firestrike again with Afterburner in the background and it does drop to 350mhz occasionally, but that's most likely during the loading screens between the benchmarks, otherwise it's always at 1000mhz and never dips down below that.