Question 1

I used a calculator to see if My 650 watt PSU would be enough for the 290X series cards and it said I would need a minimum of 580 watts with the other components I'm getting. All the 290X cards I see say it needs a minimum of 750 watts. Is the 650 watts enough or do I really need to get a new PSU?

Accepted Answer

That probably depends a bit on your PSU.  I am running a 1000W because I upgraded from a crossfire setup, but at 650 you might be able to make it.  The 750w number may just be published number that they use as a base to keep under powered systems from submitting support/RMA tickets.

One important thing to check with your current PSU is how many 12v rails it has.  Single rails have a better chance of supporting this card because more of the 650w can go to the 12 rail.  Dual rail PSUs separate GFX/CPU power from peripherals, so if you are under utilizing your 12v on the peripherals you gain nothing on the GFX/PSU rail. However it is more ideal to have a high powered dual rail that is sized correctly so that it can provide better (cleaner/more consistent) power to your peripherals/GFX card.

A lot of this depends on the model of PSU as well.  Cheap brands may report wattages that they can't sustain for very long (or maybe even the decent brands do this as well, I just buy over sized units so that I don't have to worry about it).

Long story short, you might be able to get away with 650 watts, but don't plug too many extras into your PC, and if you start getting random crashes don't post a bad review saying the card is crap because it is probably your PSU failing to deliver the power required to your system.  PSU problems can be hard to diagnose so people tend to blame the GFX card because it is the biggest draw, and so it is typically being stressed at the time of the failure.

Question 2

Will this work with PCIe 2.0 even though it says PCIe 3.0?

Accepted Answer

yes this will work with 2.0. amd only makes 2.0 pci express slots on there boards, if you notice the card is made by amd. i have two xfx r9 290x in my msi 990fx-gd80 board in crossfire, they work with no hesitation plenty off bandwidth with the pci express 2.0. Keep in mind the pci express slot has to be 16. not 16 say with 8x, or 4x. or you wont get full bandwidth. look your board up, cause the card might fit in 16 slot, but find out what bandwith of your slot. see if it is true 16 or x8 or x4. I have had a problem with trying to put this in an older msi 880gm-e43 board, i went to msi web page to see if you this card was compatible, keep in mind older board and 880gm chipset, and it wasnt, might need 990 chipset, checkout your boards website. 990 or 970 chipset should work, with true 16. just cause it fits doesnt mean you will get true 16.

Question 3

Will a PCI-E 3.0x16 work in a board that has 2.0x16 PCI-E slots?

Accepted Answer

Yes it will, I'm doing so right now in my machine. You'll just be limited to the max PCIe bandwidth of the 2.0 spec instead of the increased bandwidth that PCIe 3.0 allows. It is HIGHLY doubtful you'll notice any difference in performance unless you're running 2 cards in Crossfire.

Question 4

I have a Asus Sabertooth 990FX 2.0 and recently bought a Corsair HX850 PSU.  Is my 850 enough to power my rig even with this XFX?  Or should I go higher PSU?

Accepted Answer

An 850 is plenty. I run mine with a 750 and have no issues.

Question 5

hello,
can use multiple displays, 2 with DVI and another with the display port?

thank you,
Gil

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can. I run 3 24 inch monitors with this one card. I have spanned across all 3 as well. I use a display port to DVI adapter on the one, but it will definitely work.

Question 6

I was wondering if I can hook up two of these guys, or even maybe three on one motherboard. I think it is called crossfire, but i wasn't sure if these cards are compatible. Any advice?

Accepted Answer

Yes these cards are compatible, they have removed the need for a crossfire bridge with the new series of cards (including this one). However depending on what you want to do you probably don't need anymore then two cards. Because most gaming applications still don't utilize more then one card and if they do utilize more the one card, the third card usually doesn't make a meaningful difference for the price. (This/Next generation games are multi-gpu capable)

Question 7

What type of power supply would be good for this card? Currently using a corsair gs 600 with dual and 7770s

Accepted Answer

I'm running this card through a 700w PSU and it's always handled the power load with no problems.  I'm not sure how many internal hard drives / fans / other things that eat up power you are running, but I'd think it would be possible to run a 600w PSU.

The only possible complication is that even though the XFX 290x DD is an amazing card, it IS a bit of a power hog.  It doesn't run obscenely loud (like the reference models) but it does eat a lot of power (290w or something like that).

If you have to bump your PSU up by 50 or 100w, it would be worth it just to run this card.  It is an absolute beast.

Question 8

I ordered one of these, but I'm kind of curious how to go about cross firing it? I did not see any available crossfire slot where I would have expected to see one...

but the card is crossfireable, so i'm at a loss on how its done for this card, and have yet to find any source showing how to crossfire it, lol..

if anyone knows, please tell me!

Accepted Answer

This latest series of AMD top of the line GPUs can process crossfire through the PCI-express slot and Motherboard itself. This new technology negates any need for a cross over cable for this series of card.

Question 9

How does tiHis card compare to the EVGA 670 FTW 4gb card? I play mostly just BF4

Accepted Answer

Much, much better. I just bought this card; which is why I have been asked to answer your question. :) Unless You have a 780, this card is better than your current. You have a 670 which is nothing in comparison to 780 or r9 290x. This is the highest card of the r9 series. The GTX 780 has better benchmarks but this card runs cool and is extremely quiet. And stays COLD. Hope I was helpful and also that none of my information was incorrect. Have a good one!

Question 10

Does this card support Mantle ???

Accepted Answer

Hi is the PCB reference?.. I was thinking about getting the Kracken cooler for this card but I wasn't sure if it would work

Questions & Answers