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MSI R9 290X Lightning Review: The Right Way To Cool Hawaii

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  • Graphics Cards
  • AMD
  • MSI
Last response: in Reviews comments
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April 15, 2014 11:00:03 PM

Judging from the R9 290X Lightning's hefty build, it takes a lot of metal to cool the Hawaii GPU properly. But what does this massive card give you aside from sharp looks? How about impressive acoustics? Is its $750 price tag worth the premium experience?

MSI R9 290X Lightning Review: The Right Way To Cool Hawaii : Read more

More about : msi 290x lightning review cool hawaii

April 15, 2014 11:07:58 PM

If it costs 750 bucks, it should come with water-cooling. Why the need to slap on a pound of metal to cool it if there was a more customer friendly way?
Score
-5
April 15, 2014 11:10:56 PM

Unless I am mistaken you burn 3 slots with this guy. For how close this is to the Tri-x in thermals and acoustics, but with the loss of a slot and the added price, meh. Tri-x still seems like the best value proposition.
Score
10
Related resources
a b U Graphics card
April 16, 2014 12:09:55 AM

I just want to point out how silly the 780 Ti is priced. People, this card trades blows with the 780 Ti while giving you an extra GB of VRAM. It should cost at least as much as the 780 Ti. Or better yet, the other way around! ;) 
Score
-2
April 16, 2014 12:43:50 AM

Quote:
Unfortunately, in order to increase this card's GPU voltage, you have to register with MSI for a special license. This isn't given out freely; only professional overclockers can get their hands on it.

Whoa, wait, what???
Score
7
a b U Graphics card
April 16, 2014 1:13:15 AM

As of my post, the pricing on Newegg for the mentioned cards:

MSI 290x Lightning $699.99 + $4.99 shipping
Sapphire 290x Tri-X OC $649.99
Sapphire 290x Tri-X $639.99
Gigabyte 290x Windforce $579.99 ($549.99 after rebate)

This makes the Lightning $125 ($155 after rebate) more expensive than the Windforce. MSI is really stretching the price here.
Score
5
April 16, 2014 1:21:41 AM

$899 or 841 USD where i'm from for this card. Got to admit though, 3 slot cards are really unappealing for me.

Got to agree that the Tri-X seems a better value proposition
Score
2
a b U Graphics card
April 16, 2014 2:04:46 AM

A bit useless review:
The main aspect of a GPU and its most important job is to make games run smooth.
In this review there is only a Performance ratio chart. This does not give the important data at all.

I dont care if that GPU has 80 or 85 FPS in farcry3, but I Do care if it has 25 or 30 on more demanding games/settings.
Finally, this card seems like itsmissing its purpouse a bit.
It has a huge heatsink, but dosent actually run cool or quiet.
It has an OC that is decent but dosent increase performance that much.
You could water cool that GPU for a similar price and get better performance in every aspect as long as you are willing to have a loop in your PC.



Score
-3
April 16, 2014 2:59:25 AM

Where is your review of the Powercolor PCS+ R290x...? From all the review I have seen, not only they are cheaper, but perform better I from what I am seeing, smaller.
Score
1
a c 130 U Graphics card
April 16, 2014 3:49:42 AM

That "Certificate of Quality and Stability" is humorous...

"I hereby declare this video card to be of the utmost quality and thereby further and henceforth declare this same electronic device to be 101% stable to the fullest of my capabilities to determine it as such. Sincerely, Your Mom".

Definitely something to frame and hang on your wall above the monitor.
Score
2
a b U Graphics card
a b À AMD
April 16, 2014 4:47:06 AM

I feel like it would be much more cost effective to go with water cooling, it would definitely be much lighter. I may be wrong, though, as that heatsink is pretty freaking massive. It just seems like past a certain point, air cooling can only do so much, and can only take up so much space.

