R9 290X Power Consumption Estimates:
- These values represent scenes of maximum load & power draw (ex: 3DMark, Farcry 3, Furmark)
- The fan uses between 2-20W depending on speed.
- All other instances including typical gaming power usage is always less, these are only maximums.
- Default: 8pin = 150W, 6pin = 75W, PCIE = 75W. Overvolted: (up to) 8pin = 400W, 6pin = 250W, PCIE = 125W
- Maximums, not averages.
- Wattage is affected (in order from most to least) by Voltage, Temperature & Mhz
- Wattage can always momentarily spike 25% higher than what you see here.
- Safe limit = 525W and/or 1.45V
Quote:
Silent bios TDP = 300W
Uber bios TDP = 350W, limit 470W with voltage
Asus bios limit = 470W
VRM limit = 560W
PCB limit = 580-600W
PT1/PT3 limit = 800W
Air
Stock cooler / Quiet bios / 95C / 1.175V / 1000 / 1250 = 255W
Stock cooler / Quiet bios / 85C / 1.175V / 1000 / 1250 = 250W
Stock cooler / Quiet bios / 75C / 1.175V / 1000 / 1250 = 240W
Stock cooler / Quiet bios / 65C / 1.175V / 1000 / 1250 = 230W
Stock cooler / Uber bios / 95C / 1.175V / 1000 / 1250 = 290W
Stock cooler / Uber bios / 85C / 1.175V / 1000 / 1250 = 280W
Stock cooler / Uber bios / 75C / 1.175V / 1000 / 1250 = 270W
Stock cooler / Quiet bios / 95C / 1.175V / 1150 / 1350 = 285W
Stock cooler / Quiet bios / 85C / 1.175V / 1150 / 1350 = 275W
Stock cooler / Quiet bios / 75C / 1.175V / 1150 / 1350 = 270W
Stock cooler / Quiet bios / 65C / 1.175V / 1150 / 1350 = 260W
Stock cooler / Uber bios / 95C / 1.175V / 1150 / 1350 = 320W
Stock cooler / Uber bios / 85C / 1.175V / 1150 / 1350 = 305W
Stock cooler / Uber bios / 75C / 1.175V / 1150 / 1350 = 290W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 95C / 1.250V / 1150 / 1350 = 410W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 85C / 1.250V / 1150 / 1350 = 400W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 75C / 1.250V / 1150 / 1350 = 390W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 65C / 1.250V / 1150 / 1350 = 370W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 95C / 1.250V / 1200 / 1400 = 430W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 85C / 1.250V / 1200 / 1400 = 415W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 75C / 1.250V / 1200 / 1400 = 400W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 65C / 1.250V / 1200 / 1400 = 380W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 95C / 1.300V / 1150 / 1350 = 465W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 85C / 1.300V / 1150 / 1350 = 445W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 75C / 1.300V / 1150 / 1350 = 435W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 65C / 1.300V / 1150 / 1350 = 420W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 95C / 1.300V / 1250 / 1400 = 475W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 85C / 1.300V / 1250 / 1400 = 455W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 75C / 1.300V / 1250 / 1400 = 435W
Stock cooler / ASUS bios / 65C / 1.300V / 1250 / 1400 = 430W
Water
Asus bios / 60C / 1.300V / 1000/1250 =450W
Asus bios / 40C / 1.300V / 1000/1250 =430W
Asus bios / 20C / 1.300V / 1000/1250 =410W
Asus bios / 60C / 1.300V / 1250/1450 =465W
Asus bios / 40C / 1.300V / 1250/1450 =445W
Asus bios / 20C / 1.300V / 1250/1450 =425W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1250/1450=530W
PT1/PT3 bios / 40C / 1.400V / 1250/1450=510W
PT1/PT3 bios / 20C / 1.400V / 1250/1450=490W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=545W
PT1/PT3 bios / 40C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=525W
PT1/PT3 bios / 20C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=510W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.500V / 1250/1450=585W
PT1/PT3 bios / 40C / 1.500V / 1250/1450=570W
PT1/PT3 bios / 20C / 1.500V / 1250/1450=555W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.500V / 1350/1550=595W
PT1/PT3 bios / 40C / 1.500V / 1350/1550=575W
PT1/PT3 bios / 20C / 1.500V / 1350/1550=560W
Extreme (LN2 with core & memory voltages manually controlled)
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.500V / 1300/1500= 625W
