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[Rushersauce]

Name these 3 or 4 available DX12 benchmarks.
Look up DX11 benchmarks and check if 390 in all of them are slower then 970.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sapphire-nitro-r9-390-8g-d5,4245.html

Nope. It even competes with the GTX980 in some games.

There's more!

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/powercolor_radeon_r9_390_pcs_8gb_review,14.html

Oh, noes It loses on the Witcher 3! By a margin of 3 fps :C

 

[Tesseract]

how much of a hog is physx?

 

[The Hermit]

this is a useful thread, I just asked a similar question in the OT

 

[Breads]

Wait for Pascal. It will be worth the wait.

I ctrl+fed this.

I was not disappointed.

HBM2 will likely be reserved for the "big" cards (think 980ti and Titan). Those big cards will be expensive and in short supply due to the new technology.

None of these are reasons not to try to get one as soon as possible.

 

[ClearData]

I really want to know what OP buys now. I want the drama to end.

 

[Rushersauce]

how much of a hog is physx?

I used to have a GTX260 with 216CC. When I activated Physx in any game that supported it, the framerate tanked. It is intensive. I don't know now, but back then, you required SLI if you wanted good framerates.

I really want to know what OP buys now. I want the drama to end.

I'm getting the R9 390 . I'll post results as soon as I have it.

 

[dgrdsv]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sapphire-nitro-r9-390-8g-d5,4245.html

Nope. It even competes with the GTX980 in some games.

There's more!

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/powercolor_radeon_r9_390_pcs_8gb_review,14.html

Oh, noes It loses on the Witcher 3! By a margin of 3 fps :C

OK. So it's faster than 970 in DX11. Glad we've found this out so soon after I've made a post showing that same thing.

So why it being faster than 970 in DX12 means that it's somehow better in DX12 than 970 if it's better than 970 in DX11 as well?

 

[fertygo]

buy a new PSU too OP

 

[icecold1983]

how much of a hog is physx?

Huge. Usually cuts perf in half. Might be because nvidia hardware cant process graphics and compute simultaneously as the current theorys suggest.

 

[Rushersauce]

buy a new PSU too OP

Why? It's enough. Not planning on overcloking. Or are you saying I'll have problems with it? I can change it, I'm on time.

 

[motherxwolf]

maaaan that 390 looks goood. i'm still rocking my 7970 3gb for another year though. this card has been amazing

 

[The Hermit]

buy a new PSU too OP

I have a corsair CX 600 and I am planing on buying a 390 very, very soon. Should I upgrade it too?

BTW OP I came to the same conclusion as you (but here in Brasil the Sapphire is the only one available). Also I have a Fressync Ultrawide screen now, so there's that

Spoiler

21:9 is the future

 

[fertygo]

Why? It's enough. Not planning on overcloking. Or are you saying I'll have problems with it? I can change it, I'm on time.

Its enough, but its usually recommended for your PSU only hovering around 50-60% of its total power while carrying your rig total TDP in full load to not put too much stress on it. especially if you planning to have daily routine of extensive use.

390 alone consume 320+ watt on full load, so yeah..

By selling your old card I think you can fund or at least make it close to new 750w PSU

 

[Rushersauce]

Its enough, but its usually recommended for your PSU only hovering around 50-60% of its total power while carrying your rig total TDP in full load to not put too much stress on it. especially if you planning to have daily routine of extensive use.

390 alone consume 320+ watt on full load, so yeah..

By selling your old card I think you can fund or at least make it close to new 750w PSU

What old card? I have nothing. But, yeah. I'll try to get a better PSU.

 

[Kane Zakharov]

Why? It's enough. Not planning on overcloking. Or are you saying I'll have problems with it? I can change it, I'm on time.

Could you post the exact model of your PSU?

I have a corsair CX 600 and I am planing on buying a 390 very, very soon. Should I upgrade it too?

BTW OP I came to the same conclusion as you (but here in Brasil the Sapphire is the only one available). Also I have a Fressync Ultrawide screen now, so there's that

Spoiler

21:9 is the future

If it's this one, then it should be fine. Disregard.

 

[Rushersauce]

Could you post the exact model of your PSU?



