290X for watercooling

I'm thinking about buying a 290X to replace my HD6950 2GB GPU. I originally bought a GTX 760 when I built my PC, but the difference was too small and it had a coil whine issue, so i returned it and sticked to my 6950.

Now I don't really know if I should buy a 290X or wait.
I will water cool it, so that makes the choice which 290X to grab either easier or more difficult.
I was thinking the ASUS DCU II looks pretty nice, as far as the specs go. With their custom PCB and high end parts on it.
The Sapphire Tri-X was the other one I looked at.
But seeing that I don't give a thing about the mounted air coolers I really don't know.
My biggest fear is coil whine. I absolutely hate it and having a silent PC doesn't help masking the sound.

The other thing is I'm not too informed about upcoming GPU's, when they come and how they will perform.
Do you think dumping ~ 550 bucks on a 290X is the way to go here or should I wait?

The reason I want a 290X is because of the 4GB Ram and the cheaper pricetag compared to the 780ti.
The 290X seems to perform better the higher the resolution is.
I run triple 1440p, but don't always play everything in eyefinity, but just on one screen.
I'm not a hardcore gamer. I play some games now and then. Mostly MMO's.

My 6950 served me well so far, but it is starting to struggle and I have to turn down the settings more and more for games to be playable.
So even though I don't really "need" a new GPU right now, I thought about buying one just because it seems the right thing to do, given my new PC build and my aging 6950.

So, any recommendations on which 290X would do the trick, has now coil whine and does well under water?

I'd say look over the full cover water blocks that are becoming available to determine which cards they support, then work your way back towards the card, providing that you're going custom loop. And lately the cryptocoin miners are selling off GPUs so you may find some deals on used cards; that's how I got mine.

I've already done that, hence the two GPU's I named. ASUS DCU II and Sapphire Tri-X
I'm really leaning toward the ASUS DC II, but I've read it suffers from coil whine and that the 290X in general sucks in games like World of Warcraft. Many people complained about low fps. Maybe it was a driver issue and it's fixed now?!

I don't play WoW so can't comment on that. Factory overclocked cards like you have listed above are both great cards; I'd say flip a coin.

So, after reading further articles I came to the conclusion to buy the Sapphire Tri-X 290 (non-X). But before I hit the "order" button, I would like to know how it does in a realistic senario. Namely WoW and GuildWars 2.

Maybe somenone can tell me how many fps he has in Orgimmar or in a 25 Man raid.


I just did some quick and dirty tests with my 6950.

(Supersampling enabled and Texture filtering set to High Quality in CCC)


Eyefinity:
WoW (OG): Ultra - 4x AA = ~20 fps
GW2: MaxSettings = ~25 fps

Singlescreen:
WoW (OG): Ultra - 4x AA = ~35 fps
GW2: MaxSettings = ~45 fps

I know those games rely heavily on CPU power (4770k), but the GPU should have some contribution to the overall fps, shouldn't it?
The upgrade from my old PC (DualCore 3Ghz with the 6950) to my new one was a huge improvement in fps for those games.

The time I tried the GTX760 DCU II OC, I was rather disappointed how little difference it made. So now I'm on the fence. Is buying a 290 a good choice or is it better to wait for the next GPUs and sit this one out?

In raids or when there are lots of players and effects / particles, I get fps drops of course and can clearly see how the 6950 is struggling. But would the 290 be a huge improvement?

I don't own guild wars 2 but wow ran fine on my 290 with ultra everything, 2x AA, and 1440p. Fps varies wildly based on population though, and is mostly cpu dependant. In flex or lfr 25 mans I would commonly stay above 30-40fps. In guild ten mans it would stay pegged at 60.

But again, this was a cpu limitation. WoW just doesn't have very efficient code, particularly with shadows. I haven't been subbed for a couple of months so I can't give you exact fps numbers, but I know it was never an issue for me.