PT1/PT3 bios -50C / 1.500V / 1300/1500= 585W
PT1/PT3 bios -200C / 1.500V / 1300/1500= 500W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.700V / 1550/1750= 795W (up to 1000w)
PT1/PT3 bios -50C / 1.700V / 1550/1750= 675W
PT1/PT3 bios -200C / 1.700V / 1550/1750= 620W
Voltage (large impact on wattage)
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.550V / 1300/1500=635W (dangerous voltages)
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.500V / 1300/1500=600W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.450V / 1300/1500=580W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=545W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.350V / 1300/1500=525W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.300V / 1300/1500=495W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.250V / 1300/1500=455W
Temperature (medium impact on wattage)
PT1/PT3 bios / 90C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=595W (not a good idea for 1.4 on air)
PT1/PT3 bios / 80C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=575W
PT1/PT3 bios / 70C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=555W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=545W
PT1/PT3 bios / 40C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=535W
PT1/PT3 bios / 20C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=525W
PT1/PT3 bios / 10C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=520W
PT1/PT3 bios / -50C / 1.400V / 1300/1500=490W
Mhz (small impact on wattage)
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1450/1550=575W (wont clock this high anyway)
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1400/1500=570W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1350/1450=560W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1300/1400=545W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1100/1350=535W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 1000/1300=525W
PT1/PT3 bios / 60C / 1.400V / 900/1250=520W
PT3
Vdroop - it's ~.02-.075v depending on load & voltage. It's a percentage of VDDC.
PT3 on has 1 predefined LLC setting for OCbios (maximum)
1.225v set + LLC, Vdroop = .025v, actual = 1.25v.
1.3v set + LLC, Vdroop = ~.033v, actual = ~1.33v
1.45v set + LLC, Vdroop = .070v, actual = ~1.52v.
1.5v probably spikes up to 1.6v
1.6v+ set = blow your card up territory
ASUS
Asus.rom Vdroop averages (this depends on silicon lottery, temps, ASIC qual, scene rendering difficulty, board quality, chip leakage, etc)
1.2v set = 1.175v
1.3v set = 1.27v
1.35v set = 1.28-1.29v
1.412v set = 1.299v (spikes anywhere up to ~1.35v)
1.5v set (if possible) = 1.299v - 1.35v
Since Asus bios has TDP throttling, depending on factors mentioned above voltage is equalized around 1.299v after Droop
PT1
PT1 would equal Vdroop to Asus.rom since LLC is not modded, but unlimited TDP & voltage setting so max limit is higher. EX:
1.2v set = 1.175v
1.3v set = 1.27v
1.35v set = 1.28-1.29v
1.412v set = 1.36v
1.5v set = 1.42v
1.6v set = 1.5v
1.7v set = 1.55v OCP mods & Hard mods are needed for more headroom at this point
voltage can always equal what you set, so for PT1 setting 1.5v in GPUTweak would result in voltage oscillation in a range of 1.42v-1.5v
290x ref pcb nphase vrm is overloaded at 559.5 watts according to specifications, while the Asus bios stop at 468 watts. Uber & silent throttle you before 350w TDP threshold is reached, so if you go somewhere between 350w-468w, it's only due to power surging or tinkering voltage on ASUS bios. 1320mhz/1390mv 45/60c is probably somewhere between 400 to 500w. (Low temps = less power) ~580 watts & beyond is torture to the system - way out of spec. PT3 in theory would let you overload the card from 559.5w to ~725w or beyond. But it'll likely fry somewhere around there anyway. The stock blower cooler stops you at 265w-300w, AMD silent & uber stop you at ~300w & ~350w respectively, ASUS bios at 468w, the buck controller stops you at 559.5w, the pcb stops you at ~580w, PT3.rom (PT1 also) stops you at ~725-800w. I suppose beyond 1.45v is diminishing returns on overclock without LN2 cold temperatures.
