HardwareCanucks - ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC Review

[Heinz68]

Looking good I only had time to read the conclusion before posting, here it is:

Conclusion

As I write this, I feel like this review had a foregone conclusion. The R9 290X has always been an upper-echelon product which had its potential stymied by PowerTune?s negative reactions to an inadequate cooler design. ASUS has improved on every one of the reference design?s shortcomings with a better heatsink, higher frequencies, upgraded components and countless other tweaks, once again proving why so many gamers tend to gravitate towards these DirectCU II cards.

So much of what makes the R9 290X great centers around that awesome DirectCU II heatsink. One of the primary critiques leveled at the reference card was that its blower-style cooler needed extreme fan speeds to keep temperatures at somewhat acceptable levels. This had a spill-off effect on clock speeds which tended to stray quite far below AMD?s claimed upper frequency range as PowerTune struggled to balance power, thermals and noise. With ASUS? additions, these concerns have been rendered mute as temperatures and acoustics remain blissfully low while clock speeds are a picture of consistency.

That consistency leads directly to substantially better in-game performance. To put it into context, when in Performance Mode the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC easily outpaces the reference card?s Uber Mode while maintaining a noise level below NVIDIA?s reference GTX 780 Ti. That?s impressive to say the least.

Silent Mode on this card still provides all-round excellent framerates but it?s mostly superfluous from where I stand. Personally, I?d rather trade in the 500RPM fan speed difference between it and ASUS? default Performance Mode for lower temperatures, better overclocking headroom and enhanced performance. There may be an on-paper increase in decibel readings but during gameplay but there?s just no way you?ll subjectively tell the two modes apart from one another. Both are equally silent compared to the reference design.

Speaking of that $700 GTX 780 Ti, with the custom R9 290X's being introduced its place in the grand scheme of things is a bit of a question mark. Unlike the R9-series, it has been maintaining a relatively constant price and has been sheltered from the rapid fluctuations that have hit the majority AMD?s lineup. On paper the R9 290X DirectCU II OC provides a ridiculously better price / performance ratio due to its much lower initial cost and excellent framerates but with the current crop of retailer markups, where ASUS? latest card will ultimately end up is anyone?s guess. We?re hoping its price of just $570 will carry forward and if that happens, NVIDIA may have to rethink their GTX 780 Ti strategy.

Overclocking AMD?s Hawaii architecture certainly takes some getting used to but ASUS? GPU Tweak utility makes things easy. By using it alongside the Performance Mode, frequencies could be pushed to the point where the R9 290X DirectCU II had no problem matching and in many situations beating NVIDIA?s mighty GTX 780 Ti.

The R9 290X certainly looks a whole lot better in ASUS DirectCU II guise than it did in reference form. As custom versions are pushed out by numerous board partners at aggressive price points, I really can?t see there being much of a market for those blower-style setups. If anything, the R9 290X DirectCU II has proven that AMD?s enthusiast product has what it takes to match NVIDIA?s highest end offerings without a stratospheric price tag. That?s exactly what gamers have been waiting for and ASUS has delivered. You'll just have to wait until January to buy one.

See the complete review at HardwareCanucks

[tajoh111]

At regular price of 570-580 dollars, I would totally buy this over a gtx 780 ti. The problem is regular price is nowhere to be seen and the only price I see is 700 dollars in Canada. At that price I would get a gtx 780 ti.

It's downright silly to buy a r9 290x with the reference cooling solution.

I would hold off buying a r9-290x for the wait of none reference coolers like this card.

[mars]

It's downright silly to buy a r9 290x with the reference cooling solution.

if there was ever a place where the above quote is untrue... it should be here at XS

again completely shocked if you are into overclocking and hardware but run a 290x with a reference cooler I honestly cannot make sense of it (let alone ing about a stock cooler)

if manufacturers released naked cards for slightly less, those would be the ones i buy

[Heinz68]

I already posted the same on another forum:

Hopefully in January the prices for the AMD cards will stabilize, it might happen due to the fav Litecoin miners HD 7900 series cards back on the market and tradfitionaly slower after Christmas retail.

