PowerColor PCS+ Radeon R9 390 8GB GDDR5 Review
Our Summary and Conclusion
Performance Summary: Considering how similar the Radeon R9 390 is to the previous-gen Radeon R9 290, there weren’t any surprises during our benchmark tests. Due to the Powercolor PCS+ Radeon R9 390’s 8GB memory capacity, and higher memory clock, it was able to overtake the Radeon R9 290X in a handful of our tests. But in tests that are more GPU bound, the Radeon R9 290X still finished ahead, due to its additional compute resources.
If you were expecting the Radeon R9 390 to blow the doors off AMD’s previous-gen offerings, our numbers are probably a bit of a letdown. But rest assured, the real exciting is coming soon in the form of the Radeon R9 Fury X. What AMD has done with its re-branding and re-jiggering efforts with the Radeon R9 300 series is increase performance by a few percentage points in each segment, and in the case of the R9 390, build in a bit of additional headroom by doubling the on-board memory to 8GB. Though, some custom 200-series boards from AMD’s partners already offer that benefit.Pricing for the Powercolor PCS+ Radeon R9 390 is set for $329, which is pretty good in light of the $299 - $349 of most 4GB Radeon R9 290X cards. If you were in the market for a Radeon in this price range, the Radeon R9 390 currently makes sense. Versus something like the GeForce GTX 970, which can be had for only slightly more money, and runs cooler and quieter though, the R9 390 is a tougher sell.
In the end, the Radeon R9 390 doesn’t blaze a new trail, but rather updates AMD’s lineup to make room to the impending Fury that’s due to be unleashed next week.
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