AMD undercuts NV on GTX980 and offers better 4K performance with R9 390X!

[xfia]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonev...o-card-edges-out-nvidia-gtx-980-in-4k-gaming/

 

[newtekie1]

The real difference is like 1%. Nothing to write home about, not even noticeable actually. It is nice to see the lower price though, hopefully that means nVidia will drop the price of the 980.

If course, the problem I've noticed with the 390X is that, since they are just an overclocked 290X, AMD has pushed them to the limit already. So they aren't overclocking worth a damn. They can't even get 10% overclocks on the core.

 

[xfia]

looks like the biggest win is in skyrim with about 11fps.. i would expect 2-4 way to pull away with increasing margins for enthusiast builds.

 

[erocker]

Meh, so does an overclocked 290x and they're cheaper.

 

[xfia]

Meh, so does an overclocked 290x and they're cheaper.

good point but the 290x does lack on compression that may further help with crossfire and a few more features.. amd has not said anything about updating the drivers with features for them and one on the way is the dynamic frame rate control to use with freesync.

 

[newtekie1]

Meh, so does an overclocked 290x and they're cheaper.

Or a GTX970 for that matter.

 

[xfia]

Or a GTX970 for that matter.

anyone wanting a 980 that cant afford it and doesnt want 3.5gb on the short bus will be happy when the price drops.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_r9_390x_gaming_8g_oc_review,1.html
one of the best i have read in awhile^
the 970 is the worst performing 4k gpu in its class and price range. how the tables have turned haha the 390x is showing impressive wins with single gpu tests.

 

[Ralfies]

good point but the 290x does lack on compression that may further help with crossfire and a few more features.. amd has not said anything about updating the drivers with features for them and one on the way is the dynamic frame rate control to use with freesync.

The 390x lacks compression too. It's literally the same gpu as the 290x with higher clocks. It would be very shady if AMD were to release driver features for the 300 series and not include them on the 200 series.

 

[xfia]

hm.. they made it seem like all the new gpu's would have compression along with 4gb variants for more budget minded crossfire.. 4k, 1440p and 1080p eyefinity builds.

 

[Xzibit]

FRTC is exclusive to 300 series. I believe tied to new Bios/Firmware so it wont be available to 200 series.

Its a nice feature for those still on 60hz/75hz/90hz monitors.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Or a GTX970 for that matter.

or a oc'ed 290 ... and they are even cheaper ... (and have a full 4g.... wait... nevermind i said nothing )

2nd hand (non miner) 290 can go as low as the price of a 760 where i am ...

 

[Fluffmeister]

Problem is AMD have to undercut, hence their shrinking funds, but I guess at least the consumers win.

 

[Schmuckley]

I'll believe what I believe when there's actual benches done on HWbot.
Fire Strike ultra..3dm11..etc..

 

[BiggieShady]

... since they are just an overclocked 290X, AMD has pushed them to the limit already.

In that regard 390X to 290X reminds me of old HD 4890 to HD 4870

 

[RejZoR]

You can argue the "pushed to the limit". My card was supposedly already pre-overclocked (reference was 850MHz, mine was 900MHz) and yet I squeezed another 300MHz on the core and 2GHz on the memory... There is always room for overclocking. With R9-390X, there is most certainly OC headroom, you just have to trade performance for some more noise. Buying a card with good cooler is a wise decision from the start. The only one with big cooler was ASUS StriX R9-390X. Huge 3x fan cooler that looks similar as WindForce3X from Gigabyte. I'd gow ith that, because I know it can be relatively quiet even at insane clocks.

 

[newtekie1]

anyone wanting a 980 that cant afford it and doesnt want 3.5gb on the short bus will be happy when the price drops.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_r9_390x_gaming_8g_oc_review,1.html
one of the best i have read in awhile^
the 970 is the worst performing 4k gpu in its class and price range. how the tables have turned haha the 390x is showing impressive wins with single gpu tests.

You'll notice erocker and I were talking overclocked numbers. Yes, if you compare the 390X to a stock 970, the 390X wins. But, as erocker and I said, an overclocked 290X or 970 is just as good for $100 cheaper. And before you say "well the 390X can overclock too" realize that it really can't. AMD has come very close to maxing out the GPU with the default clocks. W1z's MSI 390X could only manage a 70MHz overclock on the GPU core! And MSI needed a triple-slot cooler to tame the heat generated by this thing at those clocks...

