AMD: Volcanic Islands R1100/1200 (8***/9*** series) Speculation/ Rumour Thread

It works, but it's quite loud. Custom coolers will be quieter, and may bring a very small performance uplift due to less (or no) thermal throttling.

 

I'll speak for myself: In essence all of the new AMD/NVIDIA cards work similarly to an overclocked card, albeit automatically. So good cooling will always be useful.

I'm also not completely sure that having a graphics card working at this temperature would be wise, but either way they consciously designed the board to work at that temperature, so it should be fine, and if it isn't, the warranty will simply cover it.

Answering your question, I would say that it depends if you got your head around using the uber mode, since it's the mode where you see less performance variability (If you don't overclock a custom cooler won't give you more performance, maybe a little less variability, but it's already pretty low on uber mode), and if you can manage to get an ASUS board (which according to Overclockers UK has better performance and has 3 years of warranty the last time I saw). That is, if you have a good case for sound dampening, or just don't see any issue with it.

 

Even at default clocks and with the latest improved drivers, people are still seeing cards throttle in games due to heat, and being quite noisy in the process.

Personally, I'm waiting for non-reference coolers. People who have used third party coolers are seeing massive improvements in temps, performance, and noise.

 

After reading the threads provided here the problem seems to be real, but it also seems to happen with Hynix RAM (here). The black screen seems to also happen to people who aren't overclocking, have low temperatures and a good enough PSU. So maybe the problem is driver related? Some people have reported improvement after installing new beta drivers, while other saw no improvements at all.

 

all depend, if you have a good case, if you use v-sync most of the time, the gpu usage will be low, and fan will not be that loud.

This said, i was read on different forums there results with aftermarket coolers and H2o, the gpu show really his potential with a good cooler. ( Slap a EK waterblock in it and enjoy.. )

So i will say you have 2 possibilites:

- Buy a 290, 290x and if it is too loud for your taste, buy an aftermarket cooler ( they are cheap anyway ) who is silent ( The Artic cooling accelero one is good ).

- Wait a bit and take a partner card ( MSI, Asus, Sapphire, His etc ) with their own custom cooler.. ( I know there's some gpu's from them in preparation with better Power delivery, custom PCB, OC and custom cooling )

This said, for me noise etc are secondary, i allways put h2o block on my gpu's, so i look all this with a little bit of amusement. ( not that my system is silent, i use good fans on my radiators, and i control the fanspeed with a regulator, but if i do benchmarks and i push all the fans to the max, its another thing )

 

Just buy a card with a well-liked cooler, the AMD reference cooler is not worth the hassle.

The only reason to buy AMD's reference cooler is if you have a crap case where exhausting air out of the back of the case through the graphics card's slot is of the utmost priority.

Most of the alternative coolers don't exhaust through the slot out of the case (or do so only minimally), so they rely upon decent case cooling. That can lead to increased CPU temps, so the assumption with these designs is that you do have good case cooling.

 

Ok, for the past we can do nothing to change but hopefully for the future, I honestly beg them to stop releasing reference cards with reference coolers. Their quality is shitty.

 

I don't have any fans in my case. Never have since my first days of PC gaming. I've never noticed any negative side effects.

 

Your PSU fan is probably picking up the extra load. There's a good chance that adding a single, slow and quiet 12~14mm fan would measurably reduce the general noise level of your machine.

 

Interesting cheers, I might just do that.

 

Ah okay, politeness. Let's all join in and help muzz voice his anger and discontent in the most courteous manner possible as it's the best method of depicting urgency.

"Dear diligent & hardworking AMD fellows,

We write to you today in order to shed light on a hot-button opportunity. Please accept this kind offering of a wide range of 290X evaluations of which demonstrates the benefits of providing some much warranted TLC. We reach out to provide incentive for your software engineers & Catalyst Creator, as further proactive QC is in need of attention. Much love & all the best.

With deepest regards,
Slightly less than satisfied 290X buyers"

P.S. 'God forsaken horrible travesty!' - Muzz

 

I knew I was doing something wrong jared.
Thx for the help!

BTW, the list of issues is growing by the day, BF4, Arma2,Booting ( ),3DMark, video blocks all of the sudden appearing on the screen like a memory OC that has gone too far....without the OC, a Hynix card with blackscreen (1st I've seen)...I'm certain I am forgetting a handful of issues that the 290X is gracing it's hard working owners with.

Come on AMD!

 

Can you link an example or two? I just asked around in my home forum where quite a few guys have fun with their 290(X) cards (a lot of them with Elpida RAM) and no one so far reported any problems. Maybe it's just a small batch of faulty RAM? Or even something completely else?

 

Sure:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040366669&postcount=92
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040366567&postcount=91
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040366393&postcount=88
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040365427&postcount=87
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4697887&postcount=19
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4697883&postcount=18
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4697611&postcount=17
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4697469&postcount=14
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4697447&postcount=12
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4695829&postcount=4
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4695543&postcount=3
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4692381&postcount=1
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040342809&postcount=3
http://www.simology.co/forums/gaming-platform-pc/3302-r9-290x-display-black-screen?limitstart=0
http://www.overclock.net/t/1436497/official-amd-r9-290x-290-owners-club/4410#post_21163913


I could put a bunch more, but if you peruse those threads you will find more than enough evidence that there are problems...some are inside owners threads, others have dedicated threads to just the B.S issue with the 290X.
Hopefully ATi has people hammering away at the issue, because it is real.

 

Without actually digging, 7 are new accounts made in the last month.

 

290X Black Screen:



[mod edit] We don't need images of google searches. Hopefully everyone knows how to use Google at this point.

 

Okay this "black screen" issue has diverted the topic enough. Please make a new thread if you wish to continue talking about the problem. Regardless of how widespread this issue is, it doesn't really relate to the VI's architecture.

 

GK110 has been shipping since March and it takes nothing for manufacturers to slap on the same coolers they've been using on the 780. The PCB layout hasn't changed.

 

Indeed, the Ti is pinout compatible with every other 780 card ever made. A firmware flash is all you need, which makes the whole process quite fast indeed.

Here's hoping the 7970 prices continue to drop so that I can buy my second card for cheap and soon...