Initial 290 xfire experience

[Jacky60]

Just got 2 x 290s in crossfire and thought I'd report on the experience. Initially benchmarking Arma 3 they're about 50% faster than the two 6990's with everything loading much quicker and yes at first even I was astonished by how loud they immediately were until a quick check of the fan profile revealed they were staying at 50c with the fans ramping quickly up to 75%. After about 10 seconds adjustment to the profile they are no louder than my 230mm case fans and I can clearly hear the cicadas in Arma 3 better than with the 6990's. I guess it depends what you're used to and I was scared I was going to have to send them back but so far (40mins testing) they are much quieter than I anticipated although coming from two 6990s I'm probably used to more GPU noise than most. Will update this soon.

 

[Stuka87]

I am betting you are now CPU bound. That game is horribly optimized and only uses two threads. What is your GPU usage averaging?

Does the gameplay feel smoother now with the new CF setup?

 

[XiandreX]

Just got 2 x 290s in crossfire and thought I'd report on the experience. Initially benchmarking Arma 3 they're about 50% faster than the two 6990's with everything loading much quicker and yes at first even I was astonished by how loud they immediately were until a quick check of the fan profile revealed they were staying at 50c with the fans ramping quickly up to 75%. After about 10 seconds adjustment to the profile they are no louder than my 230mm case fans and I can clearly hear the cicadas in Arma 3 better than with the 6990's. I guess it depends what you're used to and I was scared I was going to have to send them back but so far (40mins testing) they are much quieter than I anticipated although coming from two 6990s I'm probably used to more GPU noise than most. Will update this soon.

Thanks for the feedback. I have no clue about 6990 noise levels in Crossfire but sounds like you are enjoying the performance advantage. Please keep us updated as your continue your benchmarking and experience feedback.
Arma 3 is also (from what I have heard is not a very well programmed game) so I am wondering if maybe other games would yield a better improvement % wise.

 

[IEC]

I've found the stock cooler to be decent with a custom fan profile for gaming, but pretty terrible for things such as litecoin mining.

Are you using Vsync?

 

[Zanovar]

Just got 2 x 290s in crossfire and thought I'd report on the experience. Initially benchmarking Arma 3 they're about 50% faster than the two 6990's with everything loading much quicker and yes at first even I was astonished by how loud they immediately were until a quick check of the fan profile revealed they were staying at 50c with the fans ramping quickly up to 75%. After about 10 seconds adjustment to the profile they are no louder than my 230mm case fans and I can clearly hear the cicadas in Arma 3 better than with the 6990's. I guess it depends what you're used to and I was scared I was going to have to send them back but so far (40mins testing) they are much quieter than I anticipated although coming from two 6990s I'm probably used to more GPU noise than most. Will update this soon.

Enjoy:thumbsup:,as for the cicadas im guessing those 6990s were loud.

 

[Gikaseixas]

50% better than 6990s, didn't realize how fast 2013 tech got
Nice rig you got there

 

[el etro]

Just got 2 x 290s in crossfire and thought I'd report on the experience. Initially benchmarking Arma 3 they're about 50% faster than the two 6990's with everything loading much quicker and yes at first even I was astonished by how loud they immediately were until a quick check of the fan profile revealed they were staying at 50c with the fans ramping quickly up to 75%. After about 10 seconds adjustment to the profile they are no louder than my 230mm case fans and I can clearly hear the cicadas in Arma 3 better than with the 6990's. I guess it depends what you're used to and I was scared I was going to have to send them back but so far (40mins testing) they are much quieter than I anticipated although coming from two 6990s I'm probably used to more GPU noise than most. Will update this soon.

My friend have a non-X 290. Is not noisier like many people complain at the web.

I Think these guys are comparing reference 290s with aftermarket cards...

 

[thilanliyan]

Hmm...so your computer didn't blow up, your vision and hearing is fine, and all the baby seals of the world are safe and sound?

Maybe XFire isn't as bad as we've been led to believe...

I have enough cards to do XFire several times over but never have haha...just no time lately, plus mining...

 

[Fastx]

Nice/congrats!

From CFX to CFX! Look forward to see your future comments in this thread

I sold my twins and I am having a little regret.

 

[Elfear]

Hmm...so your computer didn't blow up, your vision and hearing is fine, and all the baby seals of the world are safe and sound?

