PowerColor LCS R9 290X Watercooled Review
Category : AMD
Published by Hiwa Pouri on 28.02.14
With their R9 290X LCS PowerColor have an enthusiast grade graphics card in their portfolio, which features a full-cover water cooler from EK Water Blocks. Since the R9 290X almost needs a power plant for a PSU, there es quite some heat being generated and the reference aircooler really struggles. Other then that the power design is also running very hot and a water cooler is basically the only reasonable approch to handle the massive heat. Apart from a water cooler there is also a factory overclocking on the GPU as well as on the memory and the over all package sounds rather compelling.
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Presentation
Today we are bringing you a review of the new PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS graphics card which features a reference PCB design paired up with a waterblock as well as a high binned GPUs which can do 60+MHz over what you can possibly achieve with most reference AMD R9 290X graphics cards. As you already know, the R9 series from AMD are famous to have a quite hot VRM part but since the PowerColor LCS is using a full cover waterblock from EK, called the EK-FC R9-290X, the VRM temperature can be kept at 29 degrees in idle and 59 degrees in load. The water cooler does a much better job as the reference cooler can keep the temperatures at around 75 degrees for the GPU and over 90 degrees for the VRM.
Since this is the LCS version of the PowerColor Radeon R9 290X series, the card also features a factory overclock. While the reference AMD Radeon R9 290X GPU is set to work at up to 1'000 MHz, the PowerColor LCS card works at 1'060 MHz. PowerColor also decided to overclock the GDDR5 memory on its card from 1'250 MHz (5'000 MHz effective) to 1'350 MHz (5'400 MHz effective).
During our testing the PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS held 1'060 MHz most of the time, and even while being under load, which is a shere result of the watercooled GPU so we did not see any downclocking in term of MHz caused by temprature limit protection. We did not notice any throttling while gaming which is a very good point for the watercooled PowerColor card compared to the reference cards which usually throttle down in most scenarios.
Specifications
| R9 290X LCS | Radeon R9 290X | Radeon R9 280X | |
| Chip | Hawaii XT | Hawaii XT | Tahiti XT2/L |
| Process | 28 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Transistors | 6.20 billion | 6.20 billion | 4.31 billion |
| GPU clock | 1'060 MHz | up to 1'000 MHz | 1'000 MHz |
| Memory GDDR5 | 4'096 MB | 4'096 MB | 3'072 MB |
| Memory clock | 1'350 (5'400) MHz | 1'250 (5'000) MHz | 1'500 (6'000) MHz |
| Memory interface | 512 Bit | 512 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 345.6 GB/s | 320.0 GB/s | 288 GB/s |
| Shader Cores | 2'816 | 2'816 | 2'048 |
| TMUs | 176 | 176 | 128 |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 | 32 |
| PCB Type | Reference Design | Reference Design | Reference Design |
| Slots | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Cooler | EK-FC R9-290X | AMD Reference | AMD Reference |
| Launch Price | $799 | $549 | $299 |
The card
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PowerColor decided to equip the Radeon R9 290X LCS with the new waterblock from EK Water Blocks, named the FC R9-290X and Powercolor has been using EK waterblocks since the HD 4870 days. The EK- FC R9-290X is a water block design for reference R9 290X PCBs and as its a full-cover design, it cools the memory, GPU and the VRM part as well. Overall, the cooler is well made and the finish is on a very reasonable level too, as expected from the EK Water Blocks. A good quality thermal paste has been spread all over the GPU, memory and the VRM zone. It is definitely a smart idea to use a water block on the R9 series from AMD because the of temprature limit protection. In this case the GPU downclocks automatically in order to avoid damage to the graphic card which in the end means loosing performance in most if not all games. With this water cooled version we did not notice this problem and the graphics card was at its 100% usage without loosing performance.
Like the reference model, the PowerColor LCS has a DIP switch to select between two BIOS options. Unfortunately, the switch is not labled labelled. The SW1 is the so called "uber mode" which puts the card at 1000MHz for the GPU and 1250MHz (5.0GHz DDR5) for the memory, while SW2 is Overclocked mode which puts it at 1060MHz for the GPU and 1350MHz (5.4GHz DDR5) for the memory. This is unfortunately not mentioned in the bundled documentation or on the website product page. Unlike the reference model, PowerColor chose to equip its card with Overclocked mode BIOS rather than a normal/uber mode BIOS seen on reference R9 290X graphics cards. In our opinion, PowerColor definitely made the right choice since the water cooler can certainly cope with it. We have tested both modes and surprisingly we did not experience any performance loss using the Overclocked BIOS due to low tempratures. The GPU was at around 30 degrees in idle and under load with Furmark, the GPU reached 46 degrees and never passed 42 degrees during any game or other benchmark.