If you're just going for overkill, I want to see one of these with phase change cooling. It can't cost that much more, can it?
Score
5
April 16, 2014 5:24:03 AM

I used to be a huge fan of AMD and was excited for the 290x because of its performance for the price. But this card is slower and more expensive than the 780ti. I can't justify purchasing a slower card for more money just because I am loyal to the AMD brand. Sorry AMD, I just bought my asus direct cu ii gtx 780ti for 709$ at frys (they matched amazon). It was the right choice too. Probably the next to go will be OC'd 8350. :(  Its just not the XP 3200+ days anymore.
Score
4
April 16, 2014 5:48:23 AM

As I read this Amazon showing $650

Anyway 3 slots? No. But it looks good on you though.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 6:35:58 AM

Personally I think that if you're getting into three-slot 1.5kg territory to air-cool a graphics card that you may as well switch to liquid cooling, especially for the price. I mean, for the extra cost of this limited edition you could get a cheaper R9 290X compatible with the Kraken G10 adaptor, and use that with any suitable all-in-one cooler. For around the same cost it should give you better, quieter cooling and a lot less stress on your poor motherboard.
Score
2
April 16, 2014 7:02:51 AM

that power drop might be similar to the unusual voltage drop that i observed with 780 Lightning. I didn't notice the effect on gaming though. It's just something not common to the other cards i have owned.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 7:23:09 AM

so this thing is supposed to be good for overclocking and it has a huge possible power draw to facilitate that
yet apparently in order to increase the voltage you need to be a professional overclocker in the eyes of MSI

am I missing something here?
Score
1
April 16, 2014 7:25:15 AM

What a monster.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 7:36:20 AM

there is no reason to ditch VGA completely. A single DVI-I output would improve the compatibility of the card without changing the out layout too much. 2 DVI-D are a compromise, if not downright stupid.
Score
1
April 16, 2014 8:18:46 AM

MSI needs to rethinking its marketing strategy
Score
2
April 16, 2014 9:01:54 AM

So ridiculously huge. And so expensive!!

Damnit.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 9:38:27 AM

Why are there no 780 and 780TI boards in the sound and heat comparison charts?
Score
0
April 16, 2014 10:20:18 AM

Quote:
I just want to point out how silly the 780 Ti is priced. People, this card trades blows with the 780 Ti while giving you an extra GB of VRAM. It should cost at least as much as the 780 Ti. Or better yet, the other way around! ;) 


I had Sapphire R9 290x and currently owns Ti 780 windforce 3X OC, bought the R9 @ black friday, sold it during the mining craze and replaced it with the TI.
Always been an AMD/ATI supporter (from 9500 pro, X850XTX, 4870, 5870, 6970, 290x; I did have 8800 GTS in there somewhere), I have to admit the TI gave me substantially better 'overall' experience with modern games (SC2, LoL, AssCred, Infinity, X-com):

1. Games just run! No hiccups on settings, no manual tweaks to get MSAA to work. GEFORCE EXPERIENCE is substantially better than RAPTR.

2. Frame rate 'feels' more stable. Granted I only run 2560 x 1600 or 2560 x 1080 @ 60hz nowadays. Nvidia Adaptive V-sync is better than AMD's plain V-sync.

3. None of my games PLAYABLE settings to come close to using the 3GB. I think Nvidia choice here is quite balanced. Yes I can load textures, AA, etc to get it past 3GB mark, However by then the FPS would have dropped down to 30s. For 60 or 120 FPS, I think 3-4GB is just perfect.
Maybe SKYRIM mods can breach the 3GB, I don't have that game. I honestly don't understand running SLI / X-fire with only 3-4GB 'effective' memory. By the time 4K takes hold, the TI will already be sold anyway, potentially for MAXWELL version of it.

4. Actual gaming power consumption at 60 and 120FPS are lower with the TI (overclocked at that). However, if you run both to max OC and load (i.e. sub 60 FPS), TI roughly equals the R9 on power draw, albeit with less cooling requirement. It seems Nvidia have the better TDP design overall.

