What's everyone's opinion about the stock cooler on the 290x for someone who doesn't overclock? Does it do a good enough job or should I wait for non-reference coolers to come out?
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 )