By comparison the highest clocked GTX 780 reference card on full cover block I can find (OCN member KarateF22 1520mhz/1550mv) shows that NV OCP & OVP is active & hardware monitored up to ~572-580w. There are claims of Titan/780 ref >600w bioses, but that would only be possible with OCP mod. Remember that using PT3.rom isn't going to stop a R9 290x at ~580w like hardware OCP stops Skynet's vbios on 780 @ 572w. Therefore, PT3.rom is much more dangerous than most 780/Titan vbios @ OCN in regards to permanently damaging your video card since protections are bypassed..
VRM temperatures are an important limiting factor in overclocking and may very well be accurate, but it must first be validated using an Infra red thermometer gun pointed at the back side of the PCB. Then you must read GPUz's VRM temperature and check that it matches #s seen on your IR gun (give or take 2 or 3 degrees). Theres always the good old fashioned way of touching it and feeling the burn. tongue.gif GPUz has two VRM temperature readings, one of them is the memory voltage nphase's mosfet, the other is the core voltage nphase's mosfets. Once you start overclocking, the hotter of the two is usually from the mosfets regulating core voltage. Particularly true in the 290X's case since at this moment we aren't messing with memory overvoltage.
Concerning 3D clockstates:
When you punch numbers into GPUTweak voltage slider it represents a target voltage that you wish to have. Depending on which of the 3 bioses you're using, the actual voltage as measured by a digital multimeter will read 3 different values compared to what you've set in GPUTweak. JJJC_93 has shown this for us since he has already done Vcore & Vmem measure on DMM with PT3 bios - i linked both of these in the OP. Let's say for example you set 1.412v in GPUTweak as your core voltage. Using ASUS.rom bios (GPUTweak at 1.412v) your actual core voltage is somewhere around 1.299v (as shown by both Paulenski & overclockfrance) and using PT1 bios your actual voltage is ~1.350v; finally using PT3 bios your actual voltage is close to 1.49v (shown in multiple posts at hwbot.org). However, in each scenario GPUTweak setting is still 1.412v, and I'm unsure of what its graph would read. GPUZ will have 'more realistic' measure of the voltage that would match the actual vcore. GPUZ with PT1 may read either 1.412, 1.36v or between & PT3 may read 1.412, 1.49v, or between. In the case of ASUS.rom bios, while GPUTweak reads 1.412v, Gpuz would show ~1.299v (and perhaps it would spike to 1.35v) I don't have a 290x to test - you will have to test it for yourself as Paulenski has and take screenshots to help prove or disprove it. Since GPUZ can show 'max', that 'max' value can misleadingly represent a spike that only occurred momentarily over an extended period of high load. You will need to view 'average' or carefully look at the graph while mousing over points in time coverage to see what your average or constant voltage readouts were. Or you will need a digital multimeter & Vcore measure point to verify that GPUTweak, GPUZ & your actual voltage shown on the meter measure up concurrently or as you've said, provide 'accurate readout'.
Afterburner is coming in a couple days or less. Unwinder says maybe after the weekend. All the normal bioses that come with 290x cards out of the box will throttle at total board power consumption under 460 watts because all bioses except PT1/PT3 limit power. IMO, judging by OC results thus far, AB + stock bios + 1.3-1.4v will make for overclocks of ~1225-1295mhz. It also depends somewhat on what MSI AB allows for maximum voltage. It will be interesting to see if Afterburner cooperates with PT1 & PT3 bioses, and what actual voltages end up being when changed. GPUTweak does suck.. Regardless of which software you prefer to use for overvolting (I prefer AB over GPUtweak), I think 290X will require a bios granting unlimited TDP for clocks of 1275-1350mhz. If you're really lucky on the lottery & have super cool temps, maybe >1350mhz.
