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AMD 390X Review

Greebo

Greebo

Greebo

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Co Durham
Here's the full run down of whats int he 15.20 drivers and why they are so good (even for your un rebadges 290 cards :p)

Driver Update Brings New Use Cases & Value
Whenever a company like AMD launches a new series of graphics cards like the Radeon 300 series, they usually accompany it with a new graphics driver. However, AMD is not simply updating their drivers to support the R9 Fury X, they are completely overhauling their drivers across the board.

AMD is releasing a two-phase driver release with Catalyst 15.15 and 15.20
. The 15.15 drivers are available immediately,and the 15.20 drivers are coming a few weeks later.

The Catalyst 15.15 drivers bring new features like:
FPS Targeting - The ability to save power by setting a maximum FPS target
Virtual Super Resolution - The ability to down scale a game from a high
resolution to a lower resolution, giving a user higher-quality textures in game
(also known as supersampling)
Performance optimizations:
Adding game performance optimizations to AMD R9 Fury Xand other graphics cards.

Although Catalyst 15.15 drivers will not be available for Windows 10, Catalyst
15.20 will be.
The Catalyst 15.20 drivers will bring features like:
Catalyst Uninstaller:Allows users to uninstall their AMD catalyst drivers
cleanly, so new drivers can be installed without incident.
OpenCL 2.0 optional features.
Multiple performance and feature additions
FreeSync + CrossFire:The ability to run FreeSync dynamic screen refresh
technology with multiple GPUs in CrossFire mode.

Catalyst 15.20 divers will also have Windows 10 specific features like:
HEVC(High Efficiency Video Codec):Enables quality streaming and 4K
experiences
DirectX 12:Support for the low-level efficient graphics API for Windows 10
Windows 10 WHQL(Windows Hardware Quality Lab)

AMD’s latest driver release (15.20) will be WHQL and WHQL for Windows 10 as well
 

Jono8

Jono8

Jono8

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39,719
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Surrey
DazQ87 said:
I suspect they will make a fair bit from uneducated people buying 8GB 390s, on the basis that it has 8GB of memory, which is obviously more than almost all the nvidia cards...
Click to expand...

Indeed. So many people that don't know much about tech will think an 8gb card is better than a 4gb regardless of the rest of the specs and actual performance.

I suspect it is a rather cynical attempt by AMD to get more sales that way. Props to them if it pays off, but i fear it won't and that they should have priced these lower.
 

Speed

Speed

Speed

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2002
Posts
9,605
Location
Near Bristol
passey89 said:
If ur paying? Can also send me a freesync monitor as well and ill test is crossfire freesync is working
Click to expand...

lol!

Just seen this page on the HardOCP review, it shows quite clearly that the only benefit to the 390X over the 290X is the default clock speed. When you downclock the 390X to 290X speeds you get the same performance. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/06/18/msi_r9_390x_gaming_8g_video_card_review/9#.VYQH4PlVhBc

So unless you are running a 4K monitor and want around 10% in a few games due to the extra VRam, 290X owners might as well just clock their cards.
 

easyrider

easyrider

easyrider

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Speed said:
lol!

Just seen this page on the HardOCP review, it shows quite clearly that the only benefit to the 390X over the 290X is the default clock speed. When you downclock the 390X to 290X speeds you get the same performance. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/06/18/msi_r9_390x_gaming_8g_video_card_review/9#.VYQH4PlVhBc

So unless you are running a 4K monitor and want around 10% in a few games due to the extra VRam, 290X owners might as well just clock their cards.
Click to expand...

yeah...its a bit of a damp squib tbh...

The 390 isn't new...don't fall for the trap!

I mean I picked up a 290 in MM for 150 FFS!
 

Amatsubu

Amatsubu

Amatsubu

Soldato
Joined
8 Sep 2012
Posts
4,036
pmc25 said:
There has been uplift across the board for 2xx and 3xx on 15.15 ... the Hardware Info NL review used 15.15 for all the AMD cards.

The 3xx (390X particularly) clearly has more going on than just higher memory clocks (= more bandwidth) and another 4GB. It's hugely faster than a 970 all round, now, and demolishes the 980 at higher resolutions in a lot of titles, and comes damn close to the 980ti at higher resolutions in some titles. Furthermore, the frame times have dropped a lot .. it's only being beaten by the Titan X and 980ti now in almost all titles. We knew GCN likes bandwidth, but this looks like a lot more than just that.

Despite the attempts of various sites and individuals to pour cold water on this launch as rebrands which offer negligible improvement, the combination of a few hardware tweaks and major driver improvements seem to have resulted in top performance at very good price points. Certainly if people actually realise how fast they are, after penetrating the FUD, 970 and 980 prices will have to come down very significantly. NVIDIA isn't really looking very good at ANY price point at as of now***.

***Except for the huge own goal with no HDMI 2.0 for 4K TVs.
Click to expand...

Is it really "hugely faster" than a 970? The tests on this site show the 390x only inching ahead by a couple of fps and sometimes even performing worse than a 970... Well, I acknowledge the fact it might be faster overall as it is "newer" and more expensive but hugely faster? Wouldn't say so. A 970 at 1500mhz should be pretty close. Unless those graphs are borked, that is.

http://pclab.pl/art64397-24.html
 

Gibbo

Gibbo

Gibbo

OcUK Staff
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,238
Location
OcUK HQ
passey89 said:
Hey at least i linked the ocuk of exclusive :)

Tbh there bloody amazing cards. Mine overclock really well 1270 core / 1620 memory in crossfire.
Click to expand...


Yeah good cards, only got about 17 left now. :)

Not had a play with 390X yet from Sapphire as it has very nice power phase design, be interesting to see how the new memory chips overclock and if cores have any improvement overclockability or not.

Once I've finished messing with this Fury I might grab a 390X to play with. :)
 

passey89

passey89

passey89

Soldato
Joined
10 Nov 2011
Posts
4,051
Location
Rugeley
Gibbo said:
Yeah good cards, only got about 17 left now. :)

Not had a play with 390X yet from Sapphire as it has very nice power phase design, be interesting to see how the new memory chips overclock and if cores have any improvement overclockability or not.

Once I've finished messing with this Fury I might grab a 390X to play with. :)
Click to expand...

i dont mind doing the testing for u :) will fit straight onto my 290x waterblocks perfectly fine :)
 
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