Upgraded GPU to R9 M290x

Hi all.

I just upgraded from HD6990m to R9 M290x. I had to edit the bios on it because of too much throttling. I settled on 850/1250 at 0.95v. Question is, do you think it performs well enough? I have a benchmark of Far Cry Primal for you to see:



Please comment if theres anything I can do to improve it. I have 240W psu, set the i7 at 27-24-22-20 and a maximum of 44W and 40A.

 

i dont know if its performs well enough but looks pretty fine! What about ur temps ? its playable for long times ? And what you're using to keep ur 920xM runing fine with this settings? Thanks for sharing your performance! Did you alredy tryed Fallout 4 ? if yes do you mind to share ur results with me ? How much did you payd for this GPU ?

 

Hello Azshalasa.

Temp goes to max 80 deg.C, long time playable, yes. Regarding the 920xm, im using throttlestop and running stock cooling with the back raised a bit. I dont have Fallout 4, so sorry, cannot test it.

This is the guy and gpu i bought: http://www.ebay.com/itm/231564666271

It came with UEFI bios, but posted just fine. Standard speed is 950/1250 at 1.1v

 

Does native fan control work or are you using something like HWinfo to control the fans?

 

Glad you asked - I should have stated that I need HWinfo64 to control fan speeds.

 

Well R9 M290x is second time rebranded 7970M so you could upgrade to 7970M and effect would be identical but with native fan control working.

 

Yeah, it's basically an overclocked 7970M and is just a direct rebrand of the 8970M. I had a 7970M that died on me. The 290 is still a good card and was considering one until I heard that fan control didn't work. I was hoping something has changed but looks like it still needs HWinfo.

 

Well, as long as its possible, I dont mind. I was used to run HWInfo for years with my old 6990m

 

The only R9 M290X that works with native fan control is the MSI 2GB R9 M290X (as tested by SVL7). The Clevo and Dell R9 M290X do not support native fan control. At this point, with R9 m290x costing between 200-250usd and the 970M costing 300-350 USD, it is well worth it to save up and just get the 6GB Clevo 970M. It runs cool and absolutely annhilates the 7970M/R9 M290X, uses less power, and has native fan control. Probably the final upgrade for the M15x that will not require extensive modification to work. Just plug in and go.

 

Thats fine, but where do you find it at that price? I paid 197USD for the M290x and the cheapest 970m I could find was about 500USD, unless it was some untrustworthy seller. I'll happily pay 350USD for a 970m - if one could be found

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GeFo...774314?hash=item1c7852c3ea:g:4J8AAOSw-0xYPdOd

 

Its gone

 

Anyway, heres a benchmark at max settings with rise of the tomb raider, using M290x at 950/1250 1.025v.

 

Mate, benchmark is useless because we have a lot of 7970M benchmarks around and this is same card.

 

Its not useless and its not same card, do not disincentive the guy! Its similar but not the same, at least it not supose to be the same.

Please keep posting ur bench, its usefull to me and prob for others who want to upgrade.

 

It's not similiar. It's Radeon 8970M with driver side changed name. If you install older driver it will show Radeon 8970M which is correct.

And do not upgrade do this card, fans aren't working correctly.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/388/radeon-hd-7970m
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/1966/radeon-hd-8970m
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2546/radeon-r9-m290x
7970m/8970m/m290x - it's the same chip with some amount of boost and additional vram in newer models.

 

Yeah its a 7970m, but with 4GB and better binning. I saw no benchmarks of this card, thus why I thought it would be interesting for others to see. About the fans - they are quite controllable with HWInfo64, but not native of course.

The cost of the card vs. price in the EU makes it a nice upgrade, until pricing on better cards come down.

 

Hi, I'm actually planning to buy from the same guy you bought your r9 m290x. I read his ad and it says that its used but how would you describe the condition of the card? Also since its from China, did it take long for it to be delivered to you?

 

t oedm

The card looked mint/brand new here. It took 2½ week to arrive in Denmark. Be adviced, that though the card worked fine out of the box, you probably need to edit its bios to avoid throttling and you WILL have to use HWInfo to control fan speeds.

 

Will it ever be possible to give this video card native fan control (even in theory)? I've been wanting to buy this card, but I don't wish to deal with the noise that blades spinning 4.5K rpms will generate.

 

no. the Clevo/dell EC is simply not compatible with the hardware on this card. Only cards that will work are the MSI 8970M/R9 M290X 2GB version and the Dell 7970M or Clevo 7970M V1.2

 

Has anyone tried installing an AMD m390x (W7170m)? There is one currently being sold on eBay. How do I know if an MxM card is compatible with LVDS?

 

Not yet. It holds promise although it is likely to be a hot card. Even if it does support LVDS (you will not find out without testing it) 980M+ levels of heat will make it a very tricky card to run stably in the M15x. Not just from a thermal perspective but also current. The M15x MXM circuits were not designed to withstand 130W-150W TDP cards. As such the power it limited to around 130W beyond this you will get crashes, freezes and generally risk damaging the card. This is why 970M is a good match up. It runs under 100W tdp thus having plenty of headroom even under heavy load or a decent overclock.

 

I apologize for the necro, but an opportunity has presented itself to me to day and I wish to hopefully gather some more information before it passes me by.

I have the opportunity to purchase an essentially new AMD m390x card for $200 USD. I don't mind risking the LVDS support, but I am worried about what you said in regards to that card's TDP. Where did you gather those 130-150 watt values? Techpowerup has that card at 75 watts and other sites are showing 100 watts. I tried searching multiple websites but have so far been unable to locate one that points higher than 100 watts. (I also acknowledge that I may not be fully understanding the information presented in the websites such as Techpowerup)

I have considered buying the Nvidia 970m, but that card still retails for over $350 USD on eBay.

 

Go for it dude, be brave! I can't be the only one doing all the tests. Makes me poor very quickly

 

i'm one of the brave one too ... lol I know the M390X definitely work in the M18X-R2 , but I don't want to buy it.

 

Please go for it! I don't keep up much but until a year ago at least (when I was commonly around these boards before I lost interest due to the soldered crap that is mainly available these days) Nvidia always released drivers that crippled their older cards allowing previously "slower" AMD cards to beat them in performance.

The M390X at release was positioned at 965M - 970M performance levels HOWEVER if the above still holds true and if it still holds true that AMD continually make their older GPUs shine then the 390X might now be a very good buy. I am fairly certain that it is a better binned version of the M295X with slightly lower clocks. It is well known that the 8970M and M290X were basically better binned 7970Ms that ran at lower voltages for same clock speeds which meant cooler and more reliable.

Could be a fun card to play with.

 

I will test the 390X out on the M15x during the summer. Will try to pick one up on the cheap. I can confirm the card does support LVDS and other than the 970M will be the most powerful card compatible in the M15x. If Nvidia release crippleware as usual then in time the most powerful....