Less power lost due to lower temperature . . . .
Is it worth of topping up another 500 for a R9-290 and a cooler . .
Still thinking of th R9-280X Toxic . . .

Ya, i also blur
By the way another concern is after installed this Arctic cooler i'm worry the PCB cannot hold the cooler properly because current stock cooler have steel frame surrounding the PCB.

280x Toxic have better price/performance. Depend on what type of game u'll be playing and on what resolution. I'm still waiting for TrueAudio review.

Today AMD will do 1st public demo of Mantle, hopefully it's not just marketing gimmick.

My advise is if you really not familiar with these hardware things better play safe just buying those custom one.

thank for the advice . .
no problem with these hardware . .
just a bit confused on which to go . .
R9-290 with external cooler or R9-280X toxic . .

Basically i want to play those new game (BF4, FF, etc)
Setting will be at high . .

If budget not a issue, just get R9 290

can ask shop assistant to let you check the GPU before buying one iirc Asus GTX 560ti does not have one, the probably changed warranty policy on newer GPU.
Yeah i own a Gigabyte GTX 760, it does not have any sticker on screw, but Palit has one on it cant install thrid party cooler.
Powercolor GPU does not have sticker either.

Got livestream? Time?

Actually it is depends on situation, certain brands the box normally is sealed, eg Zotac, the salesman might not allowed to open the box, but for Asus & Gigabyte (for R9 290 cases, other model i'm not sure), both not come with sealed box so i request the sales person to open for me to check.

For those who really worried about heat may install the casing fan (if your casing allowed to do so) to blow the card just like me.


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Sharing benchmark done for Metro Light, Fan speed @ 50%, Temperature 74 degree


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huh? the board is still a reference board

Nice . .
FPS quite high and the temperature is still OK ah (76)
my budget actually allowed me until R9-280X toxic . . But if this babe realli worth the penny then i'll spend another 500 for the card and a extra cooler . .
So please convience me to buy it . . lol

As claimed by AMD it is normal for reference designed R290 to hit 90 Celcius.
Why bother to install a 3rd party cooler

Even if you really dont want it to hit 90 celcius, there is always MSI afterburner to allow you to tweak
and customize the fan speed as of your preference.

This post has been edited by DuDe5593: Nov 12 2013, 07:56 PM

I think if the temperature is not an issue for most, the noise will. Read quite a few reviews on the Arctic coolers and mostly the noise is really minimal.

I see, gotta wait for factory built custom card then

You like to play those game with ultra high setting right? Then go for it, u won't regret

Bro, how is your R9 290?

I gotta say, tested it with COD GHOST all full settings.
Not even a single lag noticed

How u configure your fan speed? Mind to share?