RX 480 or R9 390?

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Arcane_1

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Im looking to buy a new Graphics card to upgrade over integrated, the RX 480 was my first choice since it should be around 350 AUD to purchase the 4GB sapphire version,but as i was looking for the RX 480 I noticed a Gigabyte G1 Gaming r9 390 which has 8gb GDDR5 and is 359 AUD which one should i buy in terms of price to performance?Iim pretty sure that the r9 390 has a 512 bit mem interface vs the 256 bit rx 480 as well as the 4gb mem from the RX vs the 8gb to the R9 which one will be better in the long run?
I have a 1080p monitor but want to go up to 1440p using VSR
 
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iam2thecrowe
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kansaw

kansaw

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Consider the RX480. AMD RX480 8 Gb GPU upgrade works great in my Lenovo x315 desktop. It has an AMD FX770K quad core CPU running 3.5 Ghz boost to 3.9 Ghz. 16 Gb ram. Driving a Seiki 42" TV at full 4K 60 fps on HDMI 2.0 port. Gaming is fantastic. Had to remove the old GPU and add one external power supply for the 6 pin power.
 
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JackNaylorPE

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4 GB is perfectly fine for 1440p ... and you will use pretty close to all of it in the more demanding games. I'd only get the 8GB if > 1440p and CF is in your future

FC4: 980 Ti = 3.7 / Fury = 3.9
ACU: 980 Ti = 3.7 / Fury = 3.6
GTAV: 980 Ti = 3.7 / Fury = 3.4

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/213069-is-4gb-of-vram-enough-amds-fury-x-faces-off-with-nvidias-gtx-980-ti-titan-x

The reference 390 is a hair (1%) faster than the reference 480
perfrel_2560_1440.png


But given the reduced power / heat issues. I'd do the 480, but not a reference card.... make sure to get an AIB card w/ an 8 pin power connector...tho, as yet I haven't seen an AIB 4 GB card

Any 1060s down there yet ? The reference model are 11% faster than the reference 480 per Techpowerup. The AIB 1060s are showing 18% fps increases on OCs while the 480s are showing 6% on PU .... combine all that and when both AIB cards are OCd, it's a 24% fps difference.
 
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weberdarren97

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I don't agree with this. You did the math correctly, but applied the answer to all AIB cards, and that's where I lose sight of the practicality of this equation. Because who's going to be using a RX 480 and GTX 1060 in the same system? I mean, I wouldn't get that combination even if Ashes of the Singularity was the only game I played.
 
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JackNaylorPE

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No one suggested that you would be using a 1060 and 480 in the same system. The info is provided so one can decide **which** of the two to put into your system.

Don't know how long you have been doing or following this .... but, if you have been following this for a few years:

1. the range of performance between AIB cards is not that great
2. the difference between cards has shrunk with each new generation due to nvidia limitations both legal and physical.
3. The advantage of the super cards (Classy, Lighting, AMP Extreme, Matrix, etc) no longer justifies their additional cost.

Since we don't have data for the 10xx series, let's look at 9xx
Gigabyte G1 131.4% http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_980_Ti_G1_Gaming/33.html
Palit Jetstream 129.7% http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_980_Ti_Super_JetStream/33.html
Asus Strix 128.4% https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_980_Ti_STRIX_Gaming/33.html
MSI Gaming 127.2% http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_980_Ti_Gaming/33.html
Zotac Amp 127.1% http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_980_Ti_Amp_Edition/33.html
EVGA SC 123.6% http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_980_Ti_SC_Plus/33.html
Reference 109.4% https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_980_Ti/34.html

So what we can we gather from the above....

-The average of all the AIB cards (excluding the EVGA) is 129% .... the variance is therefor just 2%. I will of course grant you therefore that the use of just a single AIB card is subject to an expected variance of + or - 2%

-The EVGA, with just a reference PCB and improved cooler, would not be expected to perform on par with the rest of the group.

-OTOH, we see a whopping 20% difference between the reference card and the group average. I think we can both agree that 2% pales in comparison to 20%.

Fury - X 105.05% http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_Fury_X/34.html
Fury 107.75% https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_Fury_Tri-X_OC/33.html
390x 107.12% http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/R9_390X_Gaming/33.html
390 108.21% http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_390_PCS_Plus/33.html

Average = 107.03%

If we look at the AMD history, we see again that no card varies more than 1% from the average except for the FuryX which is of course a reference card

So again, I will grant you that, based upon past history, we have no reason to expect that any card will vary more than 2% from what we see here. Simply put, a) we have not seen an AMD card OC into double digits in a very long time and b) we have not seen a wide discrepancy between AIB cards from either nVidia or AMD and c) given what we have seen, there's no reason to expect that will change now.
 
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iam2thecrowe

iam2thecrowe

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Just thought I would let you know I just bought that gigabyte R9 390 for $359 from MSY. Reviews are showing its pretty close to the 480 performance within a whisker, often being just above. Its cheaper than any 8gb 480 or 1060 you can get. I have found it to be very quiet and temps are lower than my 7970 it replaces. Just make sure you have a good quality 600w+ psu if you want to use this card, as peak power draw can be high.
 
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Arcane_1

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I was looking at mwave for prices and the r9 380 was $195 AUD thats a steal in my eyes, and around $50 AUD cheaper if the r9 390 goes on discount and is $310 or close to that, do you think that the price to perf outweighs the new architecture and card i have no problem with the extra power draw from the r9 390 as i have a 750w gold psu .Also since you have had 2 AMD cards will they AMD fully support an, I guess older card such as the r9 390 rather then the rx 480 in years to come?
I haven't seen anyone really answer the 512 bit mem bus question on the r9 vs the rx's 256 bit as people are saying it makes a difference at some higher graphics settings and higher resolutions...

Also an Nvidia GPU is not an option as i have a 75hz free sync monitor
 
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iam2thecrowe

iam2thecrowe

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512bit vs 256 bit doesn't really make a difference, the reviews i have read show the 390 is slightly better at higher resolutions but only slightly. Support shouldn't be an issue, the way AMD have made their architecture its very versatile, companies are liable to support their products for X amount of years, i think its at least 5 or 7 depending on what product category it fits into. By then you will want something new anyway.
 
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kansaw

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Stay away from older technology cards. You'll be burned. AMD Polaris hardware (including rx480) and Windows 10 software are tightly integrated, so going forward dramatic graphics improvements are coming. DirectX 12 provides deeper access to the GPU than DirectX 11, meaning less overhead and better performance. It also enables a next-gen SLI effect, where two graphics cards are used at the same time. DirectX 12 loosens this up, letting the resources of two completely different cards be used simultaneously.

DirectX 12 enables new shader and rendering techniques for upgrading the quality of reflections, fog, smoke and lighting. It allows calculations to a per-pixel level. Not only does this make environmental effects look better, it make player interactions with things like smoke/particles easier to model.
 
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iam2thecrowe

iam2thecrowe

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The 390 and 480 support all the same DX 12 features, and both support vulkan API. the only difference being the 480 supports minimum of 16bit floating point precision where the 390's minimum is 32 bit. Something like the gtx970 however suffers in dx12 performance and i would agree with you there, stay away from that model.
 
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