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Which R9 290 Non-reference GPU(SAPPHIRE OR MSI)

Tags:
  • GPUs
  • Sapphire
  • MSI
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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January 21, 2014 1:17:11 PM

Hello everyone. I am building a pc for myself at the end of this week. Which R9 290 card should i get?

This: Sapphire R9 290 4GB Tri-X
or
This: MSI R9 290 Gaming 4GB OC

Thanks for your help!

More about : 290 reference gpu sapphire msi

January 21, 2014 2:09:52 PM

I'd rather get a sapphire. I've had a lot of them, and they've not yet let me down. I'd just go with whichever one is cheaper unless one has significantly better cooling or overclocking.
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January 21, 2014 2:15:11 PM

packet said:
Hello everyone. I am building a pc for myself at the end of this week. Which R9 290 card should i get?

This: Sapphire R9 290 4GB Tri-X
or
This: MSI R9 290 Gaming 4GB OC

I bought the Tri-X as currently it is the fastest and coolest card on the market. MSI's Gaming edition simply slapped a cooler on the sucker. As fasr as I've seen, the Tri-X stays under 3C cooler, and has a factory overclock. It has a reference PCB, but runs faster than the MSI. If you plan on buying a 290, either buy a Tri-x or Direct CU II (coming very soon) or wait out MSI's lightning edition of the 290.


Thanks for your help!


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January 21, 2014 2:35:48 PM

Why not Asus?
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January 21, 2014 3:14:23 PM

The Asus direct CU II is a 780 clone heatsink, it doesnt even make contact with many parts of the PCB and chips. More likely to fry these uncovered chips long term.

I have the MSI gaming, 68*c top temp, 44% fan, ultra quiet. ;) 

My Sapphire 280x is like a vacuum cleaner going off, 3 small fans = lots of noise.
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January 21, 2014 3:17:20 PM

toprock said:
The Asus direct CU II is a 780 clone heatsink, it doesnt even make contact with many parts of the PCB and chips. More likely to fry these uncovered chips long term.

I have the MSI gaming, 68*c top temp, 44% fan, ultra quiet. ;) 

My Sapphire 280x is like a vacuum cleaner going off, 3 small fans = lots of noise.


I don't have any noise issues with my sapphire card.
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January 21, 2014 3:19:26 PM

do You have a Msi gaming r9 290? I heard MSI is pretty good but in my experience Asus usually makes the best quality cards.

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January 21, 2014 3:59:22 PM

I heard the Asus r9 290 had some heatsink issues but haven't read into it too much. I have an MSI 760 and it works great and is completely silent under load. I had a sapphire 7950 and while I had no complaints it just wasn't as good a cooler. Having said that the tri-x seems to be very good. If it were me I'd buy the tri-x because there is little to no information about the twin frozr 290 but there are multiple reviews of the tri-x that are all positive. Just my thoughts on it
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January 21, 2014 4:18:48 PM

I heard the tr-x is decent - You have a mid-range Nvidia card with a good cooler that's is why it is so quiet and cool.

Nvidia cards are more power efficient, the Asus cards are great despite what you heard it's the Gigabyte that had the issue's.

In my opinion Asus has the best quality in the industry - based on market cap it's a larger company than Nvidia and AMD combined...

Asus has lots of resources and a very good reputation however they're not perfect and sometimes people have problems with their products.
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January 21, 2014 4:50:45 PM

So because I have good experience with a company but its on a different product that automatically means the rest have to suck? I fail to see the logic. I suggested the tri-x as it is very good in all the reviews I have read and not all the other 290s have been. And I never said Asus wasn't a good company I regularly recommend them just toms hardware had a much better experience with the tri-x than the Asus in their comparison:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290x-case-perfor...
I don't own any 290s so try to get advice from someone who does. I am just repeating what sites like toms hardware and anandtech have said
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January 21, 2014 8:23:02 PM

I confused you with top rock - If you look at my post I said I heard MSI video cards are good and I heard the tri x is decent. Why are you trying to put words in my mouth? I didn't say the others ones suck.

I asked the wrong question to the op because I didn't read that the OP chose the Sapphire card already and mentioned the Asus however said it wasn't available in stores yet.

The article from tomshardware mentions that the Asus performs slightly better however runs hotter and slightly louder...
Tomshardware might have gotten a golden press sample from Sapphire.


I know people that own a reference Sapphire 290 and a 280x with tri x - I was thinking about getting into mining and met people and computer shop owners that had the card and sold the card, I've also owned sapphire cards in the past...


Most people I talked to told me that the Asus cards are the best however hard to get and more expensive.

I speaking not only from my expereince but from other people's experience's and websites like toms hardware that frequently praise Asus for their products.


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January 22, 2014 1:52:58 AM

"I confused you with top rock - If you look at my post I said I heard MSI video cards are good and I heard the tri x is decent. Why are you trying to put words in my mouth? I didn't say the others ones suck."

no the post I made was my opinion. :) 

I think the Sapphires are very loud when mining at 100%
the Asus on the 290 is a 780 clone and doesnt cool various chips properly and doesnt make contact
the MSI is the best buy with aftermarket PCB and a proper custom made cooler.
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January 22, 2014 6:45:31 AM

I was asking you what MSI card you have and the dark shadow answered - do you have the MSI R9 290?
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January 22, 2014 7:02:15 AM

I'm going with the MSI R9 290 Gaming. It performs great, has the quietest cooler on the market, and MSI has a good warranty. You also can't beat the price of it on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HPS4AFG. You have to wait a few weeks for it to come in stock but for the price, it's worth it to me.
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January 22, 2014 7:37:10 AM

I have the MSI r9 290 gaming edition. +1
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January 22, 2014 7:45:52 AM

What do you think about the performance?

What games are you playing?
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January 22, 2014 8:30:07 AM

skyrim, dishonored, bf4, maxpayne3, metro last light, all ultra'd out, some downsampled. Skyrim modded to the hilt.

top temps hit 72*c last night, room was rather warm, max fan 48%.

Usually 68*c max fan 44%.

Thats all with the OC at 1077mhz, if I run it in quiet mode at 947mhz core its around 58-60*c

fps 60 if vsynced, when turned off up to 130fps!!
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Best solution

January 26, 2014 11:51:51 AM

I have been using the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-x and can tell you that so far I'm loving it. Even after gaming for about 6 hours solid yesterday with the GPU pretty much at 100% the whole time the Temperature never went about 74 (and I have the home central heating on!). The fans never sent above 40% of their max possible speed and I could not hear them. The performance of the GPU was constant at 1000Mhz and never had to slow it's self down which is something I believe reference cards do. With the low temperatures and quiet fans I expect to get a good 3 years out of this card as a heavy gamer, before I sell it and upgrade. So far I have seen no need to overclock it further then the manufacturer 'out of the box' overclock it comes with, and that was playing Skyrim, BF4, ARMA3, Rise of Flight, Crysys 2, Farcry 3 etc. I would think with such low temps and fan speeds there is room to take the card up to about 1100Mhz without problems. I previously owned 2 x Sapphire 5807HD's in crossfire and ran them for about 2-3 years or so with out a single problem. I would certainly be happy to use Sapphire again in the future.
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