5. Nvidia SHIELD!, bought it on an impulse. Now I think it's the best thing since sliced bread.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 10:56:58 AM

Any particular reason the gaming charts were 1080P? Should have been 1440P minimum. I'm surprised no one else has said anything about that.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 11:38:50 AM

PEJUman said:
Quote:
I just want to point out how silly the 780 Ti is priced. People, this card trades blows with the 780 Ti while giving you an extra GB of VRAM. It should cost at least as much as the 780 Ti. Or better yet, the other way around! ;) 


I had Sapphire R9 290x and currently owns Ti 780 windforce 3X OC, bought the R9 @ black friday, sold it during the mining craze and replaced it with the TI.
Always been an AMD/ATI supporter (from 9500 pro, X850XTX, 4870, 5870, 6970, 290x; I did have 8800 GTS in there somewhere), I have to admit the TI gave me substantially better 'overall' experience with modern games (SC2, LoL, AssCred, Infinity, X-com):

1. Games just run! No hiccups on settings, no manual tweaks to get MSAA to work. GEFORCE EXPERIENCE is substantially better than RAPTR.

2. Frame rate 'feels' more stable. Granted I only run 2560 x 1600 or 2560 x 1080 @ 60hz nowadays. Nvidia Adaptive V-sync is better than AMD's plain V-sync.

3. None of my games PLAYABLE settings to come close to using the 3GB. I think Nvidia choice here is quite balanced. Yes I can load textures, AA, etc to get it past 3GB mark, However by then the FPS would have dropped down to 30s. For 60 or 120 FPS, I think 3-4GB is just perfect.
Maybe SKYRIM mods can breach the 3GB, I don't have that game. I honestly don't understand running SLI / X-fire with only 3-4GB 'effective' memory. By the time 4K takes hold, the TI will already be sold anyway, potentially for MAXWELL version of it.

4. Actual gaming power consumption at 60 and 120FPS are lower with the TI (overclocked at that). However, if you run both to max OC and load (i.e. sub 60 FPS), TI roughly equals the R9 on power draw, albeit with less cooling requirement. It seems Nvidia have the better TDP design overall.

5. Nvidia SHIELD!, bought it on an impulse. Now I think it's the best thing since sliced bread.


Totally agree...but my heart goes to 290x lightning

BTW - evga is making 6gb version of 780...and POSSIBLY the Ti, too. 780 6gb w/ acx is on their site for 'auto-notify' only for now.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 1:35:25 PM

Im waiting for water block manufacturers to start selling cards with blocks pre installed. Thats the most annoying part about cooling a card is having to finally buy one and then pay even more to get a block.

blocks already installed will help prevent miners from buying them too, that way you little sissies will stop crying about the evil bitcoin miners.
Score
0
a b U Graphics card
April 16, 2014 3:42:40 PM

geok1ng said:
there is no reason to ditch VGA completely. A single DVI-I output would improve the compatibility of the card without changing the out layout too much. 2 DVI-D are a compromise, if not downright stupid.

How so? This is a top-shelf card. You're saying someone would buy a brand new $600+ GPU only to plug it into an old and likely low-res monitor?

VGA jacks may make sense on low-end cards since the casual users are the ones to likely still have older displays. I'd hazard a guess that nearly all moderately tech savvy people at this point have moved over to DVI or better.
Score
1
April 16, 2014 4:56:03 PM

Admin$: "I used to be a huge fan of AMD and was excited for the 290x because of its performance for the price. But this card is slower and more expensive than the 780ti. I can't justify purchasing a slower card for more money just because I am loyal to the AMD brand. Sorry AMD, I just bought my asus direct cu ii gtx 780ti for 709$ at frys (they matched amazon). It was the right choice too. Probably the next to go will be OC'd 8350. :(  Its just not the XP 3200+ days anymore"

I don't know why I can't quote you properly so I'll just copy and paste.

For the last time, it's not AMD's fault as to how vendors like MSI, GB, Sapphire etc price their boards. They make the chip, and 3rd party companies make aftermarket solutions for the Hawaii GPU. If anything, you should be blaming MSI. Give credit where credit is due; don't take away from AMD the great chip they made. Yes their reference cooling sucked. Yes it runs ridiculously hot. Thank you MSI, GB, ASUS etc for making partner boards, but don't blame AMD for how MSI prices their products.

My 2 cents.

