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PowerColor R9 390 PCS+ 8GB reviewed

by on08 July 2015

Index

Conclusion

Today we took a look at the PowerColor PCS+ R9 390 8GB graphics card. This card is great for gaming at resolution 2560x1440. While AMD markets the R9 390 series as affordable graphics card for 4K/UHD gaming, you will not enjoy 30+ FPS with maximum settings on graphically demanding games at such a high resolution. However, you will be able to max out any game at 1440p, or you can play at 4K with lower in-game graphics details.

Actually there is no known difference between the R9 290 and R9 390 series regarding GPU specification. However the latest version is about 10% faster and this comes from the overclocked GPU and memory, and includes DirectX 12 support. The Grenada GPU is derived from the Hawaii GCN core which AMD introduced in September 2013. There is significant difference in memory size, with the R9 390 featuring 8GB of GDDR5 memory compared to 4GB on the R9 290 series.

Performance wise the Radeon R9 390 is faster than the Radeon R9 290X. This is due to faster GPU and memory clocks. AMD has squeezed another 50MHz clock from the GPU while the memory is 250MHz (effectively 1000MHz) faster. Due to faster memory the memory bandwidth increase from 320GB/s to 384GB/s, which definitely helps to increase the overall performance. The good thing is that the cards are staying within the same 275W typical board power boundary as the R9 290 series.

The R9 390X is priced at $430/€430 while the R9 390 is priced at $330/€330. This puts the R9 390, regarding its price and performance, slightly above the Geforce GTX 970 3.5GB + 512MB Edition which is widely available for €320. Also at the same price you can get one R9 290X which is performance wise a little bit slower that the R9 390.

The new R9 390 8GB PCS+ hits the market also with suggested $330/€330 price which is quite competitive price for the power it provides. It is quite a deal for the owners of older less powerful graphics cards or as a new purchase. Currently it is available for $340 at Newegg.

Also here is the list of prices for the new R7 300 and R9 300 series cards introduced by PowerColor :

  • AXR9 390X 8GBD5-PPDHE   $429
  • AXR9 390  8GBD5-PPDHE    $329
  • AXR9 380  4GBD5-PPDHE    $219
  • AXR9 380  2GBD5-PPDHE    $199
  • AXR7 370  2GBD5-PPDHE    $149
  • AXR7 360  2GBD5-DHE/OC   $109

The PowerColor PCS+ R9 390 8GB GDDR5 comes with an oversized 2.5-slot cooler which looks great and luckily provides good cooling. Noise is not an issue here.

fudz recommended ny


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Last modified on 25 July 2015
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