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- Date:
- Monday , February 24, 2014
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:
XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation Overclocking Review
We have already reviewed the XFX R9 290X DD. It is now time to see how far we can overclock the XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation Edition video card. We will be looking at single card performance advantages as well as CrossFire performance advantages by overclocking two XFX R9 290X video cards.
Introduction
At the end of January we were able to bring you our first look at two custom retail XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation Edition video cards in CrossFire. That initial evaluation focused purely on CrossFire performance with these custom video cards. We compared XFX R9 290X DD Edition CrossFire performance against AMD Radeon R9 290X CrossFire with reference cards as well as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti.
In the XFX R9 290X DD Edition CrossFire evaluation we experienced the XFX R9 290X DD Edition video cards performing faster than reference AMD R9 290X cards in CrossFire. The reason for this was that the AMD R9 290X reference video card were throttling quite often, never achieving a consistent 1GHz operation. On the other hand, the custom Double Dissipation cooling on the XFX R9 290X DD Edition video cards allowed these to maintain a consistent 1GHz GPU speed. The clock speed never throttled, and this meant performance was noticeably higher in every single game we tested compared to reference cards. It was clear that the custom Double Dissipation cooling was allowing the video cards to work right.
What we did not get to cover in that evaluation was overclocking with the XFX R9 290X DD Edition video cards. In today's evaluation we are going to look at the XFX R9 290X DD Edition in a more granular way. We will be looking at overclocking the XFX R9 290X DD Edition with in-depth testing done to ensure a 24/7 stable overclock. In addition, we will be taking two XFX R9 290X DD Edition video cards and overclocking these both while CrossFire is enabled to find out how two cards overclocked improve CrossFire performance as well.
Therefore, we will be looking at single-card advantages, and CrossFire advantages. This will be the second AMD R9 290X GPU based video card we have spent a lot of time with overclocking. The first was the ASUS R9 290X DC2 OC. We are interested to see how the two overclocks compare, so we will be making references to the ASUS Overclocking evaluation.
XFX Radeon R9 290X Double Dissipation Edition
Let's recap what we know about the XFX R9 290X Double Dissipation Edition video card itself. We explained in our initial review what makes it tick, so this will just be a recap, though we will look at some more single-card screenshots.
The XFX R9 290X DD, has an MSRP $569-$579.99. However, current demand on AMD video cards has caused the actual street prices of R9 290X cards to skyrocket to inflated prices from retailers and etailers. Case in point, we are currently seeing the price at Amazon be a whopping $749! At insane prices such as this, it is hard to argue the value compared to the competition. Hopefully these prices will eventually drop to the MSRP levels.
The XFX R9 290X DD comes clocked at the reference clock speed of 1GHz with default memory clock. Thanks to the custom Double Dissipation cooler the XFX R9 290X DD is able to maintain 1GHz in every game out-of-the-box. Three of the key features on the XFX Radeon R9 290X Double Dissipation Edition are that it uses solid capacitors, ferrite core chokes, and dust free IP-5X fans. XFX has gone the extra mile with this video card to offer unlocked voltage with its digital power six VRM configuration.
The box is just big enough to contain the video card, which is nice, there is no wasted space. Important to note is the "Unlocked Voltage" label on the front of the box. This video card does allow voltage core and aux voltage control. Inside the box are several manuals, install guides, product advertisements, and a couple of power splitter cables.
The video card measures 11" in length and 4.5" in height, and is thus bigger in height compared to the reference AMD R9 290X. The added height is due to added heatsink area for more cooling. There are literally 7 copper heatpipes coming from the main copper block on the GPU. Two of the copper pipes reach around to the front heatsink while 5 copper heatpipes connect through the rear heatsink. This helps divide up the heat dissipation, and by using copper heat is removed faster.
These pictures above demonstrate how clean the lines and symmetry on the video card are. It truly has an artistic touch to it, which makes it visually appealing. Note that the XFX logo also lights up while in operation on the front of the video card.
There are two DVI ports, one HDMI and one DisplayPort. Sadly, there is one bad design decision which has gone into this video card. The power connectors are turned so that the clips are right next to the metal heatsink. This causes a problem when trying to disconnect these. It is impossible to get your fingers between them to undo the clip. What ends up happening is that you have to push the heatsink apart, literally pulling the card apart so you can pry your finger in there to pull the clip, and then you also end up scratching up your fingers. (Editor's Note: Or you could use a pair of needle nose pliers for forceps.) The solution would be to turn the connectors around the other way, which is something ASUS did on its R9 290X.