Overclocking, Pricing and Conclusions
Overclocking with AMD graphics cards has always been a very different experience than overclocking with NVIDIA cards. The software tools for it aren't as advanced, and using the Catalyst driver integration always seems kind of clunky while not providing the actual information users really want. Voltages, specific clock speeds, an overlay, etc.
For our Fury X overclocking testing, which AMD was preparing us for during its E3 live streams, we used the Catalyst Control Center AMD OverDrive settings.
For those unfamiliar, the x-axis on this graph is the power limit of the card itself, which I quickly cranked up to 35% here. The y-axis of the graph adjusts the GPU clock but based on percentages rather than a fixed amount. This is where the actual overclocking occurs, and in reality I was never able to get the Fury X to run at more than a 10% overclock stable.
I left the GPU temperature target at 75C though we never really got close to that in real-world testing; it wasn't a bottleneck.
My net result: a clock speed of 1155 MHz rather than 1050 MHz, an increase of 10%.
That's a decent overclock for a first attempt with a brand new card and new architecture, but from the way that AMD had built up the "500 watt cooler" and the "375 watts available power" from the dual 8-pin power connectors, I was honestly expecting quite a bit more. Hopefully we'll see some community adjustments, like voltage modifications, that we can mess around with later in the week.
Performance Summary
It's an interesting quandary we are in with the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X when it comes to raw gaming performance. First, the Fiji GPU is clearly a drastic improvement over the architecture and implementation found in Hawaii, AMD's previous flagship single-GPU offerings. The Fury X was able to outperform the Radeon R9 290X by as much as 42% and is regularly 30-40% faster. That is not a small difference in performance from one generation to the next, especially considering that Fiji uses about 40 watts LESS POWER than the Hawaii GPU used in the Radeon R9 290X. AMD's claims about performance per watt efficiency improvements during the announcement last week were clearly on point.
But the battle against NVIDIA is a different story. During the E3 live streams AMD never once mentioned performance comparisons against the likes of the GTX 980 Ti or GTX Titan X, which I put off as AMD taking the higher road and not mentioning the competition during a public event. After the Fury X reviewers guide leaked out over the weekend, showing comparisons to the GTX 980 Ti with Fiji edging it out in nearly all of the demonstrated games, I had some hope that AMD could pull it off.
Well, it didn't work out that way. The Fury X is definitely an incredibly fast flagship offering from AMD, but in my testing across 7 different games and 2 resolutions for each game, the GTX 980 Ti is the faster card in nearly all instances. Only in Crysis 3 and Metro: Last Light did AMD's hardware take the lead. The rest of the games, including Grand Theft Auto V, BF4, Bioshock Infinite and GRID 2, leaned towards the NVIDIA card. In the case of GTA V, one of the latest and most popular PC games with a heavy modding community, the GTX 980 Ti was 15-33% faster depending on the resolution in question. That is a hard performance gap to write off. (UPDATE: A couple of people have guessed that the GTA V performance deficit might be related to driver immaturity. That's definitely possible but still concerning considering GTA V is such a big PC game currently.)
You can't help but wonder how much of that performance penalty against the GTX 980 Ti is a result of the 4GB memory capacity (compared to 6GB on the GTX 980 Ti) and possibly even the decision to leave the render operator (ROP) count at 64 units on Fury X, the same amount that existed on Hawaii nearly two years ago.
AMD knows about my results as I am sure they knew about what these reviews would say before they published a handful of favorable configurations in the reviewers guide. The implications from the company, though not explicitly stated, is that it can only get better. Fiji's use of HBM is a totally new thing and the driver modifications needed to properly manage 4GB of memory on a wider, but slower, memory bus are still being perfected. AMD told me this week that the driver would have to be tuned "for each game". This means that AMD needs to dedicate itself to this cause if it wants Fury X and the Fury family to have a nice, long, successful lifespan.
Features Summary
First and foremost, I'm going to consider the design of the new AMD Fury X as the first stand out feature. Others may not agree, but I find the aesthetics that AMD's team built with the card to be gorgeous without being gaudy and over the top like so many other graphics cards tend to be today. The illuminated Radeon logo, the soft touch, matte finish plastics and the edge Radeon logo in the back plate are all little touches that help the card prove its worth in the $650 graphics card market. Oh, and any GPU with a tachometer is good in my book.
