390X criticism (discussion)

[GoodN1ght]

So since some benchmarking on the 390X have leaked out, it seems that the 390X is simply a lightly faster, cooler, less power hungry more expensive 290X (that comes with twice the VRAM).

Essentially by doing they have created a <<better>> competitor  for the GTX 970.  While synthetic benchmarks are showing them neck-a-neck AMD tends to have significant improvement vs Nvidia when it comes to real life application.  In a sense I get why people are angry, it's essentialy just a rebranded 290X. What I don't get is people ignoring plenty of other factors. Before Nvidia decided to do a 180 and release the 980Ti after all the GTX 980 was an all around praised card. Even tough it's essential benefits over the 780Ti were better temperatures, less power hungry a slightly better performance (and a couple of things like DSR that isn't really used very often) . So even if it was a new architecture really it accomplished the same things AMD did with the 390X  (only with a better card). 

 

Moving on to another point. Basically since Nvidia has released their 980 TI, one of the major complaints has been the following : 980's and Titan X's are essentially useless, it's either 970 or 980TI. So in my mind why the hell would AMD try to do the same and put their card in a hole by making it more expensive so it can reach 980ish levels of performance? Considering the Fury is supposed to be a Titan level card with the price tag of a 980 TI or less and that the MSRP of the 390X is already 375-390ish (higher than 970 cause of the extra 4,5 GB of VRAM) they're in a tight spot to improve the card without putting it in a price range that basically renders it useless. Unless you only consider one company or other, it wouldn't make much sense to buy a 390X if it performed a little better and cost 500$ just like it doesn't make any sense to buy a new GTX 980 right now.

TL;DR 390X isn't the flagship card and it's performance should be expected. 

/End of rent. 
 

[itachipirate]

Are actual 390x drivers even available yet? It seems like it wasn't even supposed to be officially released yet... Didn't Best Buy accidentally pre-release a COD game too?

[niofalpha]

Where was it shown being more power efficient and cooler? 

[GoodN1ght]

Are actual 390x drivers even available yet? It seems like it wasn't even supposed to be officially released yet... Didn't Best Buy accidentally pre-release a COD game too?

I Mean that too. But people say since it's the same GPU it wont make that much of a difference. Oh well. 

[Swndlr]

My rant -

i personally think people should just let AMD do their thing, as Linus said on WAN this week - if AMD doesnt keep making little moves and pushing things into the market, nvidia will have no reason to release cards like they did the titan x and 980ti

i BET that if amd didnt push such strong rumors of 3xx cards like they did, we wouldnt have seen 980ti to this day

[Glenwing]

I think people would have been ok if they had called it the 380 and 380X instead. And the Fury was the 390X/390.

[itachipirate]

I Mean that too. But people say since it's the same GPU it wont make that much of a difference. Oh well. 

I've seen places saying the 390x beats the 980, I've seen some places say 300w TDP and some saying 200w. Are there actual reliable specs/benchmarks for the 390x anywhere yet?

[PillowSmoke]

Everyone should hold their horses, and wait for actual numbers from reputable sources, instead of just spewing flame when we don't even have anything quite official yet. 

[Glenwing]

I've seen places saying the 390x beats the 980, I've seen some places say 300w TDP and some saying 200w. Are there actual reliable specs/benchmarks for the 390x anywhere yet?

 

Not really, no. Everything official will be out on the 16th. One and a half days is not a long time to wait, just sit back and relax

[GoodN1ght]

Not really, no. Everything official will be out on the 16th. One and a half days is not a long time to wait, just sit back and relax

Isnt the NDA actually longer?

[Glenwing]

Isnt the NDA actually longer?

 

Is it? I haven't heard that. Anyway, we'll find that out in one and a half days

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

XFX did a pretty good job on the new 390/x cooler. 

[Nena Trinity]

Are actual 390x drivers even available yet? It seems like it wasn't even supposed to be officially released yet... Didn't Best Buy accidentally pre-release a COD game too?

Most likely the 290 ones will work cause same chip?

 

So since some benchmarking on the 390X have leaked out, it seems that the 390X is simply a lightly faster, cooler, less power hungry more expensive 290X (that comes with twice the VRAM).