Well I started posting in Arizonian's R9 290X / 290 Club thread on how to unlock voltage control, which isn't available in Afterburner or CCC yet, and each new page someone enters and posts the question, "Hey is there voltage control yet?". So here it is inside this thread and it's mostly updated. What I've learned from posting in the club thread is that ATI Winflash is not working for R9 290X in at least two different cases. You will have to use atiflash.exe in DOS or command prompt. The download "custom bioses.zip" includes a recent version of atiflash that should work on the 290X. Here are some instructions for how to boot & flash in DOS: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57750
It works very similarly to using NVflash.exe (if any of you are fresh off of modding 780 & Titans). A simple example of flash commands entered once booted into DOS:
Code:
atiflash -f -p 0 PT3.rom
There is a bios from Gibbo @ OCUK limited to 1410mv vddc, the bioses PT1 & PT3 with Asus GPUTweak software linked here should give up to 2000mv, but be careful please. Beyond 1400mv is dangerous territory and should only be utilized with experience. Your card probably won't do much at voltages beyond stock without that fancy EK waterblock anyway. There is too much throttling going on behind the scenes with the stock 290X blower cooler. Hawaii XT is a power hungry beast with much potential. One thing perhaps I am overlooking is the fact that Hawaii is revision 1.0 while GK110 is revision 2.0. This could make for an easier time getting GK110 to higher clocks. Potentially manufacturing enhancements and the 290X's capacitance will provide a nicer environment for Hawaii to equalize its clocks relative to GK110's potential. We'll have to wait for ridiculouly high LN2 clocks to show up on Hwbot to find out.
Afterburner may incorporate voltage control for R9 290X soon, and some OCN hex modding experts may release custom bioses soon. TPU forums has a working Radeon bios modding program, a succesor to RBE that may start working on 290X. For the time being, the bioses & software listed in the above post is a good start for those of you interested in volt modding over the weekend or next week when when your waterblocks arrive. These bioses are courtesy of a legendary overclocker who goes by the alias, "Shamino". He's the guy who designed our beloved RIVE's, and much more. Also big thanks to OCN & Arizonian for his Club Thread and everyone benching hard on their Watercooled R9 290X.
Why is R9 290X so hot & power hungry?
First off - it is. No doubt about that. 50 watts more than 7970 & Titan and it runs a 95C? Has a graphics card ever done this? Not really. The GTX480 is the first one that comes to mind, and even that card was able to keep it under 95C most of the time. The biggest change that Kepler & Hawaii bring is a variable clock rate. That's a major change in graphics cards that is new to this generation of products. Nvidia takes a different approach to maximizing performance using a variable clock rate compared to what AMD has done for the R9 290X. The good news is that each card maximizes its particular ASIC's potential using these variable clocks / 'boost' technologies. To look at the R9 290x in Nvidia GPU Boost terms, imagine it shipped with a 730mhz base clock, an 850mhz boost clock, and most of the time it gamed around 980-990mhz. That's the fairest way to look at the variable clock rate compared to a Titan or GTX780. However AMD's design approach behind the R9 290X makes it appear to be more of a ridiculously hot power-hog than it really is. The approach simplified is like saying, "throw all the watts at it we can and let it clock to 95C and see how many cards we can get to hit 999mhz". AMD's varying clock design doesn't take into account prioritizing temperature and power, and it doesn't have a boost state. The '1000mhz' base is just a number that was reachable for the largest amount of cards they could bin into a product. It was a number that a lot of cards can reach, although not every one, not every time and not in all scenarios. Clock for clock hawaii has more performance than GK110. The R9 290x as a product itself (that happens to include Hawaii) is about equal to a GK110-Titan product. Hawaii is also its first spin first metal mask & first stepping outside of ESes, while GK110 is the second, and B1 is already here in new 780 products. The last card to come out of the gate on the first draft like this was GTX480. Also being 438mm2, 15mm2 larger than R600, it is the largest die in a while. Transistor density is greater than GK110 too. Remember how hot HD2900XT was? R9 290X suffers the same fate temperature wise (performance wise Hawaii is great). The R9 290X suffers from the underpowered cooler and also from being a first revision asic in the same ways the HD2900XT and GTX480 did. Thats a good reason for it being so hot and power hungry. Watercooling using a full cover waterblock, or colder forms of cooling are the only way to let this card show its full potential. The full potential is unmatched by Nvidia on a clock-for-clock basis. However the heat generated by Hawaii is its own worst enemy. From the LN2 scores posted lately, it hasn't gone over 1500mhz while GK104, GK110 & Tahiti have all approached 1900mhz. Clocking it high enough to match those other chips from a frequency standpoint will be a monumental task which may or may not be possible. Only time will tell. AMD's Boost technology is not as elegant as Nvidias. AMD's cooler design is not as brilliant as Nvidias. Hawaii is very hot & needs power. Fitted onto the R9 290x design, Hawaii is not as efficient as GK110 on a Power metric. All that being said, HawaiiXT is stronger than GK110, and overclocking the R9 290X shows this to be true.
