HIS R9 290? Decent Card or Junk?

GET CARTER · Apr 11, 2014

I found a HIS R9 290 for roughly $350us taxes in, I know 350 is a really good price on a r9 290 but I can not find any reviews that talk about the HIS r9 290. I searched the forum and only came across a Ice model or a 290X.

Thank you

Havoc2510 · Apr 11, 2014

It's a decent card, although my opinion would always be to go for an Nvidia card. Just a personal preference but in my view they are just better cards

Edit: For that sort of money you can get a GTX 780:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130952

spentshells · Apr 11, 2014

HIS as a brand is great. The stock cooler that comes on this card is going to be underpowered just like all other 290's with stock cooling.

AnEwG · Apr 11, 2014

Are you sure about this price tag? It seems a bit off; it is like $600 on newegg (More expensive than R9 290x), Also it looks very similar to the reference card, with the same bad cooling solution that comes with the reference card, so I would avoid it specially for a GPU that runs as hot as the R9 290.

Martell1977 · Apr 11, 2014

GET CARTER :

Havoc2510 :

That 780 is $499.99, while the 290 the OP is talking about is $350. For that price gap and the fact that the 290 matches or beats the 780, the 290 wins hands down.

To OP: that's a great deal for that card. The R9 290 is the same as a 290x with a part of the GPU disabled. I've seen on forums that people overclock them to get close to matching the 290x's. For that price, its a great deal. Is it a reference cooler (one fan at the end of the card) or aftermarket design?

GET CARTER · Apr 11, 2014

Unfortunately it is just the model with the one fan on the end of the card. Are they known to have heating issues?

Martell1977 · Apr 11, 2014

GET CARTER :

They are designed to run a bit hot. It's not a heat issue, more of a volume issue. The reference cooler can get rather loud. If it's the "Iceq" version, it should be better, tho.

AnEwG · Apr 11, 2014

You can check what the reviewers wrote on Newegg about this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2RY1C68826

breakfastdude · Apr 11, 2014

$350 for an R9 290 is a great deal. If you find yourself troubled by the heat issues, you can try lapping the heatsink later on (and of course, replacing the thermal compound). Temps can improve by about 10 C accdg to this http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/amd-r9-290-heat-sink-surface.196904/ .Of course, this would most likely void your warranty, so only do it if you know what you're doing.

17seconds · Apr 11, 2014

So is this a used card? If so, it could very well be a mining card that has been run 24/7 for the past several months. Not a deal-breaker, but a concern.

Ultimately, though, the 290 with a reference cooler is not a recommended buy. The heat and noise are major problems, combined with the clock throttling issues that go with it, I personally would never recommend that.

Quote:
"AMD's reference design cooler gets completely overwhelmed by the card's heat load once you start gaming. With load temperatures of 94°C, the card already runs very hot, but even at those temperatures, the fan needs to run at a deafening 49 dBA to handle the heat. I'm don't really know why AMD increased the fan speed limit at the last minute instead of looking into making the card quieter and doubt many people will care about a few percent in performance, or whether the card beats the GTX 780. But most people will care once the graphics card's cooler takes over acoustically by producing enough noise to negatively affect your gaming experience."
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290/31.html

Havoc2510 · Apr 11, 2014

Martell1977 :

Yeah my bad, although I went on Newegg the currency was still in pounds so I thought it was a right bargain at $300

Whoops

joselo025 · Apr 11, 2014

yes is good you should buy it xD

GET CARTER · Apr 12, 2014

joselo025 :

Well I did end up buying it, it is brand new so I do not need to worry about it being a mining card.

I won it for $299, seems like a decent price for a r9 290. Just hoping I do not have heating or sound issues, but will worry about that when the time comes.

cst1992 · Apr 12, 2014

If you got it for $299, then you could get one of those custom GPU coolers from Arctic and have better cooling and still save money as compared to a regular 290.
Like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186068

GET CARTER · Apr 12, 2014

Currently I own a MSI Twin Frozr GTX 760 and I wanted to upgrade to a R9 290, Really all I do is play BF4 & COD. My current gtx760 has been working perfectly fine with no issues (I have only had it for about a month) but I just like owning better.

So I went with a R9 290, I know this is the reference design and hoping that it will still out perform my 760. So far the consensus is to get this card which I did and that HIS is an alright brand.

I also was thinking that since I got it for a great deal of $299 I could just re-sell it brand new and get a better one?

BattleBoltZ · Apr 20, 2014

The cheapest 290 I have seen is the $400 aFtermarket HIS card here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161453&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

GET CARTER · Jul 23, 2014

BattleBoltZ :

I actually sold this card and picked up a couple used sapphire r9 290x's at a great price. So there was no need keeping the 290, I actually ended up only using one of the 290x's and have 6 for sale. I suppose I could start a thread selling them but never got around to it.

HIS R9 290? Decent Card or Junk?

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