Watercooling R9 290

[NikoDG]

Hey, I'm looking at buying and watercooling a R9 290. I'm interested in watercooling to deal with the noise and throttling issues. The TDP is 250W (though I hear 300W at load is more realistic). I already have two Swiftech MCP-655's and a reservoir. Two MCP-655's @ 80% in serial should provide well over 1GPM flow rate in a GPU only loop. I'm curious how much radiator I need to dissipate the close to 300W TDP (350W after OC maybe).

 

Apparently the R9 290 can run as high as 95C, though I don't want to come anywhere near that. Ambient temperature is usually well under 25C. If I run a thick triple 120mm radiator with push-pull do you think that would cover it? If not how much do you think I should plan for?

 

Thanks,

 

Nikolai

Edited November 7, 2013 by NikoDG

[Braegnok]

 For a quiet single card loop the XSPC RX120 radiator with single pump would be fine,..

 

RX120 Radiator:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_457_667_671&products_id=25387

 

EK-FC-R9 Block:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_240_579&products_id=39422

 

SP120 Fan:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16044/fan-996/Corsair_Air_Series_SP120_Quiet_Edition_High_Static_Pressure_120mm_Fan_CO-9050005-WW.html?tl=g36c15s60

Edited November 8, 2013 by Braegnok

[Locutus]

Are you considering the 290 or the 290x? They are different, at least in price, so I'd imagine in a few other ways.

[NikoDG]

I'm looking at grabbing the R9 290 (not X). The main difference is only that the 290 has 4 less CU's than the 290X which has 44. It also has a slightly lower core clock, but that can be easily fixed with some OC'ing once the atrocious stock cooler has been replaced with a water block. The difference in performance is well under 10% so the 290 at $400 seems like a much better deal than the 290X at $550. If I end up needed more performance I can always add a second 290 and another 120mm radiator to pick up some of the extra heat. The Vram and memory clock are identical on both cards.

[ccokeman]

A single pump and 2x120mm rad would be more than enough to keep it cool. Hawaii suffers from  the same thing as IvyBridge and Haswell do, Transistor density. The stock cooler can cool it, you just need ridiculous fan speeds to do it with the stock cooling.

[NikoDG]

Do you think a Swftech MCR-220 with Gentle Typhoon 1450's in push will deliver enough cooling for a single R9 290 and a modest overclock (saw Tom's get 1.1GHz core, probably need to dissipate up to 350W)? I will likely use an MCR-120 (same fan) as well for a little extra headroom.

[Waco]

It'd likely be fine. GPUs are generally a lot more tolerant of hotter water temps.