In that case the MSRP at $570 for the R9 290X DirectCU II is going to be a HOT deal and put me up for two in Crossfire. Nice saving compared to GTX 780 Ti SLI.

Lets also not forget the R9 290 series great Crosfire scalling as per many reviews and great 4K UHD performance also from many reviews. 4K UHD is my next monitor upgrade, all this makes it very easy decision which cards I should purchase. Additionally on avg I only game about couple hours a day so hopefully in the long run the cards might pay for them self if the Litecoin craziness stays on.

EDIT
I also think the non X R9 290 are better deal and looking forward to see some of the non-reference 290s soon on the market to compare.

[vario]

... With the LiteCoin mining craze in full swing you can be assured of two things: the DirectCU II won?t come cheap and most won?t end up in the hands of gamers...

Hold your horses people! We have nostradamus here!
Being all rational and all, i would think that people who buy cards solely for mining, would opt for a cheaper one, however i dont have a crystal ball like some, so i probably am wrong.

And what a surprise ,card performs better with better cooling, who would have thought

[tajoh111]

if there was ever a place where the above quote is untrue... it should be here at XS

again completely shocked if you are into overclocking and hardware but run a 290x with a reference cooler I honestly cannot make sense of it (let alone ing about a stock cooler)

if manufacturers released naked cards for slightly less, those would be the ones i buy

Not everyone has to run water cooling systems on this website or ln2. And many don't have a water cooling setup in the first place and for these people its quite a significant expense.

The markup of this card over stock is only 20 dollars. That's what makes the card completely worth it over the stock in addition to the improvements all over the board.

The reason why it is downright silly if you didn't understand from the context of the pricing I mentioned earlier is that this card is only 20 dollars more than the reference solution, hence reference solutions are just a poor purchase with non reference solutions shortly available and barely anymore.

20 bucks more, gets your 7 percent more performance, 10% more overclocking headroom, quietness and better performance per watt.

Hold your horses people! We have nostradamus here!
Being all rational and all, i would think that people who buy cards solely for mining, would opt for a cheaper one, however i dont have a crystal ball like some, so i probably am wrong.

And what a surprise ,card performs better with better cooling, who would have thought

I think we should see lower prices soon. The bubble for litecoins has recently burst.

Its was just 30 dollars last friday, 21 dollars yesterday and it is now at 12 dollars for a litecoin. At that price including power, your not really making money. Particularly if you add the price of the card itself.

If this continues, the flood of used card is going to hit the market.

[SKYMTL]

Hold your horses people! We have nostradamus here!
Being all rational and all, i would think that people who buy cards solely for mining, would opt for a cheaper one, however i dont have a crystal ball like some, so i probably am wrong.

And what a surprise ,card performs better with better cooling, who would have thought

Litecoin miners are picking up anything they can. One of the only reasons many stayed away from the R9 290X was due to its high temps and fluctuating clock speeds. If you look at the $ / hash ratio, the 290X is one of the best cards out there and ASUS just made it a whole lot better with a mere $20 markup.

[mars]

Not everyone has to run water cooling systems on this website or ln2. And many don't have a water cooling setup in the first place and for these people its quite a significant expense.

20 bucks more, gets your 7 percent more performance, 10% more overclocking headroom, quietness and better performance per watt.

Yea this used to be a place where water cooling is the cheapest, majority ran single stage dd, peltiers, cascades etc

Yea don't agree with the last quoted statement all you get is a better reference cooler.... Which means nothing about the silicon (all your adjectives except quiet is describing the silicon which obviously requires some form of cooling)

[vario]

Litecoin miners are picking up anything they can. One of the only reasons many stayed away from the R9 290X was due to its high temps and fluctuating clock speeds. If you look at the $ / hash ratio, the 290X is one of the best cards out there and ASUS just made it a whole lot better with a mere $20 markup.

