Can Gigabyte’s take on the Radeon R9 290x correct the imperfections of the reference design?
Towards the end of last year we finally got the first true high-end GPU refresh from AMD since December 2011′s HD7970, in the form of the new GCN 1.1 based Radeon R9 290/290x. We then saw perennial rival Nvidia striking back with a fully unlocked Kepler GK110 — the Geforce GTX 780 Ti.
The two titans battled it out for the top spot in different game engines and benchmarks. As of this week, AMD users could also take advantage of the much hyped Mantle API (present in Battlefield 4 and some upcoming titles from EA) to alleviate CPU bottlenecks and potentially get a smoother visual frame rate than with the competition.
One major complaint with the reference design of AMD’s new boards, was the poor thermal efficiency and acoustics of the reference 290x blower which had to subjugate a toasty 300W TDP of the Hawaii XT core.
In a bid to keep within factory predefined parameters (95 °C*temperature ceiling at a borderline tolerable fan speed), AMD’s PowerTune 2.0 algorithm will dramatically throttle the clock speed (and core voltage) downwards, somewhat resulting in a compromised visual experience. End users could switch this behaviour off by toggling the onboard “Uber” mode switch, but then*get a louder fan noise during prolonged intensive GPU loading.
For some reason, the competition’s fan on the Titan and 780Ti didn’t exhibit the same thermal or noise issues (better engineering?).*AMD enthusiasts had to wait nearly two months after the initial launch in October 2013 for the superior non-reference coolers from the likes of Asus, Sapphire and Gigabyte to hit the shelves.
The Card
#gallery-15 margin: auto; #gallery-15 .gallery-item float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; #gallery-15 img border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; #gallery-15 .gallery-caption margin-left: 0; /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
On the card that we are reviewing today, Gigabyte deploys its in-house 450W rated WindForce triple-fan heatpipe cooler, which made its debut at Computex last year.
The I/O panel configuration remains untouched (two DVI-D Dual-Link ports and full-sized 4K capable outputs HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2).
Power input requirements is also identical (8+6 pin PCIe), along with the inclusion of an onboard switch to choose the desired fan acoustic profile.
The WindForce cooler utilises three Power Logic 75mm PWM fans rated at 0.35A each to dissipate the heat from the massive heat sink block. Potential owners with small form factor enclosures might want to take note of the extended height (14.1cm) and length (29,4cm) requirements over the reference design.
Like all sensible cooling solutions of late, there are a couple of copper heat pipes making direct contact with the GPU core for improved heat transfer, as well as sticky thermal tape to conduct heat away from the memory modules and VRM components.
The OC edition featured in this review today has a factory overclock of 4 percent on the core (1040MHz as opposed to 1GHz) and comes with Elpida GDDR5 memory modules running at 1.25GHz. Gigabyte made minimal changes to the PCB layout, relying on the stock IR 3567B PWM controller (good for software compatibility) and*replacing some inductors and micro-capacitors in the 6-phase VRM with higher quality ones.
Like MSI’s Afterburner, the bundled OC Guru 2 utility allows monitoring and tweaking of the GPU’s vitals.
Testing
As we’re focusing on the Gigabyte’s thermal abilities relative to the reference solution, we did not run our usual complete suite of tests (see here instead). In the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme test, the factory overclock of 4 percent on the core resulted in a 1.7 percent improvement over the stock card. Toggling the fan profiles did not make a tangible difference here as benchmark levels were relatively short (not enough to hit thermal ceiling).
Next up, we ran a Furmark test for a few minutes and used GPU-Z to log some clock and temperature values. The red line represents the reference 290x in uber fan profile mode while the green and blue lines is the Gigabyte card in silent and performance mode respectively. As we can see, the cooling solution on the Gigabyte card was up to -15°C*cooler at full load, and consequently was able to avoid throttling of the GPU clocks in the performance fan mode. We did not measure the fan noise levels but the Gigabyte card was still quieter than our water cooling setup even at full load.
Overclocking
With a +100mV increase in core voltage, we managed to attain 1175MHz (+13%) on the core clocks and 1.4GHz (+12%) on the memory. This resulted in a 11.5% increase in the 3DMark score. Note that as with any form of overclocking, your mileage may vary.
Conclusion
Like the Asus 290x that we reviewed last week, Gigabyte didn’t disappoint in the cooling department and helps AMD’s flagship reach its full potential. A cursory check on NewEgg and various online retailers shows the card retailing for USD$699, cheaper than some of the non-reference competition.
