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ASUS Radeon R9-290 DirectCU II OC review
Posted by: on: 01/17/2014 08:41 AM [
22 comment(s) ]
We review the ASUS Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II OC edition. Ever since AMD released their Hawaii based GPUs they have been popular. The reference cards might run hot, but the custom cooled editions from the board partners are becoming very popular. The card tested today comes from ASUS and is armed with the latest revision of the DirectCU II cooler and will get that Hawaii chip chilled down. The DirectCU II card will be equipped with a fully custom PCB design featuring the Digi+ VRM with Super Alloy Power technology and high quality C-Caps and MOSFETs. The card is powered through 8-Pin + 6-Pin power configuration and obviously runs at factory overclocked specifications. The card clocks in at 1000 MHz and is clocked to 5040 MHz (effective) on the GDDR5 memory.
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Ven0m
Senior Member
Posts: 1764
Senior Member
Posts: 1764
Posted on: 01/17/2014 09:25 AM
Well, the price that I could check isn't really 365€, but rather around 430€, which is quite substantial.
Regarding bad drivers, issues may happen both with NV and AMD.
Recently I've been testing 280X CFX and they worked kinda okeyish. There were no greater issues except for 2 games - stuttering in Diablo 3 was unbearable, and I had some graphics artifacts in BF4, varying between drivers and BF4 versions. The game was unplayable with vsync on do to excessive stuttering and total card desynchronization, but with vsync off it was very smooth.
ShadowPlay - while it's a nice feature, similar effect can be achieved with MSI Afterburner using virtually any card. Unwinder has done a remarkable job, and game recording works well, it's easy, and puts very little stress on your rig.
Well, the price that I could check isn't really 365€, but rather around 430€, which is quite substantial.
Regarding bad drivers, issues may happen both with NV and AMD.
Recently I've been testing 280X CFX and they worked kinda okeyish. There were no greater issues except for 2 games - stuttering in Diablo 3 was unbearable, and I had some graphics artifacts in BF4, varying between drivers and BF4 versions. The game was unplayable with vsync on do to excessive stuttering and total card desynchronization, but with vsync off it was very smooth.
ShadowPlay - while it's a nice feature, similar effect can be achieved with MSI Afterburner using virtually any card. Unwinder has done a remarkable job, and game recording works well, it's easy, and puts very little stress on your rig.
Ryu5uzaku
Senior Member
Posts: 6770
Senior Member
Posts: 6770
Posted on: 01/17/2014 09:56 AM
on single cards nvidia driver and amd drivers are similar no difference there.
Might have to look into these cards, AMDs ****ty drivers always put me off though and I dunno if I could live without Shadowplay.
on single cards nvidia driver and amd drivers are similar no difference there.
Segamon
Senior Member
Posts: 122
Senior Member
Posts: 122
Posted on: 01/17/2014 10:13 AM
I hope they release a Matrix edition soon, might consider that then.
I hope they release a Matrix edition soon, might consider that then.
red6joker
Senior Member
Posts: 572
Senior Member
Posts: 572
Posted on: 01/17/2014 10:17 AM
AMD fixed their drivers awhile ago, like over a year ago now.
Might have to look into these cards, AMDs ****ty drivers always put me off though and I dunno if I could live without Shadowplay.
AMD fixed their drivers awhile ago, like over a year ago now.
rsnubje
Junior Member
Posts: 7
Junior Member
Posts: 7
Posted on: 01/17/2014 10:41 AM
@Hilbert, When you use the newest GPU Tweak from ASUS you can set the core voltage up to 1.4v. With that you can easily make it to 1200+ MHz on the core.
@Hilbert, When you use the newest GPU Tweak from ASUS you can set the core voltage up to 1.4v. With that you can easily make it to 1200+ MHz on the core.
AlmondMan
Senior Member
Posts: 481
Senior Member
Posts: 481
Posted on: 01/17/2014 11:58 AM
Tomshardware had a review of a bunch of 290Xs in an enclosure, and apparently the Asus one uses a cooler intended for a Geforce card, cheaply reusing it, that has some serious issues with temperature in a case as compared to the open-air testbeds reviewers mainly use. I wonder if this is the case with the 290 here as well;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290x-case-performance,3710.html
Tomshardware had a review of a bunch of 290Xs in an enclosure, and apparently the Asus one uses a cooler intended for a Geforce card, cheaply reusing it, that has some serious issues with temperature in a case as compared to the open-air testbeds reviewers mainly use. I wonder if this is the case with the 290 here as well;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290x-case-performance,3710.html
miffywiffy
Senior Member
Posts: 558
Senior Member
Posts: 558
Posted on: 01/17/2014 12:06 PM
Well, the price that I could check isn't really 365€, but rather around 430€, which is quite substantial.
