It might be the case that they haven't tightened their cooler tolerances that much after all.
AMD: Volcanic Islands R1100/1200 (8***/9*** series) Speculation/ Rumour Thread
Some reviewers are simply better at their jobs than others, case in point:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040347989&postcount=82
Also for a laugh
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040349752&postcount=212
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040347989&postcount=82
Ryan needs to step up his gameBrent_Justice said:
Also for a laugh
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040349752&postcount=212
Not so subtle dig at Nvidia's hypocrisyxX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:Cooling with the Jet Engine stock cooler is a non-starter for me, will reconsider when QUIET alternatives come out. I already have a box with 4 previous ATI/AMD stock coolers in it ... and some NVidia coolers too of course.
This sounds exactly like an NDA meeting I was in last week. The fan was referred to multiple times as "jet engine" etc., but all performance comparisons shown were with the card in Quiet Mode. Funny stuff when you are reaching for straws.
We didn't have any problems with our fans. I have GPU-Z (or MSI AB) logging all of this to ensure that.Ryan needs to step up his game
I fail to see what a 3rd party app logging things has to do with ensuring fan speeds are properly set after a driver update.
This is all pretty ironic, AMD tried to make it easy on reviewers by updating the driver instead of making them do a BIOS flash and some ended up failing even at that. At least we've learned reviewers can also be pebcak.
This is all pretty ironic, AMD tried to make it easy on reviewers by updating the driver instead of making them do a BIOS flash and some ended up failing even at that. At least we've learned reviewers can also be pebcak.
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DuckThor Evil
Legend
So you are claiming that Anandtech had wrong fan settings in their tests?
You are saying that their fan was being set too loud, due to Ryan not resetting the settings?
But how does that make sense when AMD's update was actually supposed to make the card louder/cooler by increasing the fan max from 40 to 47%. If Anandtech didn't apply correct settings, they would have seen quieter but lower performance, which is not what they got.
Or are you trying to say something else?
Unless you have some proof that Ryan has set something incorrectly in the review then you really need to stop the accusations.
This AMD defense force crap is getting ridiculous.
DavidGraham
Veteran
They were. Most reviewers stated that HD5870/5850 were a much better buy, some praised 480/470 for their higher performance and that's it.
In fact this situation mirrors exactly Fermi's GTX 480, with the 290 series having the same high heat and noise output. save for the price of course.
I personally don't care for either heat or noise of any GPU. I don't base my purchase decision on them,just raw performance, Though obviously others disagree.
So which of the two are the end-users supposed to do? Driver update, or BIOS flash? Are end-users supposed to be criticised because they forgot to reset something after a driver update?
Because, you know, the point of a review is to allow end-users to decide what to buy. What's the point of any of this stupid ballet dance if nothing is representative of what end-users have access to?
itsmydamnation
Veteran
the stock cooler is an obviously time to market thing. While a hard launch, stock is still quite limited. I bet anyone once there is a good healthy supply of 3rd party cards there is a rev 2 ref card or the ref card is completely EOL'd.
What i think most reviewers have missed is that a 290 3rd party card will get quieter but it wont gain performance, where as the 290x 3rd party cards will get quieter and get a whole bunch more performance(at stock). If AMD plan to get rid of the ref card asap what they have done with the 290 launch makes sense, right now it makes the 290x look irrelevant but that's created by the cooling limitations.
What i think most reviewers have missed is that a 290 3rd party card will get quieter but it wont gain performance, where as the 290x 3rd party cards will get quieter and get a whole bunch more performance(at stock). If AMD plan to get rid of the ref card asap what they have done with the 290 launch makes sense, right now it makes the 290x look irrelevant but that's created by the cooling limitations.
UniversalTruth
Veteran
I need more clarification on this one. How is it possible if they have been using one and the same old damn cooling solution for several generations already. Nothing has changed
There's really something strange. With the new PowerTune I would expect, that the temperature and fan's RPM will be quite consistent regardless game/exact settings/resolution etc. Almost every review shows, that the card ran at 93-94 °C - that's in line with the expectation.
With constant temperature I'd also expect, that fan-speed (which is limited to 47 %) and also noise levels should be almost constant, too. But they aren't. Some reviews show, that 290's noise level is almost exactly in the middle between 290X "silent" (40 %) and 290X "über" (55 %) - see ComputerBase for example. That seems to be expectable and correct. But some other reviews shows noise almost identical to 290X "über". 290's noise should be definitely lower, because the fan (which is identical for both models) runs ~500 RPM slower. Also those reviews with louder fans seems to result in slightly higher performance (compared to GTX 780, etc.). Both of these inconsistencies could be explained by higher-than-expected fan speed.
There are way too many variables in terms of testing setup, methodology, card assembly, and chip variability to do a like for like comparison across reviews. This is beside the variation in reviewers' turn-ons and turn-offs, and their ears.
I wholeheartedly agree with this .... especially the "AMD defense force crap" from some members who fail to acknowledge that it is a "noisy" card and some reviewers will find it more so than others. They are definitely entitled to their opinions and I respect that.
As far as overclocking is concerned, forget about the vacuum cleaner .... let's start to talk about my lawn mower!
The problem is the huge variability among dBA measurements between reviewers. You have Anandtech which has the R9 290 being 9.7 dBA higher than a GTX 780, while Guru3d has it 3 dBA higher. So you have one site that says that R9 290 is twice as loud as GTX 780 while another has it at about 20%.
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
There's a lot of inconsistency in measurement methodology. Some sites use a noise meter a metre away from a closed case, other stick a meter right up against a card in an open test bed.
Ryan tests the noise with the side off a case, 1 foot away.
http://anandtech.com/comments/7481/the-amd-radeon-r9-290-review/337828
http://translate.google.com/transla...der-for-golden-samples-sweclockers-undersoker
Yup, looks like an "outlier".
I'm really interested to know what makes you think AMD has "pushed the silicon too far." Do you have any information, numbers...anything at all to back up this viewpoint or is it just more typical FUD?
Unless they tested the specific samples that serve as the anecdotal evidence at Tomshardware and got different results, it isn't debunking the claim that there is variability between cards.
That two samples do not agree would on the face of things support the claim.
That two samples do not agree would on the face of things support the claim.