The cooler on the Fury X, despite the fact that it might have been implemented to help aid the GPUs ability to match the performance per watt capability of Maxwell, is a positive in my mind. I know that many of you would still prefer to see an air cooled Fiji card, and you'll get your wish next month, but being able to run your GPU at 50-55C under a full gaming load is a treat without requiring you to have to go the route of a full custom water cooling loop and without having to buy anything aftermarket.
And with that cooler you can also run your GPU more quietly as well. The Fury X is nearly silent even under a full gaming load. I wouldn't really worry about the pump whine yet either: I think installing it in a chassis will negate it and AMD claims to have fixed it for retail units anyway.
AMD is still playing catch up in some ways, but the company is trying to match what NVIDIA has in terms of add-ons and features to the GPU family lineup. GeForce Experience? Raptr. G-Sync? FreeSync. Dynamic Super Resolution? Virtual Super Resolution. Frame Rate Targeting? Yep. Fully DX12 and Vulkan ready? Of course.
I do wish that HDMI 2.0 had been included as well. Without it we really can't recommend the card for a future-proof gaming-based HTPC where the integration of a TV with 4K / 60 Hz capability with HDMI 2.0 is likely in the coming months and years.
Pricing and Availability
If all goes to plan, the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X card will be for sale today around the web for $649. Here's how the comparisons will stack.
- AMD Radeon R9 Fury X 4GB – $649
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB – $649
- AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB – $329
- AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8GB – $680
Although I included both the Radeon R9 295X2 and the GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB in our results on the previous pages, I don't consider them options for our readers at all at this point. The 295X2 is just too problematic with the dual-GPU config and the Titan X is just way too overpriced for gamers.
The Fury X is priced very competitively with the GeForce GTX 980 Ti in terms of performance, features, design, power and sound. I can't say that I think the new AMD flagship card is better than the GTX 980 Ti, but it's a much closer debate than it has been in what seems like forever.
Final Thoughts
In a world where a couple of percentage points of performance one way or the other can make or break a product launch, it's easy to forget how much of these types of purchases are based on preference. If you asked me today which card is faster, the AMD Fury X or the GTX 980 Ti from NVIDIA, I would definitely tell you the GeForce card. It runs at higher average frame rates while maintaining smooth frame times for a consistent experience. But, the truth is that AMD's new Fiji GPU is able to do that as well – smooth frame times and high frame rates for users of 2560×1440 and 4K monitors. It's just not as high.
If the AMD Fury X doesn't win in terms of raw performance, are there other areas where it can stand out? Yes, actually. I love the design and build quality of the card and that is the first time I have said that about an AMD reference solution in a long time. The liquid cooler integration also gives the Fury X the advantage in terms of keeping your flagship hardware cool and quiet. With an operating temperature of just 55C or so while gaming, Fiji is running about 30C lower than the GM200 Maxwell GPU in the GTX 980 Ti. Further, it maintains that temperature while also using a cooling system that is quieter than NVIDIA's as well. (Custom coolers on both sides may change that result though.)
Is Fury X the homerun that I think many users and enthusiasts were hoping it would be? Does it live up to all of the hype surrounding a months-long leak campaign and dual E3 stage shows? Probably not. But I still believe that AMD has built its best graphics card in several generations and is again competing in the space we need it to.
Dear Ryan
I can’t find a
Dear Ryan
I can’t find a driver version.
15.15-180612a-18565BE or
15.15-150611a-185358E
The PostRant about 4 posts
The PostRant about 4 posts back up with the link to some forbs site. Made me almost piss my self.HahahahaLOL.
I know right. As an AMD fan,
I know right. As an AMD fan, I am embarrassed.
is it me or the best
is it me or the best frametimes come from crossfire?
I think the actual Fiji is
I think the actual Fiji is just a preview on what is coming next year. 16 or 14 nm production and the new HBM memory in a wider variety of the cards. With the new production it should be even more efficient.
