[Klocek001]

SOURCE
why didn't they just put 8GB on 290, like on 290X ?
what is really the point of R9 390/390X series?
Quote:

When AMD released the Radeon R9 390 and 390X they launches the models solely with 8GB of graphics memory. Probably a choice that they wanted to make a bigger difference compared to the 290 and 290X with 4 gigs. The extra 4 gigs can be argued whether or not it is usable, however it does add cost to the final product.

 

[Carniflex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Klocek001

SOURCE
why didn't they just put 8GB on 290, like on 290X ?
what is really the point of R9 390/390X series?

The 290 stocks are probably running out so they are just releasing a 290 again with marginally better core and memory clocks out of the box and with a little updated BIOS. For people to whom the ~20$ price difference with the 8 GB model is deciding factor .. or .. something. It is also possible the 4 GB model might OC a tiny bit better on memory. For example, going from 16 GB to 32 GB RAM on 1055T cost me few hundred MHz of my max OC. On GFX card ofc the difference might be neglible, something like 5 or 10 MHz difference perhaps.

 

[Mech0z]

Also this makes the techsites retest AMD cards, and AMD cards seem to age better than Nvidia cards (Better drivers) so maybe it will make them look better by re-releaseing a card

 

[Liranan]

Pretty funny.

 

[Flamingo]

Here's to hoping that possible reviews would look in-depth for the benefit of the 8GB model vs the 4GB one.

 

[Liranan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flamingo

Here's to hoping that possible reviews would look in-depth for the benefit of the 8GB model vs the 4GB one.

It's already established that bar a few select titles there's no difference in performance between the 290's and 390's.

 

[TopicClocker]

I wonder if this will decrease the cost from the 8GB models by a meaningful amount? Maybe a £10-30 price decrease? Its already very competitive to the GTX 970 in price and performance, as-well as offering more memory.

This shall be very interesting to see!

Although what I definetly want to see is the return of the 7870/270X.

AMD's lineup is missing a very important card, the gap between the 370/7850 and 380/7950 is too big!

When I helped a friend with a new build the otherday, it was a shame to see that in the sub - £130 segment that I could only recomend a 750 Ti and a R9 370, and not the 7870/270X as they appear to be discontinued and AMD haven't reintroduced them in their 300 series lineup.

 

[Kommanche]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liranan

It's already established that bar a few select titles there's no difference in performance between the 290's and 390's.

Not entirely true. The R9 390 has higher clocks on both core and memory and as such performs around a R9 290X rather than a R9 290.

I personally think rebranding the R9 290 to R9 390 and tweaking it wasn't a terrible move, and the sales figures show that. The R9 390 is one of AMDs best selling cards at the moment in my experience and has certainly dulled the shine of the GTX970 at 1440P.

The Hawaii chip has aged well with Driver improvements. Releasing the GPU again means reviewers are testing with newer drivers.

 

[Noufel]

what's the point of the 380X then ??

 

[Marc79]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flamingo

Here's to hoping that possible reviews would look in-depth for the benefit of the 8GB model vs the 4GB one.

Unless you have at least 2 of those cards (8GB vram), and gaming at 4k or higher (5k, 1440/4k surround) there's absolutely no need for that much Ram.

 

[epic1337]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noufel

what's the point of the 380X then ??

exactly this, the 4GB 390 price-range will overlap with 380X, with the performance gap being quite large it'd be ridiculous to pick 380X over 4GB 390.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marc79

Unless you have at least 2 of those cards (8GB vram), and gaming at 4k or higher (5k, 1440/4k surround) there's absolutely no need for that much Ram.

i think he meant it as a comparative review, whether it'd be worth it to choose the 8GB model over 4GB for most usage cases.

 

[Marc79]

Simply more Vram available won't make it go any faster.

 

[cchalogamer]

Some of the best news in all this is for someone running a 290 GB wanting to crossfire, while it's awesome that AMD lets me do it, it's kinda silly that I ended up with the best bang for my buck buying an 8GB 390 to CF with my 290x 4GB.

I consider things like that one of the reasons I didn't scrap the 290x for the green team.

As for 8GB vs 4GB...I did some LIMITED testing and it seems a couple of the newer poorly optimized games that eat video seem to run a little better on the 390 vs 290x in my case, but I honestly JUST got it Friday and just got them together in the same rig Sunday so I would really need to poke around a bit more. I will say BF4 @ 4K never looked better though

 

[Xuper]

It's only for China.Official from AMD.

 

[svenge]

So this 4GB version of the 390 is even more of a rebrand than its 8GB predecessor? Wow, way to go AMD!

 

[Noufel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xuper

It's only for China.Official from AMD.

that sounds more logical

 

[akromatic]

so this essentially a 290 rebrand then considering you dont get any extra vram?

still wouldnt mind one and it would per perfect for 1440p

 

[BinaryDemon]

I'm curious to see the price, because their R9 390 8gb cards are already pretty comparable in prices to a GTX970. Maybe $250? AMD seems to be covering every price point.

 

[Tojara]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BinaryDemon

I'm curious to see the price, because their R9 390 8gb cards are already pretty comparable in prices to a GTX970. Maybe $250? AMD seems to be covering every price point.

It'll only be 20-30 less than the 390. They won't entirely make the ~240 380X obsolete.

 

[Particle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marc79

Unless you have at least 2 of those cards (8GB vram), and gaming at 4k or higher (5k, 1440/4k surround) there's absolutely no need for that much Ram.

This is a kind of shortsightedness that occurs with every generation. As cheap as memory is, they in general should be aiming higher rather than lower despite the cost. It doesn't really add that much to the BOM while allowing the card to be useful for a longer duration. Time and again I have found that performance GPUs I've had have had to be discarded due to memory constraints before their compute power becomes insufficient. I was very glad to see the 390 series announced as an 8 GB only product.