I just wanted to post to help someone, as it took me a while to figure it out. But lets first take a look at my HG10 install!!! the hardest part of the install was to actually take off all of the screws on back of the card.. I feel like i have melted those scews down from mining 24/7 for an entire year straight.... but i managed to get them all off with without stripping anything (didn't have to reuse the screws anyways.. but... just incase...)
http://s1316.photobucket.com/user/P...sale/IMG_20150213_233314_zpsymze4jtb.jpg.html
I first got this card last year for mining purposes and it took a few days to figure out that it was really overvolted to maintain a decent clock while mining. So I downclocked it using the SGminer features and didn't bother with it until just now as I have sold the rest of my 290 Gaming and 290x's and now I am just now down to this reference.
Well anyways (fast forward until now the present day). all of the other 290 NON reference cards ran great with great overclocks from the factory and great cooling, and I could never figure out why. But its because the volts from those cards and the reference they make are totally different... and I should have released that when I had to down volt the card just for it to use a miner.
I figured it was just because of the crappy reference cooler, so I bought a Corsair HG10 because I had a spare Corsair H90 laying around that wasn't being used. So after the installation I noticed that it was still throttling hard even at stock specs WITH A WATER cooler. So i figured I would use MSI Afterburner to down the Vcore on the GPU, and then I ran benchmarks and watched the Delta T on the graphics as I was changing the voltages, and yep.. they got HIGHER each time i lowerd the volts.
I think started overclocking and benchmarking and also mining to make sure I can get the best possible Delta T and performance to volts and also temp.
My final results:
everying STOCK except
GPU Clock: 1037 (I am keeping it in increments of 30 because I noticed all of the non-reference overclocks were in additions of 30 from the factory.. so I figured it had to do something with a balance in shaders or something.. because the 290x was in increments of 10)
Vcore: "-56"
for my performance clock on a cold day, it seems that a good clock is:
GPU: 1067
Vcore: "-37"
I know everyones card is different.. but if your having major throttling... it could because of the heat from the overvolting AMD has built into the reference card.. I hope this can solve some headaches as I have figured out what works for my card.
http://s1316.photobucket.com/user/P...sale/IMG_20150213_233314_zpsymze4jtb.jpg.html
I first got this card last year for mining purposes and it took a few days to figure out that it was really overvolted to maintain a decent clock while mining. So I downclocked it using the SGminer features and didn't bother with it until just now as I have sold the rest of my 290 Gaming and 290x's and now I am just now down to this reference.
Well anyways (fast forward until now the present day). all of the other 290 NON reference cards ran great with great overclocks from the factory and great cooling, and I could never figure out why. But its because the volts from those cards and the reference they make are totally different... and I should have released that when I had to down volt the card just for it to use a miner.
I figured it was just because of the crappy reference cooler, so I bought a Corsair HG10 because I had a spare Corsair H90 laying around that wasn't being used. So after the installation I noticed that it was still throttling hard even at stock specs WITH A WATER cooler. So i figured I would use MSI Afterburner to down the Vcore on the GPU, and then I ran benchmarks and watched the Delta T on the graphics as I was changing the voltages, and yep.. they got HIGHER each time i lowerd the volts.
I think started overclocking and benchmarking and also mining to make sure I can get the best possible Delta T and performance to volts and also temp.
My final results:
everying STOCK except
GPU Clock: 1037 (I am keeping it in increments of 30 because I noticed all of the non-reference overclocks were in additions of 30 from the factory.. so I figured it had to do something with a balance in shaders or something.. because the 290x was in increments of 10)
Vcore: "-56"
for my performance clock on a cold day, it seems that a good clock is:
GPU: 1067
Vcore: "-37"
I know everyones card is different.. but if your having major throttling... it could because of the heat from the overvolting AMD has built into the reference card.. I hope this can solve some headaches as I have figured out what works for my card.