Regarding bad drivers, issues may happen both with NV and AMD.
Recently I've been testing 280X CFX and they worked kinda okeyish. There were no greater issues except for 2 games - stuttering in Diablo 3 was unbearable, and I had some graphics artifacts in BF4, varying between drivers and BF4 versions. The game was unplayable with vsync on do to excessive stuttering and total card desynchronization, but with vsync off it was very smooth.
ShadowPlay - while it's a nice feature, similar effect can be achieved with MSI Afterburner using virtually any card. Unwinder has done a remarkable job, and game recording works well, it's easy, and puts very little stress on your rig.
Why I put no value into Crossfire/SLI apart from extremely Niche situations like for playing multi monitor setups for certain games that you know work. For myself however I just run into problem after problem and always end up with the second card being off. Like buying Sound Cards... they suck, have higher latency, you cannot use optical on them, the drivers suck, just a complete waste of money, use onboard.
I've tried all the other options, Shadowplay is the best, MSI Afterburner is nowhere near. I dunno how they do it but I can record the last 20 mins without me knowing I even need those, just hit a button and I have it in seconds at amazing quality and already encoded. I don't have to worry about mics either, it just does everything! So many times I've been playing Dayz and Shadowplay has capture the most amazing random stuff that has happened with friends. All Nvidia need to do is put an FPS counter on there, then I can uninstall Fraps for good..
The card is £370 where I've looked, you might be getting confused with the 290x?
Well, the price that I could check isn't really 365€, but rather around 430€, which is quite substantial.
Regarding bad drivers, issues may happen both with NV and AMD.
Recently I've been testing 280X CFX and they worked kinda okeyish. There were no greater issues except for 2 games - stuttering in Diablo 3 was unbearable, and I had some graphics artifacts in BF4, varying between drivers and BF4 versions. The game was unplayable with vsync on do to excessive stuttering and total card desynchronization, but with vsync off it was very smooth.
ShadowPlay - while it's a nice feature, similar effect can be achieved with MSI Afterburner using virtually any card. Unwinder has done a remarkable job, and game recording works well, it's easy, and puts very little stress on your rig.
Why I put no value into Crossfire/SLI apart from extremely Niche situations like for playing multi monitor setups for certain games that you know work. For myself however I just run into problem after problem and always end up with the second card being off. Like buying Sound Cards... they suck, have higher latency, you cannot use optical on them, the drivers suck, just a complete waste of money, use onboard.
I've tried all the other options, Shadowplay is the best, MSI Afterburner is nowhere near. I dunno how they do it but I can record the last 20 mins without me knowing I even need those, just hit a button and I have it in seconds at amazing quality and already encoded. I don't have to worry about mics either, it just does everything! So many times I've been playing Dayz and Shadowplay has capture the most amazing random stuff that has happened with friends. All Nvidia need to do is put an FPS counter on there, then I can uninstall Fraps for good..
The card is £370 where I've looked, you might be getting confused with the 290x?
Ven0m
Senior Member
Posts: 1764
Senior Member
Posts: 1764
Posted on: 01/17/2014 12:48 PM
It's kinda offtopic, but hey, a reply:
Why I put no value into Crossfire/SLI apart from extremely Niche situations like for playing multi monitor setups for certain games that you know work. For myself however I just run into problem after problem and always end up with the second card being off. Like buying Sound Cards... they suck, have higher latency, you cannot use optical on them, the drivers suck, just a complete waste of money, use onboard. (...)
I used to have 2x GTX 260 and they worked really well. I've bought them because the price was the same as a single 285. Of course there were some compatibility issues and minor stuttering from time to time, so I replaced them with the most powerful single GPU card that I could find at that time. However I'm surprised that CFX worked so bad for me with AAA titles like D3 or BF4.
Regarding sound cards - I'm really happy with Xonar D2X and unofficial drivers. However if you use optical output, you don't need a separate card.
(...)
I've tried all the other options, Shadowplay is the best, MSI Afterburner is nowhere near. I dunno how they do it but I can record the last 20 mins without me knowing I even need those, just hit a button and I have it in seconds at amazing quality and already encoded. I don't have to worry about mics either, it just does everything! So many times I've been playing Dayz and Shadowplay has capture the most amazing random stuff that has happened with friends. All Nvidia need to do is put an FPS counter on there, then I can uninstall Fraps for good..(...)
I'll check out Shadowplay and compare. Nonetheless, I was able to capture quality replays at 1920x1200@60Hz without any issues with Afterburner (both 2xGTX260 and 1xGTX680). Even with Shadowplay, you can use Afterburner for screenshots, displaying fps and temperatures.
