MSI R9 290X Lightning Review

MSI R9 290X Lightning Review

Test Setup

MSI R9 290X Lightning
Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4.6GHz
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
Corsair Dominator Platinum
Corsair AX1200i
Corsair Neutron GTX
Corsair H100i
Windows 7 x64  

Clocks

One of the easiest overclockers we’ve come across. Keeping the switch firmly on the standard mode, rather than LN2 mode, the card only required a gentle nudge to the voltages to bring the GPU up to 1150MHz. The Memory is where the card really shines though, up from 1250MHz at stock to 1650MHz. A massive overclock and one we are very happy with, maybe with a few software changes we may be able to squeeze more out but we are very happy with what we managed to achieve in such a short time with the card and should be a good indicator to what the average Joe can expect when experimenting at home.

MSI R9 290X Lightning Review

Temperatures

It’s not only the overclocking that is impressive though. The Tri-Frozr cooler annihilates the competition and keeps the card frosty even with such a beast of an overclock in place and Unigine doing its best to heat up the planet.

 MSI R9 290X Lightning Review