If it's this one, then it should be fine.

http://www.sistemax.cl/webstore/index.php?op=producto/id=16570

I'm getting this one, now.

http://www.sistemax.cl/webstore/index.php?op=producto/id=16571

 

[justgames7604]

How far behind is the 970 from the 390 in general? Because the 970 overclocks very, very well, better than the 390 AFAIK. So maybe that makes up some of the gap.

Either way, they're close enough that I would be more driven by what ecosystem (I know some of y'all don't like that term) you want to go with, e.g. g-sync, shadowplay, etc. vs AMD's offerings.

Actually it's not, the 390 actually over clocks a bit better. Jayztwocents had a video on it. Where he went with two high but safe over clocks on each card and the 390 was pulling further ahead compared to its base clocks.

 

[fertygo]

If it's this one, then it should be fine.

Hearing bad thing about that PSU actually

Btw if you guys build new rig with 300$+ card, please don't be stingy to buy shelve 80-100$ for PSU.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Actually it's not, the 390 actually over clocks a bit better. Jayztwocents had a video on it. Where he went with two high but safe over clocks on each card and the 390 was pulling further ahead compared to its base clocks.

Interesting, you have a link? I'd like to see the video, i like Jayztwocents. Surprised the 390 does better in ocing than the 290, much less the 970. Good job AMD!

 

[Kane Zakharov]

Hearing bad thing about that PSU actually

Btw if you guys build new rig with 300$+ card, please don't be stingy to buy around 80-100$ PSU.

For real? Damn, I'll edit that out.

I feel like going over 650W is overkill for single GPU setups, assuming the PSU is of good quality.

 

[ZOONAMI]

Could you post the exact model of your PSU?



If it's this one, then it should be fine.

Hearing bad thing about that PSU actually

Btw if you guys build new rig with 300$+ card, please don't be stingy to buy shelve 80-100$ for PSU.

I think EVGA does a great job with their PSUs. The one in my Hadron has been rock solid for years. I have an 850watt B2 running my 980 ti and it's been rock solid too. Running 1500/8000 on the 980 ti.

 

[justgames7604]

Interesting, you have a link? I'd like to see the video, i like Jayztwocents. Surprised the 390 does better in ocing than the 290, much less the 970. Good job AMD!

This was in terms of performance is what I meant, the 970 had a big clock speed advantage.

The tests were done with the 390 at 1200 MHz and the 970 at 1442 MHz and stocks of 1050 and 1190 I think. So the amd card can definitely over clock a lot better than previous generations (alotttt bettterrrr).

The 390 could go further though, to 1250 MHz but he brought it back for a safe over clock I believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9cKZiJw6Pk

 

[fertygo]

For real? Damn, I'll edit that out.

I feel like going over 650W is overkill for single GPU setups, assuming the PSU is of good quality.

Corsair is using those cheap chinese capacitor I heard. So stressing it in daily use is kinda fearsome.
The downside of having extra power in PSU is just paying extra, I think the debacle on insisting for going for 500-550w instead 650w-750w w is silly if you can afford paying a little extra, especially if you going for power hungry card like 390.

I think EVGA does a great job with their PSUs. The one in my Hadron has been rock solid for years. I have an 850watt B2 running my 980 ti and it's been rock solid too. Running 1500/8000 on the 980 ti.

Well, if you have trouble with 850w PSU.. its brand is just not reliable at all lol

 

[Cute Dragon Here]

Corsair is using those cheap chinese capacitor I heard. So stressing it in daily use is kinda fearsome.
The downside of having extra power in PSU is just paying extra, I think the debacle on insisting for going for 500-550w instead 650w-750w w is silly if you can afford paying a little extra, especially if you going for power hungry card like 390.




Well, if you have trouble with 850w PSU.. its brand is just not reliable at all lol

You probably meant "Taiwanese secondary capacitors" when you said "Chinese".

His PSU should work, even though it's not exactly the best thing out there.

I still think that AMD really needs a new architecture these days for their mainstream cards. Needing to use 121W more power compared to your closest competitor isn't cool in my opinion, and with open-air style coolers dispensing heat inside the case, well, it's going to be a nice case-warmer if the case exhaust isn't up to the task. It probably is tolerable if you have a working case airflow. And 121W worth of heat isn't something you can ignore at all, in addition to it giving out a greater amount of load on the power supply.