(...)
The card is £370 where I've looked, you might be getting confused with the 290x?
£370 is more or less 450€, so we found pretty similar prices, still nowhere near declared 365€
It's kinda offtopic, but hey, a reply:
Why I put no value into Crossfire/SLI apart from extremely Niche situations like for playing multi monitor setups for certain games that you know work. For myself however I just run into problem after problem and always end up with the second card being off. Like buying Sound Cards... they suck, have higher latency, you cannot use optical on them, the drivers suck, just a complete waste of money, use onboard. (...)
I used to have 2x GTX 260 and they worked really well. I've bought them because the price was the same as a single 285. Of course there were some compatibility issues and minor stuttering from time to time, so I replaced them with the most powerful single GPU card that I could find at that time. However I'm surprised that CFX worked so bad for me with AAA titles like D3 or BF4.
Regarding sound cards - I'm really happy with Xonar D2X and unofficial drivers. However if you use optical output, you don't need a separate card.
(...)
I've tried all the other options, Shadowplay is the best, MSI Afterburner is nowhere near. I dunno how they do it but I can record the last 20 mins without me knowing I even need those, just hit a button and I have it in seconds at amazing quality and already encoded. I don't have to worry about mics either, it just does everything! So many times I've been playing Dayz and Shadowplay has capture the most amazing random stuff that has happened with friends. All Nvidia need to do is put an FPS counter on there, then I can uninstall Fraps for good..(...)
I'll check out Shadowplay and compare. Nonetheless, I was able to capture quality replays at 1920x1200@60Hz without any issues with Afterburner (both 2xGTX260 and 1xGTX680). Even with Shadowplay, you can use Afterburner for screenshots, displaying fps and temperatures.
(...)
The card is £370 where I've looked, you might be getting confused with the 290x?
£370 is more or less 450€, so we found pretty similar prices, still nowhere near declared 365€
CrazY_Milojko
Senior Member
Posts: 1982
Senior Member
Posts: 1982
Posted on: 01/17/2014 01:16 PM
Very nice card, I was waiting for some custom R9 290 like that, now I'm thinking about swapping Asus GTX760 DCUIIOC for this.
Only problem I see with this card is a lot of trapped "static" heat on the back of the card while OC (between PCB and metal back-plate) and Hilbert also noticed and mentioned that on review page 28. That heat could be easily washed away with just a bit propper canalized airflow coming from two fans, but Asus missed to do that and make this card just perfect.
Nevertheless if/when I buy this card no way I'm going to let that heat behind to be trapped, one 120mm 12V fan reduced to 7V will do the proper job of cooling the back of that card.
Very nice card, I was waiting for some custom R9 290 like that, now I'm thinking about swapping Asus GTX760 DCUIIOC for this.
Only problem I see with this card is a lot of trapped "static" heat on the back of the card while OC (between PCB and metal back-plate) and Hilbert also noticed and mentioned that on review page 28. That heat could be easily washed away with just a bit propper canalized airflow coming from two fans, but Asus missed to do that and make this card just perfect.
Nevertheless if/when I buy this card no way I'm going to let that heat behind to be trapped, one 120mm 12V fan reduced to 7V will do the proper job of cooling the back of that card.
Rich_Guy
Senior Member
Posts: 12264
Senior Member
Posts: 12264
Posted on: 01/17/2014 02:23 PM
These Asus ones aren't recommended by OcUK, so they must be pretty bad.
Might have to look into these cards, AMDs ****ty drivers always put me off though and I dunno if I could live without Shadowplay.
These Asus ones aren't recommended by OcUK, so they must be pretty bad.
Koniakki
Senior Member
Posts: 2843
Senior Member
Posts: 2843
Posted on: 01/17/2014 03:42 PM
Actually neither company fixed their drivers in the past 10+ years..
I have been reading driver complains in almost every single GPU released in that time frame..
AMD fixed their drivers awhile ago, like over a year ago now.
Actually neither company fixed their drivers in the past 10+ years..
I have been reading driver complains in almost every single GPU released in that time frame..
vazup
Senior Member
Posts: 289
Senior Member
Posts: 289
Posted on: 01/17/2014 04:14 PM
Shadowplay sux right now it is locked to only 1080p right now. Tried to stream on Twitch and sinc I have a 21:9 it didnt bother to show a correct image aspect ratio it just displayed a squished 16:9 image. Well granted it is nice for one thing, you dont have to set up anything you just press a button and it starts recording\*********.
Might have to look into these cards, AMDs ****ty drivers always put me off though and I dunno if I could live without Shadowplay.
