- Joined
- Jul 23, 2014
- Messages
- 38
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte X99-UD4 - BIOS F22
- CPU
- 1x Intel 5960X
- Graphics
- 2x Radeon R9-290X
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
Greetings all,
I just built a new 2x 6-core Xeon system using a Supermicro X9-DAi system with 64G RAM and a PowerColor TurboDuo R9-290X card (running OSX 10.10.1). Aside from some minor issues (video flickers when booted, occasional spinning beach ball of death when booting), the system works well. I purchased the R9-290x card from NewEgg because it has a great return policy, and it is the least expensive 290X card after rebate.
Now that I am confident the system works well, I want to add a second GPU card to drive a second 4K monitor. Unfortunately, the manufacturer's rebate only applies to a single household, thus I don't qualify for a second rebate. So, I have the option of getting an identical card w/out rebate, or finding another equivalent card with a rebate.
My question: are all 290X cards (of equal GPU/RAM clock speeds) the same since they run the same Hawaii GPU? If I get an MSI 290X card w/the same specs, will I have any issues with OSX or Windows? I don't care about the included software as I will probably never use it. I found a bunch of cards ranging from $300-$400 that seem to be very similar (+/- 10% performance due to GPU/RAM timing), and, for me, a 10% performance boost is not be worth the extra $70-$80.
Secondly, is there a brand I should avoid (or prefer)? The PowerColor card has been good, but it tends to run hot (loud fan) when running benchmarking apps. I am looking into a GPU water cooler solution to keep my new build as quiet as possible (a topic for another thread
).
Thanks for any advice...
I just built a new 2x 6-core Xeon system using a Supermicro X9-DAi system with 64G RAM and a PowerColor TurboDuo R9-290X card (running OSX 10.10.1). Aside from some minor issues (video flickers when booted, occasional spinning beach ball of death when booting), the system works well. I purchased the R9-290x card from NewEgg because it has a great return policy, and it is the least expensive 290X card after rebate.
Now that I am confident the system works well, I want to add a second GPU card to drive a second 4K monitor. Unfortunately, the manufacturer's rebate only applies to a single household, thus I don't qualify for a second rebate. So, I have the option of getting an identical card w/out rebate, or finding another equivalent card with a rebate.
My question: are all 290X cards (of equal GPU/RAM clock speeds) the same since they run the same Hawaii GPU? If I get an MSI 290X card w/the same specs, will I have any issues with OSX or Windows? I don't care about the included software as I will probably never use it. I found a bunch of cards ranging from $300-$400 that seem to be very similar (+/- 10% performance due to GPU/RAM timing), and, for me, a 10% performance boost is not be worth the extra $70-$80.
Secondly, is there a brand I should avoid (or prefer)? The PowerColor card has been good, but it tends to run hot (loud fan) when running benchmarking apps. I am looking into a GPU water cooler solution to keep my new build as quiet as possible (a topic for another thread
).Thanks for any advice...