Pros:
Cons:
Read More: http://ift.tt/1cWVwC2
Towards the end of last year we finally got the first true high-end GPU refresh from AMD since December 2011′s HD7970, in the form of the new GCN 1.1 based Radeon R9 290/290x. We then saw perennial rival Nvidia striking back with a fully unlocked Kepler GK110 — the Geforce GTX 780 Ti.
The two titans battled it out for the top spot in different game engines and benchmarks. As of this week, AMD users could also take advantage of the much hyped Mantle API (present in Battlefield 4 and some upcoming titles from EA) to alleviate CPU bottlenecks and potentially get a smoother visual frame rate than with the competition.
One major complaint with the reference design of AMD’s new boards, was the poor thermal efficiency and acoustics of the reference 290x blower which had to subjugate a toasty 300W TDP of the Hawaii XT core.
In a bid to keep within factory predefined parameters (95 °C*temperature ceiling at a borderline tolerable fan speed), AMD’s PowerTune 2.0 algorithm will dramatically throttle the clock speed (and core voltage) downwards, somewhat resulting in a compromised visual experience. End users could switch this behaviour off by toggling the onboard “Uber” mode switch, but then*get a louder fan noise during prolonged intensive GPU loading.
For some reason, the competition’s fan on the Titan and 780Ti didn’t exhibit the same thermal or noise issues (better engineering?).*AMD enthusiasts had to wait nearly two months after the initial launch in October 2013 for the superior non-reference coolers from the likes of Asus, Sapphire and Gigabyte to hit the shelves.
The Card
#gallery-15 margin: auto; #gallery-15 .gallery-item float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; #gallery-15 img border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; #gallery-15 .gallery-caption margin-left: 0; /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
On the card that we are reviewing today, Gigabyte deploys its in-house 450W rated WindForce triple-fan heatpipe cooler, which made its debut at Computex last year.
The I/O panel configuration remains untouched (two DVI-D Dual-Link ports and full-sized 4K capable outputs HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2).
Power input requirements is also identical (8+6 pin PCIe), along with the inclusion of an onboard switch to choose the desired fan acoustic profile.
The WindForce cooler utilises three Power Logic 75mm PWM fans rated at 0.35A each to dissipate the heat from the massive heat sink block. Potential owners with small form factor enclosures might want to take note of the extended height (14.1cm) and length (29,4cm) requirements over the reference design.
Like all sensible cooling solutions of late, there are a couple of copper heat pipes making direct contact with the GPU core for improved heat transfer, as well as sticky thermal tape to conduct heat away from the memory modules and VRM components.
The OC edition featured in this review today has a factory overclock of 4 percent on the core (1040MHz as opposed to 1GHz) and comes with Elpida GDDR5 memory modules running at 1.25GHz. Gigabyte made minimal changes to the PCB layout, relying on the stock IR 3567B PWM controller (good for software compatibility) and*replacing some inductors and micro-capacitors in the 6-phase VRM with higher quality ones.
As we’re focusing on the Gigabyte’s thermal abilities relative to the reference solution, we did not run our usual complete suite of tests (see here instead). In the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme test, the factory overclock of 4 percent on the core resulted in a 1.7 percent improvement over the stock card. Toggling the fan profiles did not make a tangible difference here as benchmark levels were relatively short (not enough to hit thermal ceiling).
Next up, we ran a Furmark test for a few minutes and used GPU-Z to log some clock and temperature values. The red line represents the reference 290x in uber fan profile mode while the green and blue lines is the Gigabyte card in silent and performance mode respectively. As we can see, the cooling solution on the Gigabyte card was up to -15°C*cooler at full load, and consequently was able to avoid throttling of the GPU clocks in the performance fan mode. We did not measure the fan noise levels but the Gigabyte card was still quieter than our water cooling setup even at full load.
Overclocking
With a +100mV increase in core voltage, we managed to attain 1175MHz (+13%) on the core clocks and 1.4GHz (+12%) on the memory. This resulted in a 11.5% increase in the 3DMark score. Note that as with any form of overclocking, your mileage may vary.
Conclusion
Like the Asus 290x that we reviewed last week, Gigabyte didn’t disappoint in the cooling department and helps AMD’s flagship reach its full potential. A cursory check on NewEgg and various online retailers shows the card retailing for USD$699, cheaper than some of the non-reference competition.
- Vast improvements over the cooler on AMD’s reference boards.
- Competitive pricing.
Cons:
- Additional space requirements mean the card won’t fit in many small form factor PCs.
Read More: http://ift.tt/1cWVwC2
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