390X vs 970 Performance

[Ophidio]

So I'm just curious, I've seen a lot of stuff on the R9 390x lately, and is it really that good of a card for the price? Like compared to a GTX 970 that's just a little under it. How do they compare to each other? I've never really paid attention to the AMD Cards but recently the 290x has been grabbing my attention so I gave the 390x a look and I just don't know. I've never had experience with AMD cards and I've never even watched many video where they've even been compared to other cards. If it has been compared in some of the LTT videos then I just haven't paid that much attention.

 

So yeah, GTX 970 vs R9 390x, which will perform better? Is the 390x even a close comparison to a 980 or 980ti?

 

Also, will an AMD FX-8350 bottleneck an R9 390x?  <-- that's a really important question that I need answered as well. 

Edited November 4, 2015 by Godlygamer23
Edited title.

[HumbleMobo]

So I'm just curious, I've seen a lot of stuff on the R9 390x lately, and is it really that good of a card for the price? Like compared to a GTX 970 that's just a little under it. How do they compare to each other? I've never really paid attention to the AMD Cards but recently the 290x has been grabbing my attention so I gave the 390x a look and I just don't know. I've never had experience with AMD cards and I've never even watched many video where they've even been compared to other cards. If it has been compared in some of the LTT videos then I just haven't paid that much attention.

 

So yeah, GTX 970 vs R9 390x, which will perform better? Is the 390x even a close comparison to a 980 or 980ti?

 

Also, will an AMD FX-8350 bottleneck an R9 390x?  <-- that's a really important question that I need answered as well. 

The 390x is much better than the 970 and is on par with the 980 and just under the 980Ti.  Depending on what a game is optimized for, the 390x has seen benchmarks where it slightly, EVER so slightly, just hardly scoots past the 980 non Ti.  Although if you're into OC'ing then the 980 is the way to go because the 390x has a limited OC head room

[HumbleMobo]

So I'm just curious, I've seen a lot of stuff on the R9 390x lately, and is it really that good of a card for the price? Like compared to a GTX 970 that's just a little under it. How do they compare to each other? I've never really paid attention to the AMD Cards but recently the 290x has been grabbing my attention so I gave the 390x a look and I just don't know. I've never had experience with AMD cards and I've never even watched many video where they've even been compared to other cards. If it has been compared in some of the LTT videos then I just haven't paid that much attention.

 

So yeah, GTX 970 vs R9 390x, which will perform better? Is the 390x even a close comparison to a 980 or 980ti?

 

Also, will an AMD FX-8350 bottleneck an R9 390x?  <-- that's a really important question that I need answered as well. 

I mean an FX-8350 could bottle neck anything, so I mean it won't cause too much of a problem so long as you have a beefy cooler on the CPU and overclock its fiery balls off.

[DevilishBooster]

So I'm just curious, I've seen a lot of stuff on the R9 390x lately, and is it really that good of a card for the price? Like compared to a GTX 970 that's just a little under it. How do they compare to each other? I've never really paid attention to the AMD Cards but recently the 290x has been grabbing my attention so I gave the 390x a look and I just don't know. I've never had experience with AMD cards and I've never even watched many video where they've even been compared to other cards. If it has been compared in some of the LTT videos then I just haven't paid that much attention.

 

So yeah, GTX 970 vs R9 390x, which will perform better? Is the 390x even a close comparison to a 980 or 980ti?

 

Also, will an AMD FX-8350 bottleneck an R9 390x?  <-- that's a really important question that I need answered as well. 

Yeah, the 390x should spank the 970. Yes, you will experience a little bottlenecking with the 8350, but if you have the proper cooling and OC it 'ballz-to-the-wallz' then you should be good. I have an FX-6350 and a second R9 280 OC Edition (not the 280X) that I'm going to be adding into my rig, and then as soon as I can get the watercooling loop parts I'm going to OC the absolute crap out of all 3.

 

@HumbleMobo I love your profile pic.