Also I agree with your choice of the 780Ti. This lightning 290X just doesn't make sense at that pricepoint.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 4:59:17 PM

Quote:
Quote:
I just want to point out how silly the 780 Ti is priced. People, this card trades blows with the 780 Ti while giving you an extra GB of VRAM. It should cost at least as much as the 780 Ti. Or better yet, the other way around! ;) 


I had Sapphire R9 290x and currently owns Ti 780 windforce 3X OC, bought the R9 @ black friday, sold it during the mining craze and replaced it with the TI.
Always been an AMD/ATI supporter (from 9500 pro, X850XTX, 4870, 5870, 6970, 290x; I did have 8800 GTS in there somewhere), I have to admit the TI gave me substantially better 'overall' experience with modern games (SC2, LoL, AssCred, Infinity, X-com):

1. Games just run! No hiccups on settings, no manual tweaks to get MSAA to work. GEFORCE EXPERIENCE is substantially better than RAPTR.

2. Frame rate 'feels' more stable. Granted I only run 2560 x 1600 or 2560 x 1080 @ 60hz nowadays. Nvidia Adaptive V-sync is better than AMD's plain V-sync.

3. None of my games PLAYABLE settings to come close to using the 3GB. I think Nvidia choice here is quite balanced. Yes I can load textures, AA, etc to get it past 3GB mark, However by then the FPS would have dropped down to 30s. For 60 or 120 FPS, I think 3-4GB is just perfect.
Maybe SKYRIM mods can breach the 3GB, I don't have that game. I honestly don't understand running SLI / X-fire with only 3-4GB 'effective' memory. By the time 4K takes hold, the TI will already be sold anyway, potentially for MAXWELL version of it.

4. Actual gaming power consumption at 60 and 120FPS are lower with the TI (overclocked at that). However, if you run both to max OC and load (i.e. sub 60 FPS), TI roughly equals the R9 on power draw, albeit with less cooling requirement. It seems Nvidia have the better TDP design overall.

5. Nvidia SHIELD!, bought it on an impulse. Now I think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

Quote:
Quote:
I just want to point out how silly the 780 Ti is priced. People, this card trades blows with the 780 Ti while giving you an extra GB of VRAM. It should cost at least as much as the 780 Ti. Or better yet, the other way around! ;) 


I had Sapphire R9 290x and currently owns Ti 780 windforce 3X OC, bought the R9 @ black friday, sold it during the mining craze and replaced it with the TI.
Always been an AMD/ATI supporter (from 9500 pro, X850XTX, 4870, 5870, 6970, 290x; I did have 8800 GTS in there somewhere), I have to admit the TI gave me substantially better 'overall' experience with modern games (SC2, LoL, AssCred, Infinity, X-com):

1. Games just run! No hiccups on settings, no manual tweaks to get MSAA to work. GEFORCE EXPERIENCE is substantially better than RAPTR.

2. Frame rate 'feels' more stable. Granted I only run 2560 x 1600 or 2560 x 1080 @ 60hz nowadays. Nvidia Adaptive V-sync is better than AMD's plain V-sync.

3. None of my games PLAYABLE settings to come close to using the 3GB. I think Nvidia choice here is quite balanced. Yes I can load textures, AA, etc to get it past 3GB mark, However by then the FPS would have dropped down to 30s. For 60 or 120 FPS, I think 3-4GB is just perfect.
Maybe SKYRIM mods can breach the 3GB, I don't have that game. I honestly don't understand running SLI / X-fire with only 3-4GB 'effective' memory. By the time 4K takes hold, the TI will already be sold anyway, potentially for MAXWELL version of it.

4. Actual gaming power consumption at 60 and 120FPS are lower with the TI (overclocked at that). However, if you run both to max OC and load (i.e. sub 60 FPS), TI roughly equals the R9 on power draw, albeit with less cooling requirement. It seems Nvidia have the better TDP design overall.

5. Nvidia SHIELD!, bought it on an impulse. Now I think it's the best thing since sliced bread.


True until you aim for 4K. I would recommend 770GTX SLI over a 780 TI. It's cheaper, stronger and do the job at 1440p. 780TI SLI choke to death at 4K.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 5:03:20 PM

Quote:
I used to be a huge fan of AMD and was excited for the 290x because of its performance for the price. But this card is slower and more expensive than the 780ti. I can't justify purchasing a slower card for more money just because I am loyal to the AMD brand. Sorry AMD, I just bought my asus direct cu ii gtx 780ti for 709$ at frys (they matched amazon). It was the right choice too. Probably the next to go will be OC'd 8350. :(  Its just not the XP 3200+ days anymore.


