Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8GB
Now that we've gone over specifications and numbers of the 300-series GPUs, let's dive into the actual graphics card we have on the test bench today: the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8GB.
This is the first card from Sapphire that uses the new Nitro brand and takes the mandate from the company to build a card for gamers that is affordable, reliable and simple to understand, while maintaining the performance that you would expect from the GPU in question. A look at the card's aftermarket cooler makes it clear that it's going to get the job done – in my testing the GPU never crossed above 68C even during extended game play sessions. That's impressive for any retail card but it does so while being quiet as well.
For power delivery Sapphire has included a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors that are able to provide more than enough juice for a GPU with a 275 watt rated TDP. The connectors are rotated 180 degrees with the clips on the back of the card to help make installation and removal easier with the size of the heatsink Sapphire has strapped on here.
Interestingly, with this release Sapphire has gone with a DVI, HDMI and triple DisplayPort connection configuration. This is identical to what NVIDIA has done with for the last couple of card generations and I do think this is the right balance. Because Sapphire is not using a blower style cooler, the small outlet area on the back panel isn't a concern.
Turning this card over you see the PCB design itself, still crowded even with all 8GB of memory placed on the front, under the heatsink. At the end of the board you'll notice that Sapphire has extended the cooler beyond the board taking total card length to 12.1 inches or 308 mm.
There is no back plate on the Nitro cards, and when I asked Sapphire about this they essentially brought it down to cost. Sapphire knows that adding a back plate is functionally for stiffening the PCB but they were able to do that by increasing the points of contact for the heatsink shroud to the board itself, keeping the card rigid without adding more cost. For those of you that want a back plate for looks and style…sorry!
The cooler that Sapphire has installed is beefy with three heatpipes and three fans. They have integrated a new fan profile as well that allows the fans to stop spinning completely under low workloads; this has been a popular trend in recent months in order to facilitate silent gaming options.
A quick teardown of the card reveals sixteen 512MB DRAMs on the board (clearly you can see the physical advantages of HBM now!) to supply all 8GB of memory than the Nitro R9 390 offers.
Here's a close of up the new Hawaii / Grenada GPU; looks familiar, no? Sapphire spent some time making this PCB as high quality as they could including Black Diamond Chokes and going with 16K rated capacitors on each and every Nitro graphics card.
Overall I think the design and direction that Sapphire has gone with the Nitro series seems to be on point – design a card for "gamers" that doesn't add extra cost but still provides great cooling and capability in the design.
This is just pathetic! The
This is just pathetic! The 390 and 390X are just re-named R9 290’s and 290X’s with a overclock. The 970 will still beat both 390’s with a decent overclock. I would like to see the 390 and 390X with the highest overclock possible benched against the GTX 970 with the highest overclock possible. And I can guarantee the 970 will still out preform the 390’s by more than 10%. I was really hoping AMD would do better than just stupid re-brands with only one new card! It is good that they are able to match the 970 and 980 at stock. But this could be done just by giving a OC to the older 290’s. And since it’s still the same hot running chip, This means it’s still not going to overclock any higher than the older 290’s! So honestly there is no point in even buying them over a older R9 290/290X. Gamers are still going to prefer the cooler running and more efficient 900 series cards from Nvidia.
I enjoy the videos you have
I enjoy the videos you have with Nvidia on launch day. I’m sure you reach out the same way to AMD to give them equal time. Is there any plan to have an AMD video with one of their engineers or are they not receptive?
Good to see reasonably priced
Good to see reasonably priced 8GB card. Kind of give you assurance that it will handle without problems any direct console port.
the $429 price tag for the
the $429 price tag for the 390x is just a lure for Nvidia to drop the gtx980 price tag. once Nvidia does that boom the 390x will be at $379 or lower.
but all in all a bland launch, sorry you guys had to review these…well sorry im not sorry lol
Ryan,
Did you test the Frame
Ryan,
Did you test the Frame Rate Target Control ?
One thing that these reviews
One thing that these reviews keep forgetting is this set of cards is not targeted at current owners of r9 2xx series cards. They are not even targeted at owners of most NVidia 9xx series cards. They are however targeted at owners of older tech and there are a great number of those people. The prices are fair and competitive.
For those that have a current gen card there will be the Fury branded cards. If you can upgrade your card every 18 months then great. But, most people cant. 3-5 years is far more common. So, lets not get caught up with performance numbers on the 3xx series cards over the 2xx series. I think AMD did a great job of refreshing this series. They do perform better and at a good price point. Perfect for those coming from the AMD7xxx/NVidia7xx series cards or for new builds.
Pretty impressed , will
Pretty impressed , will probably buy it. Lack of HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2 is very disappointing though
When reviewing a video card,
When reviewing a video card, its usually a good to put in the base clock right? This card is 1010MHz ..
“yes the Sapphire Nitro R9
“yes the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 used less power in our testing than the ASUS Radeon R9 290X retail card, but the XFX retail R9 290 actually used about 20 watts less power than the Sapphire retail R9 390”
That is still an efficiency increase, as it’s doing about 10% more work with only about 5% more power.
Please try if crossfire works
Please try if crossfire works with the 290.
It’s like every time there’s
It’s like every time there’s a review of an AMD product to be had, the PcPer guys go way out of their way to make it as impartial as humanly possible. And yet … *smh*
The internet is truly a wondrous place. So much patience required.
I’d like to buy a blue one.
I’d like to buy a blue one.
Cant you just use normal bar
Cant you just use normal bar graphs instead of these convoluted overly complex line graphs? They mean nothing to me. Hard to make out what the hell is going on.
Hi, I have some problem…
I
Hi, I have some problem…
I have the same graphic card (Intel i4460) and my fps are around 15 fps.
I don’t know, what to do.
Thanks
Edit to previous post:
I have
Edit to previous post:
I have the same graphic options like above.