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Going for a 290 Crossfire setup, got some questions (already got 1 290)

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  • Crossfire
  • Sapphire
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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September 15, 2014 12:07:21 PM

So basically, ive got a reference sapphire r9 290, which runs pretty hot under everything, 52 idle and about 95-97 under load and is quite often throttled, because my case has really bad airflow...

So basically at around christmas i was thinking of picking myself up another 290 and a new monitor and a new case and sell my current motherboard (asrock extreme3 cant overclock for s**t) and get another...

At first I was looking at just getting a full watercooling loop but then i thought, well for the £400 budget i get for chirstmas, all of that would be going on JUST a good full loop and i still wouldnt have the gpu block so i would have to add in other money, and that that would be my whole christmas in just reducing temperatures... so my room gets insanely warm all the time because my xbox has the fan mod and thats really loud and pumps out loads of hot air and yeah, but anyways what are my best options here...

Sell my current 290 on either gumtree or ebay and hope someone bites on gumtree and gives me a bit extra and buy another 'better cooled' 290 OR sell it on ebay for about 200, lose about £50 in ebay fees 'F**K YOU EBAY' and add in the extra money and get another card OR do something with it to cool it better...

Im looking either at the vapor-x or the tri-x cards because ive heard, and ive done ALOT of research ever since release, and ive narrowed it down to them, ALSO the pcs+ is in there, but that is only available on ocuk etc and there is no deals to be had on ebay :'( 
SO my budget is 400-500 (can probs add a bit more if needs be but try keep it minimal) ALSO i want a £200 1440p ips monitor in with the cost so about £200-£300 we will start at for the budget...
Please give me some advice as i am bang out of ideas and stuck...
Im currently on 1680x1050 on my monitor, but i mostly play on samsung led 32 inch smart tv so i think its time for an upgrade for my monitor to 27 inch's of sexiness..
Give me some ideas People and ill interwebs love you :p 

Cheers

More about : 290 crossfire setup questions 290

September 15, 2014 12:21:10 PM

why not get a arctic accelero xtreme IV cooler and replace the reference cooler on your current card. that will save you hundreds of ££ ~ and should perform as good as a trix sapphire.

http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/accelero-xtreme-iv.html
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September 15, 2014 12:24:13 PM

Don't think you have quite the budget for what you want to do.

You should start with the new case to keep your existing card cool. And it may explain your overclocking difficulties if you have poor airflow over the motherboard VRMs.

New video card with axial coolers would just make it worse. Putting a pair of axial cooled GPUs in crossfire doesn't work too well either. You might actually want to keep the sapphire and leave it in the top slot and put the new vapor-x or tri-x in the lower position.

You just might be able to cram in another R290, the monitor, and a case.

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September 15, 2014 12:31:37 PM

1. The size of your monitor is irrelevant. What counts is your resolution.
A tv might be 1080P or 1920 x 1080.
Love the 1440p(2560 x 1440) monitors.

2. R9 cards come overclocked; that is how they get their performance.
I think it is poor use of funds to watercool anything; better to buy a faster part in the first place.
A cf R9-290 setup generates lots of fps. Unfortunately two such cards will really hurt yout heat problem since the top card tends to get starved for cooling air. You will also need a psu in the 1000w range.
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

3. I suggest you wait a bit look for the upcoming GTX980 card, It is supposed to be between the GTX780 and GTX780ti in performance and run with much less power and cooling.
I suspect that a single GTX980 will drive a 1440P monitor very well.
If you need more, sli would certainly do it. It looks like it will only need two 6 pin connectors, and that can be handled by a 500w psu. 700w for sli.
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September 15, 2014 1:38:25 PM

ill reply to all 3 of yous in 1 message any hopefully yous get it:
@ingtar33: I completely forgot about the xtreme IV actually! so thanks for that, thats not a half bad idea, and that means i can also pickup a second one and a second card ;)  dunno how well it would perform though heat wise... but i imagine alot better than this currently is!

@Eximo: id be looking to get a 290 second hand off ebay as i can get tri-x's for around £230-250 or a reference one for £190, and i definetly need a new case and some more fans so thats a definite... I think my monitor is going to be either 1080 or 1440, though im not totally decided as the difference is about 100 in the 2 that im looking at, ive heard 1440p is just sexy and is defo worth it, and if im going crossfire, ill no doubt have the juice to do so.. But ive just realised, ill need to sell my current psu and get a new one as mines only a corsair 750w and wont power a crossfire setup... well so far, my budget has increased to about 600-650 possibly! so that must help?

