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R9 290-290X owners thread

Solaris17

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Its that one bottom center D4002 it has a clear plastic piece on top. It should be silver or gold with no black. mine is gold. I dont know if this differs by manufacturer. It will look alot like a car fuse if its broken the silver piece will simply be snapped.
 
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Here's the best of the images I could take. Kind of blurry, but silver looks intact.



 

Solaris17

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Benchmark Scores I dont have time for that.
Sorry chief that looks fine. Im going to say its RMA time :ohwell:
 
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Nobody here getting black screens? I'm guessing these Elpida memory chips really suck, or AMD drivers are worthless once again.

I'll try to place BIOS on Legacy mode and see if that helps. RMA did not find hardware issues.
 

Solaris17

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Benchmark Scores I dont have time for that.
im running elpidas and its fine.
 
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Changed to Legacy BIOS mode, downclocked the memory to 1200 and did not get a black screen for the entire day.

Did not play any demanding games, tho.
 

Solaris17

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Benchmark Scores I dont have time for that.
Changed to Legacy BIOS mode, downclocked the memory to 1200 and did not get a black screen for the entire day.

Did not play any demanding games, tho.

are you playing any specific games or does it happen with everything?
 
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are you playing any specific games or does it happen with everything?

It could happen at any time, even when just using Google Chrome...
Right now i'm playing Far Cry 3... Did not get a black screen since the changes.
 
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do you have enough amps on the 12v rail ?
I did get a black screen myself when I removed the drivers to update them.
It seemed to me that the legacy driver did not support my screen res 2560.
This problem your having can be anything.
Could well be your graphics card, could be your monitor cable could be your drivers,
what exactly are you doing when this happens ?
 
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I was getting black screens, but it turned out to be a loose cable connection between the monitor and card. I was raging until I found out it was only the cable. I thought for a while that I waited 3 weeks for a loud card with coil whine and it was dying, as well.
 
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I was getting black screens, but it turned out to be a loose cable connection between the monitor and card. I was raging until I found out it was only the cable. I thought for a while that I waited 3 weeks for a loud card with coil whine and it was dying, as well.

Great problem solved then :)
Good work finding the problem.
 
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XSPC Razor full-cover block and backplate were finally in stock at my store of choice, so I placed an order.
Hopefully the NZXT H630 case has decent enough sound-proofing to block out my coil whine.

EDIT MSI Afterburner beta 18 seems to be out, will be giving it a try today. Download seems to be pretty slow though. Link below.

http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/msi_afterburner_beta_download.html

EDIT #2 Afterburner seems to be working again, got voltage control available. Currently hitting 1100/1300 no sweat on stock voltage, but it is loud.
 
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Using TRIXX for OCing got 1165/1400 on stock volts and even got 1190/1400 on +125 offset(~1.23v) but it doesn't hold for more than a few seconds because of the heat problems I mentioned earlier.
 
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If your running both the R9 290 and R9 290X in crossfire, the R9 290X will downclock to R9 290 speeds. At least that's how I remember Xfire works.

I can't imagine the non-reference R9 290(X) cards are hot now that they're getting proper coolers, no? Post what temps your getting while you bench.
 
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If your running both the R9 290 and R9 290X in crossfire, the R9 290X will downclock to R9 290 speeds. At least that's how I remember Xfire works.

I can't imagine the non-reference R9 290(X) cards are hot now that they're getting proper coolers, no? Post what temps your getting while you bench.
Nope Xfire allows asymmetrical clocks and when you pair 2 GPUs with different clocks it does one of 2 things:
1 Nothing
2 Makes the slower card run at the same speed as the fastest card.
Crossfire is much more flexible than SLI.

My temps on card 2 are 72C° but card 1 got as high as 90C° with the fans set to 100% but that's because card 1 is reusing the hot air from card 2 so I'm gonna be putting them 4 slots(right now it just 2 slots) apart and put a heat shield between them. I will post pics of how I solved the heat problems once I do.
 