Don't let me stop you getting a 390, though. I sure hope it's the MSI one...

 

[PerpetualWargasm]

390 alone consume 320+ watt on full load, so yeah..

If you are a hardcore furmark player I guess.

Realworld peak gaming (1080p Metro: Last Light) consumption of factory OC model 390, more like ~250w

I doubt his entire PC will use more than 350-400w load, even with a 390 in it.

Edit: Which compares the the real world peak consumption of a factory OC 970 of about ~180w

 

[RenegadeXV8]

You probably meant "Taiwanese secondary capacitors" when you said "Chinese".

His PSU should work, even though it's not exactly the best thing out there.

I still think that AMD really needs a new architecture these days for their mainstream cards. Needing to use 121W more power compared to your closest competitor isn't cool in my opinion, and with open-air style coolers dispensing heat inside the case, well, it's going to be a nice case-warmer if the case exhaust isn't up to the task. It probably is tolerable if you have a working case airflow. And 121W worth of heat isn't something you can ignore at all, in addition to it giving out a greater amount of load on the power supply.

Don't let me stop you getting a 390, though. I sure hope it's the MSI one...

It's not strictly 121W more power, and in most gaming loads it's actually a lot less than that. HardOCP's latest 390 review puts it at 'only' 40W more than a 970: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/21/xfx_r9_390_double_dissipation_8gb_video_card_review/10

 

[Crisium]

Its enough, but its usually recommended for your PSU only hovering around 50-60% of its total power while carrying your rig total TDP in full load to not put too much stress on it. especially if you planning to have daily routine of extensive use.

390 alone consume 320+ watt on full load, so yeah..

By selling your old card I think you can fund or at least make it close to new 750w PSU

What?

http://www.computerbase.de/2015-10/neun-radeon-r9-390-x-partnerkarten-test/4/

Multiple 290s show that the whole gaming PC (total system, CPU and everything) use less than 400w at load with a 390. A 600W PSU will have 0 issues.

 

[Memorabilia]

What's your CPU? If its a recent i5 or i7 then the R9 390 is better at 1440p. If you have an AMD proc then ironically you're better off with a nVIdia GPU.

 

[Cute Dragon Here]

It's not strictly 121W more power, and in most gaming loads it's actually a lot less than that. HardOCP's latest 390 review puts it at 'only' 40W more than a 970: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/21/xfx_r9_390_double_dissipation_8gb_video_card_review/10

Hmm...

Looks about right, though the MSI is definitely throwing more voltage. I'm still not going to ignore around 61W of extra heat, though.

(Hmm, an "apples-to-oranges" MSI 970/390 comparison might help better, to see what happens if everything but the GPU chip is identical...)

 

[CadetMahoney]

I really want to know what OP buys now. I want the drama to end.

I can't sleep.

 

[Hazaro]

A 390 isn't really any hotter than a 970, especially the triple fan ones.

How cool the card is doesn't change how much its dumping into the case/room (except higher resistance -> more heat).
I couldn't use a 290 or 390 after having an OC'd 290. That thing is insane for dumping heat into my small room.

 

[Cute Dragon Here]

How cool the card is doesn't change how much its dumping into the case/room (except higher resistance -> more heat).
I couldn't use a 290 or 390 after having an OC'd 290. That thing is insane for dumping heat into my small room.

Bingo. No amount of cooling on a card is going to prevent the heat from getting dispensed inside or outside the case. Physics can't be beaten. If even a GTX 970 can be a nice case-warmer, I don't know about something like 390.

 

[Steel]

Bingo. No amount of cooling on a card is going to prevent the heat from getting dispensed inside or outside the case. Physics can't be beaten. If even a GTX 970 can be a nice case-warmer, I don't know about something like 390.

Yeah, my EVGA 970 is definitely a space heater itself. Don't know how it compares to a 390, but honestly I don't see how it could be that much worse.

 

[Hazaro]

Yeah, my EVGA 970 is definitely a space heater itself. Don't know how it compares to a 390, but honestly I don't see how it could be that much worse.