@geofelt: 1) yeah, (im not a dummy, i know alot about pc's just wrote it down wrong, should of specified a bit better) and i see in your bio your using the yamakasi, thats the brand i was gonna get! how is the 1600p one? ive heard very good thinks about them and want one and at £200 they are a bargain!
2) yeah im not watercooling anymore as i, myself, saw it as a waste of money which could be better spent elsewhere... and i will probably this time get a case with side fans as an option as i bought the windowed version of my case which i later found out dosent have side fans! and yeah ive just noticed ill need another power supply
3) i was looking at that actually when the stuff the other day was released and i was impressed, and the fact that it makes less heat AND noise, is very appealing, but i imagine its going to be super expensive on release, and chances are SLI'ing that will put me back just shy of £1000


P.S. My full specs are as follows:
AMD 8320 STOCK CLOCK
ASROCK Extreme3 990fx
Corsair Venegance 8gb 1600mhz
Sapphire r9 290 reference
Corsair CX750M
Case is Xigmatek Alfar WINDOWED



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September 15, 2014 2:00:34 PM

1. I am very pleased with the yamakasi Sparta 301. The price was right, it shipped from Korea direct and took only a week.
NO bad pixels.

2. The GTX980 and GTX970 seem to be Maxwell upgrades using current mfg tech.
I think they are the nvidia response to the R9 cards and will have a competitive price to the R9-280 and 290 cards. The big Maxwell >titan cards are not expected until next year when the mfg tech becomes available.
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September 15, 2014 3:02:09 PM

geofelt said:
1. I am very pleased with the yamakasi Sparta 301. The price was right, it shipped from Korea direct and took only a week.
NO bad pixels.

2. The GTX980 and GTX970 seem to be Maxwell upgrades using current mfg tech.
I think they are the nvidia response to the R9 cards and will have a competitive price to the R9-280 and 290 cards. The big Maxwell >titan cards are not expected until next year when the mfg tech becomes available.


1) good to know, was gonna be getting one off ebay, direct from korea

2) ill wait it out and see what happens when they are released which according to many rumours, is very soon!
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September 15, 2014 3:36:47 PM

FWIW I use the vesa mount. The supplied mount is somewhat flimsy.
The only input option is a dual link dvi connection.
Can't recall, but they supply a appropriate cable.

Do get the proper power adapter for the power brick.
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September 15, 2014 11:51:18 PM

geofelt said:
FWIW I use the vesa mount. The supplied mount is somewhat flimsy.
The only input option is a dual link dvi connection.
Can't recall, but they supply a appropriate cable.

Do get the proper power adapter for the power brick.


yeah ive read that aswell, im just a bitmore cautious as its from korea but i cant imagine it being any different from a monitor over here, minus the few differences also, i was looking at this psu: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA...
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September 16, 2014 8:03:24 AM

something to think about- 1 r9-290 should be good enough for 1440p gaming.

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September 16, 2014 12:54:40 PM

ingtar33 said:
something to think about- 1 r9-290 should be good enough for 1440p gaming.



BUT, A) 2 will look very sexy indeed, and B) i will theoretically get double fps (i realise this isnt what actually happens but its not far off, hopefully some clever person makes this dream a reality hehe)

But im all seriousness as they were utterly awful reasons... I want to be able to play all my games on full fps, and i want to have the juice for whatever 2015 has to throw at me and take it and own it with unreal fps hehe, and also, just a quick question, sometimes my pc lags behind, and i have a feeling its either my cpu or ram, i think my ram may be maxed out or my cpu is or something is running in the background hidden as i used to do crypto mining and i download games, and if you have read on the whole watchdogs think, its a possibility that its running something small...
ALSO any recommendations for a good looking case (im quite open on this) but mainly, the best possible airflow!

Thanks
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September 16, 2014 12:59:55 PM

Task manager/performance monitor will tell you if you have many hard page faults. I would not expect any with 8gb of ram. Most games can't use more than 2-3gb.

On the cpu side, I expect the FX to be a factor with high end graphics.
The FX cores are not that fast.

Do some testing.

Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You could also experiment with removing one core in the bios. This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.
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September 16, 2014 1:34:02 PM

geofelt said:
Task manager/performance monitor will tell you if you have many hard page faults. I would not expect any with 8gb of ram. Most games can't use more than 2-3gb.