We were quite and pleasantly surprised with the achievement, as this card did our maximum stable
overclocking test with ease. We used Furemark V1.11.0 Geeks3D benchmark with 15 minutes
duration, anmd the PowerColor LCS 290X was stable at 1310MHz on GPU and 1570MHz on
memory with 1.35 GPU voltage and default memory voltage. Thanks to the high
leakage chip and, of course, the EK Water Block high quality water block, which covers the more critical part of
R9 series, the VRM part, the maximum temprature at those voltages and frequency was
a mere 53 degrees.
Powercolor has decided to cool its Radeon R9 290X LCS with a full-cover water cooling block and full cover backplate which prevents bending and protect the card at the same time.
Checking the voltage regulation module temprature, we never passed 59 degress in full load using Furmark and in idle we measured a rather funny 29 degrees. For the first time on recent graphic cards, we found international rectifier IR 35678 for the GPU, and one uP1631P from uPI Semiconductor for the memory.
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The memory chips used are made by Elpida and carry the model number W2032BBBG-6A-F. They are specified to run at 1'350MHz (5'400 MHz effective).
Photo Gallery
Delivery
The card ships well bolstered in a foam made mold. Bundled with the graphics card there are the user guide, the driver CD, the power converter (2x6-Pin-PCIe to 1x8-Pin-PCIe) and all necessary stuff for using the watercooling solution with different thread sizes, barbed fittings G1/4 and G3/8, a 6mm allen key, two plugs as well as a 4 different size tube clamps.
Test Setup
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| Memory |
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| Graphic Cards |
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| Drivers |
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| Games and OS |
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| HDD |
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| PSU |
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Weighted average
| Graphics Cards | Score |
| PowerColor R9 290X LCS | 125.78 % |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 113.63 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 110.86 % |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 109.83 % |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 108.55 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan | 104.15 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 | 100.00 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 90.57 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 | 86.85 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 85.71 % |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 83.94 % |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 83.76 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 | 83.71 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 77.65 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 | 75.92 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 | 69.35 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 65.58 % |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 85.38 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 | 61.83 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 61.27 % |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 61.20 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 | 58.01 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 50.60 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 50.05 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 49.03 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 45.10 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 44.06 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 40.11 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 39.04 % |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 37.72 % |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 36.80 % |
| More is better |
Temperatures / Noise levels
Fan Speed
| Auto | Auto | 50% | 70% | 100% |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Matrix Platinum | 1'100 | 2'180 | 2'780 | 3'000 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 1'020 | 1'860 | 2'620 | 3'000 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum | 1'050 | 2'090 | 2'900 | 3'200 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 1'129 | 1'493 | 2'078 | 3'023 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 1'040 | 1'910 | 2'650 | 3'770 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 780 | 2'180 | 3'100 | 4'380 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 780 | 2'180 | 3'100 | 4'380 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 1'040 | 1'450 | 2'000 | 2'900 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 1'035 | 2'045 | 2'470 | 3'040 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS |
Watercooled |
|||
| PowerColor R9 280X TurboDuo OC | 995 | 2'000 | 2'740 | 3'520 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 1'250 | 2'060 | n/A | 4'240 |
| More is better | ||||
Noise Level
| Auto | Auto | 50% | 70% | 100% |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Matrix Platinum | 34.1 | 40.7 | 49.4 | 51.9 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 33.4 | 36.3 | 50.5 | 54.0 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum | 33.5 | 37.1 | 43.3 | 49.5 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 33.2 | 37.1 | 43.0 | 51.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 32.0 | 36.6 | 42.7 | 51.2 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 32.0 | 37.1 | 44.4 | 52.3 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 32.0 | 37.1 | 44.4 | 52.3 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 32.0 | 34.3 | 40.2 | 50.0 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS |
Watercooled |
|||
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 32.0 | 36.6 | 44.0 | 49.0 |
| PowerColor R9 280X TurboDuo OC | 32.3 | 34.0 | 43.3 | 49.5 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 33.2 | 39.8 | n/A | 56.2 |
| More is better | ||||
For the noise level results, we measured the noise level using a decibel meter (Voltcraft SL-200) located at 1 meter away from the graphics card.