Essentially by doing they have created a <<better>> competitor  for the GTX 970.  While synthetic benchmarks are showing them neck-a-neck AMD tends to have significant improvement vs Nvidia when it comes to real life application.  In a sense I get why people are angry, it's essentialy just a rebranded 290X. What I don't get is people ignoring plenty of other factors. Before Nvidia decided to do a 180 and release the 980Ti after all the GTX 980 was an all around praised card. Even tough it's essential benefits over the 780Ti were better temperatures, less power hungry a slightly better performance (and a couple of things like DSR that isn't really used very often) . So even if it was a new architecture really it accomplished the same things AMD did with the 390X  (only with a better card). 

 

Moving on to another point. Basically since Nvidia has released their 980 TI, one of the major complaints has been the following : 980's and Titan X's are essentially useless, it's either 970 or 980TI. So in my mind why the hell would AMD try to do the same and put their card in a hole by making it more expensive so it can reach 980ish levels of performance? Considering the Fury is supposed to be a Titan level card with the price tag of a 980 TI or less and that the MSRP of the 390X is already 375-390ish (higher than 970 cause of the extra 4,5 GB of VRAM) they're in a tight spot to improve the card without putting it in a price range that basically renders it useless. Unless you only consider one company or other, it wouldn't make much sense to buy a 390X if it performed a little better and cost 500$ just like it doesn't make any sense to buy a new GTX 980 right now.

TL;DR 390X isn't the flagship card and it's performance should be expected. 

/End of rent. 

 

Well the 390X does get less warm uses less power which is one of the selling points that people use to pick the 970 over it. The small boost now means it is probably a bit better than the 970! Not saying it is ALOT better but if the price performance ratio is then its clearly a good. In my eyes this card is good for crossfire for both your PSU and electric bill.

 

No one can joke about Radeon BBQ sausages now to right?

 

Edit:

Also 8GB > 3.5+0.5GB VRAM!

 

I think people would have been ok if they had called it the 380 and 380X instead. And the Fury was the 390X/390.

 

I wish they released Fury along with the 300 release!

[maizenblue]

Everyone should hold their horses, and wait for actual numbers from reputable sources, instead of just spewing flame when we don't even have anything quite official yet. 

 This.

 

No one really KNOWS what the 390/X is or isn't. Ive seen a supposed unboxing of a bestbuy XFX 390x, but the performance review (if you can call it that)focused on one benchmark at 1080p with drivers that aren't up to date, from a board partner that is kind of the bottom of the barrel no less. We also have no way of knowing if the benchmark posted was actually real or from a 290x.

 

I wouldn't put it past Nvidia to try to trash AMD in a phoney homemade review just before release since im pretty sure they've done similar things to AMD in the past. Im not saying the video was definitely that, it probably wasn't( the reviewer seems like a bonehead regardless), but we'll have a better idea in a couple days after the 300 series is officially released.

 

I hope AMD found some way to magically reduce their TDP while increasing the clockspeed on a rebadged card, but Im pretty skeptical.

[incarnate]

I hope AMD found some way to magically reduce their TDP while increasing the clockspeed on a rebadged card, but Im pretty skeptical.

 

IF they lowered the tdp, then it isn't a rebadge. nothing magical about it, they would have had to alter the gpu. I'm hoping they did lower the TDP. But i'm not sure that it would be that drastic even if they did.

[looncraz]

Where was it shown being more power efficient and cooler? 

An R9 390 owner posted a screenshot of GPU-Z's sensor screen while running Furmark.  The card pulled 30A - about 35W less while delivering about 8.5% greater performance at the same clocks (from 3dMark Fire Strike (+Extreme) benchmarks).

 

It's inescapable that the R9 390, in the very least, is more than a simple rebrand.  And it would take more to gain the performance difference than binning, though OS choice and driver updates could cover the gap - since it is quite small.  The power usage difference, however, is inescapable.  It was pulling considerably less power at the same clocks where an R9 290 would pulling considerably more.

[looncraz]

 

I hope AMD found some way to magically reduce their TDP while increasing the clockspeed on a rebadged card, but Im pretty skeptical.

 

It really wouldn't require much.  If you reduce the power limit on the R9 290/X to 50%, such that it can only pull 145W, you still get 85~90% of its stock performance!  AMD just pushed the silicon beyond its sweet zone in an effort to take on the best nVidia had.  And that they did, but the reviews due to the heat and power consumption did more damage than releasing a slower, but 150W, mainstream GPU would have done.

 

They may have just been able to make some quick adjustments to the clock management system in the GPU and moved the sweet spot up 10% and take the chance to reduce latencies here and there and then respun the silicon.  Minimal investment for a worthwhile reward.

 

Of course, that would mean that the 390X won't have texture compression, but with 8GB of RAM... who's gonna complain?