Maybe XFire isn't as bad as we've been led to believe...

I have enough cards to do XFire several times over but never have haha...just no time lately, plus mining...

I just got Xfire up and running too and I'm sad to say a baby seal did in fact die in the process. I wrapped Clappy (my affectionate baby seal friend) in a red blanket and gave him a burial at sea. Unsurprisingly I saw Slomo4shO and KaRLiToS at the same ocean-side view with two deceased baby seals each. ()

Haven't had much time to game yet but I concur with the IEC's assessment of the noise while mining. It's loud! With the little gaming I have done on a single 290, the fan wasn't bad at all up to 40-45%.

 

[Face2Face]

I just got Xfire up and running too and I'm sad to say a baby seal did in fact die in the process. I wrapped Clappy (my affectionate baby seal friend) in a red blanket and gave him a burial at sea. Unsurprisingly I saw Slomo4shO and KaRLiToS at the same ocean-side view with two deceased baby seals each. ()

Best post I have read all day :biggrin:

Nice/congrats!

From CFX to CFX! Look forward to see your future comments in this thread

I sold my twins and I am having a little regret.

What are you going to buy now with all of that crazy profit you made ?

 

[guskline]

Jacky60, thanks for the post. Sounds like the 290s are the "real deal" especially coming from someone who was already running 2 6990s!:biggrin:

 

[Fastx]

What are you going to buy now with all of that crazy profit you made ?

Depends what hour of the day you ask me lately. Them damn miners made me sell my twins!

I go though all the usual suspects from AMD and Nvidia daily. I think I'm going with a 290, but I need to wait to see 290 AIB performance, cooling, possible changes to the board/vrms, possible oc's with it, pricing, and BF4/Mantle performance. If everything lines up about for what I want in my head per 290 it will be a 290. If not then I will be looking at to go Nvidia.

 

[Silverforce11]

I've found the stock cooler to be decent with a custom fan profile for gaming, but pretty terrible for things such as litecoin mining.

Are you using Vsync?

I highly agree with this. Setup a custom temp target of 87C and 55% fan cap and its very effective. The most important thing is preventing GPU temp hitting 90C, because its when it loses efficiency and consumes extra power, causing even more heat and more fanspeed. Most of the time it only stays at <50% fan speed doing this.

 

[Jacky60]

50% better than 6990s, didn't realize how fast 2013 tech got
Nice rig you got there

Thanks, in Arma 3 probably more like 45% but that means real world MP view distance is up with everything maxed (except PP blurring which is all 0) from 2500 to 4000M meaning can see and kill nme tanks in far distance which is the reason for upgrade. Heaven and Valley scores up from mid 60s on OC (920/1375) 6990s to 91/95 (stock 290) and to 105 and 107 with 1050/5500 OC. Not using VSync but will try it over weekend and will try Crysis 3 and buy a copy of BF4. Actually having watched some online MP games of BF4 I won't be buying it, seems I've grown out of sprinting and bunny hopping across a map as I find it incredibly tedious and unrewarding, sure signs of an aging gamer! GPU's climb to 75c in benchmarks but no-where near 90c so far. I should add I've a really well ventilated Xigamatek Elysium case with 3x230mm, 4x120mm, 1x140mm and 1x80mm case fans so airflow isn't a problem.

 

[Piklar]

Must say my weekend with Xfire 290x rig recently did impress me in terms of how smooth xfire runs while playing battlefield 4, it was all dandy until the cards started to throttle and I upped fan speed to 75% while beads of sweat started to accumulate on my forehead from the increasing room temperature, thanks to my noise cancelling headphones I was however comfortably insulated from the jet engines under my desk and immersed in a Siege of Shanghai conquest until
the missus entered the room to confirm Ill be "getting rid of that thing today!" Still the experience has got me dreaming about putting a couple under water..

 

[monkeydelmagico]

until the missus entered the room to confirm Ill be "getting rid of that thing today!" ..

I'm sure you will be sad to see her go......

 

[Pandora's Box]

I'm sure you will be sad to see her go......

