Hardware Is the AMD Radeon R9 290X too hot?

I wouldn't go over +70C ever again! It damage the solder over time, PERIOD! I had to bake a GTX580 because of it.

 

Without changing settings the AMD card is allowed to go up to 55% fan speed, yes?
When you put the 780 on auto what will the max fan speed be set as?

 

Why would you desecrate an expensive card like these in a noob Tower?

 

This does prove that stock cooling can be a real pain in the ass

 

I don't know what the problem is but probably because I'd open the box, put it in my system, be alarmed at the temperature, switch it off, take it out, think of the warranty & then laugh at the warranty & mod the heck out of the cooling, put back in & enjoy a huge temperature & noise reduction with extended lifespan \o/.

 

Mantle support is going to be key.

 

Because it cools as well as most high end ATX cases? And is almost as flexible in terms of cooling options?

 

AMD had to choose make everybody pay more for better cooler (even those that don't care or those that replace anyway)
or ship with cheap cooler and keep price low.
An aftermarket cooler can be had for £50 if you care, or wait another month till the cards come with vendors own stuff as usual.

 

I have to agree. Given the effort Nvidia have made with the 7xx series of cards, you'd have thought AMD would follow suite. It's not as though they haven't made the effort before - look at the 5xxx series for example.

 

It will be intresting to see OEM's come into play like sapphire and VapourX/MSI Frozr .

 

There was nothing wrong with the 5870 or the 5970

 

If I'm dropping Intel money on a processor, I think I can toss in another 20-30 for a decent HSF. I put a big-ass tower cooler on my Phenom II even before I overclocked it. Put a slighly smaller one in my wife's PC because the stock cooler was lame and noisy.

As to the 290X, this will just make the 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' all the louder once the TwinFrozr and DirectCU II models start coming out. Expect Asus, MSI, et al, to beat the brakes off the stock cooler and maybe even squick a bit of an overclock in.

And it should make the market for full-cover GPU blocks healthy, too.

 

Isn't that Pete's point, though, that the 5xxx series were an example of AMD/ATI making a good effort to address cooling? Or have I read his post entirely wrong?

 

My last AMD (then ATI) card was a 4870. That thing was loud. If I didn't undervolt it (via Tray Tools), and change the fan profile, it was audible even at idle. While gaming, there was nothing I could do to keep the card quiet.

My next card was an MSI GTX 560ti Hawk (Frozr III). It was quiet at idle, but when playing SWTOR, it got really hot, and loud (on some planets anyway). I had to undervolt and slightly underclock the card just to keep the temps from topping 80C. The "underclock" brought it from 950MHz to 900MHz, which is still above a reference card running at 822MHz.

Just a couple weeks ago I bought an MSI GTX 760 Gaming (Frozr IV). FINALLY, I have a card that not only runs fast enough for me, but does so without being loud. Even at 100% load in SWTOR (which it can still hit... poorly optimized engine), the temps stay in the 60's, and the fan noise is very low and unobtrusive. I don't even hear it over my open ear headphones. My old cards were VERY audible.

It's been so long since I had a card that didn't upset me by being loud (previous was an ATI X1950 with Arctic Cooling something). I can't imagine buying a card I KNEW was going to be loud.

 

Let's see what thrid party cooler will bring ... but with the recent gtx780 price drop, the deal will look less interesting is it comes at a premium.

 

You got it right, Bawjaws.

 

SLI 480s??? Exaggeration much?

First off, as you mentioned, core temp doesn't represent how much heat leaves your PC and is emptied into the room. What you should be looking at is total power consumption. The 290x only uses about 80W more than the 780. Its not really that bad at all.

You shouldn't even suggest comparing to an SLI or Crossfire system that would add 100% more power consumption and heat. People WC dual card system all the time without melting. A single card would sooner melt itself than melt your face.

 

Wrong.

 

Giant side fan is the only way to go. But build the case yourself you'll get much better results compare to expensive full towers. Width is something you'll want to add 400 mm should be sufficient.