My R9 390 vs. GTX 970: Surprising Results?

[Suika]

Most impulsive buy of 2015.
 
I've finally benchmarked my R9 290 390, and surprise, it performs below my GTX 970, but by how much is surprising.
 
We'll start with standard Fire Strike, nothing special. Just 1080p goodness.
 


 


 
Nobody should be surprised, but I am. The R9 390 is very close to the GTX 970, the combined score is even higher but graphics score is fairly lower. The actual FPS differences are not significant, but what I'm wondering is; What about driver updates? The 390 isn't validated on 3DMark because of the driver, so maybe there are still optimizations to be made. It would be interesting to see at least. OK, moving on.
 
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Fire Strike Extreme. Maybe kicking up the resolution will favor the R9 390's extra VRAM and bus width?
 


 


 
The R9 390 is falling behind by a few FPS, but is somehow doing better in physics. I mean, I didn't overclock the 4790k between runs, but twice now it's had a better physics score. I dunno, weird.
 
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Let's kick it up a notch; 4K. Maybe this is where we can see the 390 pull ahead.
 


 


 
The FPS differences are marginal now, what I really want to see is crossfire versus SLI now, especially on 4K. Maybe that's where we could see the advantage in RAM and where the 390 might win. Maybe we'll see the 390 win on driver updates. I don't know. It'll be neat to see, though.
 
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Last benchmark, OpenGL on Cinebench 15.
 

 

 
The 970 wins again, but by a hair.
 
Now the interesting thing for me was thermals and audio levels. With the EVGA GTX 970 SSC, I can hear the fans ramp up during benchmarks, but the XFX R9 390 DD has remained consistent in each test. Not dead silent, but still very quiet in comparison to the 970 ramping up. I don't have any professional equipment to test it, but I can say that, while the 390's fans run all the time, they seem quieter than the 970's on load. Oh, and thermals. Interesting stuff.
 
EVGA GTX 970 ACX2.0+
Max Temp in FurMark: 79C
 
XFX R9 390 DD
Max Temp in FurMark: 71C
 
Make of that what you will, but don't forget that the 970 has 0db mode, and FurMark is not a realistic gaming load. Real GPU temperatures are lower.
 
And the unboxing experience.
 

 
Open the box, and we have another box with XFX on it, if you didn't realize who the GPU manufacturer was.
 

 
Open it up some more and you have another box, a warranty information card, and, well... The graphics card.
 

 
Interesting stuff, let's see the accessories. We've got HDMI to DVI (2x), DVI to HDMI, a driver's DVD, and an instruction guide.
 

 
Here's the GPU in the anti-static bag.
 

 
And here's it without the anti-static bag.
 

 

 
For ports, we have Display Port, HDMI, and two single-link DVIs. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

 
Here's the brushed looking backplate, something even my GTX 970 SuperSuperclocked doesn't have *cough*EVGA*cough*.
 

 

 
And finally, here's the SN and info on the GPU.
 

 
I've never owned an XFX GPU before, but the unboxing experience was far from impressive. It was black boxes and lack luster accessories I probably won't touch asides from having taken a photo of them. The main attraction is the GPU so I can excuse that. I'll be sure to update with benchmarks and thermals in a short while, I'm excited to see where the R9 390 lands, or if it's just the 290 with 8GB.

[Razarza]

Where did you get it from?

[Codymm03]

Nice

[Suika]

Where did you get it from?

Best Buy. They had the R7 360 and R9 370 as well.

[Aniallation]

Where did you get it from?

Best Buy has em

[xAcid9]

390 or 390x?

[Suika]

390 or 390x?

390. I wanted a 390X but they didn't have any.

[Razarza]

Best Buy. They had the R7 360 and R9 370 as well.

Best Buy has em

Oh, so they are just openly selling them? Surely there is some sort of NDA (that they are breaking) otherwise other retailers would also be selling them, no?

[Aniallation]

Oh, so they are just openly selling them? Surely there is some sort of NDA otherwise other retailers would also be selling them, no?

