MSI R9 290X Lightning Review
Test Setup, Clock Speeds and Temps
Published: 4th March 2014 | Source: MSI | Price: £529.99 |
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.
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.
Most Recent Comments
QuoteAnyone want to buy my Tri-X for £530 so I can buy one of these?
QuoteQuoteAnybody think this is worth it for watercooling. It seems to be made more for LN2. Currently running a trifire rig with 2 refererence 290x and 1 tri x oc. Also have an xfx 290x DD black that I'm going to be adding soon. Able to maintain 1200/1550 daily use OC while I can bench at 1250/1650. Will the 290x lightning be able OC to 1300+ 24/7 ? I might sell my xfx and get this one instead. Btw out of my three cards 2 are hynix (xfx ref. tri x) 1 is elpida (sapphire ref)Quote
|
Originally Posted by phallacy
Hey guys, new here but I'm a member on OCN with the same user name.
Anybody think this is worth it for watercooling. It seems to be made more for LN2. Currently running a trifire rig with 2 refererence 290x and 1 tri x oc. Also have an xfx 290x DD black that I'm going to be adding soon. Able to maintain 1200/1550 daily use OC while I can bench at 1250/1650. Will the 290x lightning be able OC to 1300+ 24/7 ? I might sell my xfx and get this one instead. Btw out of my three cards 2 are hynix (xfx ref. tri x) 1 is elpida (sapphire ref) |
Seen as these aren't cherry picked cores though, there is no guarantee that you would get one that would be a better overclocker than your current 290s.
For watercooling a normal non ref 290 would be better, the reason for spending more on a card like the lightning is for the cooler. If you strip the card down and slap a waterblock on it, then it pretty much becomes a normal 290 with better Vram.Quote
CSS Valid