Idle Temperature
| Temperature | Auto | 50% | 70% | 100% |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Matrix Platinum | 28 | 28 | 28 | 27 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 30 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum | 30 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 30 | 29 | 28 | 28 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 32 | 31 | 30 | 29 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 29 | 27 | 26 | 26 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 28 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 27 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS |
29 |
|||
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 32 | 31 | 30 | 29 |
| PowerColor R9 280X TurboDuo OC | 32 | 32 | 31 | 30 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 32 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
| More is better | ||||
Idle, temperature is taken after 15 minutes @ lowest, 40 %, 50 %, 70 % and 100 % fan speed.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature under Furmark
| Temperature | Auto | 50% | 70% | 100% |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Matrix Platinum | 76 | 70 | 69 | 69 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 90 | 71 | 64 | 63 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum | 77 | 73 | 71 | 70 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 83 | 71 | 63 | 56 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 90 | 81 | 72 | 62 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 90 | 80 | 73 | 58 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 90 | 83 | 75 | 63 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 73 | 71 | 63 | 56 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 80 | 77 | 72 | 69 |
| PowerColor R9 280X TurboDuo OC | n/A | n/A | 74 | 68 |
| PowerColor R9 290X LCS |
46 |
|||
| NVIDIA Reference | 90 | 83 | 76 | 68 |
| More is better | ||||
For FurMark, temperature is taken after 15 minutes of GPU Burn test at lowest, 40 %, 50 %, 70 % and 100 % fan speed.
We stopped the test when the GPU temperature hit 90°C.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature and fan speed under BattleField 3
| Auto | Temperature |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Matrix Platinum | 66 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 69 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum | 68 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 69 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 71 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 67 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 70 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 66 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 60 |
| PowerColor R9 280X TurboDuo OC | 73 |
| PowerColor R9 290X LCS | 39 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 79 |
| More is better |
For BattleField 3, temperature and fan speed values taken are the highest achieved after 1 hour gaming @ auto fan speed.
Performance/Watt
| Graphics Cards | Performance Index | Power C. (Watts)* | Performance/Watt*10 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti (PowerColor DC2T) | 53.55 | 178 | 3.01 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN (Ref) | 85.05 | 306 | 2.78 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 (PowerColor DC2OC) | 70.92 | 257 | 2.76 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (PowerColor DC2T) | 62.00 | 227 | 2.73 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti (GBT GHz) | 90.53 | 333 | 2.72 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 (PowerColor DC2OC) | 81.66 | 302 | 2.70 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 (PowerColor DC2T) | 47.37 | 177 | 2.68 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 (Ref) | 68.36 | 258 | 2.65 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 (PowerColor DC2OC) | 56.63 | 218 | 2.60 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 (PowerColor DC2OC) | 50.00 | 195 | 2.56 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost (Ref) | 40.87 | 169 | 2.42 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X (PowerColor DC2T) | 53.85 | 230 | 2.34 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 (PowerColor DC2T V2) | 50.53 | 219 | 2.31 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 (PowerColor DC2T) | 42.39 | 190 | 2.23 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 (PowerColor DC2OC - Ref PCB) | 33.44 | 151 | 2.21 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (PowerColor Matrix P.) | 70.75 | 325 | 2.18 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS | 91.19 | 420 | 2.17 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X (PowerColor DC2T) | 68.85 | 321 | 2.14 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti (PowerColor DC2T) | 30.80 | 151 | 2.04 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 (Ref) | 50.49 | 254 | 1.99 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 (XFX DD - Ref PCB) | 64.27 | 329 | 1.95 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 (Ref) | 36.83 | 208 | 1.77 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 (Ref) | 41.19 | 252 | 1.63 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 (Ref) | 31.88 | 200 | 1.59 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 (Ref) | 30.05 | 193 | 1.56 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 (Ref) | 35.98 | 232 | 1.55 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 (Ref) | 73.44 | 500 | 1.47 |
| *Entire system | More is better | Less is better | More is better |
The "Performance Index" value is calculated as the sum of all benchmarks results divided by the amount of games (3DMark and Unigine are not included into the calculation).