If someone builds a farm, they have the cooling and noise all figured out.Unless youre talking about regular people who also mine and also GAME then yes, but theyre also gamers so your statement falls flat on its face.And if someone buys multitude of cards then they buy the cheapest one, set fan on 100% and forget about it.Besides until AMD delivers enough hawaii chips which can be month or two all the cards will have a serious markup ,and ASUS DCU will be a lot more expensive then 20$.
Aaaaaand of course its pure speculation on your part.

http://bitcoinexaminer.org/wp-conten...in-Rig-mod.jpg

Thats how a farm looks like.Open bed with dozens of cards running MAX.

Hilarious thing is, few days ago you were saying tha "Gamers arent interested in R290`s"
Now its "unfortunately gamers wont be able to buy R290`s because of miners"

To me it looks like "Well i have to somehow tell them its crap"

[Heinz68]

guru3d - ASUS Radeon R9-290X DirectCU II OC review

The following is small part from the conclusion, read the complete review at guru3d

Products like the ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II OC is the gear we have been waiting for. After a few weeks reporting on the temps and problems related to it, we feel AMD made an average choice with the reference coolers of the 290X, I mean it's a great card but the 94 Degrees C temperature target is a hint troublesome. The ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II OC however eliminates all that thanks to the DirectCU II cooler. In fact you'll even have more reserve to actually be able to actually overclock the card. A pure win in my opinion. In the end products like shown today will make the entire enthusiast segment will go down a little in pricing. I expect that in the first weeks after the release of this product the pricing will be over inflated due to high demand and low stock, but then once DirectCU II sits at 499 EUR, that is where it will make the difference. As such we can only conclude that the ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II OC is seriously attractive product, with its great volume of 4GB graphics memory and raw rendering performance it will surely offer you an extensive amount of gaming performance into your PC. The heat levels, and noise levels are no longer a trade-off and effectively have been eliminated. That makes the card a serious contender against NVIDIA's line-up.

[Dimitriman]

Holy power consumption Batman!!

I see that each card is only connected on what looks to be a 1x Pcie connector. Won't it lose performance by not being connected on the full x8 or x16 bus?

[crustytheclown]

Not when you mine...

[Lightman]

Not for LiteCoin mining it won't loose any performance
I look at it and see nice home heating solution! I mean one which sometimes can even earn you money!

I'm heating my home with 2xR9 290(x) and 2x HD7970. Works well when temps outside are around +10

[Heinz68]

couple quotes from the last page, see the complete review at PCP

Once we bring the NVIDIA cards into the picture, we can see that the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is once again fighting for its dominance. When it was released, the R9 290X had clock variance and noise concerns that kept the $699 juggernaut in the driver's seat. With the release of the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II (and others) coming down the pipe that seat might have a new resident. The ASUS card performed better than the GTX 780 Ti in Bioshock Infinite and Crysis 3 while the GTX 780 Ti's only definitive victory came in Battlefield 3. In the three other games tested, the cards were so close that I'll call it a performance tie.

Final Thoughts

The ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II is one of the best graphics cards I have ever tested in the PC Perspective labs. It takes a powerful GPU that was first released with a lot of concerns and irons them all out. This card runs at consistent clock speeds. It keeps the GPU much cooler (in the Performance setting). It also doesn't have the sound profile of a Dyson. (I kid, I kid.) It looks great, overclocks well and ASUS is only asking $20 more than the current MSRP. You can't really demand much more from an enthusiast class GPU today!

Well, except for it be available for purchase. That's the one gripe I have - users want these cards and they are going to want them today, as they read this review. But ASUS says you'll have to wait until 15-20 days into the new year for your chance.

[ZX2Slow]

So how long until we see 780ti price drops or NVidia scramble to push high end Maxwell cards into the market?

[WangChung]

Yea this used to be a place where water cooling is the cheapest, majority ran single stage dd, peltiers, cascades etc

I don't know what happened to the "Thanks" system, but I'm going to QFT instead because it bears repeating.

