ASUS tease R9 290x DirectCu II card

[WYP]

The AMD R9 290x is a good GPU which has been let down by now famous AMD design choices. AMD have the GPU running at a maximum temperature of 95C with a maximum frequency of 1GHz, many consider this too hot and in most cases the with the under-performing cooler the card must throttle its clock speed to maintain the already high 95C thermal limit.

ASUS seem to be the first company to officially tease a upcoming custom R9 290x which hopes to address these issues. Based on their DirectCU II design, this uses two fans and multiple 10mm nickel plated heatpipes directly on top of the processor. This card also has the ASUS CoolTech fan which promises more air flow per decibel of sound than other fans.

Will ASUS fix the R9 290x? With their custom cooling solution, will this card run cooler than AMD's recommended temperatures? Will this card throttle under load? All these questions will be answered in time as this card is released to the public.

As of yet no pricing or release date has been announced. AMD's board partners are soon to release custom versions of the Hawaii GPU, lets hope they can wipe away the flaws of the reference release.

Source, ASUS Republic of Gamers Twitter account

 

[MadShadow]

I think this is really great, because AMD is actually going to be a bigger competitor against Nvidia. If they can get their noise and temperature under control, they might just win over the market. Let's see what happens.

 

[SieB]

Saw this the other day and dayum, it looks smexy as hell.

I've been waiting for the third part coolers for the 290s, all my past GPUs have been ASUS and been the DC and DCU II variants, so it looks like this will be the one I get. Unless Nvidia drop the prices of the 780s to rival the 290 that is.

 

[WYP]

Saw this the other day and dayum, it looks smexy as hell.

I've been waiting for the third part coolers for the 290s, all my past GPUs have been ASUS and been the DC and DCU II variants, so it looks like this will be the one I get. Unless Nvidia drop the prices of the 780s to rival the 290 that is.

yeah thought I would post this since this was officially teased on the ASUS twitter pages.

The custom Hawaii GPUs should put AMD in a good position.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Good find matey shall facebook this - Im very interested to see how this pans out but I had heard this was designed to be run hot - Im not sure anything other than water will tame it properly.

 

[WYP]

Cheers Tom

I am looking forward to seeing how these cards perform.

if they can get the cards to not throttle after a few minutes use, the performance gain should be similar to a moderate overclock.

 

[SieB]

Temps shouldn't be to bad, I saw some result of people using third party coolers like the Gelid Icy Vision Rev2 on the reference models getting load temps in the 60s-70s with overclocks.

Wow, stealth edit to my post o_0 Just Google "Installation guide/tips of REV.2 Icy Vision on R9 290X" or "290 custom cooling" there are loads of results around the web with people who have fitted third part coolers to 290s and reduced temps massively.

And as I also said, with custom PCBs, BIOS and coolers like the DCII temps should be around the same.

 

[barnsley]

I really like my DCII cooler on my card . If AMD only let certain companies make aftermarket coolers for the 290x I'd imagine ASUS would be one of them. The others probably would be Sapphire and -gulp- XFX.

 

[Netroxen]

Don't judge me, but doesn't it look like all the other DCU II cards? Nothing making me gawk here...

I think it's funny when the companies tease these cards and they look the same (Aesthetically) as the previous series, lol.

 

[SeekaX]

why haven't they allowed these on release, it's nearly 2014...

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

I remember back with the 6xxx series cards also had this heat issue. And if I remember correctly no other 3rd party cooler made a lick of difference for anyone who wanted to over clock. You had to l liquid cool them to get them safely passed stock settings.

 

[SeekaX]

I remember back with the 6xxx series cards also had this heat issue. And if I remember correctly no other 3rd party cooler made a lick of difference for anyone who wanted to over clock. You had to l liquid cool them to get them safely passed stock settings.

my 6870 overclocked quite well. was the basic sapphire card.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

my 6870 overclocked quite well. was the basic sapphire card.

I should be more specific, the 69xx series cards.

 

[Remmy]

I'm glad they're trying to tame that fireball, the cooler looks great too. It seems weird seeing such a small Asus GPU cooler from what I'm used to seeing lol

 

[SieB]

Hardwarecanucks have a review up of the 290x with the DCU II

Dat custom PCB

 

[barnsley]

Hardwarecanucks have a review up of the 290x with the DCU II

Dat custom PCB

The performance mode of the DCU II is quite acceptable it must be said . I wasn't expeting the card to have much of a temperature difference, I was expecting more of a noise difference and it seems I was right(ish)

 

[SieB]

The performance mode of the DCU II is quite acceptable it must be said . I wasn't expeting the card to have much of a temperature difference, I was expecting more of a noise difference and it seems I was right(ish)

It's amazing just how bad the stock AMD cooler is compared to the DCUII.
It's just as quiet as a 780Ti now and only slightly hotter, in the review they got a 1200mhz OC out of it as well.

If only AMD had let Asus and the likes do custom coolers strait away instead of making them wait...

 

[barnsley]

If only AMD had let Asus and the likes do custom coolers strait away instead of making them wait...

The death of AMD will caused by the idiots in charge. I've said it since bulldozer they're clueless imbeciles (hence the 9590) who are out of the loop. You'd think they'd atleast try to make a better cooler for the 290s, something either wacky and wonderful or ugly but good. Not neither good looking or good performing. Lets hope companies like Asus and Sapphire can improve the card's performance/value.

I'm excited to see if Sapphire will make a toxic edition 290/290x. I've recently done a build with one of their sought after 280x toxics and oh my they're amazing.

 

[SeekaX]

The death of AMD will caused by the idiots in charge. I've said it since bulldozer they're clueless imbeciles (hence the 9590) who are out of the loop. You'd think they'd atleast try to make a better cooler for the 290s, something either wacky and wonderful or ugly but good. Not neither good looking or good performing. Lets hope companies like Asus and Sapphire can improve the card's performance/value.

I'm excited to see if Sapphire will make a toxic edition 290/290x. I've recently done a build with one of their sought after 280x toxics and oh my they're amazing.

AMD are weird, they come up with right ideas and then manage to completely wreck them by unnecessary things like 5GHz CPUs or reference only releases.
That's why i currently don't want to support them, too many stupid ideas.
Also not a fan of the game bundles, i'd prefer to get the card at a cheaper price. Those bundles seem like dirt battles to me, people are biased to the card with the most freebies.

 

[barnsley]

AMD are weird, they come up with right ideas and then manage to completely wreck them by unnecessary things like 5GHz CPUs or reference only releases.
That's why i currently don't want to support them, too many stupid ideas.
Also not a fan of the game bundles, i'd prefer to get the card at a cheaper price. Those bundles seem like dirt battles to me, people are biased to the card with the most freebies.

Nvidia have obviously thought it was a good idea as well, I'm not sure when this whole shaboozy will die out. I agree though, I'd rather pay less for the 'cards then spend more and get games I'd probably never even play. I've only just finished all of the games that came with my old 7870 (nexuiz,Dirt Showdown, Shogun 2 and sleeping dogs). Its especially annoying when you get more than one GPU as well, although I'd imagine it makes Christmas presents easier ;D.