On the cpu side, I expect the FX to be a factor with high end graphics.
The FX cores are not that fast.

Do some testing.

Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You could also experiment with removing one core in the bios. This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.


I will give that a shot and report back
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September 16, 2014 1:37:21 PM

geofelt said:
Task manager/performance monitor will tell you if you have many hard page faults. I would not expect any with 8gb of ram. Most games can't use more than 2-3gb.

On the cpu side, I expect the FX to be a factor with high end graphics.
The FX cores are not that fast.

Do some testing.

Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You could also experiment with removing one core in the bios. This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.


seems like it isnt letting me have that option, ill give it a shot later, but will overclocking help with anything
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September 17, 2014 1:52:02 PM

Eximo said:
Don't think you have quite the budget for what you want to do.

You should start with the new case to keep your existing card cool. And it may explain your overclocking difficulties if you have poor airflow over the motherboard VRMs.

New video card with axial coolers would just make it worse. Putting a pair of axial cooled GPUs in crossfire doesn't work too well either. You might actually want to keep the sapphire and leave it in the top slot and put the new vapor-x or tri-x in the lower position.

You just might be able to cram in another R290, the monitor, and a case.



do you think getting another reference 290 and adding a extreme iv on, and getting one for my current card, getting a new case, and possibly a monitor would be my best option?
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September 17, 2014 2:39:30 PM

Not really sure on a pair of Acceleros. They are pretty massive and might get around some of the problems of dual axials. Not sure I have seen anyone build with a pair of them.

Last time I tried a pair of axially cooled video cards it didn't go so well. Top card kept overheating. They way the spin up it practically created a barrier of fast moving air that the other fans in my case couldn't penetrate. It just ended up recycling the same air over and over until it reached 95 or so and caused a bluescreen.

Reference coolers are good in that they truly exhaust heat. AMD, sadly, always goes with really noisy ones. (So do the cheaper Nvidia coolers)
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September 17, 2014 3:01:34 PM

Eximo said:
Not really sure on a pair of Acceleros. They are pretty massive and might get around some of the problems of dual axials. Not sure I have seen anyone build with a pair of them.

Last time I tried a pair of axially cooled video cards it didn't go so well. Top card kept overheating. They way the spin up it practically created a barrier of fast moving air that the other fans in my case couldn't penetrate. It just ended up recycling the same air over and over until it reached 95 or so and caused a bluescreen.

Reference coolers are good in that they truly exhaust heat. AMD, sadly, always goes with really noisy ones. (So do the cheaper Nvidia coolers)


well ive been looking and the Gelid Solutions Icy Vision Rev.2 looks very tempting and people are saying between 50-60 on load which is alot more appealing than 95-97 at the minute!!
I am thinking of getting a new case and probably putting some high end noctuas or corsair AF's in there so that will hopefully help the whole heat case...
ALSO, would you think my 8320 would bottlekneck my 290 CF?

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September 18, 2014 7:15:43 AM

I would agree with HighEndGaming. All in ones is what I used in my build. Couldn't find any waterblocks for my old DCUIIs.
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September 18, 2014 9:28:27 AM

HighEndGaming said:
If you want to cool some R9 290/290X's you need to refer to the post I mentioned earlier....

"If you really want great cooling without a lot of work then you need to get the NZXT Kraken G10 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ITTFO8M with a Corsair H55 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009VV56TY for your R9 290's. Check out this video to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

http://youtu.be/ySA6yYvj9Z4 "


I would go with that, BUT its going to cost around £60 for each card, and £120 isnt the sort of money i would want to be spending UNLESS it will massively help and is needed... What about the Gelid coolers that i mentioned before with a fan blowing air straight into them? as they are only £25 and have loads of good reviews being used on 290s
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September 18, 2014 2:09:31 PM

TheAterix said:
HighEndGaming said:
If you want to cool some R9 290/290X's you need to refer to the post I mentioned earlier....

"If you really want great cooling without a lot of work then you need to get the NZXT Kraken G10 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ITTFO8M with a Corsair H55 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009VV56TY for your R9 290's. Check out this video to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

http://youtu.be/ySA6yYvj9Z4 "


I would go with that, BUT its going to cost around £60 for each card, and £120 isnt the sort of money i would want to be spending UNLESS it will massively help and is needed... What about the Gelid coolers that i mentioned before with a fan blowing air straight into them? as they are only £25 and have loads of good reviews being used on 290s


It's your money but the AIO coolers will perform a lot better and run much quieter.
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