How popular are the 390X and 390P ?

[Lokken86]

Let's step back and look at some facts the 7950/7970 is 4 year old tech.
4 year old tech vs 2 year old tech or the respun 300 series. Generally an 1100mhz 7950 would equate to the 280x in those guru3d results.
You are quoting 800mhz 7950 results, secondly the r9 290 drivers are older than the 390. Like I said I used a 1175/1600 7950 and I know how it compares to a 290 clocked or stock with the parity 390 wonder drivers, even a 1200 or 1300mhz 7950 will scale another 8 fps over the stock 280x results in the guru3d. I'm not saying the gains aren't there, in some games it's a good jump but most of that gain came from the recent drivers. I'm saying if you've left it to this late to only jump on a 390 then you are kidding yourself it's value for money, because essentially it's not if you look at the timeline of 4 years of progression.

The fact is in over a year you are still paying the same price as the 290's were when they bottomed out for a long time. You are only looking at fps you aren't comparing the whole features of the card to Maxwell.
The 8gb of memory is only viable if you are in cf and there was an r9 290x 8gb anyway. The uvd 4 engine is so outdated that it can't decode 4k video playback, Tonga can with uvd 5.2.

Like I said if all you care about is fps then fine, but don't refuse the facts I bring to the table just because they don't suit your agenda.
As I said in my first post,
They were good cards 2 years ago in the form of the 290's but they are showing their age if you look beyond the fps, they do an ok job but the 300 series needed the die shrink and they would have been amazing.

Why are you trying to make the jump from the 2 cards seem less impressive than it is? Does a 390x not overclock too?

And I'm sorry but a 7950 cannot be compared with a 280x. Its not even close to 280x performance.

 

[BluD]

If I compare my watercooled 290Xs to my old Matrix Platinum 7970s it is absolutely no contest. Not only are my Hawaii cards bigger but they are also better clockers too !!!

Yeah exactly, so if you saw someone posting that theyre cards are only giving them like 50% more FPS you would think huh mine are giving double wtf....thats why i think people get confused when theyre comparing old overclocked cards against new ones. The only people that actually know how much of an increase they gained from upgrading are them odd people that run at stock speeds, but they shouldnt be on this site

 

[humbug]

Lets look at some benchmarks, to see if a 390X is a 'moderate' upgrade to a 7950, shall we?

Spoiler

Over double the FPS in some games, hence why I feel it's a huge upgarde from my 7950.

I don't really care that it's 2 year old tech, I only care about it's performance relative to the 7950 I replaced.

Also, the 8GB VRAM comes in handy for me, since I frequently have youtube videos, movies, streams etc open on two other monitors, all of which eat up some VRAM, in addition to gaming on a 1440P screen. A 970 or 980 would have run out of VRAM for my uses, hence why I went with a 8GB card.

Yeah, damn thing is almost as fast as a GTX 980, looks like the 390X is around 80% faster than a 7950? +1 good luck overclocking the 7950 to 1.8Ghz just to make up half the performance difference

 

[KelDG]

Let's step back and look at some facts the 7950/7970 is 4 year old tech.
4 year old tech vs 2 year old tech or the respun 300 series. Generally an 1100mhz 7950 would equate to the 280x in those guru3d results.
You are quoting 800mhz 7950 results, secondly the r9 290 drivers are older than the 390. Like I said I used a 1175/1600 7950 and I know how it compares to a 290 clocked or stock with the parity 390 wonder drivers, even a 1200 or 1300mhz 7950 will scale another 8 fps over the stock 280x results in the guru3d. I'm not saying the gains aren't there, in some games it's a good jump but most of that gain came from the recent drivers. I'm saying if you've left it to this late to only jump on a 390 then you are kidding yourself it's value for money, because essentially it's not if you look at the timeline of 4 years of progression.

The fact is in over a year you are still paying the same price as the 290's were when they bottomed out for a long time. You are only looking at fps you aren't comparing the whole features of the card to Maxwell.
The 8gb of memory is only viable if you are in cf and there was a8gb anyway. The uvd 4 engine is so outdated that it can't decode 4k video playback, Tonga can with uvd 5.2.