[MaddMuppet]

Shame no all Black Edition to go with our Rampage Black boards.

[Linchpin]

I don't know what happened to the "Thanks" system, but I'm going to QFT instead because it bears repeating.

This hasn't been that place for almost a decade now, times have changed and implications that you can't be a real enthusiast if you don't have "at least" watercooling are frankly childish.

[mars]

This hasn't been that place for almost a decade now, times have changed and implications that you can't be a real enthusiast if you don't have "at least" watercooling are frankly childish.

ing about a stock cooler as an enthusiast is retarded

Overclocking hardware by far isn't a mature adult thing either
This forum was built on extreme cooling, some of us just want to get past the fanboyism which is going on across multiple enthusiast forums including this one
Returning to its state a decade ago isn't exactly bad for this community IMO

I mean really? Enthusiasts all over stock cooler is what you want to read about here on XS
Point is that we should be better than that

[WangChung]

This hasn't been that place for almost a decade now, times have changed and implications that you can't be a real enthusiast if you don't have "at least" watercooling are frankly childish.

This is, or was, (e)Xtreme Systems. Not StoreBought Systems, or OTS Systems. There's plenty of other places to discuss "run of the mill"; go to Tom's for example or Engadget. Both the person I quoted and myself were just pointing that fact out with our assertions. You calling me "childish" is ironic since it's a apparently you starting the name calling. It's people like you and rollo why I think a lot of people left or don't post anymore. I've made plenty of great builds - including my first SS - since my last and never bothered to post them because... why bother? I didn't throw all my or my parent's money at all the hardware like the cool kids.

Whatever, man.

[Linchpin]

It's people like you and rollo why I think a lot of people left or don't post anymore. I've made plenty of great builds - including my first SS - since my last and never bothered to post them because... why bother? I didn't throw all my or my parent's money at all the hardware like the cool kids.

Whatever, man.

You blame others for driving posters away while admitting a sentence later you just couldn't be bothered to post your builds anymore anyways, guess what enough people get your attitude and the whole forum dies(kinda like it did) so easy pointing fingers there. And XS at it's peak managed to accommodate just about every type of overclocker just fine not just the bleeding edge variety, who were and are always a minority of the userbase.

So yeah whatever dude.

[mars]

You blame others for driving posters away while admitting a sentence later you just couldn't be bothered to post your builds anymore anyways, guess what enough people get your attitude and the whole forum dies(kinda like it did) so easy pointing fingers there. And XS at it's peak managed to accommodate just about every type of overclocker just fine not just the bleeding edge variety, who were and are always a minority of the userbase.

So yeah whatever dude.

I dunno man asking someone to ignore a rubbish reference cooler is hardly bleeding edge... More like common sense if you are an enthusiast.

[tajoh111]

http://www.reviewstudio.net/1190-asu...oy-the-silence

Another review.

Anyone have an idea how good the VRM cooling of these asus coolers are?




This graph is kind of scary as it is card only.

Open air I heard doesn't cool VRM's very well and in the guru3d review, the VRM's with stock settings were already 87 degree's C. I wonder what the temps would be with another 230watts going through the card.

612watts from a card seems kind of crazy for for an overclocked card. Might make the case that water is probably necessary to keep the cards from VRM from blowing out when you overclock.

[STEvil]

they were pushing 1.4 volts through the card to get 612w, and running it at 95c.

[tajoh111]

they were pushing 1.4 volts through the card to get 612w, and running it at 95c.

Steve, you had some directCU die on you I remember. Was it a VRM problem? Can you see any improvement in this models compared to the ones that died from you from the heatsink images?

Yes it was 1.4 volts, but that I guess what it took to make 1.185ghz stable in that review.

If was going to buy any enthusiast level card i would overclock it to some degree. And if the VRM's aren't properly cooled by this cooler, it might make it a water cooling only if your going to do add volts and overclock.

Edit. Just looked at the review and I think they actually used 1.381 volts to get that clock.