Returning My 290X Matrix :(

Dicehunter

Dicehunter

Resident Newb
So this is sort of a very small review of the Asus 290X Matrix Platinum.

At first you are seriously wowed by the cards looks, It looks immense and the performance from my eyes isn't too far off a 780 Ti in the games I played.

But then, The temperatures start, After watching Toms review I thought as I wear cans I wouldn't mind the sound of the fans but it's there alright.

I have to have my case fans on max to blow over the card and coming from Nvidia's near silent operating temps is quite a shock seeing your temps in game reach into the high 80's with fans imitating a jet engine.

The temps inside of my system went up by at least 10'c on average and this was at stock clocks which was quite disappointing, The temp of my HDD according to the software went up by 20'c and the CPU temp went up by 12'c, Not impressed at all.

In all honesty yes it's a good card, It looks amazing but not if you value low temps and a good amount of overclocking, I was able to do 1200 on the core and 6600 on the memory but vantage would only stay stable at 1120 which again was quite disappointing coming from a 780 Ti that could easily do 1250 on the core and 7800 on the memory all while staying relatively quiet and with good temps when compared to this. *Yes I know I had a golden 780 Ti*

I'm returning the card tomorrow morning to OCUK as I'm still within the refund period and I'll have my refund just before I move.

All in all quite let down to be honest, Spend your money elsewhere.
 
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Personally after seeing some of the reviews AMD should have sold these with the same type of cooling as the 295X2 or a waterblock on them.

Air cooling just doesn't seem to cut it with them, even the aftermarket coolers have trouble with them which is a surprise seeing as most times aftermarket coolers, do wonders on cards and keep them really cool whilst staying quiet.
 
Damien c said:
Personally after seeing some of the reviews AMD should have sold these with the same type of cooling as the 295X2 or a waterblock on them.

Air cooling just doesn't seem to cut it with them, even the aftermarket coolers have trouble with them which is a surprise seeing as most times aftermarket coolers, do wonders on cards and keep them really cool whilst staying quiet.
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The only really good air cooled 290X's are made by Sapphire the rest are really not up to par.
 
Asus did a crap job with the 290 cards, they have a massive cooler on the Matrix and on the DCU2 cards, yet the temps are not much better than a reference card.

The best 290s are the Tri-X, Vapor-X, PCS+ and the Lightning. The MSI gaming and Gigabyte Windforce are ok, but they aren't as good as the other offerings.
Sadly non of the 290s have cherry picked cores, so overclocking comes down to the silicon lottery. Even if you spend more on the Lightning (or the Matrix) there is no guarantee it will be a good overclocker or even overclock better than a reference card.
 
SieB said:
Asus did a crap job with the 290 cards, they have a massive cooler on the Matrix and on the DCU2 cards, yet the temps are not much better than a reference card.

The best 290s are the Tri-X, Vapor-X, PCS+ and the Lightning. The MSI gaming and Gigabyte Windforce are ok, but they aren't as good as the other offerings.
Sadly non of the 290s have cherry picked cores, so overclocking comes down to the silicon lottery. Even if you spend more on the Lightning (or the Matrix) there is no guarantee it will be a good overclocker or even overclock better than a reference card.
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So true, I've seen others easily do 1200 on the core on a reference but this fails in Vantage, Quite disappointing.
 
Dicehunter said:
So true, I've seen others easily do 1200 on the core on a reference but this fails in Vantage, Quite disappointing.
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My Tri-X with a reference PCB does 1250, I haven't tried Vantage but 3Dmark, Heaven and Valley I can do 1230 stable. Performance drops off at around 1220 though because of heat, if I had it under water I could get 1250 stable easy I reckon.

The only way to guarantee a good over clocker is to buy a card with cherry picked cores unfortunately, if only manufactures would send us 30 cards so we could find the best overclocker out of the bunch and send the rest back :lol:
 
Dicehunter said:
The temps inside of my system went up by at least 10'c on average and this was at stock clocks which was quite disappointing, The temp of my HDD according to the software went up by 20'c and the CPU temp went up by 12'c, Not impressed at all.
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My GTX 780 has a similar effect on my CPU temperature (+ ~10C), but that's only while running Furmark. The adder is less while gaming but it's by no means negligible.

