Comments on R9 290x vs R9 290 cards for mining

[smoke187]

Hi all

I just wanted to get some input on the R9 290x and R9 290 reference cards for mining.
Have any of you'll used the Gigabyte cards (GV-R929XD5-4GD-B) for mining, because I seriously need to get in the game and since the R9 280x cards are out of stock, I was thinking of getting this card to start of with.

I am going to look at getting a few more cards, but just want to get my foot in the game first and see if it works out for me.
Is it worth it for me to get the R9 290 or the R9 290X card, I am hoping to do around 800 kh/s with a single card and I am hoping that this card will be able to do that for me?

R9 290x Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

or should i get this 1?

R9 290 Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

 

[gox1201]

Don't bother with 290x. The price difference between 290 and X you will almost never make up. I'm happily mining at 900kh per 290.if you get elpida ram you will still reach 880. Regards

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

[gox1201]

Oh and 290x will do the same (900)

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

[smoke187]

Don't bother with 290x. The price difference between 290 and X you will almost never make up. I'm happily mining at 900kh per 290.if you get elpida ram you will still reach 880. Regards

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the quick response, I will check which ram is on the 290, hopefully its Hynix but either way its a gamble on the ram, because its from an online retailer, so they might not even have the box in front of them to check the numbers on the card.

 

[gox1201]

You can't see on the box. The only way to tell is once the card is installed and you run meminfo or Hawaii info on it. So it's a bit of a lucky packet.

Be advised that these cards run loud and hot (80 degrees on 80% fan) so be prepared to use risers and fans. Did I mention that they're loud?

If it's a dedicated miner, strongly consider 2x 270 cards. Same hash, much less noise and heat, easy to find

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

[smoke187]

It will be a dedicated miner, but kept in a case with an open side panel in my server room under an aircon, with a room temp of +- 20C
Hopefully the card doesnt burn out, wince its in a case.
I will be building a modded server case in the next few days and just need to get hold of a few risers, because once the case is ready, then I can start looking at adding a 2nd card and so forth.

I also need to find out how to start up the servers power supply separately, because it has quite a few high speed fans, which will help out with the heat dispersion. Will keep you'll posted on my development.

As for the specs on cards, keep 'em coming in, because the more open views that I can get the better, especially from our local crowd.

 

[smoke187]

just read some reviews on the gigabyte 290 windofrorce and they arent looking too good, seems like there are some problems with the cooler.
While we are on topic, which is a better manufacturer to go with, for overclocking ability, and good hash rates. taking into consideration that I am not worried about noise levels, just as long as the cards run stable for long periods of time.

 

[gox1201]

Im running reference MSI and Sapphire cards. They both work the same, as in very well. They doing 900 odd for me. Some folks are getting 950 with quite an overclock on them.

My cards take 300w each, so ratio is solid 3kh/watt.

ALL 290 cards are a bit of a lucky draw, since the Elpida ram variants perform slightly worse then the Hynix ram variants (say 20kh/card worse), which is not the end of the world.

I have not seen what the problem is with the gigabyte windforce cooler, can't think its that big an issue, since its the same cooler thats on the 280x and it does just fine. I really don't think it will make a big difference truth be told, since they all reference boards currently.

 

[smoke187]

Thanks for the response. I just read up on the 290 winfdorce before making the purchase and it seems in december after launching that specific model, they some issues with the cooler not mounting correctly, causing a few cards to burn out. But none the less I ordered the gigabyte 290x today, reference card with the stock cooler.
I was hoping to collect the card before the end of the week, but my Gran passed away this afternoon and now I will delay till next week to collect the card and test it out then.

 

[smoke187]

Ok so I went with the Gigabyte R9 290X and installed the card today and did some tweaking and came up with the the following results, seems quite good for a single card and there are some errors every now and then but not sure if its hardware errors or just errors from the stranum?

View attachment 20382

View attachment 20383

comments welcome, anything that I should be weary about with these settings - -I 20 -g 1 -w 512 --thread-concurrency 32764 --lookup-gap 2 --gpu-powertune 30

I can still drop the temp down a bit, because the PC is right in front of the aircon and I had to divert some of the air away from the box just so that I dont freeze everything else in the PC...lol

 

[dragoon]

are those temps not too hot??
I always thought that temps over 70-75 are just too hot!!
Or is it card specific??

 

[smoke187]

are those temps not too hot??
I always thought that temps over 70-75 are just too hot!!
Or is it card specific??

From what I read up, these 290x cards run quite hot, unless proper cooling is installed.
I managed to get the temp down to 78 byt increasing the fan speed by 2% and will direct a little more air from the aircon and try to get it to around 75 and see if that helps out any.

 

[smoke187]

ok quick update, I got the temp down to 69C - 70C and steady hash rate of 987 with minimal errors. now its time to start saving for a new PSU and a second 290X.
I have an NTRO BPS750c 85+ power supply, but dont know if it will handle both cards, just running the PC with a single SSD drive and a single 290x in a very cool environment.
Link to the power supply Chieftec Nitro Series NTRO 85+ BPS 750C

 

[gox1201]

It probably won't , your 290x will be drawing up to 340w .
That 987 hash rate is phenomenal. Well done! Really excellent, don't expect to hit that on all your cards though

 

[smoke187]

It probably won't , your 290x will be drawing up to 340w .
That 987 hash rate is phenomenal. Well done! Really excellent, don't expect to hit that on all your cards though

Thanks, I can push it a bit more, but dont want to risk destroying the card. I managed to get a second PSU for the next card, now I just have to save up for it and I managed to build a second PC, and planing to run 2 PC's with 2 cards each for the next few months and see how that goes. at the moment I have my Nvidia card mining on the second PC at around 270kh, up until I can get my next 290x