Like I said if all you care about is fps then fine, but don't refuse the facts I bring to the table just because they don't suit your agenda.
As I said in my first post,
They were good cards 2 years ago in the form of the 290's but they are showing their age if you look beyond the fps, they do an ok job but the 300 series needed the die shrink and they would have been amazing.

The 390x Snapping at the heels of the 980 for less money and "they were good cards 2 years ago" what you smoking mate?

 

[Davedree]

The 390x Snapping at the heels of the 980 for less money and "they were good cards 2 years ago" what you smoking mate?

It's a respun 290 it's a 2 year old card, I'm not saying it's a bad card you are cutting out a lot of my post and twisting what i'm saying.
if you look at the card as a whole, and you don't just look at the fps then it's weak in a few areas. They should have die shrunk the grenada chip updated the vce and uvd engines, hdmi2 and then brought them out.

edited too many ''i'm sayings''

 

[Davedree]

Why are you trying to make the jump from the 2 cards seem less impressive than it is? Does a 390x not overclock too?

And I'm sorry but a 7950 cannot be compared with a 280x. Its not even close to 280x performance.

An overclocked 7950 at 1100mhz equals a 1000 mhz 280x.

 

[Nelly]

The 390x Snapping at the heels of the 980 for less money and "they were good cards 2 years ago" what you smoking mate?

Probally smoking the same stuff as the people saying the 390 series are just rebadged 290's lol.

 

[KelDG]

It's a respun 290 it's a 2 year old card, I'm not saying it's a bad card i'm saying if you look at the card as a whole, and you don't just look at the fps then it's weak in a few areas. They should have die shrunk the grenada chip updated the vce and uvd engines, hdmi2 and then brought them out, that is what I'm saying.

Fair enough, but if I was looking for a card now I wouldn't care about the history of it. It's certainly not showing its age especially for the price\performance.

 

[Davedree]

Probally smoking the same stuff as the people saying the 390 series are just rebadged 290's lol.

Do you still believe Grenada is different to Hawaii?

 

[Davedree]

Fair enough, but if I was looking for a card now I wouldn't care about the history of it. It's certainly not showing its age especially for the price\performance.

It's not a bad card I agree and for it's price-point it's good compared to a 970 or especially a 980, I went from a 7950 to a 970 2 months ago. But people need to look at things beyond the fps.

Imagine the 390/x config but shrunk down onto a 16/14nm node at around 210-230mm2 die with a 256/512 bus and 4gb of memory, updated uvd and vce engines and hdmi2 with power consumption around 130-150w.
Instead you'll have to wait for that next year and pay for it with an inflated price point.

 

[Nelly]

Do you still believe Grenada is different to Hawaii?

Depends on what what you read and believe and what you interpret and define as a rebadge.

 

[Davedree]

Depends on what what you read and believe and what you interpret and define as a rebadge.

I call it respin but the dies are the same, the illusion came from the drivers and clocks, and the variation of 290's (reference throttling old drivers) which is demonstrated in the the reviews.

 

[KelDG]

It's not a bad card I agree and for it's price-point it's good compared to a 970 or especially a 980, I went from a 7950 to a 970 2 months ago. But people need to look at things beyond the fps.

Imagine the 390/x config but shrunk down onto a 16/14nm node at around 210-230mm2 die with a 256/512 bus and 4gb of memory, updated uvd and vce engines and hdmi2 with power consumption around 130-150w.
Instead you'll have to wait for that next year and pay for it with an inflated price point.

I get what you are saying, that would be awesome. But we have only got what we have got. I honestly thought we would see some progression when the 970 and 980 were released but they performed so close to the 290 and 290x I was gutted as those cards had been out for ages at that point. So not surprised this new itteration didn't push us much further.

Think we are all waiting for a die shrink now. Sat on a little 270x at the moment and refuse to give either AMD or nvidia my money until we see some serious gains from both sides (that is not stupidly expensive)

 

[Lokken86]

An overclocked 7950 at 1100mhz equals a 1000 mhz 280x.

No chance. Looking at just those 3 games posted above the difference is 30% between the 7950 and 280x on average. Good luck pulling that back.