Uber & Quiet mode:
The story of two fan profiles & a bios switch: Quiet bios and uber bios, the driver & the stock cooler - how do they all work together? Good question. I don't even know enough to simplify this, and won't take away from all the difficult engineering work that went into making such an elegant solution. My take is the 290X PCB (same one as the 290) is geared towards keeping the HawaiiXT die in check. Competition for Nvidia's GPU Boost 2.0. They all work in unison to maximize the 290X card's overall performance, while maintaining a reasonable TDP. AMD has to bin to meet yields while delivering the performance we demand. GTX 480 revisited, except they didn't put radiator fins and heat pipes on the outside of the fan shroud this go round. Aforementioned priorities include keeping HawaiiXT power draw within 50% deviation of 208 watts, keeping the core temperature readings under 94C, and stopping Hawaii's heat output from overloading the 7970/290/290x blower cooler & HS. Can your board run 24/7 at 94/95C? Sure sure, I promise. Is it a good idea? No. A plethora of circuit board components have nominal operating temperatures 20-150C, and the cooler they are the more efficient operation. Adding a fullcover waterblock to the equation solves a myriad of issues. The 290x's performance is limited by the stock bios. The stock bios is limited by the thermal dissipation provided by the blower cooler. Somebody control this damn thing. The devil is in the details. Enter Powertune 2.0, boost states, P-states, voltage & clock speed throttling. A few more extra shiny bells & whistles which are actually tools to maintain the top priority of maximum performance subject to TDP limits imposed by the bios & cooler combination. What would alleviate these issues & raise the bar set by the restrictions here? Lower temperatures & more headroom. That stops the temperature throttling 'feature' from reducing clocks & power at the designated temp steps (whatever they are unsure as of typing this - 70C, 80C, 85C, 94C, 95C, 105/TJmax). Solve 290X problems with a fullcover block right? Well yes, but there is more to do. If there was a factory "Waterblock Bios" to go along with AMD's Uber bios and Silent bios, then it would feature different parameters respectful of greater headroom for meeting the top-performance priority. Temperature steps would be different. However, even with the fullcover block AMD still doesn't want us using greater than 208w x 50% Asic power or greater than the undisclosed total board TDP (probably around 300-350w). Enter hacked bioses. I was just perusing/(s)trolling the OCN GTX780 Club thread for insight from two really smart guys over there - Zawarudo & Skyn3t. Thanks to Zawarudo, Titan/780 with custom bios can do 1.6v (not safely). Thanks to Skyn3t, Titan & 780 board TDPs have increased from 265w to 600w (not safe again). For the AMD fans, the only currently available solution to my knowledge is the PT3.rom bios which enables the max voltage & max TDP possible for a watercooled or non-watercooled (not safe) 290x card. The sky's the limit. But now the bad news. Hawaii isn't liking the heat. Initial reports cataloged in the post above indicate the stubborn SOB gets angry around 1200-1300mhz core. The professional hitmen haven't gone over 1500mhz, and OCN's jjjc_93 mentioned that 1350mhz @ 1.35v was difficult on his 290X even at -50C. Hope your water temp is 30-40C. Where the cards go from there we shall find out next week. Bench on!
