[WCCF] AMD Radeon R9 390X Pictured

[3DVagabond]

Now lets be careful. While I agree the X's cooling is subpar the chip does have a 1000 mhz base and 1075 mhz boost. Anything over 1000 mhz is not throttling.

That said a good aircooler can handle 300W and Fiji should have no trouble under air.

It's throttling compared to what we see reported in the 30sec. benchmarks that are shown online.

If AMD released a card advertised as 800MHz but it ran at 1GHz during review benchmarks we'd have people proclaiming, liars, cheating, etc. lol

 

[.vodka]

Hawaii didnt beat GK110
GK 110 fastest GPU was 780TI/Titan black and 290x beat only cut-down GK110.

After the PS4/XB1 landed and its games started coming over to the PC, it did.

Not only the 290x consistently tied and beat the 780Ti after a while, it also closed its gap to the 980 down to an average of 10% with a few driver releases. At 780Ti and 980 launch the difference was sometimes gigantic. I mean, the 290x was 10-20% below the 780Ti at its release. Impressive catching up on the red side.

This is probably due to driver work on AMD's side, having GCN on both consoles which automatically tilts the balance to AMD's side (although I wouldn't be so sure of this point, we all know what Maxwell brought on nV's side, gameworks or not on XB1/PS4 games, also relative to Kepler), and having aftermarket 290/Xs that do not throttle and run at full speed as they should.

The 280x/7970GHz also closed the gap to the 780 by a similar degree, sometimes tying it too. Who would have thought an ancient GPU like Tahiti could have such a long useful life and good aging? You can't say the same about Kepler parts.

What about driver quality and release cadence? Don't forget multi GPU profile updates which AMD drags its feet on. They have to catch NVIDIA on all fronts, not just the hardware.

AMD's drivers aren't a problem when used on a single GPU. I can tell you that after a reference 4850, a 6850 (xfx, custom PCB), and now a Tri-X 290 (reference card with decent cooling). That's 7 years of dealing with AMD's drivers, never had a problem, everything works as it generally should and I usually update the day the new drivers are out. nV's are the same in that regard from what my friends who are single GPU nV users tell me.

If they get the release cadence back on track, it'd be great. I don't mean a monthly driver as it was a few years ago, but for example a driver every two months with game profiles would be a good solution to the actual situation.

Somehow AMD can't get rid of ATI's crappy drivers stigma back from the pre radeon 7000 days. My 9600XT back in the day didn't give my any issues either. Maybe I got lucky.


When you go multi gpu... if it works, XDMA xfire (Hawaii) is a superior solution to nvidia's SLI in terms of frame pacing (this isn't so in previous implementations). If it works. If SLI works. Lately multigpu support isn't what it used to be, both sides of the fence.

-------------------------


Back on topic, how do you imagine an air cooled 390x if that short PCB ends up being true?

This comes to mind:

The 660Ti. Here you can't use a blower, I don't think AMD dares to go back to blowers after the 290x's example... how do you mount one of these heavy open air coolers we see on the 290/Xs out there with such a little PCB? That card will probably bend with that much weight hanging off it.

 

[Azix]

I'd rather not believe the $700 figure but its all I have seen rumoured on the price. A water-cooled edition might reach that high in my thinking. Its a bit more work than air cooling and would have been designed specifically for the new layout.

This comes to mind:

The 660Ti. Here you can't use a blower, I don't think AMD dares to go back to blowers after the 290x's example... how do you mount one of these heavy open air coolers we see on the 290/Xs out there with such a little PCB? That card will probably bend with that much weight hanging off it.

I'd imgine something like that, though preferably shorter. They could make it shorter if the GPU was closer to the exhaust.

 

[gradoman]

Right before I go to bed I see this news. Had to read all the speculative comments. I really can't wait to see a benchmark or two leaked so the speculation and hype can just end, lol.

 

[Silverforce11]

Hawaii didnt beat GK110
GK 110 fastest GPU was 780TI/Titan black and 290x beat only cut-down GK110.