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Just got the card today ! =)

Sapphire R9-290x Tri-x 1100 Mhz Core

 

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I stumbled upon an interesting little tool over on overclock.net that pretty much tells you if your 290 will unlock to a 290x, as well as indicating which memory chips are used on your card.

Pretty great info mentioned over in that thread at overclock.net and here is the link to his post:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1443242/the-r9-290-290x-unlock-thread/610#post_21243519

xt12 from overclock.net said:
Hawaiinfo core config information reader

UPD: hawaiinfo v1.2 with detailed reading and multiple adapter (CF) support.

I'd like to try to get (possible) core config information from 290(x) chips.

It's interesting to get output from hawaiinfo tool from ANY 290 and 290X chips.
For unlockable 290's its interesting to get reading from running BOTH locked and unlocked BIOSes.


There are a well-known tool named Memory Info uploaded by some kind guys:
www.mediafire.com/download/voj4j1rlk0ucfz4/MemoryInfo+1005.rar
Download it and copy to some folder.

(outdated) And here is hawaiinfo tool:
http://rghost.ru/50367865
If you've got it from somethere else, please check exe's SHA1 hash to make sure it wasn't altered:
21ec161f47fbcaea0b4ee10defe03da6c4bf6a24 hawaiinfo.exe

(outdated) UPDATE V1.1: Experimental hawaiinfo v1.1 tries to get more detailed reading.
Make sure no single 3D application is running while trying hawaiinfo v1.1.
http://rghost.ru/50375416
If you've got it from somethere else, please check exe's SHA1 hash to make sure it wasn't altered:
11ab2edab8c454203c31309354ec0cc7bc16556e hawaiinfo11.exe

UPDATE V1.2: hawaiinfo v1.2 with detailed reading and multiple adapter (CF) support.
Make sure no single 3D application is running while trying hawaiinfo v1.2.
http://rghost.ru/50379538 (may be outdated)
refreshed link: http://rghost.ru/51128084 or http://rghost.net/51128084
If you've got it from somethere else, please check exe's SHA1 hash to make sure it wasn't altered:
542252e0d0a0f1f97d8c64ee5a05dbc71e3eb880 hawaiinfo12.exe

Download it and unzip into Memory info's folder. This tool uses DLLs from Memory info package for direct access to HW. Elevated privileges required because of that. This tool is not a virus and is not malicious in any kind. Tools may crash just like Memory info do if you don't have compatible graphics card, run it at limited user account and so on. Windows 8 compatibility is limited to ULPS-disabled configurations.

Please run this tool, copy it's output to clipboard and post it here together with basic info about your card:
- is it originally 290 or 290X;
- if 290, is it unlockable ?

If you're running big CF setup, all information could not fit the window, so please don't make screenshots. Just select, copy and paste text info from the tool's window.
Data readout may not work in CF configuration with ULPS enabled. If you're getting "Memory config: 0x00000000" on some adapter consider all following data from this adapter to be incorrect. Turn off ULPS to read data correctly.

Explanation of data read by hawaiinfo:
Rx1 corresponds to HW core status and Rx2 to SW core status.
x = [A,B,C,D] - one of 4 Hawaii's shader engines.
Rx1 HW lock status:
Look at the 2 high bytes of Rx1, they should read as FXXX:
F800.... - no locked units. Anything but F800.... results in presence of disabled cores.
Rx2: SW lock status, decoded in the same manner as Rx1.
Non-zero Rx2 indicates software-engaged core lock (by BIOS or via driver).

In short words:
1. If your card reads F800yyyy at Rx1 for all x, its either 290X or unlockable 290 (215-0852000). If it's currently locked you can unlock it by flashing stock 290X BIOS at your own risk. See also N3.
2. If your card have an extra '1' bit in F800 half of Rx1, your card is locked 290 (215-0852020) and cannot be unlocked via stock 290X BIOS.
3. If your card reads F800yyyy at Rx1 for all x and Rx2 reads F801yyyy, you have 290X chips locked by BIOS to 290. You can unlock it by flashing stock 290X BIOS at your own risk.
4. Non-F800 Rx1 may indicate real ASIC screening information. Please post here your dumps with non-F800 chips.