To be honest any high end GPU with an open-air cooler is going to do the same, due to the way airflow works in an ATX case. The only way you get around it is if its got a blower style cooler. Then it spits the air out via the graphics card backplate.
 
Hey dude, am gutted for you! However, I reckon it's a sign, fate if you will, that you're destined to get that 780 Ti Matrix haha!

I got a 290X Lightning. After reading various reviews stating it didn't exceed 70-75C in stress tests and gaming, you can imagine my surprise when it was hitting 90-95C within seconds of running and game or benchmark. Scan.co.uk tried to pass this off as the cards running hot normally. I never that those temps weren't normal!

I've read about so many issues with the 290's. I just think they're crap compared to a 780 Ti.

Also, a little bit of news, Amazon.co.uk now has the 780 Ti Matrix listed on their site and apparently they are "dispatched in 2-3 weeks".
 
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Aww sorry about the issues you've got with your matrix Dicehunter, was really looking forward to the LN2 :( Also I believe tom gave the matrix (290x variant) a bad review didnt he? As I remember reading a review of his around the time I was researching the matrix 780ti. You should be fine with the 780ti matrix though :) hope you are still going to do LN2 if you get the 780ti.
 
kilobravo said:
I have the msi 290x lightning,64c when folding and fans hardly spins up.
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That's folding not benchmarking or gaming though, Under gaming the card still goes to 90'c.

I think I'm just going to get the DCUII version of the 780 Ti for the moment unless some place has the Matrix in stock in the next few days as I had it on pre-order for 6 weeks and the guys over at Asus gave me every damn excuse under the sun -

"You just missed the shipment"

"Will be here in 2 weeks"

"Will be here in 1 week"

"Will be here in a few days"

"We have no information about the cards release date"

"Hasn't left the factory yet"

"It has left the factory but is stuck at customs"

"You just missed the 2nd shipment of the 2nd batch"

"Still in the process of being made"

"Will be another few weeks"

And that's when I cancelled my pre-order as I was tired of being told crap continuously.
 
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I've decided to go for a reference 780 Ti as I prefer the blower style cooling solutions.

My plan is to get a reference 780 Ti, Test it thoroughly, Put a custom VBIOS onto it like I've done many times before to increase overclocking options i.e voltage control, Base/boost clocks etc... Testing it again and then stripping it down and painting the silver metal a matt black, Sanding the green paint off the LED lettering so it's just a nice white light "GEFORCE GTX" *Seen this done a few times on modding forums and very easy to do* Putting it back together and putting a custom plain matt black backplate on to it.

*I know all of the above will void my warranty*

Thoughts ?
 
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Sapphires TRI-X/Vapor X,Powercolors PCS+ and the MSI lightning are the only decent air cooled 290/290x. ASUS just didn't even try.

Maybe you should look at the gainward 780ti Dice? Its quiet, overclocks well and is a very unique design :D.
 
barnsley said:
Sapphires TRI-X/Vapor X,Powercolors PCS+ and the MSI lightning are the only decent air cooled 290/290x. ASUS just didn't even try.

Maybe you should look at the gainward 780ti Dice? Its quiet, overclocks well and is a very unique design :D.
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I'm actually looking at the Gainward Phantom as we speak :)
 
Dicehunter said:
I'm actually looking at the Gainward Phantom as we speak :)
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My friend recently got a GTX 680 phantom to go with his EVGA ref 680 (eww non matching sli cards :( ). Its so much quieter than the stock one. Can barely hear it even. Temps are also excellent as well.
 
Dicehunter said:
I've decided to go for a reference 780 Ti as I prefer the blower style cooling solutions.

My plan is to get a reference 780 Ti, Test it thoroughly, Put a custom VBIOS onto it like I've done many times before to increase overclocking options i.e voltage control, Base/boost clocks etc... Testing it again and then stripping it down and painting the silver metal a matt black, Sanding the green paint off the LED lettering so it's just a nice white light "GEFORCE GTX" *Seen this done a few times on modding forums and very easy to do* Putting it back together and putting a custom plain matt black backplate on to it.

*I know all of the above will void my warranty*

Thoughts ?
Click to expand...

That sounds like it will look really badass. You owe us pics once you do it :D
 
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