Question 1

What power supply will I need to run this card at cross fire?

Accepted Answer

That greatly depends on the rest of your system specs and how efficiently you want it to run and also if you plan on over-clocking anything though its usually very difficult to over-clock in crossfire if i recall correctly (as both cards will handle over-clocks differently as well as both are utilized by the system in different ways.) That being said assuming you have a high end amd cpu (8350 over-clocked) and a pretty filled out system i would probably recommend a 750 watt psu or up. I would also recommend that its a high quality, at least bronze efficiency and that your rails have a solid 20 amps as these cards are pretty heavy duty. a Great choice might be the Corsair RM 850, EVGA Super Nova 750 or 850, Lepa Max Bron 800, Bit Fenix Alchemy 750, Fractal Design Newton R3 800, SeaSonic Strider Gold S 750 or anything similar. Any of these power supplies would work fantastically so aesthetic appearance could be a more deciding factor. people often over exaggerate the power requirements of system configurations, while this is not a bad practice in general, its important not to waste money on what you don't necessarily need. Best of luck! and i hope you have a very nice cooling configuration for these things cause one is already a space heater!

Question 2

is this card a reference design?  I want to put a liquid cooling cold plate on it designed for the 290 reference board

Accepted Answer

This card is absolutely NOT a reference design.  I would not expect a plate designed for a reference card to work on this.  Also, removing the vapor-x cooler would be getting rid of a large portion of the premium price of this card.

The reference cards you are looking for all look the same - a black shroud with red accents and a single blower style fan at the rear of the card.

Question 3

Short question. Does this thing really take up 3 slots? it looks to be only two in the pictures.. I know the fan housing is a little bigger than what will show at the video interface area.. but 3 whole slots? or just slightly more than 2?

Accepted Answer

It takes up 2 full slots and about 1/3 of the 3rd slot. You definitely wouldn't want to fit anything in the 3rd slot because it would most likely either be blocked by the fan shroud, or it would block the fans from proper intake. So, short answer is yes, it takes up 3 slots :)

Question 4

what is the recommended power supply for the card i have a 750W power supply will that be enough for this monster of a graphics card? i have enough room in my case and im not running a graphics card right now

Accepted Answer

trevor, the recommended Power supply is 750w.. after extensive online reading,  the manufacturers always set the power supply limits on the high end.. i currently am using a 700w and have not encountered any problems.  i have stressed my system with games and benchmarks with zero problems..

Question 5

I was wondering if this would fit in the Thor v2? Thanks!

Accepted Answer

I don't know about Thor v2, but the Vapor-x is 12 inches long. Same size as Tri-X. The Vapor-x OC is custom bcp. The Tri-x is OEM bcp. Hope this helps.

Question 6

What is the S button on the side of the card, i press it and nothing happens, just wondering what it was?

Accepted Answer

This button allows for the card to switch between legacy and UEFI bios mode. When UEFI mode is enable it allows the card to respond quicker if your mother board is UEFI supported(which most are now)

Question 7

Does anyone make a water cooling block for this card?

Accepted Answer

EK Water Blocks makes a system that will work with it. They also make one for the R9 295 X2. To tell you the truth though, for someone who watercooled his previous card, this system doesn't need it at all. The Vapor X system has done a great job as it stands. If you're going to waterblock it, I suggest getting the Tri X OC card or something cheaper and simply clocking it up to the Vapor X specs. I'd skip the block and enjoy this. Under load playing GW2, I don't see temps over 70 degrees C and the threshold on these cards is somewhere around 90+. Under normal load I'm sitting at 51 right now and that's while letting it manage the fan speed on it's own. Even then, when it gets up to about 70ish, the fan speed never kicks up enough to where it becomes very loud so I know it's probably running at maybe no more than 40-45%.

Question 8

dimensions?

Accepted Answer

Nearly exactly 1 foot long by 2 inches wide.

Question 9

how does it connect usinng crossfire, I dont see anything to attach a cable like sli for nvidia cards?

Accepted Answer

AMD doesn't use Crossfire bridges anymore. You just plug both in and they do the Crossfire through the motherboard.

Question 10

Able to use all four outputs at once? Last R290 card I owned was incapable of this (promptly returned after HDMI failure)

Better cooling than Tri-X yes?

Accepted Answer

I don't use all four outputs, I use two right now with no problem.

And the cooling on the card is extremely good. I don't go over 70°C if at all and I also don't overclock. So I am usually between 62-66°C at full load with settings maxed. Card is extremely efficient at cooling. But if you like to overclock, you will obviously get higher numbers.

Questions & Answers