#390x

The GeForce 358.50 Performance Analysis featuring Ashes of the Singularity

As regularly featured by BabelTechReviews, this performance analysis charts the performance of 27 games using the latest GeForce WHQL 358.50 driver that was released primarily for the Star Wars: Battlefront Open Beta on October 7.    We are comparing WHQL 358.50 versus the Geforce WHQL 355.98 driver that was released at the end of September for Killing Floor 2.  However, we are going to focus on…

Let’s find out…

[ Features and Specs]

PROCESSOR & BUS

Bus Type : PCI-E 3.0

Chipset version : Grenada XT

GPU Bus (bit) : 512

GPU Clock : 1050MHz

Performance Category : Enthusiast

Stream Processors : 2816

  MEMORY

Memory Bus : 512 bit

Memory Clock : 6.0 GHz

Memory Size : 8GB

Memory Type : DDR5

  FEATURE TECHNOLOGIES

AMD Eyefinity Technology : Y

AMD HD3D Technology : Y

AMD PowerPlay Technology : Y

AMD Stream Technology : Y

  OTHER FEATURES

Highlight Features – 1 : Double Dissipation

Highlight Features – 2 : Unlocked Voltage

  DISPLAY OUTPUT

Display Port ready : 1.2

Dual link Support : Y

HDMI Ready : 1.4a

Max Supported Resolution (ANALOG) : 2048 x 1536

Max Supported Resolution (DIGITAL) : 2560 x 1600(DVI);4096 x 2160(HDMI;DP)

Output – Display Port : 1

Output – DL-DVI-D : 2

Output – HDMI : 1

  Courtesy of XFX, See more HERE

  [Packaging and Bundle]

XFX houses the product in a visually enticing box, on the front side theirs a decent amount of information. The rear side is much cleaner, however, neatly separated and generally easier on the eye.

    Most people rip open the box and install their new shiny product, taking little time to absorb whats on and in the boxes. I tend to notice the little things while I’m, doing reviews. I appreciated the effort XFX made with the internal packaging, neatly organising and sorting the manual, driver disc and power cables in their own compartment.

[The card]

  The XFX Radeon R9 390X Black Edition, is  visually similar to many other XFX 300 series cards, it’s what going under the hood that matters the most here.

XFX Ghost Thermal 3.0 Technology

All new thermal design from XFX for the Radeon 300 series graphics cards.

New Improved design, all new optimized fin arrays and lengthened electro plated heatpipes for unprecedented efficiency and performance. Play at your hearts content for hours on end with the comfort of knowing that your card is running cool and efficient.

XFX Double Dissipation Cooling

Cool and quiet.

Dual 90mm IP-5x fans and optimized BIOS fan profile to lower the overall noise level without sacrificing cooling efficiency.Reduced load temperatures by 3° C while lowering noise by on average 7dB while 3d rendering.

XFX Extreme VRM and Memory cooling

You asked for it, we delivered.

After countless hours of research, development, and testing our engineers have developed all new VRM and Memory cooling technology, reducing temperatures VRM by up to 30′ C and GDDR temperatures by 20′ C; best in class for the GPU enthusiast.

XFX Voltage Control Technology

Power control at a whole new level.

Complete control over the power of your card. XFX knows the enthusiast gamer wants to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of the card, our voltage control technology allows you to fine tune your card to push it to the limit.

Focusing on the exterior looks now, we have a unique matte and glossy mash-up to form the shrouding. It’s very clever and subtle and after a while, you’ll notice that it’s actually two X shapes around the fans, which are a 90mm in size. On top of which, two silver XFX stickers accent well against the black body of the shroud

        We’ve seen so many cards in the last few months, It’s refreshing to see something subtle and sleek. Nothing but clean lines and simplicity here on the XFX Radeon R9 390X Black Edition. It’s a very understated design, black is obviously at the heart of it all.

Backplates exist for two reasons, the first being added support and rigidity. This is key for a product of this size, and should help reduce GPU sag. The main appeal to have a backplate for me, and for many others is the visual enhancements alone, trivial… I know, but a GPU with a backplate just looks so much better. Enthusiasts building systems with the visual appearance at the forefront know this is nothing new, but this trend is ever-growing and not having to source or make your own is welcome.

The design here is an interesting one, despite being stamped with a white XFX logo, it’s still elegant.