Guess so.

 

[SteveGrabowski0]

Most impulsive buy of 2015.

I'm going to throw it in tomorrow evening and see the clocks it has, shit like that. Wow I'm dumb but this is awesome.

I'm probably going to end up returning it or selling it, but wow, yea, I own it.

 

Tomorrow!?! How you gonna leave us hanging like that? haha

 

How about one quick run of Firestrike?

[Suika]

Tomorrow!?! How you gonna leave us hanging like that? haha

How about one quick run of Firestrike?

Nah man, I'm going to see a movie tonight then I work early tomorrow morning

[SteveGrabowski0]

Best Buy. They had the R7 360 and R9 370 as well.

 

It's R9 370 and not R7 370? What was it selling for?

[BrinkGG]

Not on the website though...

[SteveGrabowski0]

Nah man, I'm going to see a movie tonight then I work early tomorrow morning

 

Fair enough, but when you have time can you do a Firestrike benchmark and post results? Just to have something easily reproducible and comparable?

[GoodN1ght]

Jurassic World?

What a waste of time that would be. 

[Suika]

It's R9 370 and not R7 370? What was it selling for?

I don't even remember tbh.

Jurassic World?

Yes :L

Fair enough, but when you have time can you do a Firestrike benchmark and post results? Just to have something easily reproducible and comparable?

Yea, easily. I was going to do a few tests and whatnot.

[SteveGrabowski0]

I really hope AMD can pull a rabbit out of a hat and have the R9 390 outperform the GTX 970 by a few percent, even as a 970 owner. $370 seems a pretty steep price if it's just going to have 290 performance with a lot of extra VRAM. I really want to see AMD survive as a strong competitor to Nvidia, which looks in danger after their disastrous 2014.

[EpicGeekonFire]

Jeez dude stay up all night and do some benchmarks for us! I'll make up the story of why you missed work tmmrw!

[SteveGrabowski0]

Yeah, just call in sick and say your AIDS is acting up.

[Megahurt]

Any mention of the tdp on the box ?

[Suika]

Any mention of the tdp on the box ?

No real mention, the only talk of power requirements is that it needs a 750W PSU, but that sounds unrealistic.

[iludez]

Pics?

[LamboLaddy]

Start a Kickstarter or something overnight and quit your job, I'm sure enough people would pay a buck or two for you to have time to find something else

[Suika]

Alright, I've got some pictures for the non-believers. I'll update an OP with pictures too, for easy linking for others. 
 
So first off, the box and my username. Pretty essential stuff.
 

 
Open the box, and we have another box with XFX on it, if you didn't realize who the GPU manufacturer was.
 

 
Open it up some more and you have another box, a warranty information card, and, well... The graphics card.
 

 
Interesting stuff, let's see the accessories. We've got HDMI to DVI (2x), DVI to HDMI, a driver's DVD, and an instruction guide.
 

 
Here's the GPU in the anti-static bag.
 

 
And here's it without the anti-static bag.
 

 

 
For ports, we have Display Port, HDMI, and two single-link DVIs. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

 
Here's the brushed looking backplate, something even my GTX 970 SuperSuperclocked doesn't have *cough*EVGA*cough*.
 

 

 
And finally, here's the SN and info on the GPU.
 

 
I've never owned an XFX GPU before, but the unboxing experience was far from impressive. It was black boxes and lack luster accessories I probably won't touch asides from having taken a photo of them. The main attraction is the GPU so I can excuse that. I'll be sure to update with benchmarks and thermals in a short while, I'm excited to see where the R9 390 lands, or if it's just the 290 with 8GB.

[alphaproject]

Why of all things holy would you buy a 390 for?  Why.... you said you have a 970...??? Isn't that parallel performance?

 

Plus even if you run a benchmar, it's not like we can really compare other 290 cards when you don't have a 290 for your exact system.

 

I am interested in you 970 vs your 390 though. If possible post those just to eek out my predictions. Someone said the PCB indeed was the exact same in the unboxing pic. C671 or something???