[simson0606]

No one can joke about Radeon BBQ sausages now to right?

 

but now you'll get this nice radiator where you can bake on so you won't get grease all over your gpu

 

/s

 

based of all the rumors it seems like the 390x is just a better 290x, i hope for them that fury will be more like the 980ti/tx or that the prices of the cards will be their advantage. otherwise i don't see a lot of reasons to go amd... (i personally probably wouldn't anyway but i understand others would)

[Nena Trinity]

but now you'll get this nice radiator where you can bake on so you won't get grease all over your gpu

 

/s

 

based of all the rumors it seems like the 390x is just a better 290x, i hope for them that fury will be more like the 980ti/tx or that the prices of the cards will be their advantage. otherwise i don't see a lot of reasons to go amd... (i personally probably wouldn't anyway but i understand others would)

I heard it was almost as good as Titan X if only its priced same as 980Ti then boom!

[Amosarthus]

I think you misunderstand why people are mad. What AMD is doing with the R9 390X (and their entire lineup) is basically rebranding old cards, with minor tweaks. The GTX 970 and GTX 980 are Maxwell cards, based on a newer architecture, whereas from the rumours, the only new chip AMD has is the FURY, and that reportedly costs more than the GTX 980Ti

[maizenblue]

I think you misunderstand why people are mad. What AMD is doing with the R9 390X (and their entire lineup) is basically rebranding old cards, with minor tweaks. The GTX 970 and GTX 980 are Maxwell cards, based on a newer architecture, whereas from the rumours, the only new chip AMD has is the FURY, and that reportedly costs more than the GTX 980Ti

If the 390x outperforms the 970 at all resolutions now and closes the gap on the 980, while costing over 100 dollars less than a 980 AND features lower TDP than the 290x, then I think this card could actually be a big win for AMD, and it could threaten Nvidias sales of both the 970 AND 980.

Granted that's a lot of ifs.

[Curufinwe_wins]

A better competitor at a less competitive price point. Troll. At least the 290 is dirt cheap atm.

[Curufinwe_wins]

If the 390x outperforms the 970 at all resolutions now and closes the gap on the 980, while costing over 100 dollars less than a 980 AND features lower TDP than the 290x, then I think this card could actually be a big win for AMD, and it could threaten Nvidias sales of both the 970 AND 980.

Granted that's a lot of ifs.

980s have started selling for under 500 USD you know... And the 980 quite a large jump over the 970 for the 390x to supposedly overcome.

[maizenblue]

980s have started selling for under 500 USD you know... And the 980 quite a large jump over the 970 for the 390x to supposedly overcome.

The only 980s ive seen selling under 500 were 1 cent under, the 390x is rumored(we'll find out for sure tomorrow) to have an MSRP of 379.99. That's 120 dollars cheaper, and AMD cards tend to sell for a lot lower than MSRP.

 

The 290x gained on the 980 the higher up in resolution you went, to the point 290x's in crossfire performed just slightly worse than 2 980s in SLI at 4k, and if the 390x is more powerful and has lower TDPthan the 290x AND costs 120 dollars less than a 980 while having an extra 8 gigs of VRAM, then it could render the 980 obsolete(more obsolete than the 980ti and 970 already did).

 

That's unless Nvidia cuts prices once again and you start seeing 980s for just a little over 400.

 

Edit: of course once again this is a lot of ifs.

 

We could find out tomorrow that the 390x still has a TDP of 290W.

[Curufinwe_wins]

The only 980s ive seen selling under 500 were 1 cent under, the 390x is rumored(we'll find out for sure tomorrow) to have an MSRP of 379.99. That's 120 dollars cheaper, and AMD cards tend to sell for a lot lower than MSRP.

The 290x gained on the 980 the higher up in resolution you went, to the point 290x's in crossfire performed just slightly worse than 2 980s in SLI at 4k, and if the 390x is more powerful and has lower TDPthan the 290x AND costs 120 dollars less than a 980 while having an extra 8 gigs of VRAM, then it could render the 980 obsolete(more obsolete than the 980ti and 970 already did).

That's unless Nvidia cuts prices once again and you start seeing 980s for just a little over 400.

Edit: of course once again this is a lot of ifs.

We could find out tomorrow that the 390x still has a TDP of 290W.

xfx was/is selling them at best buy for 429 for the 390 not 390x so we will see what a sapphire card runs. Hopefully it puts enough pressure to drop prices even more but I'm more in the market for a 980ti anyways. Waiting for the g1 and gaming 4g to come out before buying one.