4 Weeks with Radeon R9 290X CrossFire

What do you get when you take two AMD Radeon R9 290X video cards, configure those for CrossFire, and set those at your feet for four weeks? We give our thoughts and opinions about actually using these GPUs in our own system for four weeks with focus on sound profile and heat generated by these cards.

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Radeon R9 290X CrossFire Install

The install, as you might imagine, was extremely simple and straightforward. With the ASUS ROG Maximus VI Extreme motherboard I was able to space the cards out a bit so that the primary 290X could get a better airflow to it. The case I am using is a SilverStone Raven RV03. The RV03 has two 180mm fans that intake air from the bottom of the case and give good airflow through the case from bottom to top.

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I am running a Windows 7 OS with up-to-date patches, etc. I did a full uninstall of the previous NVIDIA drivers, and obviously a fresh install of the Catalyst version 13.11 Beta 9.2. Everything went exactly as it should and I was able to set up CrossFire and Eyefinity without a problem. It could not have been easier. The only "issue" I happened across was that the AMD driver install log would not open up in my current default browser and since IE has been uninstalled, I did not get a chance to view the log in full, although the summary explained that all was successful.

Once I got to the point where I was loading up a game, I noticed that there was no sound. I did however have sound on the desktop. The Radeon card's HDMI audio was causing some issues here and I simply had to go into the sound properties and "disable all sound effects." Once I did this, I had sound in-game. The solution was not obvious so it took me about 10 minutes of Googling to find the solution to the sound issue.

Desk Enclosure

I think it is important to outline that the way my desk is setup is likely the worst possible configuration there could be for the enthusiast user. The desk and shelves above are built onto the wall behind it, and there is literally no means of airflow from the back of the desk area at all. All heat that is exhausted by the computer flows primarily up and out through the keyboard tray. This makes it extremely easy to tell whether or not anything is running "hot."

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Also there are no "soft" surfaces to absorb any sound. This makes it easy to notice even the smallest changes in the sound profile from fans spinning up or down.

No, I did not design the desk, rather it is a legacy from the original owner of the house. Suffice it to say that he was not a gamer.