390X vs Nitro Fury Non-X at 1080p and 4K?

[poofyhairguy]

I now have a 390X now that I got last year for my primary gaming rig (OCed 2600k). I eventually want a 490(X), but no matter what I will probably wait a few months after launch to try and get a "deal" price for it because that has been the way AMD rolls recently. That means if Vega comes out in summer like many expect I will be trying to buy one about a year from now on 2017 Black Friday. So I am trying to plan what to do for 2017, and in recent games Hawaii seems to be finally sinking.

In the meantime the Nitro Fury just sits on Newegg at a 480-level price, I am pretty confident I can sell my 390X for enough that the Fury upgrade would be sub-$50 which is completely doable. I am also considering getting a 4K Freesync monitor (which are cheaper than 1440p monitors for some reason) this year so 4K performance matters to me as well, but 1080p is what I game on now.

The big question is- is the Nitro Fury really that much better than the 390X? Will half the VRAM limit me at 1080p Ultra or 4K medium anytime this year? Is it possible the Fury will hold more value by the time Vega is finally sold? Is the Fury some sort of ticking time bomb?

Either way I plan to wait until CES, but I want to pull the trigger right after if it seems the GPU market will be stagnant for a while. Thank you in advance for any thoughts.

 

[tamz_msc]

According to this,
https://www.computerbase.de/thema/grafikkarte/rangliste/#diagramm-performancerating-3840-2160
the Fury Nitro is about 13% faster than the MSI R9 390X Gaming at 4K. The VRAM being 4GB is going to be an issue depending on the game; as a recent example, Watch Dogs 2 and Mirror's Edge Catalyst love the extra memory.

To be honest, if Vega was far away, I'd consider that 50$ for an extra 10-15% performance bump, but with a new GPU launch very close, I'd pass on the Fury.

 

[Bacon1]

The big question is- is the Nitro Fury really that much better than the 390X? Will half the VRAM limit me at 1080p Ultra or 4K medium anytime this year? Is it possible the Fury will hold more value by the time Vega is finally sold? Is the Fury some sort of ticking time bomb?

Fury has more performance at 4k so you'll be dropping settings on the 390x faster than on the Fury. So you won't be VRAM limited on it except in a few cases where there are "hyper" or similar textures.

I'd say its worth it, I went from 290 -> Fury X for 3440x1440 and it works awesome.

 

[RussianSensation]

If you are seriously considering 4K FreeSync, maybe wait to upgrade the GPU when you actually get a new monitor?

I'd also keep a close eye on the Fury X as prices are at $300 level:
https://slickdeals.net/f/9644712-xf...gb-hbm-3xdp-hdmi-300-ar?src=SiteSearchV2Algo1

It's possible we may see a final fire sale on the Fury X for $250-275 before it's discontinued.

Fury X is 25% faster than the 390X at 4K:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_1080_Amp_Extreme/29.html

Another alternative is to list your 390X and see what offers you get. IIRC, your 390X should be close to paid off from mining so even a Fury X upgrade is going to be relatively cheap for you.

 

[poofyhairguy]

If you are seriously considering 4K FreeSync, maybe wait to upgrade the GPU when you actually get a new monitor?

Yeah that is probably the best advice, but I have a fear that Vega is going to come out the gate very expensive and stay there for at least six months. I have only been following this market closely since 2015, but in that time it has been clear to me that the best deals by far are when you can get a flagship AMD gpu for clearance prices. A person who got a 290X for sub-$300 on clearance in early 2015 before the 390x launched has had 4GB AMD 480 performance at AMD 480 prices for more than a year before everyone else got access to that level of perf/$. I look at Titanfall 2 benchmarks where a Fury X beats a 1080 and I can't help but think that within a year the Fury non-X will be considered even with the 1070 and so the current prices are a steal.

I didn't jump on the Newegg Fury-non X because it is Powercolor and I really dislike that brand. Frys has some XFX Furys in stock so if they decide to clear them out I might grab one.

I'd also keep a close eye on the Fury X as prices are at $300 level:
https://slickdeals.net/f/9644712-xf...gb-hbm-3xdp-hdmi-300-ar?src=SiteSearchV2Algo1

It's possible we may see a final fire sale on the Fury X for $250-275 before it's discontinued.

That would be nice. I saw the $300 one and was tempted but I am scared the Fury X won't fit in my Nanoxia Deep Silence case. A $250 I would get one to at least try.