 

[xfia]

You'll notice erocker and I were talking overclocked numbers. Yes, if you compare the 390X to a stock 970, the 390X wins. But, as erocker and I said, an overclocked 290X or 970 is just as good for $100 cheaper. And before you say "well the 390X can overclock too" realize that it really can't. AMD has come very close to maxing out the GPU with the default clocks. W1z's MSI 390X could only manage a 70MHz overclock on the GPU core! And MSI needed a triple-slot cooler to tame the heat generated by this thing at those clocks...

i understand what your saying and you might have seen amd's apologetic stance on temps laughing that a chip could survive at 95c so yeah if you get one of these you should have one of well designed coolers or water cooling. the prices on the 290's are great and have overclocking headroom.

 

[GhostRyder]

You'll notice erocker and I were talking overclocked numbers. Yes, if you compare the 390X to a stock 970, the 390X wins. But, as erocker and I said, an overclocked 290X or 970 is just as good for $100 cheaper. And before you say "well the 390X can overclock too" realize that it really can't. AMD has come very close to maxing out the GPU with the default clocks. W1z's MSI 390X could only manage a 70MHz overclock on the GPU core! And MSI needed a triple-slot cooler to tame the heat generated by this thing at those clocks...

But the MSI model already comes 50mhz above the stock clocks. So actually it is by that standard 120 MHz overclock. Problem is both can overclock and while the gtx 970 may go a bit further it's going to come down to the memory and what the performance at max for both is on top of how many want to spend the time overclocking. either way it's hard exactly which to say is overall just the better buy as each has their own advantage.

or a oc'ed 290 ... and they are even cheaper ... (and have a full 4g.... wait... nevermind i said nothing )

2nd hand (non miner) 290 can go as low as the price of a 760 where i am ...

Yea, steals right now on eBay.

Well I would say as a comparison to the gtx 980. Well for the price and punt of ram it's a good buy. Not sure which I would choose of them. Probably neither as I would rather get the top cards at this point.

 

[Xzibit]

From the 390 reviews. 390 = 970 with an extra full speed 4.5GB. + or - is game dependent.

PCPERSPECTIVE Sapphire 390 = 970

Before knowing what pricing AMD had decided on for these cards I assumed, as did most others, that the R9 390 would perform nearly identically to the R9 290. But that's not true, as the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 is anywhere from 10-15% faster than the XFX R9 290 DD and matches the performance of the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II card at stock settings. Clearly the added clock speed and (more importantly) the increased memory clock speed have been able to juice up the Hawaii GPU, now called Grenada, to better compete with the NVIDIA GeForce lineup.

I'm not sure this argument will work with the R9 390X or the R9 380 yet, but for the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8GB card, users will find that it is competitive with the performance of the GeForce GTX 970 4GB for a nearly identical price.

It does overclock.

Increasing the VDDC Offset to 25, our final overclock was 1183 without any graphic issues. Next we started increasing the Memory Clock, using the same method, at 1790MHz the system was flawless,

 

[xfia]

But the MSI model already comes 50mhz above the stock clocks. So actually it is by that standard 120 MHz overclock. Problem is both can overclock and while the gtx 970 may go a bit further it's going to come down to the memory and what the performance at max for both is on top of how many want to spend the time overclocking. either way it's hard exactly which to say is overall just the better buy as each has their own advantage.


Yea, steals right now on eBay.

Well I would say as a comparison to the gtx 980. Well for the price and punt of ram it's a good buy. Not sure which I would choose of them. Probably neither as I would rather get the top cards at this point.

its not a rebrand like that.. the silicone is able to be optimized overtime. i think we have seen this somewhere before??? as explained by guru it should be simple enough to get at least 50mhz core clock even for novice users on the 390x.

 

[ensabrenoir]

Cant wait till the 24th.....hope it doesn't turn into : just wait till windows 10 then just wait till the the drivers mature, just wait till the patch releases...... but no matter what I'll be getting something 2nd hand real cheap. Already seeing craigslist add for 970's at $200 and dropping..... By now all the gpu mining craze is dead enough to safely buy an used Amd gpu too. Just gotta just wait a few days more. Hoping to snag a gen 1 Titian for a project of mine......

