ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC Review

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Overclocking Results

Overclocking Results

Overclocking the R9 290X isn’t an easy task considering its stock heatsink can barely keep it under normal operating temperatures at stock speeds. However, ASUS’ DirectCU II heatsink has more than enough thermal room which makes increasing clock speeds all that much easier.

Now, before I continue there’s one major caveat to these results: I’ve only had the card for about 12 hours so the amount of time spent on finding this card’s limits has been minimal. Nonetheless, with the help of ASUS’ awesome GPU Tweak program, I was able to hit some reasonably good frequencies.

As you can see above, even with a few minor modifications to the core voltage and Power Limit, the core easily hit nearly 1.2GHz while the memory evened out at 6016MHz. Both of these represent vast improvements over what was achievable with the reference card. The best part about this is there’s even more room there since fan speeds were at 60% (which was still surprisingly quiet). And yes, there's still more in the tank.

While the R9 290X is still an extremely hot running card, it is great to see that AMD’s board partners are being given the leeway to boost core voltages to higher levels than NVIDIA allows. With this small addition, these GPUs are more viable alternatives for overclockers than their GeForce counterparts.

The GTX 780 Ti-crushing performance results are below:

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

As I write this, I feel like this review had a foregone conclusion. The R9 290X has always been an upper-echelon product which had its potential stymied by PowerTune’s negative reactions to an inadequate cooler design. ASUS has improved on every one of the reference design’s shortcomings with a better heatsink, higher frequencies, upgraded components and countless other tweaks, once again proving why so many gamers tend to gravitate towards these DirectCU II cards.

So much of what makes the R9 290X great centers around that awesome DirectCU II heatsink. One of the primary critiques leveled at the reference card was that its blower-style cooler needed extreme fan speeds to keep temperatures at somewhat acceptable levels. This had a spill-off effect on clock speeds which tended to stray quite far below AMD’s claimed upper frequency range as PowerTune struggled to balance power, thermals and noise. With ASUS’ additions, these concerns have been rendered mute as temperatures and acoustics remain blissfully low while clock speeds are a picture of consistency.

That consistency leads directly to substantially better in-game performance. To put it into context, when in Performance Mode the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC easily outpaces the reference card’s Uber Mode while maintaining a noise level below NVIDIA’s reference GTX 780 Ti. That’s impressive to say the least.

Silent Mode on this card still provides all-round excellent framerates but it’s mostly superfluous from where I stand. Personally, I’d rather trade in the 500RPM fan speed difference between it and ASUS’ default Performance Mode for lower temperatures, better overclocking headroom and enhanced performance. There may be an on-paper increase in decibel readings but during gameplay but there’s just no way you’ll subjectively tell the two modes apart from one another. Both are equally silent compared to the reference design.

Speaking of that $700 GTX 780 Ti, with the custom R9 290X's being introduced its place in the grand scheme of things is a bit of a question mark. Unlike the R9-series, it has been maintaining a relatively constant price and has been sheltered from the rapid fluctuations that have hit the majority AMD’s lineup. On paper the R9 290X DirectCU II OC provides a ridiculously better price / performance ratio due to its much lower initial cost and excellent framerates but with the current crop of retailer markups, where ASUS’ latest card will ultimately end up is anyone’s guess. We’re hoping its price of just $570 will carry forward and if that happens, NVIDIA may have to rethink their GTX 780 Ti strategy.

Overclocking AMD’s Hawaii architecture certainly takes some getting used to but ASUS’ GPU Tweak utility makes things easy. By using it alongside the Performance Mode, frequencies could be pushed to the point where the R9 290X DirectCU II had no problem matching and in many situations beating NVIDIA’s mighty GTX 780 Ti.

The R9 290X certainly looks a whole lot better in ASUS DirectCU II guise than it did in reference form. As custom versions are pushed out by numerous board partners at aggressive price points, I really can’t see there being much of a market for those blower-style setups. If anything, the R9 290X DirectCU II has proven that AMD’s enthusiast product has what it takes to match NVIDIA’s highest end offerings without a stratospheric price tag. That’s exactly what gamers have been waiting for and ASUS has delivered. You'll just have to wait until January to buy one.