Best 290X R9?

Looking to pick up a pair. I've had good luck with Sapphire in the past except for some coil whine on a 7990. What are versions that you have tried and had good or bad experiences with?

-Byshop

Get 290 (not the X version) and OC it yourself.

There's no best, depends on the brand that you like, for AMD GPU I can recommend on: MSI, Gigabyte, Sapphire and Asus.

As far as I know the Gigabyte is the cheapest of them all (doesn't mean it's a bad company).

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=152&m=8,18,27,41&sort=a8 it's 50-70$ cheaper and if you buy a pair this would save you 100-140$ which is not small change =)

All four of those are brands I've had decent luck with. As for 290s versus 290x, the price difference isn't big enough to make me want to go through the effort of OCing myself so I'm comparing 290xs.

-Byshop

Sapphire never failed me, they seem to have a good solid build going with thier Cards.

XFX I currently a Company I have very Little faith in, two broken 7970 Cards were not exactly a good experience (first had some issues with temps that would rise way too fast and a fan that would spin like insane (likely thermal paste that was the issue) turned it in, got a replacement, with some really serious ram errors.

I haven't used an XFX in quite a while, but I've had great experience with Sapphire with the only exception of my 7990, and that's only because of the coil whine. It seems to have died down somewhat now that the card is broken in.

Asus I used to use quite a lot back in the day and they both advertise good cooling (DirectCU or Vapor-X). Not that it matters much, but Sapphire also comes with good game bundles (for me to give away because I already own all the games).

-Bysho

You mean 150$ per card isn't big enough effort to go throught? OC wait that's 300$ you're talking about, I can't find logic here. (OC GPU is easier than OC CPU)

I'd go with Gigabyte on the 290X as well as it's the cheapest.

It's easier to OC a GPU, but there are other factors at play. Getting a 290 and then OCing myself is not a guarantee that I'll be able to get it up to 290x speeds on the stock 290 cooling. It's very likely, but adding two cards into the equation adds more risk as I'd need both cards to be able to get up to those speeds. Getting a card that has already been tested at those speeds with the included cooling is a time saver for me and also reduces the risk of potentially having to send back cards if I can't get them where I want them, and I absolutely do not want to waste time trying out aftermarket coolers for 290s (which would narrow that price difference anyway).

All that plus my time is not worthless to me. I travel for work literally every week so I spend on average about 3 days at home and my home time is divided between my hobbies and my wife and two sons so the less time I have to spend tinkering the better because I'd rather use my limited time to play.

Finally, my company gives me a discretionary fund to spend on computer parts that refreshes annually, and the cost of two 290x cards is more than covered along with a 1300 watt power supply and a Multichannel Display Port 1.2 splitter box.

-Byshop

The Lightning is the best. Followed by the Vapor-X, then the PCS+ then the Tri-X.

Latest Linus (LinusTechTips) build was with 2x 290 by Gigabyte (BTW) to be able to game on 3 1440p monitors, I'm not sure what you're wishing your GPUs to be but I think if you wish more power you should go straight to 2x 780ti. (not that I recommend it)

http://youtu.be/rHhMW89R7pY?t=13m that vid <

Yeah, I didn't mention in this thread but it's to drive 7560x1440. I greatly prefer Nvidia as a brand but for multimonitor configs I go AMD and then I just deal with the driver issues. I'm running a 7990 now but I have to back off the res or detail a bit to keep up the framerate in games like Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous unless I run just one monitor. Dual 780TIs would give me a smidge more perf but at a large price jump and at the drawback of more limited multimonitor support.

-Byshop

At those higher resolutions AMD cards would likely perform better anyway. I know they do at 4k.

This is my 2nd time using Asus DCU/DCUii cards. They are brilliant.

Simples

Seems like this or the Sapphire Vapor-X are good choices. I ended up ordering the Sapphires and they'll be here tomorrow. I'll let you guys know how they work out.

-Byshop

Great for Nvidia cards, but they don't seem very good on the 290s.

The last sapphire I had was my last AMD card, a 3780. :)

My 6990 was rock solid, and my 7990 was too except for the whine I got with my cheese and crackers. The Vapor-X cooler sounded interesting and according to HardOCP was a bit cooler than the Asus counterpart so I figured I'd give it a roll and see what happens.

It'll be nice to run three montior Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous at full res/high detail.

-Byshop

I agree, get 290s instead and overclock them.
Any of these will be good to you.
Sapphire Vapor-X
Sapphire Tri-X
Gigabyte Windforce
MSI Twin Frozr

Ive got an MSI twin frozr and a sapphire tri x r9 290 crossfired at the moment.

I tested both cards separately before installing and the sapphire ran 5 degrees (celcuis) cooler and was easier to overclock.

Id definitely go sapphire.

He got the money to spend, so why save?

Have the cards arrived Byshop?