Performance/Price
| Graphics Cards | Performance Index | Price (€)* | Performance/€*10 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 33.44 | 91 | 3.67 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 50.53 | 143 | 3.53 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 50.00 | 144 | 3.47 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 42.39 | 124 | 3.42 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 53.85 | 159 | 3.39 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 40.87 | 121 | 3.38 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 47.37 | 144 | 3.29 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 30.80 | 100 | 3.08 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 68.85 | 241 | 2.86 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 56.63 | 199 | 2.85 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 53.55 | 193 | 2.77 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 64.27 | 232 | 2.77 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 62.00 | 228 | 2.72 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 70.75 | 260 | 2.72 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 70.92 | 266 | 2.67 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 50.49 | 190 | 2.66 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 31.88 | 126 | 2.53 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 68.36 | 291 | 2.35 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 81.66 | 415 | 1.97 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 36.83 | 205 | 1.80 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS | 91.19 | 577 | 1.58 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 90.53 | 582 | 1.56 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 41.19 | 310 | 1.33 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 30.05 | 260 | 1.16 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 35.98 | 335 | 1.07 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 73.44 | 708 | 1.04 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 85.05 | 832 | 1.02 |
| * 06/01/2014 | More is better | Less is better | More is better |
For the price we took the lowest price available on geizhals.eu.
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| With the Radeon R9 290X LCS PowerColor has an almost flawless overclocked R9 290X graphics card in its portfolio. The card is fast, does not throttle down like reference cooled models, has a nice watercooled design from EK Water Blocks and a decent factory overclocking. Even the memory is overclocked which is rare thing these days. The cooling performance is on a very competitive level and we very much like the fact that PowerColor decided to equip the card with a BIOS DIP switch just like on the reference card and went for a different BIOS configuration with a default and a overclocked BIOS to chose from. The LCS series comes with an EK-FC R9 290X full-cover water block already mounted and ready to use and a full backplate to prevent bending and protect the card at the same time. |
- Performance
- Watercooling performance - Design - Backplate - Memory Clock - Watercooled - BIOS DIP switch |
||
| Cooling / Noise Level | + | - | |
| The card is watercooled so the noise level of the graphic itself is 0 dBA, the noise level in this case is depend on the user configuration, pump noise level and radiator fans noise level. | - Water
cooling performance
- Noise levels |
||
| Performance | + | - | |
| The overall performance is very good since the LCS model
does not throttle down like the reference cooled R9 290X graphics cards. The factory
overclocking on the GPU and the memory, paired up with a good cooling
solution, make this Radeon R9 290X LCS a bit faster than a
reference Radeon R9 290X. At the default frequency the Powercolor R9
290X LCS is in top of the all our tests except in Crysis 3. Albeit, in
overclocked scenario the graphics card easily to the first place in all gaming and
3DMark benchmarks. We also did a overclocking test with this
graphics cards and we were quite surprised to see
FurMark benchmark being stable for 15 minutes at
1310MHz/1570MHz. As we check on the net its the highest stable result for
R9 290X series under water. A closer look at power consumption reveals that the figures are reasonably not bad as in idle it draws 98 Watts. Under load, it is a different story. The measured 388 Watts is quite something, but this can be expected, since we are looking at the Hawaii GPU which is doing its job underneath the water cooler. When the card is overclcoked to 1200MHz/1500MHz the power consumption is quit higher, 110 Watts in idle and 530 Watts under load with 1.15V for the GPU. The overall Performance-per-Watt is therefore not as competitive as with NVIDIA cards. |
- Performance | - Power consumption | |
| Recommendation / Price | + | - | |
| When all things are considered, the Radeon R9 290X LCS from PowerColor is a very good graphics card. Of course, the pricing is also in line with its performance and it costs around 260 Euro more than a reference R9 290X with included 95 euro for the wateblock and 25 euros for the backplate. Compared to the GTX 780 Ti watercooled version which costs a bit more than this card, pricing is just about right. | - Enthusiast | ||
| We gave the Radeon R9 290X LCS from PowerColor 4.5 out of 5 stars. | |||