Another alternative is to list your 390X and see what offers you get. IIRC, your 390X should be close to paid off from mining so even a Fury X upgrade is going to be relatively cheap for you.

I already sold the 390X, I got an offer that was $115 less than what I paid for it after covering shipping costs. Seeing as how that 390X mined 33 ETH last year I basically got paid to have that card.

One thing going for me is I had a AMD 470 XFX Black (so a really nice 4GB model) I bought for mining that I am now gaming on. At 1080p I can't really tell a difference between it and the 390x so I am not desperately in need of a new card. That puts me in a position to wait until I can get a absolutely crazy Fury clearance deal, or if those never come then I can at least wait until I do a monitor upgrade.

Vega is starting to smell like Hawaii (with all kinds of things under the hood that can't be used day 1, and so what I really want is a Vega card. But with mining almost dead I don't expect Vega prices to stay up for very long unless its a more competitive product day 1 than I am expecting.

 

[Dave2150]

I'd just suck it up and get it on day one if you want it that much. Much more fun than waiting months, spending days checking the prices. If you're doing that, then you just can't afford it and should buy a cheaper card, such as a 1070.

 

[Bacon1]

I'd just suck it up and get it on day one if you want it that much. Much more fun than waiting months, spending days checking the prices. If you're doing that, then you just can't afford it and should buy a cheaper card, such as a 1070.

Also AMD "day 1" 2nd tier is often software locked and people end up finding ways to unlock more cores (or VRAM!)

 

[Mercennarius]

I have a Sapphire Tri-X 390X and my brother has a Sapphire Nitro Fury. He scores about 15+% higher in most benchmarks. It's definitively a faster card and if I was buying a sub $300 card today that would absolutely be the one. Though I'm not sure it's worth the hastle of upgrading from a 390X with Vega around the corner.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'd just suck it up and get it on day one if you want it that much. Much more fun than waiting months, spending days checking the prices. If you're doing that, then you just can't afford it and should buy a cheaper card, such as a 1070.

It has nothing to do with "afford it." I can afford any GPU, I spent more on mining GPUs last year than a Titan X costs, but part of my love with computers and technology has to do with a pride about making better technical decisions than the average person. Checking for a good deal is something I do anyway, I go on slickdeals at least once a day. Black Friday is probably my busiest holiday or the year (though cyber Monday has gotten better recently) because I am fielding 15 phone calls from family members asking which tech deals to get because they know that is what I pride myself on.

I would never be proud just because I could afford a Titan X, I am proud that I got a $200 480 day one that unlocked to 8GB or when I flashed my AMD 9500 into a 9700, or that mining on all that hardware on computers I put together in 2016 made me "money" I don't really need but allowed me to game for free last year. Because for each of those things I had to do something technical that the average person wouldn't do to get those results, and in each case I made a bet that paid off. I feel like I can take more ownership in the end result despite not getting to be part development team or working at the GPU factory.

But I sometimes make suboptimal decisions when I get too aggressive in my quest for good ones, and in retrospect I bought a 390X because I wanted a piece of that fabled Hawaii glory for myself. By the time I bought in Hawaii was on a down curve, and in many current games it keeps falling behind the 480 or Polaris since either launch. If it wasn't for it getting me into mining the 390x was almost my worst technology decision since the time I tried to make a fanless 775 rig. But it going toe to toe with a 980 ti in Ashes made me believe it had a bright future when I got it.

I think the 1070 is another 970 or 770 trap and I have already played that game. You can see it falling behind the 1080 further and further with new games that come out, therefore I don't think it has the kind of legs I want in a $200+ GPU. I want to be like the guy who bought a Hawaii on sale in 2014 only to watch it compete with two generations of Nvidia GPUs. I think Vega could be that, after AMD is forced to discount them in six months because all that future thinking technology doesn't help them beat Nvidia cards at a 2017 Directx11 Gameworks game. If I buy a Vega for full price day one and three months later it's on slickdeals for $50 less (like I saw with the 480s) I will feel less great about it overall even if it is beating a 1180 in late 2018 in some rebranded form because all that technology inside the card is finally being used.

My question today is- will Fiji be the next Hawaii? The VRAM amount says no, but it going toe to toe with a 1080 in Titanfall 2 says yes. At a certain price point it becomes a better decision than it was when it was $500+. The question is if it ever becomes a good enough decision to warrant jumping in at this late hour. I don't want to remember Titanfall 2 as another Ashes (which I don't even own) ten years from now.