FAQ:
1. Why it may be useful to upload dumps to the forum?
Even the same type of chip may give various readings. For present moment its very interesting to get some statistics about locked 290 chips. Exact Rx1 dumps together with some info about your card (like its brand or manufacturing date) are needed for that. Predominance of F801.... readings in locked chips is somewhat strange.

2. Is it true my all-F800xxxx chip from 290 is indeed of the same quality as in 290X?
Its true what F800xxxx chips doesn't have failing cores inside it and is fully functional as 290X. It's still possible it was downgraded to 290 via some kind of last-minute thermal screening. This can lead to worse thermal characteristics of unlocked chip when compared to 290X.

3. Will my 290 card burn out if I'll unlock that extra cores?
Unlocked card could have the same power consumption as stock 290X card. Reference design cards should be able to withstand extra power consumption caused by extra load from unlocked cores. However, hypothetical future custom designed 290 cards may feature power sources tightly optimized for 290 limits to make them cheaper. Such cards's VRM may burn out because of extra 290X-like load. Even a reference card may exhibit worse thermal characteristics and harder throttling in an unlocked configuration.

4. Will my unlocked 290 card have a shorter life?
If core unlocking will lead to higher working temperature or you're pushing the card to OC limits, especially involving over-voltage, your card's life may be shortened. This is true for any OC activity leading to higher working temperatures regardless of core unlocking. Good cooling solution should remove that negative effects of OC. Over-the-specification voltage and high temperature are worst enemies of complex semiconductor's longevity and reliability. Still, technical obsolescence should drive your card out of game much sooner than thermal wearing.

5. How did you found out how to read out this information?
I'v examined Hawaii core configuration process in GPL sources of latest Linux kernel (git head and 3.13-rc1). It's legal to explore and learn open source software.

Thanks for reading and waiting for more dumps from any brands of 290's!

So to find out if your 290 will unlock to a 290x (this is the TL;DR version, please read through the original stuff in the link of quote for a more thorough explanation and understanding):

1) Download MemoryInfo1005 and extract to a folder
2) Download hawaiinfo12 and extract it into the same folder as above
3) Run hawaiinfo12.exe once it's extracted in folder
4) Observe result.
  • Unlockable: if the values for Rx1 are F800xxxx, then it's either a 290x or unlockable to a 290x
  • Not unlockable: if the values for Rx1 are F801xxxx, then it's not unlockable


It's obvious that I didn't figure any of this out myself. I saw a link to his post on overclock.net over on Hardforum, and I thought it was terrific info and wanted to share it here.

So if so inclined, give it a whirl; it seemed to be getting positive results on the other forum. Mine indicates it's not unlockable but I haven't actually tried nor do I think I will.

 
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Finally, the only missing piece of my (never-ending) puzzle!!!! Just bought a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X yesterday:rockout:.


Honestly, I started on modding my case well before this particular card and alas the color and theme is purely coincidental :). Here is my 3DMark score:




 

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I hit the #2 spot with 2x 290x but the OP will not add my score since I did not get an in bench screenshot.

Also the op never stated in bench screenshot until I mentioned to actually add the rule to the first post.
 
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Well i said the hell with it and put an H55 on my card! BF4- 55c, Vrm1 65c, Vrm2 33c @1150/1375
 

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Dammit! Why can't Newegg lower the prices on those R9's already. It's pissing me off because I could've got 1 on launch day for $399.99, but now they're all at least $499.99.

Tell me one thing folks, should I bite the bullet and get a custom R9 290 like Gigabyte's Windforce/Sapphire's Tri-X OC/ASUS Direct CU OC? Which one is the best? Or should I just get a reference R9 290 with an Accelero Xtreme 3? Temps are my main concern here, with noise coming in at a close second. Can you guys post some temps and performance numbers with BF4?

I just got a Seasonic 760w PSU so I could test it just for this and I have to send out the rebate postmarked by 2/4/13. What do you guys think?
 
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