AMD R9 290X Review (Part 1)

The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes.Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature.

We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.


As we mentioned earlier in the review the BIOS switch on the R9 290X doesn't actually adjust core clock or memory speeds. It changes the maximum fan speed from 40% to 55% (Quiet Mode to Uber Mode) while holding a maximum default temperature of 95c. Running an intensive game (or Furmark as shown above) will load the GPU until it sits at a constant 95c. If the maximum fan speed can't hold 95c it will downclock the core clock speed.

At the default BIOS setting -‘quiet', the fan speed is limited to a maximum of 40 percent while the software simultaneously holds a maximum default temperature of 95c. We noticed that to maintain the temperature of 95c running the synthetic load test Furmark that the software would actively downclock the core. The image above shows the core running at 727mhz – while holding the temperature at 95c.

If you have been reading the review from the start then you will know that some game titles also push the fan speed to the limit at the Quiet BIOS setting. This means the core clock speed will downclock to compensate – reducing potential performance.

At the other ‘Uber' BIOS setting, the fan speed is limited to a maximum of 55 percent while the software holds a maximum temperature of 95c. Sadly Catalyst Control Center will not switch from 40% to 55% fan settings automatically – even with the BIOS switch in the correct place. We need to manually click ‘default' in the Performance Overdrive tab – to reset the max speed to 55%. We are hoping that future revisions of the driver will automatically adjust this as it is easy to forget if you are moving between BIOS configurations.

As the fan is more active at this setting, the card isn't actively downclocking as much as it does when tasked with the synthetic Furmark test. We noticed the core speed would often drop from 1000mhz to around 900mhz.

AMD have clearly had to work out a rather sophisticated set of parameters to try and maintain a maximum default core temperature of 95c, which seems very high in our opinion.

We discussed this with AMD and we were told ‘R9 290X GPU running at 95C is absolutely normal and intentional.'

I strongly believe if AMD had improved the reference cooler on the 290X that the core speed could have held at 1,000mhz at all times without the need for this active downclocking based on a set threshold temperature parameter.

On a more positive note, the software does allow the user to adjust settings and drop the maximum temperature to say 85c. Setting the maximum fan speed percentage to around 70% would ensure the temperatures would drop – at the expense of a lot of fan noise. We need to add, that if you moved the temperature slider from 95c to 85c and left the maximum fan setting on 40% then the core would downclock even further to compensate, subsequently losing even more performance.

For most people we suggest leaving the card set at UBER mode and to ensure that the correct 55% fan speed is set within Catalyst Control Center. If you can deal with additional fan noise, then by all means move the slider further up the scale.

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