What about anti-aliasing,
What about anti-aliasing, with such an enormous memory bandwith, some over the top AA modes should come almost free ? 3Dmark Firestrike with some custom AA would test this fine ?
A person asked why are we
A person asked why are we dissapointed, let me summarize:
1. It is 9 months behind Maxwell
2. It is water cooled and has HBM
Even with that lead time, and hardware wise improvements, it is I would say, 1-2% behind the 980 Ti stock. And Fury
has absolutely no overclocking headroom. The 980 Ti can
overclock like a champ. Often getting 5-10% on air, which then makes it 5-10% faster then Fury at the same price point.
Amd can’t sell this for under $650 – not now. Because it has supply issues – and there is enough people willing to pay $650 for the scarce supply there is. I expect a price drop once supply stabilizes and they see that the market share they lost to Maxwell is not coming back. Not with this product.
Also, HBM is a new tech, and the water cooling looks is top notch, and the card has 8.9 billion transistors… I am pretty sure this card is expensive to make [maybe 10-20% more expensive than the 980 Ti]. And Amd needs more cash than Nvidia, so they really cannot price it too low, not now
I’d go for a 980 Gtx, they are hitting $450-500 now, and they can overclock 15% and its cool and quiet. Same performance as Fury.
Or better yet, we have been on 28 nm for 3 generations of cards, and HBM 2.0 is along the way and Nvidia is adopting it. Let’s wait for pascal 14/16 nm and HBM 2.0 on Nvidia’s superior architecture.
Sounds like I suck green goblin dick. And I really wish Amd delivered. But all that hype they always build before product launch and then flop [even tho they did reach some parity]. Hopefully driver optimizations will make it 3-7% faster which then puts it right on parity with an overclocked TI.
I agree with you for the most
I agree with you for the most part. AMD had an opportunity here to do one of three things to get a “win”. Performance 5-10% higher than 980ti, bundle a couple good upcoming games, or sell the card at $550. almost any one of those would have persuaded a bunch of people and two out of three would have won the show.
Instead and sadly, there was a large group of people on the fence and considering adopting red, but the fact that 980ti slightly outperforms Fury X TODAY for the same price, they have upgraded to the 980ti.
Sure some drivers and what not will definitely help the Fury X and probably have it surpass the 980ti but at some point you need to operate a company in the present and not a projected future.
With that said, ill enjoy my R9 290 a little while longer as it still does great on my 1080p monitor.
Almost another 2900XTX,AMD
Almost another 2900XTX,AMD needs a small die which can compete with 980 but only $299.
wow i dont think ive seen so
wow i dont think ive seen so many comments n arguments on a post like this b4 lol
Ehh the gsync freesync
Ehh the gsync freesync comments section is far worse.
oh really, i dont get the
oh really, i dont get the tribe mentality etc, it just get the best product for my budget
oh really, i dont get the
oh really, i dont get the tribe mentality etc, it just get the best product for my budget
I don’t want to nitpick too
I don’t want to nitpick too much here as an AMD fan. I get that 980ti has the win, but I think people need more knowledge on tweaking for AMD cards. For instance you used 4x MSAA in GTA-V which was well known to be a huge performance hit for AMD cards.
AMD fans need to take all reviews of video cards with a grain of salt because of the proprietary gameworks offerings. I’ll admit gameworks makes games look better but for whatever reason AMD doesn’t seem to address them until a week or so after a game comes out…or not at all. Things like MSAA aren’t super pretty anyways so they are usually replaced with another form of AA.
I picked settings for these
I picked settings for these games independent of any particular GPU, which is what you SHOULD when comparing apples to apples.
There is no Gameworks technology enabled in any of the games we used…?
Why do none of the reviewers
Why do none of the reviewers use MSI Afterburner? The Catalyst overclocking solution is terrible and always has been. Once you can unlock voltage, this card will hit 1250 core easily if not more. A true enthusiast would find a way to make this card pump out as many frames as possible. All these reviews seem biased so far, and quite frankly for all the talk nVidia fanboys spouted about heat and noise for AMD cards, this card is far cooler and far quieter than a 980 Ti.