[HumbleMobo]

Yeah, the 390x should spank the 970. Yes, you will experience a little bottlenecking with the 8350, but if you have the proper cooling and OC it 'ballz-to-the-wallz' then you should be good. I have an FX-6350 and a second R9 280 OC Edition (not the 280X) that I'm going to be adding into my rig, and then as soon as I can get the watercooling loop parts I'm going to OC the absolute crap out of all 3.

 

@HumbleMobo I love your profile pic.

I like your profile picture as well!  Welcome to the Conservative army, next stop the White House!

[Guest]

The 390x is much better than the 970 and is on par with the 980 and just under the 980Ti.  Depending on what a game is optimized for, the 390x has seen benchmarks where it slightly, EVER so slightly, just hardly scoots past the 980 non Ti.  Although if you're into OC'ing then the 980 is the way to go because the 390x has a limited OC head room

I think that you've got the 390x confused with the Fury...

[Morgan MLGman]

So I'm just curious, I've seen a lot of stuff on the R9 390x lately, and is it really that good of a card for the price? Like compared to a GTX 970 that's just a little under it. How do they compare to each other? I've never really paid attention to the AMD Cards but recently the 290x has been grabbing my attention so I gave the 390x a look and I just don't know. I've never had experience with AMD cards and I've never even watched many video where they've even been compared to other cards. If it has been compared in some of the LTT videos then I just haven't paid that much attention.

 

So yeah, GTX 970 vs R9 390x, which will perform better? Is the 390x even a close comparison to a 980 or 980ti?

 

Also, will an AMD FX-8350 bottleneck an R9 390x?  <-- that's a really important question that I need answered as well. 

So I use the R9 290X 1150/1450 OC with an 8350 @4,5ghz, considering the overclock it's around or even past stock 390X performance. The 390X doesn't get bottlenecked in AAA titles by the 8350. And it is better than the 970 (which I actually had before going 290X).

[VagabondWraith]

The 390x is much better than the 970 and is on par with the 980 and just under the 980Ti. Depending on what a game is optimized for, the 390x has seen benchmarks where it slightly, EVER so slightly, just hardly scoots past the 980 non Ti. Although if you're into OC'ing then the 980 is the way to go because the 390x has a limited OC head room

390x is nowhere near 980 Ti.

[DevilishBooster]

I like your profile picture as well!  Welcome to the Conservative army, next stop the White House!

[Ophidio]

obama hate pics

lol You guys are cool.

[App4that]

If we're done showing our ability to hate others for no reason, what resolution do you game at? If 1080p a 390x will max anything out there.

[SecretAuthor]

I have both of those cards. I just got the 390x, so haven't had a chance to put it through its paces just yet, but i could put together a comparison video this coming up weekend.

Pretty sure the 390x will be faster, though.

[Ophidio]

If we're done showing our ability to hate others for no reason, what resolution do you game at? If 1080p a 390x will max anything out there.

Oh of course, I would never go lower than 1080p and I don't really care for Dynamic Super Resolutions or whatever you want to call them. Yeah they look good but is it worth sacrificing performance for something like that in a game? I love my 27inch 144mhz refresh rate 1080p monitor to much to get rid of it for that other crap. 

[Ophidio]

I have both of those cards. I just got the 390x, so haven't had a chance to put it through its paces just yet, but i could put together a comparison video this coming up weekend.

Pretty sure the 390x will be faster, though.

That would be cool, I'd honestly like to see it. I'm honestly thinking about just going on a GPU shopping spree when I build my new system and benchmarking all of them for my own records.

[App4that]

Oh of course, I would never go lower than 1080p and I don't really care for Dynamic Super Resolutions or whatever you want to call them. Yeah they look good but is it worth sacrificing performance for something like that in a game? I love my 27inch 144mhz refresh rate 1080p monitor to much to get rid of it for that other crap. 

I've been trying to get my 290/390 crossfire smoothed out and the 390 runs Witcher 3 with hairworks on at ultra better than the crossfire. Sure I give up a few fps (40 the lowest dip I've seen) but it's butter smooth. So I can only imagine what a 390x could do. I'm at 1080p

[HumbleMobo]

I think that you've got the 390x confused with the Fury...

