Introduction

Two weeks following its flagship Radeon R9 Fury X launch, AMD is launching its little sibling, the R9 Fury, positioned as a big money-maker for the "Fiji" silicon. To say AMD is at the forefront of new technology is an understatement. The company rigorously pursues and in many cases introduces new technology into the PC consumer-graphics space. AMD's past two memorable technological breakthroughs in this space were Graphics CoreNext, a powerful new number-crunching machinery for the GPU, which made not just AMD, but also a lot of crypto-currency enthusiasts a lot of money, and GDDR5 memory in their giant-killing Radeon HD 4870. The past year hasn't been kind to AMD in terms of GPU-market share, which is partly because the company didn't introduce anything major since 2013; all due to competition from NVIDIA with its "Maxwell" architecture and probably also because the company is focusing on high-volume ISV deals, such as new-generation game consoles, and the development of the chip that drives the card we're reviewing today, the Radeon R9 Fury.



Unlike the R9 Fury X, this SKU doesn't have a defined reference-design. AMD is allowing its board partners to go to town with it. To make it as affordable as possible, conventional air-based cooling solutions are used. At this time, there are only two board partners offering this card, ASUS and Sapphire. This is surprising because the chip has the potential to not only outsell the R9 Fury X, but also sell in reasonable volumes against NVIDIA's competing products.

The card we're reviewing today is the ASUS Radeon R9 Fury STRIX. It features the company's new-generation DirectCU III triple-fan cooling solution, which made its debut with the R9 390X and GTX 980 Ti. Let's tell you up front that it's quieter than the R9 Fury X in idle because it turns its fans off. ASUS decided to not overclock their card, but is still asking a $30 price premium over AMD's MSRP.