I get 2 Powercolor PCS+ 290x for 1200$ with taxes and shipping... and they destroy 2 780 TI in SLI at 4K. Honestly, the 780 TI, as good as a single card it is, is badly positioned between 1440p and 4K.
Score
0
April 16, 2014 7:17:09 PM

Only one freaking gaming chart and that too normalised?
And 1080p for this card? At least make it 1440p
Score
0
April 17, 2014 7:08:05 AM

that's probably why there'll be 780's coming out with 6gb...for 780 Ti "hopefully" ....base 780 6gb price is around 549 @evga...not bad compared to 780 with 3gb base price.
Score
0
April 17, 2014 9:59:12 AM

Quote:
I get 2 Powercolor PCS+ 290x for 1200$ with taxes and shipping... and they destroy 2 780 TI in SLI at 4K. Honestly, the 780 TI, as good as a single card it is, is badly positioned between 1440p and 4K.

Quote:
True until you aim for 4K. I would recommend 770GTX SLI over a 780 TI. It's cheaper, stronger and do the job at 1440p. 780TI SLI choke to death at 4K. .


yeah, I think 4K is beyond the reach of 780TI, but the displays are still a tad too much for me. I tried both SLI & Crossfire in the past; as far as triple 4870 at one point. I finally gave up on SLI/Crossfire due to heavy reliance on driver support, power consumption and Low 'effective memory': have to use 2x4GB to get 4GB effective, etc.

I tried blind testing myself (with a friend helping), and found that I can't distinguish any additional smoothness past 60Hz.

So nowadays I tend to simply game at 60Hz at 2560x1600, with adaptive V-sync on. I rather have some reserve GPU headroom so my FPS is very stable at 60. This save some power utilization in the process, since the GPU throttles back most of the time, and it only run more power if needed to maintain 60FPS @ heavy shader loads.

With that said, I think NVIDIA have improved substantially since I last time I tried SLI. but I am still leery on driver support requirements (think older, heavy games: Crysis 2, AssCred series, etc). I have healthy amount of backlog on games; DAMN YOU STEAM PROMOTIONS!!!
Score
0
April 17, 2014 10:00:42 AM

Quote:
I get 2 Powercolor PCS+ 290x for 1200$ with taxes and shipping... and they destroy 2 780 TI in SLI at 4K. Honestly, the 780 TI, as good as a single card it is, is badly positioned between 1440p and 4K.

Quote:
True until you aim for 4K. I would recommend 770GTX SLI over a 780 TI. It's cheaper, stronger and do the job at 1440p. 780TI SLI choke to death at 4K. .


yeah, I think 4K is beyond the reach of 780TI, but the displays are still a tad too much for me. I tried both SLI & Crossfire in the past; as far as triple 4870 at one point. I finally gave up on SLI/Crossfire due to heavy reliance on driver support, power consumption and Low 'effective memory': have to use 2x4GB to get 4GB effective, etc.

I tried blind testing myself (with a friend helping), and found that I can't distinguish any additional smoothness past 60Hz.

So nowadays I tend to simply game at 60Hz at 2560x1600, with adaptive V-sync on. I rather have some reserve GPU headroom so my FPS is very stable at 60. This save some power utilization in the process, since the GPU throttles back most of the time, and it only run more power if needed to maintain 60FPS @ heavy shader loads.

With that said, I think NVIDIA have improved substantially since I last time I tried SLI. but I am still leery on driver support requirements (think older, heavy games: Crysis 2, AssCred series, etc). I have healthy amount of backlog on games; DAMN YOU STEAM PROMOTIONS!!!
Score
0
a b U Graphics card
April 19, 2014 10:26:35 AM

Good to see prices coming closer back to normal. Also, this cooler is a pretty awesome fit for a 290x.
Score
0
April 22, 2014 8:32:45 AM

this card is also affected by black screen plague...i'm returning my mine.
Score
0
a c 190 U Graphics card
a b À AMD
April 22, 2014 10:53:30 AM

I think it's the most quiet and cool R9 290X card with non reference air cooler.
Score
0
April 26, 2014 7:11:12 AM

Wow, it's look cool!
Score
0
!