 

[the54thvoid]

The 290X is being shut out by AMD. The 300 series features are able to be delivered on the Hawaii cards but AMD simply want to force the upgrade. For those that have championed AMD's customer friendly approach it's a bit of a kick in the teeth. New management and new practices. Not one review site has commended AMD on it's staggering rebrand with the 3xx series. Though they have said they had little choice. It would be nice to see the driver features being splurged on 3xx series cards filtering done to the 2xx series.

Guy on here used a cracked 3xx series driver on his 290(x) card for that very reason - to get what his hardware can deliver but isn't being given because of a shitty lock out. Something Nvidia gets a really hard time about. Funny that.

Still - Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed - party time.

 

[Xzibit]

The 290X is being shut out by AMD. The 300 series features are able to be delivered on the Hawaii cards but AMD simply want to force the upgrade. For those that have championed AMD's customer friendly approach it's a bit of a kick in the teeth. New management and new practices. Not one review site has commended AMD on it's staggering rebrand with the 3xx series. Though they have said they had little choice. It would be nice to see the driver features being splurged on 3xx series cards filtering done to the 2xx series.

Guy on here used a cracked 3xx series driver on his 290(x) card for that very reason - to get what his hardware can deliver but isn't being given because of a shitty lock out. Something Nvidia gets a really hard time about. Funny that.

Still - Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed - party time.

I think you started the party early

PCPERSPECTIVE - AMD Catalyst 15.5 to 15.15 Performance Check - Validating AMD R9 390 Testing

So what's the take away? While in Grand Theft Auto V there is some performance delta between Catalyst 15.5 and Catalyst 15.15 with the R9 290, that is not the case in Battlefield 4 or Metro: Last Light. (Note: the results at 4K testing, which I did run, showed identical behavior to the 2560x1440 testing shown above.) It makes sense that GTA V would see some improvement in gaming experience with a newer driver as it is still a new title getting updates and fixes from both AMD and NVIDIA. BF4 and Metro: LL are quite a bit longer in the tooth and thus the lack of change is expected.

But, there does not appear to be any kind of smoking gun to point to that would indicate AMD was purposefully attempting to improve its stance through driver manipulation. And that's all I wanted to make sure of with this testing today and this story. I obviously didn't test every game that users are playing today, but all indications are that AMD is in the clear.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

I think you started the party early

PCPERSPECTIVE - AMD Catalyst 15.5 to 15.15 Performance Check - Validating AMD R9 390 Testing

So, I'm trying to understand the disparate opinions here.

On one hand we have the drivers not appreciably improving the 290x, as opposed to the 390x. I can follow this, and a hacked 390x driver is within the realm of plausibility. What I'm having trouble with is the fact that the54thvoid spoke about features not being realized on the 290x, but later being realized on the 390x. My assumption is that this is related to features that would not be demonstrable in games that have already been released, and even then not likely seen in games released for some time.

Is my interpretation correct here? Are we comparing apples and oranges?



As far as my two cents, this is the 2xx series rebaked. It kinda seems like anyone not looking at 4k, who already has something 7xxx or newer (sticking to AMD) , isn't going to see much of a reason to buy a new card that isn't slotted above the performance they already have. Kinda seems like I keep making that point. Neither the 9xx series nor the 3xx series (with the exception of the Nano) are shaping up to be anything special. Yay 2016.... Hopefully....

 

[Xzibit]

So, I'm trying to understand the disparate opinions here.

On one hand we have the drivers not appreciably improving the 290x, as opposed to the 390x. I can follow this, and a hacked 390x driver is within the realm of plausibility. What I'm having trouble with is the fact that the54thvoid spoke about features not being realized on the 290x, but later being realized on the 390x. My assumption is that this is related to features that would not be demonstrable in games that have already been released, and even then not likely seen in games released for some time.

Is my interpretation correct here? Are we comparing apples and oranges?

390 is running 15.15

290 is running 15.5 then ini hacked with 15.15.
15.5 perform better but within error margin. No difference as the article noted.

Somehow (the internets, okay more like the comments and forums review sections) thought it was a conspiracy that 15.15 wasn't released for 200 series and somehow held some hidden enhancements solely for 300 series.