It did. It beat it at 4K, it beat it at CF vs SLI. This was at launch.
Then after Maxwell's launch, we've seen Kepler performance drop off and its been a win for Hawaii vs GK110 even at 1440p. You must have not noticed many recent games that show R290X 10% behind 980 and faster than 780ti.

That's 438mm2 vs 551mm2.

Now we're expecting a big AMD GPU ~550mm2 can't match or beat GM200 at 600mm2? Unrealistic, as it would be going backwards.

 

[iiiankiii]

It did. It beat it at 4K, it beat it at CF vs SLI. This was at launch.
Then after Maxwell's launch, we've seen Kepler performance drop off and its been a win for Hawaii vs GK110 even at 1440p. You must have not noticed many recent games that show R290X 10% behind 980 and faster than 780ti.

That's 438mm2 vs 551mm2.

Now we're expecting a big AMD GPU ~550mm2 can't match or beat GM200 at 600mm2? Unrealistic, as it would be going backwards.

Unless they "pull a Bulldozer", I expect the 390x to beat the titan X. Nobody believed the 290x could compete with the original Titan. It did. History will repeat itself, again. the 390x will surprise everyone and soundly beat the Titan X; just like the 290x soundly beat the original Titan.

 

[Silverforce11]

Unless they "pull a Bulldozer", I expect the 390x to beat the titan X. Nobody believed the 290x could compete with the original Titan. It did. History will repeat itself, again. the 390x will surprise everyone and soundly beat the Titan X; just like the 290x soundly beat the original Titan.

Yup, Titan-killer indeed.

But I am expecting NV to release a full GM200 variant with 6GB vram. Custom board designs will a) have more VRMs & better power systems and b) better cooling. This will allow it to boost out of the box to 1.4ghz and have 10-15% faster than Titan X performance.

The cut-down GM200 custom designs should also give it Titan X speeds out of the box.

So that's the real competition, not Titan X itself.

 

[boxleitnerb]

@Hawaii vs GK110:
People always "forget" that AMD cards are mostly tested in über mode while NV cards are not. You can easily extract up to 10% oft performance by simply letting the card run hotter.
Smart move that was by AMD with their über mode and a fail by most reviewers. Altogether both GPUs are in par, even in 4K.

 

[3DVagabond]

@Hawaii vs GK110:
People always "forget" that AMD cards are mostly tested in über mode while NV cards are not. You can easily extract up to 10% oft performance by simply letting the card run hotter.
Smart move that was by AMD with their über mode and a fail by most reviewers. Altogether both GPUs are in par, even in 4K.

People also don't count cards like the Tri-X. The stock cooler is the problem, not the GPU.

 

[x3sphere]

Unless they "pull a Bulldozer", I expect the 390x to beat the titan X. Nobody believed the 290x could compete with the original Titan. It did. History will repeat itself, again. the 390x will surprise everyone and soundly beat the Titan X; just like the 290x soundly beat the original Titan.

Hopefully this time they don't botch the launch. 290X did not soundly beat the Titan at release. The reference design 290X had practically no OC headroom unless you were willing to put up with hair dryer levels of noise, whereas you could pull off a 15%+ OC on the Titan and still maintain lower noise levels than a 290X. It also took AMD at least a month to get aftermarket coolers ready. That all really hurt the image of the 290 series going forward, I'm expecting they have learned from those mistakes though.

 

[Silverforce11]

@Hawaii vs GK110:
People always "forget" that AMD cards are mostly tested in über mode while NV cards are not. You can easily extract up to 10% oft performance by simply letting the card run hotter.
Smart move that was by AMD with their über mode and a fail by most reviewers. Altogether both GPUs are in par, even in 4K.

People also forget that even in uber mode, the reference R290X still throttle clocks. It was just a horrible cooler.

Some sites found clocks drop to ~900mhz.

AMD needs a killer reference design or designs this time for Fiji XT. It doesn't need the stigma of a crap cooler.