My OC'd 290 was pulling nearly double with a high OC. Even dialed back it was still ~80W more venting out. It's a lot if you don't have good room circulation or AC

 

[Sanke__]

970

Why do people get so carried away with over-complicating PC component threads?

 

[Finaika]

970

Why?

 

[icecold1983]

970

Why do people get so carried away with over-complicating PC component threads?

because of posts like yours.

 

[ClearData]

I used to have a GTX260 with 216CC. When I activated Physx in any game that supported it, the framerate tanked. It is intensive. I don't know now, but back then, you required SLI if you wanted good framerates.



I'm getting the R9 390 . I'll post results as soon as I have it.

Nice. I don't think you could go wrong with either card but I really liked the R9 390 in comparison. My cousin went with an R9 380 and he loves the thing. It went into his very first rig and he is getting blown away by PC gaming.

 

[Renekton]

970

Why do people get so carried away with over-complicating PC component threads?

What you did there, I see it

 

[Cute Dragon Here]

It's always interesting to see what people pick, given similar pricing. Absolute performance, or slightly lesser performance for significantly reduced heat generation, efficiency, and a nicer driver stack and feature set?

 

[Inspectah_Deck]

These are the options, see the top price only:

MSI R9 390
SAPPHIRE R9 390
EVGA GTX970 SC
MSI GTX970

I'd like to say I really like MSI. The heatspreader they use covers all.

Get the Sapphire Nitro, it has better cooling system then MSI according to a recent comparison on (german) computerbase.de (one of the biggest PC-Tech sites in germany).

390 is cheaper then 970 and has more VRAM and i bet you, that >4GB VRAM will be beneficial in the coming year.

 

[LilJoka]

I still think the 970 (MSI or Gigabyte G1) is the better buy if you are planning to run 1080p. Reason is that these cards have excellent electronic components and leads to very high overclocks on average, your looking at 1500Mhz core and 3900-4000Mhz memory. Then you have the fact that the internal clock speed is actuallty locked down at lower than the core clock speed, after doing a BIOS flash you get even more performance out of it.

By the time any card is hitting 4GB VRAM usage in this price bracket, the game is already going to be lower than 60fps, so for 1080p60 this card makes a lot of sense.

Lastly the card is efficient, i have mine in a Fractal Node 304 and rarely run into 70c. Most games will push 60-65c and that means the card is very quiet.

NVIDIA also have game streaming for split screen games over the internet, pretty neat.

 

[Burai]

970

Why do people get so carried away with over-complicating PC component threads?

Exactly. How can we carry on with the "hurr durr AMD suck at everything forever" narrative when people want to bring things like facts and evidence into these threads?

Quick, make some glib remark about drivers sucking before anyone notices.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

It's always interesting to see what people pick, given similar pricing. Absolute performance, or slightly lesser performance for significantly reduced heat generation, efficiency, and a nicer driver stack and feature set?

Absolute performance isn't even a given considering the whole driver stack thing. It's really hard to pick AMD over Nvidia for any reason these days, which is one reason why AMD's discrete GPU market share is falling fast towards 20% while Nvidia's is going to be north of 80% soon. Anyone who buys AMD now should be thinking about how much longer they'll even have driver support when the company is sinking inexorably towards insolvency.

The concept of price/performance is muddied in the land of discrete GPUs because of the many other factors which may play a part in deciding which card to buy. Ultimately winning the benchmarks by a few FPS one way or the other isn't as big a deal as it might have been during the days of Quake III. The recent HardOCP review of Radeon Fury X CrossFire in 4K is proof enough of this, sure the average framerate is higher in some games than 980 Ti SLI in 4K but that's meaningless when the game is a stuttery mess on the Fury X CF setup.

 

[lilltias]

Absolute performance isn't even a given considering the whole driver stack thing. It's really hard to pick AMD over Nvidia for any reason these days, which is one reason why AMD's discrete GPU market share is falling fast towards 20% while Nvidia's is going to be north of 80% soon. Anyone who buys AMD now should be thinking about how much longer they'll even have driver support when the company is sinking inexorably towards insolvency.