Shadowplay sux right now it is locked to only 1080p right now. Tried to stream on Twitch and sinc I have a 21:9 it didnt bother to show a correct image aspect ratio it just displayed a squished 16:9 image. Well granted it is nice for one thing, you dont have to set up anything you just press a button and it starts recording\*********.
Anarion
Senior Member
Posts: 13515
Senior Member
Posts: 13515
Posted on: 01/17/2014 05:00 PM
Tomshardware had a review of a bunch of 290Xs in an enclosure, and apparently the Asus one uses a cooler intended for a Geforce card, cheaply reusing it, that has some serious issues with temperature in a case as compared to the open-air testbeds reviewers mainly use. I wonder if this is the case with the 290 here as well;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290x-case-performance,3710.html
Yeah. Sadly open air temperature and noise tests are completely useless. For that reason I ignore every open air test when it comes to noise and heat.
Tomshardware had a review of a bunch of 290Xs in an enclosure, and apparently the Asus one uses a cooler intended for a Geforce card, cheaply reusing it, that has some serious issues with temperature in a case as compared to the open-air testbeds reviewers mainly use. I wonder if this is the case with the 290 here as well;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290x-case-performance,3710.html
Yeah. Sadly open air temperature and noise tests are completely useless. For that reason I ignore every open air test when it comes to noise and heat.
Rich_Guy
Senior Member
Posts: 12264
Senior Member
Posts: 12264
Posted on: 01/17/2014 05:26 PM
The Sapphire Tri-X and MSI Gaming are highly rated, only Tri-X being the best cooler so far.
The Sapphire Tri-X and MSI Gaming are highly rated, only Tri-X being the best cooler so far.
Ryu5uzaku
Senior Member
Posts: 6770
Senior Member
Posts: 6770
Posted on: 01/17/2014 05:54 PM
I'm looking for Tri-X and possible lightning as next card tbh. All the rest are waste of space for me and my raven case :<
I'm looking for Tri-X and possible lightning as next card tbh. All the rest are waste of space for me and my raven case :<
PNeV
Senior Member
Posts: 2070
Senior Member
Posts: 2070
Posted on: 01/17/2014 06:27 PM
I would go for the Tri-X just because of how ridiculous it looks!
I would go for the Tri-X just because of how ridiculous it looks!
Elder III
Senior Member
Posts: 3574
Senior Member
Posts: 3574
Posted on: 01/18/2014 01:52 AM
My MSI Gaming R9 290 4 GB Twin Frozr arrived today --- I'll hopefully get the chance this weekend to test it out in comparison to this one.
Oh yeah, the price is higher then a kite right now, if you can find one from a reputable place here in the USA. let's just say that if the price was at the MSRP as quoted in this article it would have been a 50% savings. 
My MSI Gaming R9 290 4 GB Twin Frozr arrived today --- I'll hopefully get the chance this weekend to test it out in comparison to this one.
Oh yeah, the price is higher then a kite right now, if you can find one from a reputable place here in the USA. let's just say that if the price was at the MSRP as quoted in this article it would have been a 50% savings.
toshevopc
Junior Member
Posts: 8
Junior Member
Posts: 8
Posted on: 01/19/2014 10:22 PM
Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X is a lot better than this one..
Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X is a lot better than this one..
LBJM
Member
Posts: 96
Member
Posts: 96
Posted on: 01/29/2014 01:05 AM
not including 2650x1600 will just make read your reviews less.
not including 2650x1600 will just make read your reviews less.
Rich_Guy
Senior Member
Posts: 12264
Senior Member
Posts: 12264
Posted on: 01/29/2014 01:20 AM
Got the MSI Gaming 290x a few days ago, stonking card
Got the MSI Gaming 290x a few days ago, stonking card
gadzkun
Junior Member
Posts: 1
Junior Member
Posts: 1
Posted on: 01/29/2014 11:45 AM
i want to OC my Asus R9 290 DirectCU II
i see in the review how to stable OC this card.
"We found a small tweak that will bring your boost frequency towards almost 1175 MHz stable. We applied:
Power Target +50%
GPU clock 1165 MHz
Memory clock 1375 MHz (x4)
Voltage +100 Mv
Fan control RPM @ default"
is it safe for daily use at full load? (my asus already use liquid cooling)
i want to OC my Asus R9 290 DirectCU II
i see in the review how to stable OC this card.
"We found a small tweak that will bring your boost frequency towards almost 1175 MHz stable. We applied:
Power Target +50%
GPU clock 1165 MHz
Memory clock 1375 MHz (x4)
Voltage +100 Mv
Fan control RPM @ default"
is it safe for daily use at full load? (my asus already use liquid cooling)
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Senior Member
Posts: 558
Might have to look into these cards, AMDs ****ty drivers always put me off though and I dunno if I could live without Shadowplay.