        The I/O features

Dual-link DVI-D x 2

HDMI x 1

DisplayPort x 1

      [Test Setup/Method & Overclocking]

Proudly Powered by our Dimastech Mini V1.0 Test Bench

Thanks to DimasTech For supplying the product which allows to us to produce this review!

Processor:

Intel® i5 4670K

Memory: Kingston HyperX Beast 2400Mhz 16GB Motherboard: MSI Z97 GAMING 7 Video Card: PSU: CoolerMaster  v750 Hard Drives:

SSD – Kingston HyperX 3k 240GB

M.2 -Kingston M.2

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit

  We would like to thank or sponsors for their support with our test system, Kingston, Dismatech, Cooler Master, Noctua and MSI

  *Foreword* as always, overclocking is card dependant and this is often dubbed as the silicone lottery. This means you should keep in mind, each user experience may differ. What we present is the best we achieve on the day of review. We only provide 100% stable and usable results, we do not include potential max overclocks in our database unless it is confirmed stable. A card must be pass extreme torture testing from Gaming, Benchmarks and stress tools to be deemed stable.

    Further overclocking an out of the box overclocked card, nearly always ends the same way, they either move a little or not at all.

  The XFX 390X DD is already clocked above reference of 1050Mhz, to 1090MHz(Core).

Of course, we wanted to see how much more we could squeeze out. Using MSI afterburner, we began to raise the clocks of CORE and RAM, checking for stability and seeking a maximum.

  The core clock  had nothing more to give, even with more voltage but the memory settled 1600Mhz 

  [Temperatures and Acoustics]

  Methodology

In order to determine the true temperatures and noise levels. We record idle temperatures 15 minutes after a cold boot, we also take our first sound level reading. These readings are taken at a distance of 1 meter (100cms) away from the GPU.

We know others measure differently, but we don’t expect you’ll have your ear 10cm or closer, to the card very often, so this is our take on a more realistic scenario

To measure load we use Furmark and a mixture of games, forcing the GPU to work at 100% load. Once again a reading of maximum temperature and sound levels are taken.

In order to minimise sound interference from other devices, which would skew the results we use:

An SSD.

A CPU Heat sink in passive mode.

Record the results a total of three times and produce an average.

The noise baseline is 30db due to ambient room noise and other equipment limitations.

  We won’t dwell on this too much, in a way I suppose we’ve almost come to expect silent odb tech now. While the battle of who created it first rages on. The consumers can enjoy the silence!

The noise emissions at idle obviously measured as O, but once under full load I was delighted with the acoustics at just 37db

  Max temp we saw was 70c, considerably less than the MSI 390X we reviewed recently. A fantastic effort for XFX, the robust solution is the best we’ve seen to date, and quiet too!

  3DMark 13

3DMark is the 2013 release of a benchmark designed to measure the performance of computer hardware. This version includes three different tests, each designed for a specific type of hardware ranging from smartphones to high-performance gaming PCs. 3DMark works by running intensive graphical and computational tests on your hardware. The more powerful your hardware, the smoother the tests will run. Don’t be surprised if your frame rates are low as 3DMark tests are very demanding. Each test gives a score, which you can use to compare similar devices and systems.

Download/Purchase 

We will be directly comparing to the only other 390x we’ve tested, but also keep an eye on the differences between the cheaper 970’s from Nvidia.

Out of the box, despite being overclocked. It not set as high as the MSI (1100Mhz Vs 1050Mhz), therefore it doesn’t score as well. Once we manually pushed the Memory,  gains can be found

A fair bit ahead of the GTX970 cards

Heaven Benchmark

Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Download

The FPS  may appear low in comparison to other sites, as we use a custom preset for our testing. We show FPS only

Expect to the same trend going forward, the XFX model has the slower core clock. A significant improvement over the Nvidia 970 however!

  Alien Vs Predator

Survive, hunt and prey in the deadly jungles and swamps in distinctly new and thrilling first person gameplay.

In the previous synthetic tests the R9 390x, showed it’s ability. Now we moved onto actual games and that’s not the case, falling behind the GTX 970 (only a few FPS)

  We are finally able to test above 1080P but have only single 390X card for comparison sake, we haven’t included any charts

A resolution of 2560X1440 resulted in an AVG frame of – 119FPS

  Grid 2

Grid 2 is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters and is the sequel to 2008′s Race Driver: Grid. The Game features an in-built benchmark tool

We’re only talking about a small margin but the 390X is ahead of the GTX 970. In terms of this card, as you would expect it’s just behind the MSI version.

