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The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.
The running temperatures are a little higher than I would have expected, especially when directly compared to the Tri-X cooler fitted to the Sapphire R9 290 and R9 290X. Still, they are better than the reference card, although that wouldn't be too difficult.
The VRM's however are held well in check by the cooling system, with the VRM 1 sensor in GPUz peaking at 92c and VRM 2 sensor 70c.
Great card, but Sapphire are miles ahead and ive been reading some problems with the fans on these MSI cards long term. failures etc.
I have had an MSI twin frozr card for years and never had a problem with it. I think some people don’t clean their fans and coolers fairly regularly and the dust kills them. nothing to do with a bad design.
The 290 is just so much more sensible than the 290x, they are mega money for very little extra gain. AMD dropped the ball with the pricing.
I bought one last week from OC when it was on sale for £330!
Excellent timing on the review though as now I have an idea of the headroom I have for overclocking.
This R9 290 is louder, hotter and has a lower clock speed than the gigabyte R9 290, so why does this have have a higher score?
I try to configure that MSI R9 290 card for mining – problem is heat – when you ask for more than 650kH/s temperature is mre that 85 it turn off.
I find configuration with 840kH/s but iy’s working 7 minutes before turn off.
Any idea what to do?
Something interesting , the card is actually mentioned to be over clocked to 1004mhz, but it needs the MSI Gaming App (could use afterburner as well). I wish they just overclocked it to 1004mhz without the need to use that app