Oh, you know the Fury X would
Oh, you know the Fury X would hit 1250 MHz, huh? Nice.
"Once I can unlock the voltage…" Totally agree. We actually need that to happen first before we can test it.
Spoken like a true AMD
Spoken like a true AMD fanboy, suuuure we believe you. Your words are so true and factual. lol
Ryan, quick question, do you
Ryan, quick question, do you think that this would mean that the ideal gaming experience would be 2x 980Ti in SLI?
I’m thinking that because when you did your 980 3 and 4 way SLI review, the frame timings were pretty bad for 3 and 4 way scaling – even if you discounted the idea that the third and fourth GPU did not offer much improvement in the way of frame rates.
For the Fury X, the weaknesses that I see are that:
– AMD’s Crossfire does scale better but, the problem is, it has only 4GB of VRAM
– Although the card does do better relative to the 980Ti at 4k, that’s where the extra VRAM is most needed
– Price is too high at $650 USD; $550 USD would be fair
– The 290X did not have as much OC headroom as the 980Ti, even with voltage you’d still be in the 1250-1300 MHz zone tops on the core and the 980Ti can do over 1500 MHz
In terms of design:
– It isn’t as power efficient due to the FP64
– They should have shipped this with 96 not 64 ROPs
– A second variant with 8GB would be needed
I think that if AMD addressed these 3 concerns, they’d have a strong card.
Thanks for the review.
Good comment here, solid
Good comment here, solid information and views.
As for the "best" gaming solution today, yeah, I would probably pick GTX 980 Ti SLI.
Another consideration is that
Another consideration is that there are already confirmations that 3 cards are coming out:
– MSI 980Ti Lightning (released on their Facebook page)
– EVGA 980Ti Classified
– Galax 980Ti HOF (already on sale on their website)
Considering how well cards like the Lightning have historically done, it might open up the possibility of even more OC headroom and overtake the Titan X.
Sadly AMD has confirmed no custom PCBs this round.
This sounds huge, a small
This sounds huge, a small difference in driver version and Fury is competetive against 980 Ti. Should this be confirmed http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3b2ep8/fury_x_possibly_reviewed_with_incorrect_drivers/
This is just FUD as far as I
This is just FUD as far as I can tell. If there was a driver that would improve the Fury X performance by any amount today, AMD would be beating down our doors to get it tested again.
Hi Ryan, You might find the
Hi Ryan, You might find the below interesting?
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ixbt.com%2Fvideo3%2Ffiji-part3.shtml
on that Fiji soundly beats the Ti/X, they speak about ta driver dated 18th.
Quote”
The accelerator AMD Radeon R9 Fury X 4096 MB 4096-bit HBM PCI-E – the most productive solution for today uniprocessor a top class game. Yes, just three weeks ago, we were talking about the same thing to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, but now it is clear that the former king from NVIDIA lost his throne. It is equally important that the release of Fury, AMD has begun a new architecture using HBM-memory, which (architecture) will be applied not only in the GPU, but in the APU, making the built-in graphics are more powerful by increasing memory bandwidth and lack of need for using common memory. Yes, while locally installed only 4 gigabytes of memory, but the trouble started dashing. Already known plans to release a second generation – heirs of Fiji with increased memory. In the meantime, we see that the “first ball” came out very successful.”
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/fiji-part3.shtml
AMD Matt already debunked
AMD Matt already debunked that claim of an updated driver saying it doesn’t match their nomenclature. Which makes you wonder if that site’s results are valid at all. Probably some guy trolling AMD fanboys for site hits as its clearly an outlier that has results that fall way outside the norm.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=28230087#post28230087
I am personally just waiting for Xbitlabs results in favor of Fury X and the Russian website revival will be complete.
AMD Matt already debunked
AMD Matt already debunked that claim of an updated driver saying it doesn’t match their nomenclature. Which makes you wonder if that site’s results are valid at all. Probably some guy trolling AMD fanboys for site hits as its clearly an outlier that has results that fall way outside the norm.
AMDMatt:
“Yep, no.