The overclock however, narrows the gap.

A resolution of 2560X1440 resulted in an AVG frame of – 111FPS

  Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 6, known as ‘Biohazard 6′ in Japan, is an action-adventure third-person shooter video game and the ninth main installment in the Resident Evil series

It’s back and forward one test to the next, with the 390X slipping behind here in RE6, realistically though it’s only a small amount

    Tomb Raider delivers an intense and gritty story of the origins of Lara Croft and her ascent from frightened young woman to hardened survivor, armed with only raw instincts and the physical ability to push beyond the limits of human endurance. Superb physics-based gameplay is paired with a heart-pounding narrative in Lara’s most personal, character-defining adventure to date.

Testing mode- Ultimate

  Somewhat of a rollercoaster experience so far, back now to where I would expect the GPU to be, in Tomb Raider. Once overclocked again the gap between it and the 980 is slim

2560X1440 resulted in an AVG frame of – 77FPS

        Fight through Mordor and uncover the truth of the spirit that compels you, discover the origins of the Rings of Power, build your legend and ultimately confront the evil of Sauron in this new chronicle of Middle-earth

A massive difference between the GTX 970 and the 390X here, 57FPS better! overclocking adds a further 5FPS

A resolution of 2560X1440 resulted in an AVG frame of – 83FPS

      Batman: Arkham Origins tells the tale of a young Batman facing a deadly challenge one Christmas Eve, years before the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The dastardly Black Mask has hired eight assassins to take out Batman, and it’s up to you to take them out first

Wrapping up our testing we finish with Batman Origins. A very Nvidia optimised title and while it’s behind the GTX970, it matters not considering the AVG FPS anyway…

  2560X1440 resulted in an AVG frame of – 169FPS

 [Conclusion]

So then it’s time to wrap up our findings and deliver a verdict on the XFX Radeon R9 390X Black Edition Review. Let’s start with visuals because it often causes a divide, the truth being some people care and others don’t. I suspect if you’re reading this review you do… and you’re in luck because XFX have done a fantastic job on this card. As I said early, I think the most accurate way to describe the card is “understated”

Black on black, with simple, clean lines and shapes is a sure winner every time and the little tweaks that make it an XFX product is impressive. Likewise, the thermal ability of the cooler is very able. Coming in 10c cooler than the equivalent MSI card we reviewed not long ago. Usually, the trade off for such an accomplishment is noise, but that wasn’t the case coming in as one of the quietest to date.

Performance, we’ll I rambled at great length in my last 390X review, so I’ll be more concise this time around. In terms of raw ability, the card has a ton of it. 1080P? no problem at all… all day long, any game, with no concern with VRAM running out either, unlike some of the Nvidia cards (970 anyone?) 1440P is the sweet spot for this card, though, be mindful and realistic about additional settings and it should chomp through anything you throw at it. 4K, as I said short and concise today..so basically yes, on some titles with comprised settinsg go for it. Realistically? No just go for 1440P and enjoy it!

  The card has only a single pitfall and that’s pricing, I checked all major UK retailers on the day of review, and sadly it’s just not competitive enough, often a few pound more than the competition, some of which have higher clocks. For that Reason, It slips to silver territory, though I will further compliment it with our design award!

  We would like to thank XFX for providing the sample, we look forward to seeing more from them, in the near future

[taq_review]

Gigabyte AMD R9 390X 512 Bit GDDR5 8GB 2xDVI/HDMI/3xDP G1 Gaming Graphics Card GV-R939XG1 GAMING-8GD

Power by AMD Radeon R9 390X GPU and intergrated with 8GB GDDR5 memory, 512-bit memory interface Product Features G1 Gaming WINDFORCE 3X Cooling system with Triangle Cool technology Ultra Durable VGA Series 2xDVI/HDMI/3xDP

MSI R9 390X GAMING 8G Graphics Card

MSI AMD Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card Product Features Chipset: AMD Radeon R9 390X Core Clock: 1050 MHz (Silent Mode), 1080 MHz (Gaming Mode), 1100 MHz (OC Mode) Video Memory: 8GB GDDR5 Memory Clock: 6000 MHz (Base Mode), 6100 MHz (OC Mode) Memory Interface: 512-bit Max. Resolution: 4096 x 2160, Supports 3x Display Monitors Input: 6Pin PCI-E Power…