Front and Rear Views
The front of PowerColor's card is dominated by three commonly-controlled 76 mm fans.
The back plate braces the PCB and ensures it doesn’t flex. However, there is no mounting frame on top of the board, probably to save weight and cut cost.
Heat Sink and PCB
The visually impressive cooler sports a massive copper heat sink, from which four 8 mm heat pipes lead to the cooling fins at the right side of the card. There's a second block of cooling fins on top of the heat sink, and this radiator is attached by a single semi-circular heat pipe.
The DC-DC converters have aluminum heat sinks of their own, while the memory packages make contact with the main heat sink through thermal adhesive.
Side Views
Looking down from the top of the PowerColor PCS+ R9 290X, you mostly see the heat sink's cooling fins, heat pipes, and the 6- and 8-pin power connectors.
The bottom yields a better view of how the heat pipes connect to PowerColor's sink.
Due to the vertical arrangement of the cooling fins, peeking in from the side of the card doesn't reveal much aside from a fan connector and a few board components.
Slot Panel
The card sports a two-slot rear panel, even though the PCS+ R9 290X is thicker than two expansion slots. A three-slot I/O bracket might have been better for the sake of stability.
Display outputs match what you get from pretty much every Hawaii-based board. There are two dual-link DVI-D connectors, one HDMI port, and a full-sized DisplayPort interface. That combination is more than sufficient for any number of multi-screen arrays. Just be aware that the use of DVI-D means analog output is no longer supported.








Well, since you are comparing a non reference GPU, you should take also a non-reference GPU to compare.
Tom's using Gigabyte's 780ti OC which costs the same as the reference card...
So even the non-reference models are on a different tier as well as their reference...
Typical translation errors, the original is in metric
http://www.tomshardware.de/powercolor-r9-290x-pcs-review,testberichte-241519-3.html4
I will clearify with Chris, that we use both in the future. Metric is worldwide more common
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_Ti_SC_ACX_Cooler/26.html
With such a HUGE difference in prices, quality, and performance on all top-end cards you really have to do your research.
The R9-290X prices vary from $550 to $780 USD!
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_Ti_SC_ACX_Cooler/26.html
With such a HUGE difference in prices, quality, and performance on all top-end cards you really have to do your research.
The R9-290X prices vary from $550 to $780 USD!
Thanks for the response! I thought I had seen reviews elsewhere that showed the 290 series really closing the gap, or even surpassing the 780ti at higher resolutions, but perhaps I was remembering wrong. I recently decided to upgrade to a dual-290 setup, but if I had gone with a single card, the 780ti was at or near the top of my list (until the 290x prices came crashing down, that is).
See these articles for after-market cooling options:
Air cooling:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290-accelero-xtreme-290,3671.html
Liquid Cooling:
How to:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Using-NZXT-Kraken-G10-Watercool-Radeon-R9-290
And results:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-r9-290-and-290x,review-32872.html
I was more wondering about the value of getting the 290x for $350. I could buy an after market cooler for $50-75. I'm just not sure if it is a worth while upgrade.
For total upgrade worthwhileness ( is that even a word/term? ) what kind of resolution are you going for? Most of the top-end cards are complete overkill if you're not playing above 1080p. If you're not using 1440p or triple displays, I wouldn't bother going above a GTX 770 / R9 280.
I am questioning Toms review about the temps. Temps on Hardwarecanucks are showing something entirely different giving the PCS+ the best temps of all the 290x cards offered. A wooping 63C... even mines have never reach up 67C...
Not to forget the only viable 4k option right now in Crossfire.