Will 1.5v on the core guarantee 1100MHz, no questions asked? I don't want to tune this thing; I just want to apply voltage, and overclock to 1100MHz.1.5v didn't work for 1200MHz; artifacts were everywhere.
the simple answer is no the card WILL set fire and throttle a lot
it runs hot as is
the complete answer is maybe because of the cooler and the silicon lottery
Either tune the card and have nice performance gains or pump voltage and light a fire. Overclocking takes patience and some time, but in the end it should be worth it. If you're running that card on a reference cooler you can kiss your overclocking ability goodbye though. Wouldn't try to push it much further past 1100 either, I've seen most 290x overclocks max around 1100-1150. After that no matter what you do it's always a bit unstable, so don't forget about the memory too.
Yes, it's very common for this card to go 1150mhz on the core, 1200mhz even, although voltage may vary...that is if you have a non reference cooler (Shapphire Tri-X, Asus Direct CUIIs, MSI Lightning, and Gigabyte Windforce). I have PowerColor's R9 290x PCS+ and I'm starting to put it through it's phases.