[offtopic]
i am not really wowed by this card.
should i be?
I recommend to not link any GPU review from that site for many years to come until they show objectivity or the site's editor changes.
First, look at the performance difference between R9 280X/R9 290 and GTX960. Now, please take your time to read the conclusion in their GTX960 review on this page. What card is being recommended in this review and which cards are being neglected/ignored for price/performance and VRAM?
Second, take your time to read the conclusion in their R9 380X review. What cards are being recommended in the review now?
Have you noticed something that strikes you as incredibly odd between those reviews yet? :sneaky:
When the author of a professional review site goes out of his way to ignore VRAM limits, ignores price/performance of competing AMD cards in an NV review but then goes out of his way to recommend gamers spend more for superior price/performance cards like the GTX970, do you think this blatant inconsistency is a quality of a professional objective reviewer?
Would a professional objective reviewer remove Dirt Showdown because it highly favours one brand but then use Project CARS in reviews that highly favours the other brand (only to remove it later due to pressure from readers)? Would a professional objective reviewer spend 1.5 years using nV-developed FCAT to demolish HD7000 cards for frame times but ignore poor frame times of Fermi, and early launch Maxwell SLI frame times issues? I'll let you contemplate that.
pcper review = grain of salt.
That's without question, but the one I used as an example was TechReport.
then i made a mistake.
Well you are technically right - both of those sites are bottom the GPU reviewer food-chain.
Newegg has one in stock SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R9 380X $229.99
Who is going to buy it? Makes no sense at the price point. But hey kids, just in time for the holidays!
Newegg has a 2-day Flash Sale on R9 290 for $180. Add a $1-2 filler, get $25 off $200 with AMEX and this card is ~$157. Even after buying an after-market AIO to cool it, still way better deal than any card in the $150-240 space right now.
So close to pulling the trigger... I would be upgrading from a 6850 D: Wait..or buy
Newegg has a 2-day Flash Sale on R9 290 for $180. Add a $1-2 filler, get $25 off $200 with AMEX and this card is ~$157. Even after buying an after-market AIO to cool it, still way better deal than any card in the $150-240 space right now.
Here is Sweclocker's new performance index. Instead of posting one-off games benchmarks, here's the full suite all in one:
Neck and neck with the 280X yet 30 dollars more expensive. Terrible value.
Also just a paltry 5% improvement over the 380 (stock to stock comparison). Even lower than my (optimistic) 10-15% suggestion.
Expand your horizon. Nine [9] games with FCAT analysis.Which is a shame. TR is the only one doing good frametime analysis, but they seem to only be doing it to highlight when AMD falls behind...
Newegg has a 2-day Flash Sale on R9 290 for $180. Add a $1-2 filler, get $25 off $200 with AMEX and this card is ~$157. Even after buying an after-market AIO to cool it, still way better deal than any card in the $150-240 space right now.
So close to pulling the trigger... I would be upgrading from a 6850 D: Wait..or buy
If this deal is still going tomorrow ,I'm picking one up.
You don't actually need a custom cooler, just undervolt the beast and it'll drop 50W and the blower will stay at a more sane noise profile.
That's my own experience with a whole bunch of them during the mining craze. In gaming loads with undervolt, no sweat. They only got loud whilst mining.
For perspective, R290 with undervolt uses similar power to the 380X while being much faster.
So it basically took AMD and NV 3 years to release their 2012 top tier cards for >$200?
Woof, the bottom is terrible!
The top is pretty terrible too, since the prices keep on going up for meager performance increases. It's the new normal.
The top was always terrible, but people buying the top aren't complaining about price / performance
Well unless you got stuck with the Overclocker's Dream.
Paying that much & not caring about $ for a gaming rig, may as well go all out and get the 4K experience with multi-GPUs.
Both companies soured me on multi-GPU. Not going through that barrel of fun ever again.
Once one card can handle 4K, I'll join the club. For now, I'm all set
Normally Sapphire makes great cards but I think they flopped with the 380X. Compared to the DirectCU TPU tested, the Sapphire Nitro R9 380X uses as much power as a 390. That's a FAIL.
vs.
http://www.techspot.com/review/1093-amd-radeon-380x/page7.html
That's why it's still very important that professional reviewers continue to do GPU SKU round-ups every generation, something I wish AT started doing regularly again.