XFX R9 290 DD Double Dissipation GPU Review

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Regular readers will know that we’re big fans of a subtle design here at OC3D. One of the modern trends is towards a more minimalist design and it’s something we wholeheartedly encourage. XFX with their DD cooler definitely hit all the boxes and we think it looks gorgeous. So often we’ve seen shrouds that seem to be designed for another card entirely, hello Gigabyte Windforce, that the DD stands out. 

      

The looks of the Direct Dissipation cooler are superb. The whole card exudes quality in a way that’s rarely seen. A fantastic effort from XFX.

       

Twin 9-bladed 90mm fans combine a large surface area with low noise thanks to shifting lots of air at low RPMs. We did have a Monty Python Life of Brian flashback; “Nine-bladed! Not two or five or seven, but nine”; so used are we to smaller amounts of blades.  

      

The business ends of the card are the usual AMD offerings of 6+8pin power and HDMI, DisplayPort and twin DVI outputs. Along with a nice little XFX logo cut into the exhaust.