Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC Review: Our First Custom Cooled 290
by Ryan Smith on December 24, 2013 3:45 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Sapphire
- Radeon 200
290 Tri-X OC Thermal Management
Before jumping into our benchmarks, due to the significant focus we’re placing on cooling and noise for the 290 Tri-X OC (amidst the reference 290’s weaknesses) we also wanted to spend a moment discussing the card’s thermal management algorithms.
With the 290 series AMD introduced their next generation PowerTune technology, which allows for thermal management based on temperatures, power consumption, and now fan speeds. For the reference 290X in particular this was especially important as AMD used this functionality to keep fan speed noises in check despite the heavy thermal load Hawaii placed on the cooler. At the time we had assumed that everyone would use this technology even if they used different coolers, but as it turns out this isn’t the case.
For the 290 Tri-X OC Sapphire has reverted to traditional power and temperature based throttling, opting not to use the functionality of next generation PowerTune. This means that the 290 Tri-X OC does not offer the ability to throttle based on fan speeds, nor does it offer the ability to adjust the temperature it throttles at, instead throttling at Hawaii’s TjMax. This implementation caught us off guard at first since we had expected everyone to use next generation PowerTune, however as it turns out this is something that board partners get to decide for themselves on their customized cards.
Sapphire for their part has told us that based on the ample cooling performance of the Tri-X cooler that they've opted to use a traditional thermal management implementation in order to better sustain performance. Though we can’t readily test Sapphire’s statements about sustainability, we certainly can’t argue against Sapphire’s statement on the performance of their cooler. We’ll see the full breakdown in our benchmark section, but they are having absolutely no problem balancing noise and temperatures right now without next generation PowerTune.
Realistically we wouldn’t be surprised if this was also chosen because the Tri-X cooler predates the 290 series – and hence it wasn’t necessarily designed to work well with next generation PowerTune – but that’s just speculation on our part. To that end it would have been interesting to see a full next generation PowerTune implementation on this card, however it’s really just an intellectual curiosity. Out of the box the 290 Tri-X OC works just fine with a traditional thermal management implementation.
The Test
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-4960X @ 4.2GHz |
| Motherboard: | ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional |
| Power Supply: | Corsair AX1200i |
| Hard Disk: | Samsung SSD 840 EVO (750GB) |
| Memory: | G.Skill RipjawZ DDR3-1866 4 x 8GB (9-10-9-26) |
| Case: | NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition |
| Monitor: | Asus PQ321 |
| Video Cards: |
AMD Radeon R9 290X AMD Radeon R9 290 XFX Radeon R9 280X Double Dissipation Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II TOP Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Toxic AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition AMD Radeon HD 7970 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti |
| Video Drivers: |
NVIDIA Release 331.93 AMD Catalyst 13.11 Beta v8 AMD Catalyst 13.11 Beta v9.5 |
| OS: | Windows 8.1 Pro |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
119 Comments
View All Comments
Mondozai - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
("That Ryan applied on this Sapphire 290", it should say at the end.)blanarahul - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
Hexus.net are liers. Look at their Noise charts. Tri-X 290 is louder than a 780 Ti. Look at Anandtech or Computerbase.de, 290 Tri-X is quieter than 780 Ti.Mopar63 - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
calling them liars might be harsh. There is no standardization in the review industry when it comes to how noise level is measured. Some use open bench and others use cases. The cases can vary with each model and then there is the fact that hardware and software used to measure can vary as well. Add to this the measuring methodology such as distance from the item as well as how ti was set to run, did they measure 100% speed, game play speeds, auto or set and so on.Bobs_Your_Uncle - Sunday, December 29, 2013 - link
Then there's always the question: are they recording the dB(A) measurements on a Metric scale or on an Imperial scale? : /bigboxes - Sunday, December 29, 2013 - link
LOLsheh - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
I still don't understand why reference designs use blowers. Isn't that mainly useful for small cramped cases? Don't most users have a well-spaced case, and especially the users who go for high-end cards, and so are better served with an open air cooler?blanarahul - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
These open air coolers dump heat/hot "inside" the case/cabinet. This has a negative impact on CPU, RAM, Chipset, HDD etc. temperatures (usless you are using a super tower). Blowers throw the hot air out the case and hence has no impact on other components.Open air coolers make a lot of sense for Open Air test benches though.
Mopar63 - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
The impact of an open air cooler is a lot less on the systems internals than many think. The heat released is not a direct increase but rather like adding hot water to cooler water. The water is not suddenly hot, just a bit warmer. Also even mid and most mATX towers are moving more than enough air to make this a minor effect at best. In fact MANY of the mITX cases we are seeing for gaming rigs can handle it easily as well.Godigy - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
Not necessarily. I had an R9 290 with the Gelid Icy aftermarket cooler, and if I didn't take the side panel off of my case, it would really make stuff in the case hot. My CPU temps jumped 10C with the side panel closed. If I were to open the side panel, I could feel the heat coming out of my case, which has very good airflow.Mayuyu - Wednesday, December 25, 2013 - link
I have one of these open air GPUs and I really don't like the design. The GPU board is so tall that it essentially creates another compartment in the case. Since the fan faces downward, all the heat is in the bottom of the case. The big fan at the back of the case only moves air for the CPU and RAM.