The concept of price/performance is muddied in the land of discrete GPUs because of the many other factors which may play a part in deciding which card to buy. Ultimately winning the benchmarks by a few FPS one way or the other isn't as big a deal as it might have been during the days of Quake III. The recent HardOCP review of Radeon Fury X CrossFire in 4K is proof enough of this, sure the average framerate is higher in some games than 980 Ti SLI in 4K but that's meaningless when the game is a stuttery mess on the Fury X CF setup.

Right here, right now, the 390 is a better deal than the 970 for many many people. I have a 970. Keep up the good fight though.

 

[Marlenus]

It's always interesting to see what people pick, given similar pricing. Absolute performance, or slightly lesser performance for significantly reduced heat generation, efficiency, and a nicer driver stack and feature set?

On the other hand though AMD cards tend to have more longevity than NV cards. At launch the 680 was faster than the 7970 but now the 7970 is a margin ahead of the 680. The 780Ti was a good chunk faster than the 290X but now the 290X is a touch ahead. I would expect the 390 to outperform the 970 in two years time simply based on historical precedent.

Then there is the funky memory situation on the 970 that requires driver optimisation to get the best out of, are NV really going to keep up with that when the new hotness comes out next year? This card will require game ready drivers and with NV requiring you to create and account to get them that is an extra step too.

Personally between the 970 and 390 I would pick the 390 if you intend to keep it for a couple of years or more.

 

[Finaika]

Right here, right now, the 390 is a better deal than the 970 for many many people. I have a 970. Keep up the good fight though.

Why did you choose the 970?

 

[Inspectah_Deck]

On the other hand though AMD cards tend to have more longevity than NV cards. At launch the 680 was faster than the 7970 but now the 7970 is a margin ahead of the 680. The 780Ti was a good chunk faster than the 290X but now the 290X is a touch ahead. I would expect the 390 to outperform the 970 in two years time simply based on historical precedent.

Then there is the funky memory situation on the 970 that requires driver optimisation to get the best out of, are NV really going to keep up with that when the new hotness comes out next year?

Thats exactly what I´m worried about with Nvidia: Driver optimisation with older cards.

They showed this practice this year, when Maxwell hit.
The Kepler performance was seriously crippled with new driver updates, to the point where a 970 was faster then a 780 Ti.
In Project Cars even a 960 surpassed a 780!
Similiar problems with Witcher 3 at launch.
First they denied the problem and only when more and more sites reported about the issue and the pressure started growing they slowly reacted with better optimizations.

This is bad business parctice, where you force your costumers to buy the newest product.
What will happen with Maxwell driver support, once Pascal hits next year?

 

[Arkanius]

Thats exactly what I´m worried about with Nvidia: Driver optimisation with older cards.

They showed this practice this year, when Maxwell hit.
The Kepler performance was seriously crippled with new driver updates, to the point where a 970 was faster then a 780 Ti.
In Project Cars even a 960 surpassed a 780!
Similiar problems with Witcher 3 at launch.
First they denied the problem and only when more and more sites reported about the issue and the pressure started growing they slowly reacted with better optimizations.

This is bad business parctice, where you force your costumers to buy the newest product.
What will happen with Maxwell driver support, once Pascal hits next year?

Probably nothing because according to Nvidia roadmaps, Pascal is just Maxwell on top of HBM2, so the uArch is mostly the same, hence why it's so important to know right now if Maxwell is crippled in DX12 or not due the lack/or software emulation of Async computing.

 

[Tobiasboon]

The 390 is faster and would have been the card I would have gone with *if* it would fit in my case and my power supply would run it.

I'm running a Silverstone Sugo SG05 (with the front intake fan reversed to exhaust) with a 450w SFX PSU (flipped so it only draws in cool air from the top of the case) and the card physically wouldn't fit so I went with an EVGA GTX 970 SSC (which barely fits, it has a bigger PCB than most of the other 970s and isn't a blower which is why I reversed the front case fan on the SG05) and I am very happy with the performance. If I was running a bigger case and meatier PSU I would almost certainly have gone for the 390, it's better value for money and faster in general from most benchmarks I've seen.

Either is a very quick card though, certainly at 1080p (which is all I game at on a 51" Samsung plasma in my living room). The 390 would likely be the clear choice above 1080p.