For reference on what driver strings mean by the way:
15.15-150611a-185358E (This is the real driver we provided)
15.15 – is the branch
150611 – is the date of the build, YY/MM/DD
185358 – is the build request from our system to create this driver based off the information above
In this case the review is suggesting a driver dated from June 12th 2018 and the build request that has a letter instead of a number for its last digit so it’s either a lot of typos or someone being misleading on purpose. ”
I am personally just waiting for Xbitlabs results in favor of Fury X and the Russian website revival will be complete.
@Ryan lol exactly, if there
@Ryan lol exactly, if there was any validity to this claim AMD would have been screaming to stop the presses for these launch reviews.
Personally I am surprised they didn’t insist you guys turn off AF for all reviews as they did for their internal benchmarks. Because that wasn’t a huge red flag or anything! 😀
Grasping at any staws these
Grasping at any staws these fanboys, just wow…..poor plebs
I wish to see the same test
I wish to see the same test with Windows 10. Because the new WDDM 2.0 driver model, here things got really better with my 7970, not placebo effect.
You know how nVidia knew
You know how nVidia knew exactly how to position the 980ti? Because they have made a 4GB HBM card in house and tested the thing and knew the 980ti would best it by this amount. And they also could see the 4k writing on the wall.
I just hope this doesn’t mark the beginning of the end for AMD (of course if they do end up folding/ restructuring again/selling, the beginning of the end will said to have begun over a year ago).
Thanks to the Ryan for another great review. I basically don’t by hardware until it’s reviewed here and at HardOCP.
Yup bought myself a 980 Ti
Yup bought myself a 980 Ti for my 1440p gsync monitor and couldn’t be happier. Well worth every penny saved for it =D
Why would anyone listen to
Why would anyone listen to RooseBolton?! You back stabbing murderer! lol
But seriously, there is no way in hell NV did that. 🙂
Red Wedding baby! lol. The
Red Wedding baby! lol. The north remembers! oh, uh I guess that’s not good for me that the north remembers. Doh!
Ignorance is bliss. nvidia is
Ignorance is bliss. nvidia is a long way for getting HBM even running in any prototype form.
And nvidia simulation show a benefit going HBM, and thats why their next gen architecture , in 2016, will be HBM.
The 980 ti is louder & hotter then the Fury X, and not always faster.
Also outside of gaming the 980 ti is a dud… check compute benchmark, AMD architecture is absolute state of the art. (thats why Apple is currently using GCN in their highest end workstation products)
What else you got ?
It’s over man just give
It’s over man just give up….making yourself and other AMD fanboys look extremely ridiculous now. So sad….
GTX980 Ti is better than Fury X in ALL situations.
No one cares anymore
could this card work on a
could this card work on a 500w gold psu with 40A on a 12v rail?
I would like to see the
I would like to see the various iterations of the Fury X from manufacturers like MSI and Gigabyte, etc. These cards, as usual, feature better clocks and some tweaks, over the REFERENCE model. I guess the first generation of HBM limits them to 4GB,???, apparently folks are saying the next gen HBM2 will feature 8gb or whatever. If I were a gpu designer, I’d push for everything we can feasibly do at this point in time. I think sometimes they want to come out in increments that literally come up shorter than they need to. I would have pushed the architects to come up with a way to increase the memory available. I thought, as maybe they did, that the HBM would allow much faster throughput and the amount of memory would not be an issue.
Why don’t they compare the new 390X in these benchmarks???
a bit late to ask. Ryan what
a bit late to ask. Ryan what is Fiji DP rated at?
Not a horrible part, but as
Not a horrible part, but as usual AMD overpromises and underdelivers while their fanboys overhype and underwhelm.
Why people bash and complain?
Why people bash and complain? 650 dollars for card with water cooling solution, sounds great to me.
If you dont want water cooled card wait for Fury which will be cheaper for sure.
Yet everyone talk 980ti beat Fury X, how overhyped Fury X is and so on while Fury X is not even for public sale yet, its freaking 2 weeks old card without tuned drivers.
Get your (sheet) together already and wait before making conclusion ffs.
This nVidiaPerspective.com seems way too nvidia biased to me especialy in this article.