Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Greetings all, how good is this card PowerColor R9 290 4GB GDDR5 OC?

Tags:
  • PowerColor
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share
July 21, 2014 8:37:25 AM

Hi i am thinking about getting this card.
1)How good is it.
2)Is it worth £175?
3)How will noise be compared to the reference?
3)How does it compare to the reference r90, and is it worth saving 10£ and getting this card

Thanks so much!


More about : good card powercolor 290 4gb gddr5

July 21, 2014 10:17:28 AM

If your talking about the card pictured below...

1) PowerColor are a value brand, but the R9 290 is very fast, on par with a GTX 780.

2) £175 is a very good price indeed, new they retail at £280+

3) It appears to be a reference card, so will run very hot & be very loud. However, you should be able to buy a 3rd party cooler like the Arctic Accelero Xtreme III(http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/r9-290-accelero-xtreme-29...) and improve it a lot, if your up to that, technically.

4) It will be pretty much identical in performance as the OC isn't that substantial. If you get a reference card like these are, you'd need to replace the cooler with something better or stump up for a non-reference 290.

m
0
l
July 21, 2014 11:20:05 AM

Is there any way to cool without voiding the warranty? Also will the card throttle if no aftermarket solution is added?
m
0
l
Related resources
July 21, 2014 11:30:24 AM

Where will you be buying your GPU?
m
0
l
July 21, 2014 12:02:00 PM

If you're getting it on eBay second hand, then be very careful. You don't want to buy a card that has been used for crypto currency mining as the 24/7 100% usage it will have been used for will have severely shortened its lifespan.

The r9 290 is known to run extremely hot when using its reference cooler. You'd be better off picking up a non-reference model, something like a Gigabyte Windforce r9 290 or Sapphire Tri-X r9 290
m
0
l
July 21, 2014 12:12:48 PM

You could take the side panel of your case off & get a desk fan blowing in there, but it's an awkward setup for long term. Apparently they do throttle when getting really hot, due to the crappy stock cooler, and turning up the fan sounds like a "plane lifting off".

Alternatively you could buy a non-reference R9 280X for £25 more & just live with the slightly lower performance. Unless you stump up the cash for a non-reference R9 290.
m
0
l
July 21, 2014 1:29:31 PM

Scampi said:
You could take the side panel of your case off & get a desk fan blowing in there, but it's an awkward setup for long term. Apparently they do throttle when getting really hot, due to the crappy stock cooler, and turning up the fan sounds like a "plane lifting off".

Alternatively you could buy a non-reference R9 280X for £25 more & just live with the slightly lower performance. Unless you stump up the cash for a non-reference R9 290.


How much more weaker are the 280X for a game like bf4?
m
0
l
July 21, 2014 1:51:50 PM

Also how would a a crossfire AMD Dual-X R9 270 2GB compare to the above cards? I could get both for around 150£
m
0
l
July 21, 2014 2:00:55 PM

gandalfs said:
Also how would a a crossfire AMD Dual-X R9 270 2GB compare to the above cards? I could get both for around 150£


Always go for 1 great card over 2 good cards. You won't get any CrossfireX issues and probably better performance (It's not a case of simply adding vRAM, you have to take bandwidth and other things into account).

Do you have a link to the card so we can see exactly which powercolor card it is?
m
0
l
July 21, 2014 5:26:37 PM

Scampi said:
gandalfs said:


How much more weaker are the 280X for a game like bf4?



http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_290X_Tri...


OP you wanna look at the r9 290 benchmarks (not the 290x ones), 290 gets an average 67.5fps, 280x gets 54.2 average fps at 1920x1080 with 4xAA
m
0
l
July 22, 2014 4:26:09 PM

Ended up going for crossfire 290s
m
0
l
July 23, 2014 2:56:53 AM

gandalfs said:
Ended up going for crossfire 290s


crossfire 290s? or 270s?
m
0
l
July 24, 2014 4:16:15 PM

CGurrell said:
gandalfs said:
Ended up going for crossfire 290s


crossfire 290s? or 270s?


290
m
0
l
!