VisionTek Announces CryoVenom As Industry’s First And Fastest Custom-Built Liquid Cooled R9 290 Graphics Card

“Custom Shop” hand-built solution delivers 38% temperature reduction, nearly silent operation,
and warranty backed overclocked performance gains up to 24% over stock card

 

January 8, 2014, Las Vegas, NV – VisionTek Products LLC, (VisionTek) http://www.visiontekproducts.com, a leading manufacturer of award-winning, high-performance upgrades and accessories for PC and Apple Macintosh computers, just announced its CryoVenom R9 290 as the industry’s first and fastest custom-built liquid cooled AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics card on the market and available for immediate shipping. This hand-built card delivers lower temperature, near silent operation, and higher performance compared to VisionTek’s stock R9 290 card; as well as better benchmark performance and priced only at $550 MSRP.

 

Although the stock Radeon R9 290 is a very powerful card, VisionTek engineers discovered that when its R9 290 graphics card was 100% utilized as in extended game play, it could climb to 201°F. Even with very efficient fan cooling and the latest AMD Catalyst driver that provides a 100% fan speed operation, the card’s built-in thermal safety feature would downclock the GPU from the factory 947MHz speed and it proved rather loud.

 

38% Cooler Operation That’s Quiet

 

By utilizing a custom designed water block and backplate solution, the CryoVenom R9 290 can run up to 38% cooler (125°F) while being overclocked up to 24% (1.1GHz) all while registering under 10dB¹ of noise, which is the sound level of a pin drop.

 

Overclock Certified and “Custom Shop” Built

 

To assure stable overclocked performance, the FurMark GPU stress utility is employed to put a 100% load on each CryoVenom R9 290’s GPU for an extended time period to determine the optimum overclock setting with a 5% safe “headroom”. Those unique, certified overclock specifications are entered onto a build sheet that is personally signed by the VisionTek’s “Custom Shop” team member that built and tested the CryoVenom card. Each card is then extensively pressure tested to ensure leak-free cooling reliability.

 

Up to 24% Faster Performance Without Voiding Warranty

 

Obtaining maximum performance from the CryoVenom R9 290 is easy. Just enter the specifications from the included build sheet in the Catalyst Control Center and in less than a minute, the CryoVenom R9 290 can safely deliver up to 1175MHz GPU speed, a 24% increase from the stock setting of 947MHz. The memory clock speed is also increased up to 1450MHz which 16% faster than the 1250MHz stock setting. And unlike standard cards in which overclocking voids the warranty, the CryoVenom R9 290 comes backed by a one year warranty. 

 

Faster Than EVGA NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti, Yet Costs $150 Less

 

Not content to just increase its stock R9 290 card performance, VisionTek’s goal was to create the industry’s fastest single GPU graphics card at a lower price than the competition’s fastest comparable card². In the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme setting testing, the $550 MSRP CryoVenom R9 290 scored 9330 while the $700 street price NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti recorded an 8816 score.

 

Highest Quality Components Offer Highest Reliability

 

The CryoVenom R9 290’s water block provides maximum cooling performance for the GPU, RAM, and Voltage Regulation Module (VRM) even when low power water pumps are utilized. The block’s electrolytic copper base is clad with a chrome appearance-like nickel plating to prevent corrosion while the precision cut acrylic top provides effective and quiet fluid flow. The CNC machined black anodized aluminum backplate protects the card’s sensitive circuit board components during installation handling while also providing additional passive cooling for the VRM.

 

Certified Ready-to-Run CryoVenom R9 290 vs. D-i-Y

 

The VisionTek CryoVenom R9 290 costs $550 and is ready to plug in.  With D-i-Y watercooling, a R9 290 card costs $400.00, the Waterblock is about $140.00, the Backplate costs around $36.00 – and your time.  With the CryoVenom you have a 1 year warranty, but with D-i-Y, you have none.  Of course, you still need a reservoir, tank, pump and radiator fan to complete the entire cooling system just as in D-i-Y.

 

Specifications, Pricing and Availability

 

The CryoVenom R9 290 is available for immediate ordering at $550 MSRP directly from VisionTek’s graphics card product category at their ecommerce portal, www.visiontekproducts.com. The complete specifications are as follows:

 

Graphics Engine: RADEON R9 290
Video Memory: 4GB GDDR5
Memory Interface: 512-bit
DirectX® Support: 11.2
Bus Standard: PCI Express 3.0
GPU Core Speed: Up to 1175MHz (stock is 947MHz)
Memory Speed: Up to 1450MHz (stock is 1250MHz)
DVI Output: 2 x Dual Link DVI
HDMI Output:1 x HDMI (video/audio)
DisplayPort Output: 1 x DisplayPort

 

About VisionTek Products LLC

 

Since 1995, VisionTek Products LLC (VisionTek) has been recognized as a leading developer of performance memory, graphics cards, power supplies, and Solid State Drives for Macintosh and PC computers. Its products can be found at leading retailers, distributors, PC system builders and e-commerce sites. VisionTek is headquartered in East Dundee, Illinois, and can be contacted by calling 866-883-5411 or by emailing sales@visiontek.com.

 

1.      10dB represents sound level of liquid cooling operation of the CryoVenom R9 290 card only. Additional components required for liquid cooling system such as radiator cooling fan can add additional noise level depending on part selected.

2.      CryoVenom R9 290 compared to the EVGANVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti model 03G-P4-2881-KR

3.      To complete the CryoVenom R9 290’s liquid cooling system, a reservoir tank, pump, radiator fan, coolant, and coolant tubing must be purchased separately

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