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Krisnatharok
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Krisnatharok

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XFX launches custom-cooled R9 290 and 290X

said by Videocardz :

XFX launches Radeon R9 290X and R9 290 Double Dissipation




XFX has introduced its first custom Radeon R9 290 series graphics cards.

Both Radeon R9 290X DD and R9 290 DD look exactly the same. The difference lays under the clocks, the difference is also quite disappointing, why? XFX did not overclock these cards, so they come with default clocks: 947 and 1000 MHz.

Cards are fully custom built. They feature something known as XFactor, which stands for Solid Capacitors, Ferrite Core Chokes and Dust-Free IP-5X Fan. At this point we don’t know how modified is the board of these cards (I expect PCB to be the same for both Hawaii PRO and XT).

XFX also released a teaser with an illuminating logo. I’m not sure if this is actually a new feature, because XFX does not mention that in their overview, but it does look different than R9 280X cooling system so this has to be a glowing thing.

Unfortunately XFX equipped both cards with default power connectors (6+8pin).

No price and availability date were mentioned. Personally I think this is one of the best looking R9 290X on the market, so it’s definitely worth a wait (I would put the glowing logo on the side though).



Mike
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join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

1 recommendation

Mike

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look at all those litecoins

Jobbie
Keep It Simple
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join:2010-08-24
Mexico

Jobbie

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said by Mike:

look at all those litecoins

Noice.

Krisnatharok
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join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

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said by Mike:

look at all those dogecoins

so much fix

so wow

much doge

TigerLord

join:2002-06-09
Canada

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XFX ain't getting my money.

»hardforum.com/showthread ··· =1601246

Krisnatharok
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Krisnatharok

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Holy shit. That sucks.

pnjunction
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Toronto, ON

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Had my own sub-par experience related to them.

Bought a card of theirs (I think it was a geforce 7600) because it had a fancy copper cooler. Get home and take the card out of the box and the fancy cooler falls right off! One of the pins is broken (their packaging was to blame it offered no impact protection to that spot).

I go back to the store and they say they policy is to send it back to manufacturer because it is physical damage. I wasn't happy but I understood (because people mod stuff and mess it up and want them to take it back).

A couple weeks later I get the call that the replacement is in. I go and pick it up and it's the same model number, same box, but it has the crappy reference cooler instead of the fancy copper one (I notice that with the smaller cooler it isn't touching the outside of the box anymore). At that point I was sick of the BS so I took it.

Indeed it seems like playing fast and loose with model numbers is XFX's game and I won't be playing it anymore either.

TigerLord

join:2002-06-09
Canada

1 edit

1 recommendation

TigerLord

I've faced two kinds of customer service in the enthusiast market.

The first group is composed of vendors that will accept a motherboard even if you dremeled the northbridge heatsink. They may also offer you a free blowjob in thanks for your patronage. That kind of service usually commands higher MSRP, but you get what you pay for. EVGA and Zotac are prime specimen examples of group 1.

The second group of vendors focuses on releasing a lot of card references and prioritizes marketing, fast turn around and low prices to attract clientele. If you go through a RMA experience, you're the one who may have to give a blowjob to get decent service. Examples of bad service includes blaming modifications for problems, taking forever to respond to tickets, sending DOA cards for replacements, or being general dickheads. XFX definitely belongs to this category.

Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI have all been easy to work with in the past. Though they don't go above and beyond like EVGA or Zotac or Powercolor.

XFX can join Voodoo in the realm of olds for all I care.
me1212
join:2008-11-20
Lees Summit, MO

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It has begun! Although I've not had good luck with xfx, I can't wait for gigabyte, asus, and msi ones before I start really salivating and hard core saving up for ether one of them or the 780 depending on price.

Looks really nice though.
Thordrune
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said by Krisnatharok:

said by Videocardz :

XFX launches Radeon R9 290X and R9 290 Double Dissipation

...The difference lays under the clocks, the difference is also quite disappointing, why? XFX did not overclock these cards, so they come with default clocks: 947 and 1000 MHz.

I guess one way to look at it is the relative lack of throttling could be considered an overclock of sorts .
Kearnstd
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said by TigerLord:

I've faced two kinds of customer service in the enthusiast market.

The first group is composed of vendors that will accept a motherboard even if you dremeled the northbridge heatsink. They may also offer you a free blowjob in thanks for your patronage. That kind of service usually commands higher MSRP, but you get what you pay for. EVGA and Zotac are prime specimen examples of group 1.

The second group if vebdirs focuses on releasing a lot of card references and prioritizes marketing, fast turn around and low prices to attract clientele. If you go through a RMA experience, you're the one who may have to give a blowjob to get decent service. Examples of bad service includes blaming modifications for problems, taking forever to respond to tickets, sending DOA cards for replacements, or being general dickheads. XFX definitely belongs to this category.

Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI have all been easy to work with in the past. Though they don't go above and beyond like EVGA or Zotac or Powercolor.

XFX can join Voodoo in the realm of olds for all I care.

Seems I am doing good then paying the premium for EVGA cards. I never knew they had good CS though, I mostly got them because I have never had one randomly die on me.

TigerLord

join:2002-06-09
Canada

TigerLord

Fanboyism is bad for the soul and has been proven to lower IQ. But EVGA is the only company, after a decade and over 131 $5000+ systems built with EVGA parts, that has never pissed me off. So I'm still an EVGA fanboy to this day.

And that is valid for both EVGA GmbH (Europe) and EVGA US. When I lived in Germany I had a 680 motherboard that fried -- I got a brand new replacement, still in shrink wrap, three days later. They even cross-shipped it! A 250EUR mobo!

EVGA US is just as good.

