Today we're looking at the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II, a card that hopes to fix the issues with the reference 290X. Is it successful?
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ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC Review
- Thread starter tinytomlogan
- Start date
Today we're looking at the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II, a card that hopes to fix the issues with the reference 290X. Is it successful?
Continue Reading
heh, just checked the 290x prices again, no custom coolers on mindfactory yet, but the price is around 500 euros. so with a custom cooler it will be around 550-600 i suppose. at 590 euros the 780ti already starts, even with custom coolers.
that card needs a price drop, at 500 euros with custom cooler it would fit between the 780 and the 780ti.
that card needs a price drop, at 500 euros with custom cooler it would fit between the 780 and the 780ti.
SieB
New member
Nice to see that Asus has tamed the temps with the DCUII 
I'm waiting for my Sapphire Tri-X 290 from OCUK, they were supposed to get stock on the 27th to be delivered on the 28th. That didn't happen though
so it's some time next week now. I'll compare results against this 290x version to see how much difference there is between a custom cooled £380 290 and a custom cooled £500 290x when I get my card.
I'm waiting for my Sapphire Tri-X 290 from OCUK, they were supposed to get stock on the 27th to be delivered on the 28th. That didn't happen though
so it's some time next week now. I'll compare results against this 290x version to see how much difference there is between a custom cooled £380 290 and a custom cooled £500 290x when I get my card.
12c cooler but still quieter is a massive thing matey.
you could do what I'm planning on doing for my 7850, take the cooler off the card, take the plastic cover from it, white matte base coat and then blue on top of it. put it all back together again and you have a nice, blue-ish card
you could do what I'm planning on doing for my 7850, take the cooler off the card, take the plastic cover from it, white matte base coat and then blue on top of it. put it all back together again and you have a nice, blue-ish card
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NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Then Nvidia need to tame their cards to because they run at 80C...
I still think the 290x can do better.. seems like toms card was more of an average one. Many stock cards have clocked higher so something is up. Though the cooler is great i feel it needs to be better to further tame it but thats just me.
Maybe something like the powercolor r9 290x watercooled out of the box card.
SieB
New member
Well considering it's down from 95 and remains quiet, i'd say it's tamed
The Sapphire Tri-X version i'm getting, all reviews i've seen so far are reporting max temps of ~74 and that's in furmark, normal gaming is ~70.
And that's with a max noise level of ~43db, that makes the Tri-X just as cool and quiet as the 780/Ti.
I don't know how the other aftermarket 290/x coolers are because there are no reviews for them yet, but if they do just a good of a job then the 290 is definitely tamed
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Well considering it's down from 95 and remains quiet, i'd say it's tamed
The Tri-X version i'm getting all reviews i've seen so far are reporting max temps of ~74 and that's in furmark. Normal gaming is ~70.
And that's with a max noise level of 43db, that makes the Tri-X just as cool and quiet as the 780/Ti.
I don't know how the other aftermarket coolers are because there are no reviews for them yet but if they do just a good of a job then the 290 is definitely tamed
Which means better overclocks and perhaps pass the 290x.
Ghosthud1
New member
Well considering it's down from 95 and remains quiet, i'd say it's tamed
The Sapphire Tri-X version i'm getting, all reviews i've seen so far are reporting max temps of ~74 and that's in furmark, normal gaming is ~70.
And that's with a max noise level of ~43db, that makes the Tri-X just as cool and quiet as the 780/Ti.
I don't know how the other aftermarket 290/x coolers are because there are no reviews for them yet, but if they do just a good of a job then the 290 is definitely tamed
The Tri-X version is the definition of taming a card.
780ti is at 73 degrees in the chart, also 80 degrees with the reference cooler and auto overclock, without gpu boost 2.0 the cards would run a lot cooler.
83 degrees is hard on the limit for me, i don't like running my 770 at 80 degrees either.
Zoot
Active member
I can't understand why everybody gets so hot and bothered about temperatures. As an example, the GPU in my laptop, which I did a lot of gaming on while I was at college routinely ran at over 100C, and 6 years later it's still alive and kicking.
Not to mention, most IC's be it CPUs, GPUs or other more simple parts would have an inbuilt thermal shutdown function in them to throttle/shutdown if temperature goes over an unacceptable level.
Noise is really the only thing worth bitching about, temperature not so much.
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Nvidia lets them run at 80C and its fine. 80C is not even bad.
I don't really care for temps on the gpu tbh.
Can't compare a laptop though because they are designed to run much much hotter than a desktop counterpart and still last a long time.
Davva2004
Active member
I think the main problem with super high graphics temperatures is two-fold: The lifetime of your card, and the effect those temps have on the rest of your components in your case.
Even if AMD say that 95°C is absolutely fine and has no effect whatsoever on the lifetime of the card, you're still radiating an enormous amount of heat into the case. That increases all of your component temperatures because your CPU cooler is sucking in hotter air, your RAM is absorbing extra heat, and as far as electronics is concerned heat = bad. Even if you have an AIO CPU cooler drawing air from inside the case, that air is going to be hotter and will reduce the temperature drop from your AIO cooler.
An additional concern: Hotter components run their fans faster to compensate, meaning more noise. So by having the equivalent of a hotplate running inside your case, you make everything else hotter and louder.
Even if AMD say that 95°C is absolutely fine and has no effect whatsoever on the lifetime of the card, you're still radiating an enormous amount of heat into the case. That increases all of your component temperatures because your CPU cooler is sucking in hotter air, your RAM is absorbing extra heat, and as far as electronics is concerned heat = bad. Even if you have an AIO CPU cooler drawing air from inside the case, that air is going to be hotter and will reduce the temperature drop from your AIO cooler.
An additional concern: Hotter components run their fans faster to compensate, meaning more noise. So by having the equivalent of a hotplate running inside your case, you make everything else hotter and louder.
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Only with open air coolers yes. With the stock cooler most of it gets out of the back so less heat can escape into the rig.
Zoot
Active member
How do you know how they're designed though?
A laptop CPU and GPU are normally very similar to their desktop counterparts, they're almost always the same architecture and quite often even the very same silicon. That would mean they both would run at the same max temperature for the same period of time.
Funnily enough, the lower the temperature of the GPU, the more heat has to be transferred away from it. ^_^
Similar power consumption = Similar Heat Production, which means the cooler card (with a non-blower cooler) will actually have a worse effect in heating up the rest of your case.
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