Nope, look at bench marks.  The 390x gets close to the 980Ti when it's OC'd but still doesn't quite reach it but the 980 non Ti is on par with the 390x but will destroy it with a good OC.

[Ophidio]

I've been trying to get my 290/390 crossfire smoothed out and the 390 runs Witcher 3 with hairworks on at ultra better than the crossfire. Sure I give up a few fps (40 the lowest dip I've seen) but it's butter smooth. So I can only imagine what a 390x could do. I'm at 1080p

tbh I just don't see the point in going higher than 1080p, yeah you get more detail and better quality in the visuals but is it worth dropping performance? I don't think so. PC gamers bitch all the time about playing at 30fps yet they want to play at 4k which they will probably only get 30fps at...

[HumbleMobo]

-snip-

Lol Benny is gonna show big B how much of a fool he is

[HumbleMobo]

390x is nowhere near 980 Ti.

I made a typo I meant when the 390x is OC'd and the 980Ti is at stock clock.

[App4that]

tbh I just don't see the point in going higher than 1080p, yeah you get more detail and better quality in the visuals but is it worth dropping performance? I don't think so. PC gamers bitch all the time about playing at 30fps yet they want to play at 4k which they will probably only get 30fps at...

If I was to go to a 27" I'd go 1440. At 25" if you get too close to the monitor you start to pick up a little pixilation. Nothing bad, just something I noticed.

 

And if you're worried about the power consumption and heat, don't be. In crossfire my 290/390 system draws just over 600w at full load. A lions share of that is the 290. Hoping to get some numbers on just the 390 soon.

[Suika]

Also, will an AMD FX-8350 bottleneck an R9 390x?  <-- that's a really important question that I need answered as well. 

Short answer, yes. If you had an even similarly priced Intel quadcore processor instead, you'd see some gains in averages and more importantly in lows.

 

The FX-8350, or basically any FX series processor for that matter, will bottleneck GPUs around the GTX 770 / R9 280X or higher range. This is not something I've made up, this is something professional and well regarded reviewers will state, which is far more credible source than the opinion of a couple forum users. The R9 390X will see some fairly heavy bottlenecking in most triple-A games if you were to pair it with the FX-8350, and unless you have the magical chip that can do 7GHz on air cooling, there is no way an overclock is going to help.

 

To answer the first question, the R9 390X is technically more powerful. In your situation, NVIDIA's better optimized DX11 drivers will manage CPU overhead much better than the R9 390X would, and it's very possible the 970 could actually pull ahead simply out of superior drivers. That said though, the R9 390X is still technically more powerful.

[alphaproject]

Destroyed by overclocking is like what 5% maybe equal to 8 frames per second. Especially at 1080p on a 60hz monitor it means nothing, but with better resolution or better 144hz monitors is where it matters.

 

If you are gaming at 1080p like myself.... there are simply cards you won't need.

 

If I had a 120-144hz monitor, then yea... things start to change a bit. I can't imagine running 120 frames locked where it never moves in ultra quality.

 

I care more about locked frames, not dips. I'd rather go ultra and lock in at 60 fps than have 120 but things dip all over the place and you need to turn down some settings whatever those might be.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

The cards with the better value now is the 290/x cards. After the driver updates from AMD.

390x is about 15-5% faster than 970/390

[VagabondWraith]

I made a typo I meant when the 390x is OC'd and the 980Ti is at stock clock.

Even a 980 Ti at stock it's still nowhere close. An OC'd 980 (which is roughly equal to a 390x; maybe a bit faster) is nowhere near a stock 980 Ti.

[App4that]

The cards with the better value now is the 290/x cards. After the driver updates from AMD.

390x is about 15-5% faster than 970/390

Not from what I've seen. In all the reviews of the 290x it's a disappointment. Now the 390x might be different but I saw no reason to buy a 290x.