Supertrucker said:

...wow ran fine on my 290 with ultra everything, 2x AA, and 1440p. Fps varies wildly based on population though, and is mostly cpu dependant. In flex or lfr 25 mans I would commonly stay above 30-40fps. In guild ten mans it would stay pegged at 60.

But again, this was a cpu limitation. WoW just doesn't have very efficient code, particularly with shadows. ...

Click to expand...

That's it, WoW is pretty bad when it comes to using all the hardware. It doesn't even use all CPU cores. If it would my fps would be through the roof

Like I said, my 6950 handles WoW just fine. Even in eyefinity. At least for questing and such. For serious raiding I need to turn the shadows down a bit and lower one or two other things, but it is still very playable. And to be fair, in a 25 man raid I mostly look at my UI, especially as a healer, rather than admiring the graphics.
I even go that far and say I prefer the lower particle setting, because in 25-man's all the shiny bling bling is starting to get very annoying.

But for PvP and solo play I can have everything maxed out and still do "fine", not stellar, but fine.

So dumping money into a new GPU + water block should at least give me a smoother experience. I won't hit a 80 fps average, due to the way WoW is, but I really hope I get my moneys worth and not only a 10 fps increase.


Taking the numbers you wrote seems a 290 would give me a rather noticeable increase in fps. And that's without having to turn down anything in raids.
For questing/solo I guess it will do okay, even in eyefinity .


I think I just have to order one, try it out and hope it's not a dissapointment like the 760 was. That one scarred me for life

How about those blackscreens, is that fixed by now or still an issue?

Just ordered the ASUS DCU II 290. Had a last minute change of heart. Thinking in the end the Sapphire is still "just" a reference card with a fancy cooler I don't need. The ASUS seems to have a better build, better parts, but also the stupid Elpida chips.
Still, I have a better feeling with the ASUS.

It would have been the wrong buy either way. Let's just hope everything works out fine

If I was buying today I would get the dcuii cards since they have a comparably priced ek waterblock and better power circuitry. Just make sure you buy a waterblock for the dcuii and not reference.

As for black screens, they were never an issue for me unless I was pushing my overclock too hard. It never a single time happened at stock, or at settings I knew to be rock solid stable. This was across multiple Windows installs, driver versions, and different bioses. Oh and occasionally if I ran msi afterburner. I could go for months on an oc by ccc or trixx, I've never kept afterburner installed more than a day without crashes or black screens or bluescreens. And because I like it's monitoring feature I tried several times. But I have always had problems with afterburner, it didn't like my 7950s or my 6950s either.

Thank you Supertrucker.
The same thought went through my head when I had to decide between the "reference" Tri-X and the DCUII. The latter seems to bring more to the table.

As for Afterburner, I would be using ASUS's GPUTweak software. It does the same and comes in a matching red color

Driver wise I've read 13.12 is the last "good" one, at least for Windows 7 and everything 14.x is supposedly instable, bad or something else.
Others seem to not have any problems at all, no matter which driver or OS.

I was going to try 14.6 out and if there are any problems I go down from there.
Yes it involves hoping that it works, but it seems better to me this way. Instead of installing 13.12, being afraid of all 14.x and upcoming drivers and be stuck on an old driver for I don't know how long.

Hopefully my GPU is here by tomorrow. I already did some Valley and 3dMark11 test for comparison. I am really curious how the 290 does.

I havent gone up to 14.6 since i dont run eyefinity or own watchdogs, but im running 14.4 wqhl just fine. There are certainly a few minor issues with the newer drivers for some people, but yeah i would start at either 14.4 or 14.6 beta and go down from there. If you plan to overclock id skip the 14.1-14.3 betas though, they had broken powertune so any kind of decent clock with a voltage bump would throttle.

BTW OP, I have the Asus R9 290 DCU2 and in my PC case its running hot. See: http://pcpartpicker.com/b/wvTWGX . But I was at 1080p and literally everything maxed and was around 115FPS in GW2 lol. 125 overclocked but it runs too hot right now till I figure out some better cooling for my little case. I am on 14.6 also.

obababoy said:

BTW OP, I have the Asus R9 290 DCU2 and in my PC case its running hot. See: http://pcpartpicker.com/b/wvTWGX . But I was at 1080p and literally everything maxed and was around 115FPS in GW2 lol. 125 overclocked but it runs too hot right now till I figure out some better cooling for my little case. I am on 14.6 also.