Which PSU Do i need? (will my tyco 820w be enough?):
Lots of people come in here recommending 800 watt power supplies for crossfire 290x cards. This is OVERCLOCK.NET. Very poor recommendation to have in this thread. Yes you can probably play Call of duty 4, Nintendo emulators and Doom 3 on two fresh-out-of-the-box 290x's and a 4.5ghz quadcore intel just fine with a 850w corsair.
However, if you unlock your bios, go custom bios or anything relevant to 1.4v (actual) on the cards and decide to do a competitive benchmark with your highest CPU overclock (3dm, FS, unigine, crysis), your computer will shut down. The screen will go black. You will sit there for a moment while your quality (but low wattage) PSU takes some time to reset itself & cool down (depending on how hot & how long it ran for). The quality PSUs know how to stop themselves from suiciding. corsair = quality psu. The import ebay no-name PSUS just blow themselves up, or dont even let you get far overclocking. You will think, "OMG i just blew up my psu or my 290x or my motherboard". 15 mins later your corsair will be cool enough to power back up. Then you will either go back to stock bios with a 10% overclock and power throttling which your puny PSU can handle to get more frags in BF4 MP, or you will curse the gods as you rip apart your case wiring and Ebay your 850 watt psu, while searching overclocking threads for PSU recommendations. (hopefully at that moment you will stumbleupon this post) Then you will laugh at everyone who has been in the same boat before taking small PSU advice and get a 1250w or 1300w.
Then you will find yourself pushing the limits of your 1300w trying to blow up your video cards to set personal best records or get LN2 benches. At this point you probably wont have a case anymore because those darn periphs and fans were usin the last 40 watts u had, and your mobo will be on a bench setup or just sitting there on an open table strung about with wires everywhere. Now it really wont matter swapping out PSUs and you'll be reading single 12v information looking for 120-150 amps.
What PSU you can get by on/need depends on what you want to do, and how much you know about overclocking & power draw. You can power 2 290x's with an antec earthwatts 550w into DOS. You can also power 2 290x's with 4 NEX 1500 Supernovas. If you try hard enough with 2 290x's, I'm confident you can black screen a 1300w. YBS1 at Anandtech was able to shut down his 1300w with two 780s and ended up getting a 1600w.
Water results:
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
DampMonkey @ OCN
C-buzz @ OCN / OCAU
Pure Sex Waterblocks:
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
EK
AC
Heat: Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Hardware.fr & Guru3d.com
PCB Power:
The maximum limits of the boards? 290X PCB is actually quite decent. To compare this board to the Titan/780 board is doable. They are equal. The 290x board has 6 Coiltronics R15 Inductors rated at 61 Amps, not sure which provides core power & which is uncore & board power. The end result is 366 amps DC versus 360 amps DC on the Titan board. An advantage of the 290X board is the capacitor count to assist low power current. That should result in higher possible voltages to the gpu should they become necessary. The Ncp4206 buck controller on Titan is rated at 1600mv in software without zombie, while the IR rectifier buck controller on 290X is stepping up to 1550mv in software (potentially 2000mv however). If Powetune, ulps, and all other 'features' are able to bypass, custom bios power limit should be ~ 590-[800?] watts compared to ~580 watts on Titan/780. Pretty much the same. The advantages the extra capacitors on board give assistance to the chokes to help the smaller Hawaii XT get that steady low power current it needs. More memory asics on 290X pcb cuz of matching 512bit, but denser high voltage high-speed vrams on Titan, again awash. Hawaii probably needs more voltage because the transistor density is greater than GK110 and no redundant parts are fused on the chip. Having the '20% less space' 64x8 mem bus on the ring means more cramped design & transistors. Gonna be hot & need some volts. Titan is more spacious & less dense & also a fused gk110. It will require less volts for high clocks, but then again it needs higher frequencies in the memory controller space to saturate 384bit, so the comparison there becomes a wash. The end result is to expect similar clock speeds between hawaii & gk110, and both the Titan & 290X boards capable of providing them while perhaps Titan using 5-10% less Vgpu to get there. Kingpin at 1.8ghz Titan needed zombie, anything beyond 1400-1500mhz range for either 290x or 780/Titan will either need zombie or classy/Epower/Lightning style expanded VRM design. I don't know the details of PT3.rom because I dont know how to edit bioses very well or hex or do coding. I assume the power limit is similar to Skyn3t's 440 watt Titan bioses, however the power limit could also be totally removed - (more likely scenario) since he's saying 2v is possible. Not sure what 290X mosfet part #s or specs are, but they look similar to 7970 ref. 290X PCB looks good to deliver 1.45v vddc. Hopefully 1.8v mvddc is possible, unsure if this is adjustable or not at this moment. Don't really need more than 1700mhz memory anyway. Not enough info yet to determine what 1.5v mvddc provides but it seems to be 1350-1500mhz range for graphics memory. Maybe HWinfo64 or Gpuz will provide temperature reading for VRM area in the near future.