However it doesn't mean I just buy EVGA parts. I still usually go for the best deal on my whitelist of vendors I like, but if it's a near tie, and it's between EVGA or X, I will go for EVGA always. It's the peace of mind that comes with it that I like.

Ghastlyone
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join:2009-01-07
Nashville, TN

Ghastlyone

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+1

I stick with EVGA on video cards. I've owned many over the years and they've never failed me *knocks on wood*

I've contacted their customer support a few times for questions on certain backplates, SLI bridges, etc. and they literally responded within minutes. One guy I talked to on the phone was hella cool, and actually spoke clear english.

I've yet to use any of their motherboards, or power supplies, but maybe on the next build down the road.
Thordrune
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For Nvidia, I always pick EVGA. I've purchased many of their cards over the years, all of them still work perfectly. For AMD, I usually pick Sapphire.

C0deZer0
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Hearing this really makes me concerned about my GTX 285.

El Quintron
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said by Thordrune:

For Nvidia, I always pick EVGA.

+2 or 3 or wherever we're at.

I've always had great service from EVGA, I had to RMA my old 560ti and their service was excellent, I've been sold on them ever since. My EVGA 9800+ before it was flawless, and so are my current 670s all EVGA.

My only AMD card has been my MSI r7970 Lightening, and it runs great, if somewhat hot but no complaints after a year.

EQ
me1212
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said by Thordrune:

For Nvidia, I always pick EVGA. ... For AMD, I usually pick Sapphire.

+whatever number we are at now. Personally my favorite gpu manufacturers for the respective brands.

Although after having this gigabyte 7950 I could be persuaded to get another gigabyte were the price once again right.

Krisnatharok
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Krisnatharok

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It's definitely insightful getting everyone's opinions on the major brands. For me it's:

EVGA: had a couple of their cards flake out (bad DX11 implementation and/or too low gpu core voltage) but their customer service is fantastic, A+++.
Sapphire: Owned multiple AMD GPUs from them. Customer service was perfect the one time I had to RMA a 4870. My two 7970s OC very well.
XFX: Heard horror stories about corner-cutting and customer service, despite their "double life time" warranty.
Gigabyte: Heard a lot of good about both their GPUs and mobos. Windforce looks badass. Hope to use them next time around for a mobo.
MSI: Would avoid because I had one of their mobos blow up on me and kill multiple components. No comment on GPUs.
Powercolor: They've had some innovative dual-BIOS options on their GPUs.
Asus: Industry standard for some reason. Looks like a solid pick but I've had a horrible experience with the QC on the Maximus V Formula mobo, although customer service was decent.
Diamond: -
Club3D: -
Sparkle/PNY/Galaxy: I see this overpriced crap in Best Buy, hence I tend to avoid.

El Quintron
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said by Krisnatharok:

Sparkle/PNY/Galaxy: I see this overpriced crap in Best Buy, hence I tend to avoid.

Which is pretty disappointing because that stuff is usually reasonably priced at real computer stores... I think the real culprit regarding the price of these GPUs is Best Buy because it's only non-prebuilt PC component they offer.

EQ

Krisnatharok
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Krisnatharok

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That's true. The coolers look like shit though.

I forgot to add Zotac. I have one 570 running in my BIL's rig, and I've heard fantastic things about their dedication to the enthusiast community. I'd put them up right under EVGA.

El Quintron
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said by Krisnatharok:


I forgot to add Zotac. I have one 570 running in my BIL's rig, and I've heard fantastic things about their dedication to the enthusiast community. I'd put them up right under EVGA.

That's great to know, I've always liked their cards but didn't know anything about their reputation, not to mention they're pretty discounted versus other cards in Canada.

EQ
Thordrune
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I completely forgot my one RMA story with EVGA. I bought a 7800 GTX from them in 2005, right after launch. I watercooled it a couple of years later and all went well for a few months, then it started artifacting all over the place (from what I could tell, bad RAM or cold solder joint).

I contacted them to ask if I could still RMA. They said the warranty was still valid if there was no physical damage/alterations to the video card and I installed the stock cooling before sending it in, which I did. I got the replacement a couple of weeks later, which worked perfectly. I got a good deal on a Radeon X1900XT in the meantime though (one of my all-time favorite cards, RIP), so I gave it to a coworker.

As for MSI video cards, I bought a Radeon HD 6970 of theirs back in 2011. It ran for about a year before one of the VRMs died. The first RMA resulted in a card with a rather severe fan speed issue. The second RMA had a thermal pad and paste on the GPU, which caused it to nearly hit 100 C with light load. I fixed that one myself and sold the card.

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said by Thordrune:

I got a good deal on a Radeon X1900XT in the meantime

A guy I game with was rocking that very card for about 5 years, sounds like it was a good deal.
Thordrune
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Thordrune

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It was one of those cards that comes along every so often that's almost ahead of its time from being so good. I wasn't expecting it to be much faster than the 7800, but it completely wiped the floor with it in the games I played at the time, BioShock especially - I went from 20-30 FPS on medium-high to 40-60 at max settings. The abundance of shaders made it last quite a long time.
primeomega
join:2004-03-11
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said by Mike:

look at all those litecoins

First thing that came to me to! LOL
me1212
join:2008-11-20
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said by Krisnatharok:

Gigabyte: Heard a lot of good about both their GPUs and mobos. Windforce looks badass. Hope to use them next time around for a mobo.

Looks and preforms badass. I've overvolted and overclocked my current card more than I have any other card I've used(both in terms of raw numbers and percentage) and it still stays very cool and quiet. Their mobos have been good to me and my friends as well.

I've seen good things from zotac aswell.