AMD’s Radeon R9 290X is an incredibly powerful gaming card. Unfortunately, the company's cheap cooling solution results in inconsistent performance and excessive noise. PowerColor’s liquid-cooled LCS AXR9 290X is set to solve both issues with finesse.
Our series of Hawaii-based (Radeon R9 290 and 290X) coverage caused more than just a bit of controversy, beginning with Chris’ observations concerning noise and followed by revelations that the AMD-supplied Radeon R9 290 he received for review generated benchmark scores that couldn’t be replicated by retail parts. We eventually found that variations in fan speed at the same PWM setting were part of the problem, but that the inconsistent application of thermal paste was also an issue. Taking apart your heat sink is a good way to get your warranty voided though, and AMD eventually addressed our most pressing concerns by overriding BIOS-determined fan profiles with a new driver. Even more noise was generated by the company's reference design, and simply had to be tolerated. It could only be solved by replacing the stock cooler.
Several of AMD’s partners now offer multi-fan-cooled cards that quietly dump all of the big GPU's heat into your case without the warranty worries of a do-it-yourself upgrade. Frankly, that still sounds like a bad idea to me, since extra heat affects every other component inside your case.
PowerColor has a better solution though, and it's currently selling for $800 on Newegg.

Liquid cooling helps enthusiasts move heat away from performance-oriented components to a large radiator, with full control over airflow and noise. Typically, when you build a liquid-cooled system, it's heavier, more intricate, and, of course, at risk of a leak shorting out expensive hardware. All of that is to say, simply, open-loop coolers aren’t for everyone. But if you're confident enough in your assembly technique, PowerColor will back you up with a two-year warranty.
In addition to the custom-cooled card, anyone buying a PowerColor LCS AXR9 290X 4GBD5-WMDHG/OC gets a bundle containing two 3/8” and two 1/2" line fittings, matching hose clamps, replacement seals, a mini 6 mm Allen wrench, a six-to-eight-pin PCIe power adapter, and a Battlefield 4 redemption code.
- 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.