PowerTune info & 290X bios compatibility:
The new powertune on 290x is kinda 'meh'. Instead of opting for a 700mhz base clock as how Nvidia has established a base clock, AMD decided to make this card's base 1000mhz. As a result, the 290x will start at 1000mhz and slow down from there as temperatures go up. Using Gibbo's ASUS bios or any of the factory bioses (Sapphire, MSI, PC, XFX, ASUS) will likely still have the card throttle. Just as Skyn3t did with his excellent work on the Titan unlocked bioses, Sham provides PT3.rom which has many more advanced settings than I can tell. That particular bios will probably make higher FPS in games & higher 3dmark scores, but it will really put the power & heat to your card. TSM106 pointed out in the 290X club thread that this bios should be used with caution, and rightfully so. It's dangerous. You're going to want a big PSU & really cool water temperatures to push the limits using this PT3.rom bios.
PowerTune on factory bioses is likely doing all sorts of power regulation to keep 208 watts +/- 50% PT levels, which this bios has probably removed all together. It likely has OVP & OCP removed as well which correlates to the even Load line callibration & the disabled Vdroop. That bios is meant for POWER. Lots of POWER and lots of heat. It's the bios that was used for the 22950 3dmark score at 1466mhz on LN2, afaik. Any way you look at it, use that bios with caution. We're going to see some super overclocks on water soon. It's safe to say that PT3.rom provides more performance than ASUS.rom at equal clocks, and that it uses more Power and creates more heat. Once more information rolls in from OCN gurus with 290X cards and whom are in the pursuit of performance, we can have a clearer assesment of these bioses capabilites. Bench on friends!
Power Information
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Take a look at the R9 290X Power slides from the GPU14 event. The core is given 208 watts which fluctuates based on PowerTune setting, Temperature, and voltage input. The 290X board + ASIC is somehow monitoring the amount of power and TDP together and regulating clock speed & VDDC to limit total power draw. Hopefully these bioses bypass this OCP/OVP new-age boost system all together. Need more input from you guys on watercoolers. This is something to keep in mind when making your bios. Similarly 780 & Titan needed this 'feature' removed as well to get anywhere on higher clocks and low temperatures without throttling (ex: 1200-1500mhz). Currently the default bios has the voltage controller stepping 255 different increments between 0mv & 1550mv. Looks like a more realistic number is 64 for total P-states, not the full 255. Doesn't matter much anyway since you'll want to avoid that crud completely. You want a nice solid voltage graph & nice solid mhz graph to match. Consolation Prizes & adverse side effects: These custom bioses are intended strictly for overclocking for maximum performance & benchmarking & will probably break compatibility with a lot of CCC features such as comatibility with GPUz, AIDA64, hwinfo, Steam, RadeonPro, Powerplay, Eyefinity, CCC, Afterburner, Trixx, ULPS, powertune, zerocore, overdrive, longevity & preservation of the hardware & game support.
