Anyone else pick up a bargain 290x?

[Biscuit]

I have moved into a smaller case and I was having some throttling issue with my SLI 660Ti set up (also there was no room for my DTS-C soundcard )
I picked up a Sapphire 390X Vapor-X for about £220, which is basically the best 4GB 290X there was. It arrived and I was seriously impressed with the build quality, this is a serious bit of kit.
Once it gets going there is quite a lot of noise coming from it but the cooler does an amazing job of keeping the temperatures down on what is well known to be a hot chip.

I have played with it for a few days and so far the performance is plenty good enough for me to not miss SLI. Today I figured I would do some experimentation to see if I could easily get it to clock the same as, or faster than a 390X without touching voltages. It was very easy. So far I have got the memory up from the default 5300MHz to a stock 390X beating 6120MHz effective and the core maximum I have managed is 1078 (from 1030) which is a chunk more than the 390X.

Given HARDOCP found that clock for clock it has the same performance as the 390X and a lot of the reviews with modern drivers have it battling out with the 980 in benchmarks... pretty happy.

On a separate note, I switched my H100 out for a Be Quiet Dark Rock 3 cooler as I thought it would be quieter, and it is... at idle... I think the extra heat in the case from the GPU transfers into the cooler as they are so close, this obviously wouldn't be an issue with the H100... so maybe I'll switch back.

Did anyone else jump on the discount 290X bandwagon? How have your experiences been?

[kalniel]

Nice one. Wish I had, but timing didn't work out!

[shaithis]

The tdp of 2 x 660Ti is pretty much identical to a single 290x. You might even find that because of the newer tech and less overheads (single card), you are actually dumping less heat into the case now.

[deejayburnout]

That's a steal for such a good card. I recently bought a 2nd hand vapor 280x for £100 and that was a steal too. Very impressed with the cooler on the sapphire cards.

Wish i had some cash now.

[Biscuit]

The tdp of 2 x 660Ti is pretty much identical to a single 290x. You might even find that because of the newer tech and less overheads (single card), you are actually dumping less heat into the case now.

The issues were more to do with how close the cards were too each other and how poor the air circulation is in this Aerocool DS case. I knew it would be a bit of a challenge but its proving to be a pig to get the cooling set up right. Unhooking everything and putting the H100 back in might be the only way to do it but I have a better 200mm front fan on the way so ill wait for that first.

[DanceswithUnix]

Not quite, I got an R9 285 "TurboDuo" for £120. Was really tempted by the 290X but should put the money towards a new fridge.

Had been putting off upgrading for the last couple of years as I was just about getting by with my GTX460. So far very happy.

[ik9000]

still on my gtx460 here but then the titles i play are all old school so it kind of works beasts autocad too!

[DanceswithUnix]

still on my gtx460 here but then the titles i play are all old school so it kind of works beasts autocad too!

Yeah, it has lasted remarkably well, although mine was a 2GB model which I think helped it a bit. But still, that was a 5 year old card so good value overall.

[ik9000]

Yeah, it has lasted remarkably well, although mine was a 2GB model which I think helped it a bit. But still, that was a 5 year old card so good value overall.

Yeah i got an SOC Gigabyte back when they were really quite something to have compared to the rest of the field. It's basically running at 470 speeds by default, and as near silent as i could ask for. Partly why it's not been replaced. Sooo quiet

[[DW]Cougho]

I picked up a Vapor X 290x too. I decided a Fury wasn't enough of an upgrade for twice the price of a 290x.

The 290x has improved greatly thanks to drivers since it first came out as at launch I didn't see it as a large enough upgrade from my 7970, but I've been very impressed. It's a little hot and noisy at load but my main concern is noise at idle and that is perfectly acceptable. I've got it clocked at 1100/1500, I had it at 1150 core but I think it needed a tad more voltage and for 50mhz I didn't believe it was worth it.

Together with Freesync it should tide me over to the 16nm cards nicely.

[Biscuit]

I picked up a Vapor X 290x too. I decided a Fury wasn't enough of an upgrade for twice the price of a 290x.

The 290x has improved greatly thanks to drivers since it first came out as at launch I didn't see it as a large enough upgrade from my 7970, but I've been very impressed. It's a little hot and noisy at load but my main concern is noise at idle and that is perfectly acceptable. I've got it clocked at 1100/1500, I had it at 1150 core but I think it needed a tad more voltage and for 50mhz I didn't believe it was worth it.

Together with Freesync it should tide me over to the 16nm cards nicely.

Pretty much my thought process as well, although I have an ultrawide monitor and I dont think I could go back to regular widescreen gaming so Freesync would be expensive for me

[Pullock]

Must say that seeing the prices of 290/290x lately it's a shame I have a 270X can't really justify that upgrade.

[Saracen]

I didn't pick one up, mainly because I'm not enough of a gamer these days to justify £200+ video cards, but it looks like a bargain if you are.

Question .... is this a typo?

...

I picked up a Sapphire 390X Vapor-X for about £220, which is basically the best 4GB 290X there was.

...

Unless I've missed something, there wasn't a 390X "Vapor-X". The rest of your post implies 290X.

Looks like a typo, but just checking ...

[ZaO]

I bought the 290X Vapor-X shortly before they got reduced a lot. If only I'd waited a little longer.. Anyway, mine is inside a Fractal R5 case with only the two stock case fans. The cpu (4790K) has a Noctua DH-14 on it. My Vapor-X is set to keep all 3 fans running instead of only running one when it gets cool enough, and it's really quiet! Hasn't been above 72c to my knowledge, that's with the stock fan profile too Build quality is awesome. Best card I've owned so far (I'm not just talking about performance wise either). I'm surprised yours is noisey. Might be a bit too starved of cool air/good airflow if your case is quite small without many fans. I can't imagine how the 390X would be louder than a 290X anyway..

Edit: Just saw Saracen's post. I'm thinking that "390X" probably is a typo!

[dirtylautrec]

if you can grab a bargain then go for it.

[sqwerty]

I grabbed a DCii 290X from Scan daily for £215, tested it in crossfire for a few weeks then sold it for £225 along with my other 290X (£200) and bought a 980Ti at £500 with free arkham knight which sold for £15.