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*** Proper 390X review & discussion thread ***

Really strange to see AMD pushing 8gb on their high end as a selling point, then only having 4gb on their ultra high end :S

Looking forward to the fury benches though, not much excitement to be had in here.
 
Here's the rundown on the new 15.15 and 15.20 drivers and why 290 and even 7970 get a massive boost in framerates. As such, and i know very few review sites are going to do it until AMD release the same drivers for 290x cards, the 390x show in a much better light over the 290x cards mainly due to these new drivers.

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
 
Orangey said:
The dog in Fallout 4 will obviously be overly Hairworks'd to make NV look good.

Basically look out for any animals with fur in upcoming games LOL. :D
Click to expand...

W2peHzl.png
 
Mtom said:
nice review..finally they compare AIB card, not ref vs custom. Seems the 390 is great value for the money, beating the 290X and the 970.
Click to expand...

Again though they are using the 15.5 drivers for the 290x and the 15.15 for the 390x.

It seems the new drivert give a 10% to 20% boost in games so it really should be pulling well ahead.
 
Currently running a 7850, which is fine by my standards, but it does take quite a hit when playing The Witcher 3 (very high + locked to 30 for smoother, less fluctuating experience).

290's have been very cheap recently, both new and pre-owned. Talking sub-200. I really wanna upgrade but it feel weird "upgrading" to a card from 2013 (albeit late 2013) in mid-2015. I know I will probably get a huge increase in performance, but still.

Then these cards come out and they're supposed rebrands/refresh.I know these just came out, but when is the actual "new" range of cards supposed to come out? I know Fuji is kinda takes that spot, but they seem a bit out of my price point (prefer ~200-300).

Maybe I just need some convincing to get a 290, 'cause they seem pretty good right now considering their price :p
 
Winky_The_Winking_Turtle said:
Currently running a 7850, which is fine by my standards, but it does take quite a hit when playing The Witcher 3 (very high + locked to 30 for smoother, less fluctuating experience).

290's have been very cheap recently, both new and pre-owned. Talking sub-200. I really wanna upgrade but it feel weird "upgrading" to a card from 2013 (albeit late 2013) in mid-2015. I know I will probably get a huge increase in performance, but still.

Then these cards come out and they're supposed rebrands/refresh.I know these just came out, but when is the actual "new" range of cards supposed to come out? I know Fuji is kinda takes that spot, but they seem a bit out of my price point (prefer ~200-300).

Maybe I just need some convincing to get a 290, 'cause they seem pretty good right now considering their price :p
Click to expand...


I know exactly what you mean. It's why I didn't buy a 290x when they were dirt cheap brand new on here. I also not sure if the 290s are gonna support DX 12.

Fiji is the new range.

I think i'm just going to bit the bullet and get a Nano at this point.
 
Darujhistan said:
I know exactly what you mean. It's why I didn't buy a 290x when they were dirt cheap brand new on here. I also not sure if the 290s are gonna support DX 12.

Fiji is the new range.

I think i'm just going to bit the bullet and get a Nano at this point.
Click to expand...

290s get full dx 12 support just the 300 and fuji series.
 
I do wonder what is the point of these R390X. They offer little performance gains over the 290X yet they are £120 - £140 more expensive. I bought a saphire 290 Vapour which runs stock at 290x levels. Cost me £180 and i am getting what a card that may be 2 FPS less than a 390X. Its madness on AMD's part. To top it all they then have the madness to chuck 8Gb ram on it but put 4Gb on the top end fury cards
 
dharvey86 said:
I have a 7950 that Im looking to upgrade.
Click to expand...

Winky_The_Winking_Turtle said:
I really wanna upgrade but it feel weird "upgrading" to a card from 2013 (albeit late 2013) in mid-2015.
Click to expand...

I went through this, and I now have a 290x vapor-x waiting at home waiting for some tinkering :-)
Actually, the descision was helped a little by having someone here who is interested in having my 7950 as an upgrade from a 750Ti.
 
sunshinewelly said:
I do wonder what is the point of these R390X. They offer little performance gains over the 290X yet they are £120 - £140 more expensive. I bought a saphire 290 Vapour which runs stock at 290x levels. Cost me £180 and i am getting what a card that may be 2 FPS less than a 390X. Its madness on AMD's part. To top it all they then have the madness to chuck 8Gb ram on it but put 4Gb on the top end fury cards
Click to expand...

They are not that much over if you look at the prices of a 290x 8gb which i don't think i seen under £300 with most being around the £330-£350 range. There was never a 290 8gb so we nothing to compare that to.
 
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