Click to expand...

It would be worth mentioning that your card is shoved into an ITX case and can't breathe properly, causing your temperature issues.

IIRC Snorlaxxx is in a water cooled full tower.

obababoy said:

BTW OP, I have the Asus R9 290 DCU2 and in my PC case its running hot......but it runs too hot right now till I figure out some better cooling for my little case. I am on 14.6 also.

Click to expand...

.......

ATMINSIDE said:

It would be worth mentioning that your card is shoved into an ITX case and can't breathe properly, causing your temperature issues.

IIRC Snorlaxxx is in a water cooled full tower.

Click to expand...

Relax^^...OP was asking about guild wars 2 FPS, so he can choose to disregard my mention of Temps if he'd like.

"So, after reading further articles I came to the conclusion to buy the Sapphire Tri-X 290 (non-X). But before I hit the "order" button, I would like to know how it does in a realistic senario. Namely WoW and GuildWars 2."

Nobody took exception to the help you gave regarding FPS oba just the temperature comments that do not apply.

obababoy said:

Relax^^...OP was asking about guild wars 2 FPS, so he can choose to disregard my mention of Temps if he'd like.

"So, after reading further articles I came to the conclusion to buy the Sapphire Tri-X 290 (non-X). But before I hit the "order" button, I would like to know how it does in a realistic senario. Namely WoW and GuildWars 2."

Click to expand...

Then simply mention the FPS, as the temperatures are as relative as apples and oranges in this case.

If you had a similar system, then temps would be relevant.

I got my 290 today and did some basic tests just to have a quick comparison.

In WoW I get 50 - 60 fps ultra@1440p and 30-40 fps ultra@Eyefinity. (Same spot in Orgimmar as with the 6950, quite some people there. Maybe more than when I tested the 6950)

GW2 gives better results. Here I get 80-130+ fps maxedOut@1440p and 30-60 fps maxedOut@Eyefinity

Here a 3D Mark screenshot. The top numbers are 3DMark11, the bottom numbers are 3DMark 13 Firestrike preset.

Temps @Air are GPU 79° - VRM1 90° - VRM2 - 79° , so overall quite okay. The fan spins up a fair bit and ARE audible. But being used to a watercooled GPU I clearly get annoyed very quickly by any noise. If I should rate it, I would say it is still on the quiet side of things. When those fans run past the 40% mark they start to get loud.
For those who are interested, the backplate gets really hot, too.


One thing I didn't figuer out for now is why my Valley scores suck. I get lower scores than my 6950 did. That was my first test I did and immediately thought WTF Oo... Tested some games and there everything was good. so this seems to be a Valley specific problem. Any thoughts?

14.6 driver seems to do fine for now. No issues this far.

Oh... and I don't have ANy coil whine

Hm.. just retried Valley and now everything seems to work just fine.

Scores R9 (GTX760 DCU) [HD6950 2GB D3]
1600x900 preset: 3081 score (noData) [1396]
1920x1080 preset: 2379 score (1621) [1072]
1440p ultra 8xAA: 1505 score (967) [noData]
1440p ultra 0xAA: 2285 score (noData) [956]

1440p eyefinity ultra 8xAA: 587 score (noData) [5760x1080: 366]
1440p eyefinity ultra 0xAA: 869 score (noData) [5760x1080: 530]

Compared to my old card it's a beast

I have to revisit the statement I made earlier. After playing for a while the DCU II does in fact get really hot and loud.
GPU temp 82° - VRM1 102° - VRM2 82°

So, again, ASUS didn't hold what they promised. Like when I had the GTX760.
Lucky for me noise and heat is not that concerning, but for those who plan on running them on air this info might help. Don't believe everything reviews say.