:biggrin:

 

[Zanovar]

I'm sure you will be sad to see her go......

hahahah

 

[chimaxi83]

Must say my weekend with Xfire 290x rig recently did impress me in terms of how smooth xfire runs while playing battlefield 4, it was all dandy until the cards started to throttle and I upped fan speed to 75% while beads of sweat started to accumulate on my forehead from the increasing room temperature, thanks to my noise cancelling headphones I was however comfortably insulated from the jet engines under my desk and immersed in a Siege of Shanghai conquest until
the missus entered the room to confirm Ill be "getting rid of that thing today!" Still the experience has got me dreaming about putting a couple under water..

Yeah, if you want to prevent throttling, the fan noise in crossfire is pretty atrocious. Water cooling them will still heat up the room the same, but at least they'll be whisper quiet

 

[moonbogg]

So no problems with Xfire and BF4 for you?

 

[BrightCandle]

Arma 3 probably isn't a good test, because I can't really get my pair of 680's much above 30% in real multiplayer games. It isn't that surprising that the GPUs aren't getting warm as your utilisation will be even lower (as will your FPS!).

That game is horribly optimized and only uses two threads.

Actually it uses as many threads as you have on your CPU with its mJob threads. But actually Arma 3 should really be considered to be single threaded. I am not joking, the main thread has everything on it (rendering, AI, sound, game world updates) and despite a lot of split off threads the main thread is the bottleneck. When the second rendering thread gets going then so to do the mJob threads, so for about 8ms of the frame there is up to 2 cores usage but in addition the mJobs can make it 6 cores. It all averages out to about 2 cores of usage but the game gains FPS on a 6 core over a 4 core CPU, and quite a bit going from a 2 core to a 4 core. But the problem with the game is on the main thread, always. Looking at the rendering overhead time I suspect the game might be draw call limited.

Regardless there is no hardware you can buy to fix the game, its poor performance is by design.

 

[Jacky60]

Bright Candle I agree last gen GPU utilisation was poor my 6990's never got above 40-60% per GPU in Arma 3 (usually the low end of that) either but the game actively scales relentlessly upwards. I use Arma 3 benchmark and now smoke grenades are going off when not before. Its the same feeling I got a long time ago with BF2 when the 850XTPE made all the eye candy on BF2 MP work and allowed me to conquer whereas before I was too slow. The 290s are doing 100% and 70% alternately, which is new for me but the gaming experience is definitely and radically better. Arma 3 on the same server with todays update (which may have a lot to do with it or not but I suspect not as it 'felt' the same yesterday). It's a LOT more responsive and a LOT quicker with the 290s today than yesterday. Will try and post some screenshots of core/thread load etc soon. I agree it's not a good test but I'd say MP is THE best test of CPU AND GPU in any game out there (assuming fast server consistency). I hate corridor shooters btw but could play BF3 at over 100FPS before (but didn't).

 

[Termie]

FYI, HardOCP just published an article providing subjective insights into the heat, noise, and performance of 290x CF:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/12/13/4_weeks_radeon_r9_290x_crossfire#.UqtMj6I_vTo

Seems to confirm what others above have mentioned. It performs great, it's rather loud, and it's VERY hot.

 

[Jacky60]

Thanks for that Termie I should clarify I have huge Xigamatek Elysium case with 3x230mm, 4x120mm, 1x140mm, 1x80mm fans so well ventilated here, I'm very seriously tempted to go Tri-fire now just not sure what the PSU in sig can take.
I'm really a bit annoyed that Anand's review was so negative re:noise because my experience has been brilliant in terms of performance/vs price. I normally set a limit of £1000/1100 for GPU/s in total. Granted I come from a dirty but performing 6990 GPU background but I'm now at 10-25 more fps in MP which in Arma 3 with it looking better than TV pics is for me impressive. It cost £674 in the UK (I nearly bought 2x7990s) but 2x780s were £760 for less performance and the 290s incidentally don't throttle because Arma 3 is a genuine balance of CPU and GPU performance. I do know that the 6990s would steam long at 98%GPU usage in BF3 without VS and would get hot at 100+ fps but when your fps is that high deploy VS IMHO. I wish AMD would pay me to write this btw and I also have zero experience of Nvidia cards since my lovely BFG 8800 GTX (which overclocked way quicker than Ultras with the AC accelero cooler I attached ). I honestly think for the performance unless you have Owl ears the 290s are a steal for gaming and I don't want that heat inside the case, the 6990's deposited at least 450W inside case for the CPU cooler to suck up, so I'm very happy to exhaust it as my 4.8Ghz OC would occasionally crash after 45mins gaming.