@horgen: I fly back home later this afternoon, so I won't get to play with them until tonight. They probably aren't there yet, though, since FedEx/UPS usually show up closer to 5-6pm in my neighborhood. What I'm really curious to play with, also, is the multistream DP 1.2 box. I was annoyed that all the 290xs I saw had only one DP port on them until I realized that they finally started taking advantage of multistream and that this port can actually drive three displays.

-Byshop

I go for MSI or ASUS , my 7970 ASUS was pretty good , and now my MSI gaming 290 is Lovely .

That little extra could go towards a nicer monitor or SSD or whatever else is needed.

This computer is hooked up to three Dell U2711 2560x1440 IPS 27" monitors in an Obutto Revolution cockpit with a Saitek X52 Pro HOTAS and a Logitech G27 FF wheel with sequential shifter. I have like 10 SSDs spread across my various computers (two in this rig) and the "fourth" monitor of the computer is a Mistibushi HC7900 3D projector in another room which another set of KB/Mouse/Controllers.

Short version is I'm good on incidentals. :)

-Byshop

So much money, I'd definitely get 2x 780ti or even 4 XD

Three displays at what res and Hz?

I know he deserved the answer, but that doesn't mean you still don't come across as boasting. :P

@Byshop: If you're spending that much money, you might as well go all out. Which GPUs did you order? 290 or 290X & what brand/heatsink?

@insane_metalist: I got two of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202110&cm_re=amd_sapphire_290x_r9_vapor-_-14-202-110-_-Product

The Vapor cooler sounded neat and the temp stats on HardOCP looked promising.

@PredatorRules: I have a budget but it's not umlimited. I get 2k a year from my company, but it's pre-tax so it works out to about 1300-1400. This just covers what I'm picking up. Beyond that I have to spend my own money, which isn't the end of the world but this isn't the only thing I want to spend money on.

@horgen: Yeah, that's fair. I was boasting a bit. But I was also trying to head off any more "save the $100 for something else" suggestions. I have a funky setup and without the context of the four to five monitor multiroom setup I always get questions about why I'm going this route or not getting Nvidia cards. I love Nvidia as a brand and I strongly dislike AMD software, but the AMD multimonitor support is way better and the drivers work well enough most of the time. At least they finally fixed the microstutter issue after X number of years.

One thing I didn't factor though was that apparently DP 1.2 multistreaming only works with up to two monitors at 2560x1440. I'll have to see what other ports I can use since I need to save at least one HDMI for the second room cause that has to carry audio. I haven't run actual two card Crossfire/SLI in years so I have no idea what ports I can use on the two cards.

-Byshop

Can you post whether or not you have coil whine when you have them up and running?

It's done but it'll be a bit before I can post any results. I slapped the power supply replacement and the two video cards in 20 minutes flat because I didn't get started until 11:30PM and I really wanted to play, but that ended up being a giant misfire because I ran into a few hiccups:

1. The OS wouldn't boot after swapping out the cards so the system needed a clean install.
2. The cards are actually two and a half slots wide so I had to remove my Nvidia card that I was using for Hybrid PhysX. Even though I have a quad SLI board, I may need a new board with more space or a larger case to accommodate everything.
3. The Multistream box that lets me run two Displayport monitors on one port came with a freakin' European power cord. It's not the standard desktop style cord but the "mickey mouse ears" style that they use on laptops and I don't have extras of those laying around. I had to grab it off gaming laptop until I can find a replacement.

Now I'm going through the laborious process of reloading and redrivering everything. Still, I was due for a fresh OS load so no biggie but I gave up last night and just played Titanfall on the "Bone" until I went to bed.

-Byshop

You made the best choice out of the 290s, not because is the best cooling or anything, but the simple fact that it looks and sounds the coolest. Vapor-x just screams of sex.

I had to resist the urge to molest the cards when I took them out of the box.

-Byshop

No whine. In fact I can barely hear the cooler at all. My revised Firestrike Score has gone from around 11k to over 15k on my first attempt with no overclocking or modification.

Edit: Minor settings tweaks got me over 16.5k.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/3869932?

-Byshop

Nice improvement. I hope the Crossfire doesn't give you any problems :)

@horgen: Yeah, I can't complain about a near 50% boost. This thing is amazingly quiet, too. Between these two cars and the H60, I can hardly tell if it's running even when under load.

-Byshop

You definitely want a Full Tower for 2 GPUs. Specially for 290Xs. I ran a mid tower at first and it was a bit of a room problem. Plus, Full Tower will get you better airflow.

@insane_metalist: I have a full tower now, but I might need a "bigger" full tower. If I use the bottom most 16x slot, I can fit three 16x cards in the case. The problem is the back panels stop at the bottom 16x slot, so the second set of ports below the main board run into the back of the case.

I wonder if there are Quad SLI boards that have more space between the 16x slots. These cards are super quiet, which is awesome, but I had no idea the heatsinks would eat up so much space.

-Byshop