XFX is ready with a non-reference R9 290X of its own and the card is en route to our office. We got confirmation from XFX that the card is considerably quieter compared to the AMD reference design, but then again so is my old Audi. According to XFX the new cooler is very powerful as it manages to keep the GPU temperature under 85 degrees Celsius. The AMD reference cooler is not as good and the reference card can hit 95 degrees with relative ease.
We can only hope that the new cooler will allow us to unlock the full potential of Hawaii. Bear in mind that the biggest problem facing the reference card is that it is forced to constantly throttle and downclock due to overheating. The reference card clocks up to 1000MHz, it almost never does so and in most load scenarios it ends up at 850MHz or less.
Needless to say, we expect a lot more from XFX’s custom 290X card which we will have a chance to test soon, so stay tuned.
Some of the headline specs include:
- 7 Heatpipes
- Copper base
– Direct connect to GPU for maximum cooling efficient in collaboration with the 7 heat pipes
- Ghost 2.0 Thermal Design
– Open thermal for maximum airflow and designed to take the weight stress away from the PCB to ensure safer shipping.
- Significant DB Level reduction Vs AMD own build
– 32dB Vs AMD 57dB
- Idle DB level ONLY 15dB to 20 dB
– Whisper quiet.
- Dual Double Dissipation 90mm Fans
– Providing superior cooling performance under especially under gaming conditions
- Lower temperature under 3D 85c Vs AMD 95c
- Dual XFX Bios - Voltage unlocked
– allowing the end user to adjust the GPU voltage, DRAM voltage and VDDCI voltage by themselves
– Allowing great over clocking or even under clocking
- Digital Power
– Providing a clean voltage signals that are more stable and accurate then conventional analogue designs (allowing faster and more accurate adjustments when you OC)
- All solid capacitors and 6 Phase Power
– this ensures a lower temperature by as much as 20% on the power IC modules
– Ensuring stable power flow to the GPU all of the time.
Here are a few first hand photos we received and they prove that the XFX team is working night and day to bring custom Hawaii cards to market.
