Four days into testing, I contacted Chris to let him know I was writing up our review of PowerColor’s LCS AXR9 290X. I also sent him a copy of the benchmark data, and that’s where the trouble began.
Cool all year long and isolated from noise, an underground shelter might sound like the perfect place for a benchmark lab. It's even better with a building on top of it, which absorbs some heat in the summer. And using one of the heating ducts from the top floor appeared to be a great plan as well. The only problem is that an unreasonably cold winter in Michigan leaves me unable to heat that large space above 15° C (59° F).
Similarly, 4000 W at the breaker should be plenty of power for my office. But that also doesn't leave a lot for a dedicated electric heater. And there's not enough ventilation for a portable gas heater, either. I was eventually able to isolate the work space enough to push it to a range from 18° to 19° C.
The card I originally planned to use for this comparison, AMD's press sample, happily ran at full speed through all of my benchmarks at those low temperatures (which shouldn't have come as a surprise, given its strong performance in Angelini's Bakersfield, CA lab). Chris suggested that I toss two days worth of work and start over with a retail sample.

Well, of course, my office space remained fairly frigid, so the retail sample ran just as fast. But I was on an open-air test bench, which we know doesn't reflect the thermals experienced by an enthusiast in the real world. Chris sent me a link to Igor’s article and suggested a closed case.

As air temperatures climbed into the 20s (Celsius) inside the case, I was comfortable knowing that my test results would at least be heat-affected enough to represent what most folks would see in a chassis with plenty of airflow. And if that doesn't reflect your real-world uses, we’ve seen a few extremely-quiet, well-ventilated alternatives.
- Radeon R9 290X Performance Without The Noise
- An EK Block And Custom Clock Rates
- Test System And Benchmark Configuration
- The Definition Of Insanity
- Results: F1 2012 And Tomb Raider
- Results: Arma 3
- Results: Battlefield 4
- Results: Far Cry 3
- Results: Metro: Last Light
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Putting A Price On Silence
$100++ from GTX 780 Ti
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#sort=a7&qq=1&c=153
It has a $150 cooler (including the back plate, etc).
Of course Asus has a special cooler too. But Asus had the opportunity to drop its price, and the 290x has indeed dropped by $50 to $100 in the past two weeks. Supply is catching up with demand.
Unfortunately for PowerColor, its LCS 290X has been out-of-stock for more than two weeks. So they get stuck with prices that are at least two weeks old, at least until someone gets new inventory and lowers their price.
Sucks to be them, they should have restocked their sellers more quickly
$100++ from GTX 780 Ti
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#sort=a7&qq=1&c=153
Did you happen to notice any variability under load for your core speed while overclocked on the LCS card?
I have a Sapphire Tri-X OC R9 290X that is rock solid at its stock 1040MHz, but that starts bouncing the core clock all around when any core overclocking is applied.
With my quiet fan curve, load temps top out around 85°C; well below AMD's specified throttle point of 95°C.
If your liquid cooled cards are solid at 1200MHz, I am curious if Power Tune starts to throttle in a less severe way after going above 70- or 80°C.
Odd, this happens with a +50% power limit and tested with the Metro Last Light benchmark
Thanks for confirming that your test card was not throttling; back to troubleshooting my setup!
Odd, this happens with a +50% power limit and tested with the Metro Last Light benchmark
Thanks for confirming that your test card was not throttling; back to troubleshooting my setup!
Good point; I will have to retest with a cooler fan curve.
Not sure if this will be the issue though as even a 20MHz bump to the core, and +50% power limit added to this, causes throttling with under 85°C temps.
Thanks for the thoughts!
Good point; I will have to retest with a cooler fan curve.
Not sure if this will be the issue though as even a 20MHz bump to the core, and +50% power limit added to this, causes throttling with under 85°C temps.
Thanks for the thoughts!
The card will throttle at the specified level of power consumption and/or temperature. The point at which they throttle is configurable-- If you have the card set to target 80°C or 75°C then it will throttle to maintain that temp as much as possible, while keeping in mind the power limits you've set in Powertune.
That's easy to figure out for just the cards (Graphics performance gained / graphics price increased) For the system, there is System Performance Gained / System Price Increased.
making this chart more complicated on this occasion is that the LC card needs a liquid cooler, which increases the system price by $180. So the system price structure compares [LC card + cooling system + baseline system] to [air-cooled card + baseline system].
I'm sitting here looking at a pile of flow plates for my own EK WBs, so I'm wondering which one the manufacturer decided to go with.
I'm sitting here looking at a pile of flow plates for my own EK WBs, so I'm wondering which one the manufacturer decided to go with.