 

[Davedree]

I get what you are saying, that would be awesome. But we have only got what we have got. I honestly thought we would see some progression when the 970 and 980 were released but they performed so close to the 290 and 290x I was gutted as those cards had been out for ages at that point. So not surprised this new itteration didn't push us much further.

Think we are all waiting for a die shrink now. Sat on a little 270x at the moment and refuse to give either AMD or nvidia my money.

Next year is going to be interesting but I don't expect it to be cheap,
I regret selling my 7950 to my friend for cf, I can't believe the fps of 7950/280 cf for the money it's mental. I was waiting and waiting for Nano but it took too long to arrive and when it did the price was ridiculous, the 390 was attractive and I nearly bought one, however a guy at work was selling x2 970 g1's cheap, So i bought one of them.
It clocks to 1.6ghz and it's quiet but it's not worth it's current pricepoint new.

 

[r7slayer]

I call it respin but the dies are the same, the illusion came from the drivers and clocks, and the variation of 290's (reference throttling old drivers) which is demonstrated in the the reviews.

So why when I flashed my 290x to a 390x it didnt perform like a 390x with new drivers! Infact I had massive stability issues. Must be different then? Not a rebadge like most would have you beleive. Also a 2 year old odd card beating a 1 year ish card by the way your talking about age at less price who the hell cares. We like games and performance not the age of that wine in your cellar Bro.

 

[Davedree]

No chance. Looking at just those 3 games posted above the difference is 30% between the 7950 and 280x on average. Good luck pulling that back.

In those 3 games there is no 280 just a 280x,
If you look at the scaling of the 7970 925mhz to 7970 1.05ghz
The overclock of 125 mhz = 7fps in gta5, 13fps in tomb raider, 6fps in bioshock, A 7950 scales too when clocked but it'll need to be clocked higher than a 7970 ghz/280x .


From memory the 7950 and 7970 were 10%-15% difference clock for clock.
Also looking at the 7950 925mhz boost and 7970 925mhz the difference can be shown in those 3 games at 10-15%.
So you'd need to overclock the 7950 around 1150-1175mhz and with a decent memory overclock 1400mhz + to match a stock 7970ghz or 280x.
Which is what I saw when I benched my 7950 vs my mates stock 280x

So that no chance is actually easily achievable.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

I think the 390 and 390X seem like decent cards.
I've had 7950s, 290s and 290Xs and while the difference between the 290 and 290X is pretty minor (as everyone knew and expected) the difference between the 7950 and the 290/290X is definitely noticeable.

I paid £200 for my 290Xs (new) which seems like a good price, £300 for a 390X doesn't seem quite so good in comparison.

 

[Davedree]

So why when I flashed my 290x to a 390x it didnt perform like a 390x with new drivers! Infact I had massive stability issues. Must be different then? Not a rebadge like most would have you beleive. Also a 2 year old odd card beating a 1 year ish card by the way your talking about age at less price who the hell cares. We like games and performance not the age of that wine in your cellar Bro.

Oh my we are still debating this lol,
This was debunked by myself and others a long time ago. Amd nerfed the drivers to make it appear the 390 was better/new silicon.
The drivers had a bios string to prevent the 15.15 drivers working on hawaii.
The fact you flashed the 290 with a 390 bios issues were due to the memory capacity timings and voltages which are different on the 390s than the 290's.

 

[Lokken86]

In those 3 games there is no 280 just a 280x,
If you look at the scaling of the 7970 925mhz to 7970 1.05ghz
The overclock of 125 mhz = 7fps in gta5, 13fps in tomb raider, 6fps in bioshock, A 7950 scales too when clocked but it'll need to be clocked higher than a 7970 ghz/280x .


From memory the 7950 and 7970 were 10%-15% difference clock for clock.
Also looking at the 7950 925mhz boost and 7970 925mhz the difference can be shown in those 3 games at 10-15%.
So you'd need to overclock the 7950 around 1150-1175mhz and with a decent memory overclock 1400mhz + to match a stock 7970ghz or 280x.
Which is what I saw when I benched my 7950 vs my mates stock 280x

So that no chance is actually easily achievable.

Both at max overclock 20 to 30% will still be the case so what's the point comparing a overclocked 7950 to a standards 7970.