3DMark, Power and Conclusions

Now that we have taken a look at gaming tests using our Frame Rating metrics and testing methods, we are including a set of tests from 3DMark in order to help with points of reference for readers. 

I consider these tests to be somewhat of a "best case" for all the cards in our comparison.  We aren't using our frame capture system, we aren't measuring frame latency, nothing like that; I think this should give you an idea of graphics performance if each vendor had the best result for each game.

In 3DMark Fire Strike the R9 390 looks impressive yet again. In both Normal and Extreme presets the Sapphire Nitro is is about 14% faster than the XFX R9 290, as much as 6% faster than the Radeon R9 290X (at the Normal preset) and as much as 4.9% faster than the GTX 970 (also at Normal preset).

Power Consumption Testing

According to AMD's documentation, the R9 390 should be running at a lower power draw than the R9 290X but the same as the R9 290, which would show some improved power efficiency on the respun Hawaii GPU over two years ago.

Our testing did not exactly show that – 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. While not what I was hoping to see, the results aren't damning; they just point to a less than advertised improvement in GPU efficiency. I guess I'm not that surprised.

Pricing and Availability

With all the leaks and even some brick-and-mortar stores selling the R9 300-series of cards early, it's no surprise that the Radeon R9 390X, 390 and others are already widely available on Amazon.com and Newegg.com.

From left: MSI GTX 970 Gaming, XFX R9 290 DD, ASUS R9 290X DC2, Sapphire Nitro R9 390

As I stated on the first page of this review, the pricing of the Radeon R9 300-series of products is questionable at best. Sapphire is selling the Nitro R9 390 8GB card for $329, essentially matching the price of the still-available R9 290X cards and the GeForce GTX 970 line. That puts it on performance parity and price parity with both of those options, though the R9 390 is just slightly ahead. The problem with that result is that it doesn't change anything – the R9 390 doesn't offer more features or significantly better efficiency than what was available before. Yes, AMD was able to get better performance out of a GPU with fewer stream processors but at the end of the day, that's just a number. AMD is struggling in the market and they need to win in dominant fashion to take back market share, not eke out victories with older, but refreshed, technology.

Closing Thoughts

The Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8GB card is a great first entry from an add-in card vendor to launch the new Nitro-family of products. While it at first seems crazy that a "gamer" brand would be needed for a product that is by definition for PC gamers, I see the points of emphasis that Sapphire addressed. The Nitro R9 390 has a clean design, looks good and isn't gaudy, mixing with nearly any user's build with a flat gun-metal finish. The cooler is robust enough to keep the GPU down at 68C under full gaming load, but does so without raising the cost of the product as a whole. Adding Black Diamond Chokes and 16K capacitors gives us a sense of long-term reliability as well. You get all of this for $329; the same price that AMD has posted for this GPU's MSRP.

This is only a single graphics card review and I will definitely be spending more time with other products in the R9 300-series that launched this week, and I have a better impression of the R9 390 that I expected to when receiving the sample from Sapphire. Before knowing what pricing AMD had decided on for these cards I assumed, as did most others, that the R9 390 would perform nearly identically to the R9 290. But that's not true, as the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 is anywhere from 10-15% faster than the XFX R9 290 DD and matches the performance of the ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II card at stock settings. Clearly the added clock speed and (more importantly) the increased memory clock speed have been able to juice up the Hawaii GPU, now called Grenada, to better compete with the NVIDIA GeForce lineup.

I'm not sure this argument will work with the R9 390X or the R9 380 yet, but for the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8GB card, users will find that it is competitive with the performance of the GeForce GTX 970 4GB for a nearly identical price. It's not new, it's not flashy and it's not rewriting the world of GPUs, but it is at least slightly more than expected.

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