 

[MeldarthX]

I don't get this. It's a terrible option. If it's WC out of the box, I won't (can't) even think about it - it'll be 980/980 ti only for me. I don't have the room for a 2x120 rad, nor do I want water. I prefer the nice reliability of fans and heatsinks. A lot of people will be in the same boat as me. Many already have a CPU closed loop cooler...



Easy to take full displayport or HDMI to DVI.

you do know there is an air cooled version also....

 

[skipsneeky2]

If there was a time for Nvidia to rain on AMDs parade with a 980ti ,now would be the time. A water cooled Titan x killer perhaps with 8gb of ram for a considerably cheaper price?Oh yeah baby.

GG AMD if you deliver such a beast.Price that mother at the same price or lower then 980 ti,offer the same performance or better and offer more vram and there will be next to no excuse for NOT getting a 390x over anything Nvidia at this point for anyone who is simply into gaming.

 

[Vaporizer]

If there was a time for Nvidia to rain on AMDs parade with a 980ti ,now would be the time. A water cooled Titan x killer perhaps with 8gb of ram for a considerably cheaper price?Oh yeah baby.

GG AMD if you deliver such a beast.Price that mother at the same price or lower then 980 ti,offer the same performance or better and offer more vram and there will be next to no excuse for NOT getting a 390x over anything Nvidia at this point for anyone who is simply into gaming.

People will come up with an metric that enables justification on picking the green card. I am curious which metric it will be this time. (But it has good ol GDDR5 !!!!)

 

[therealnickdanger]

is that half long a 290?

AMD promised the HBM would allow them to create new form factors. I can't wait to see some low-profile ITX cards!

 

[Alatar]

People will come up with an metric that enables justification on picking the green card. I am curious which metric it will be this time. (But it has good ol GDDR5 !!!!)

There's a very clear justification right here in mid 2015, and it's a good legit one too.

Games.

What are the GPU intensive high profile games coming out or big ones being played?

GTA V
Project CARS
Witcher 3
Batman
MGS:V

AMD will start having a better games landscape once the big EA releases roll around but right now the hot titles are one NV sponsored game after another.

 

[csbin]

http://www.chiphell.com/thread-1287686-1-1.html


20CM~

 

[Erenhardt]

http://www.chiphell.com/thread-1287686-1-1.html


20CM~

I call this BS!
Amd doesn't have a tech for wireless AIO watercooling kits. /troll

Ugly card

 

[richaron]

Whilst I personally would never pay a premium for an old node, I am imagining some sweet mini builds right now...

 

[ShintaiDK]

As pure water cooled its quite easy.

A 285 ITX for reference. Its more than an inch smaller.

Or a GTX670:

 

[Silverforce11]

There's a very clear justification right here in mid 2015, and it's a good legit one too.

Games.

What are the GPU intensive high profile games coming out or big ones being played?

GTA V
Project CARS
Witcher 3
Batman
MGS:V

AMD will start having a better games landscape once the big EA releases roll around but right now the hot titles are one NV sponsored game after another.

I think the only GPU intensive AAA title on that list are GTA V, Project Cars & Witcher 3.

GTA V is pretty good showing from AMD since Rockstar went neutral. R290X is within 10% of 980.. unless you believe pclab.pl!

Also Project Cars, not too bad for a GameWorks title, surprisingly it has functional CF so soon at release, very non-typical compared to other GW titles:

The biggest on that list though is TW3. If AMD performance isn't good in that one, its gonna hurt. GTA V & TW3 are the biggest titles this year.

 

[at80eighty]

if it ended up in that form factor, it would allow for a really sweet Air 240 build

 

[skipsneeky2]

http://www.chiphell.com/thread-1287686-1-1.html


20CM~

Doesn't look exactly like a beast at first glance.

 

[LTC8K6]

Doesn't look exactly like a beast at first glance.

Looks kinda' like a water cooled Tonga card...

 

[.vodka]

So, no blower.

The block must be covering the VRMs then.