Many a HEXUS reader seemed a little bit underwhelmed by AMD's launch and release of the Radeon 300 Series of graphics cards earlier this week. However the fact that these are tweaked rebrands of earlier series cards doesn't seem to have hampered the efforts of AMD hardware partners to make the most of what has been launched by the chipmaker. It's definitely worth a look at what the big name AiB partners have made of the new Radeon 300 Series, so I've picked through yesterday's press releases sent to HEXUS - to see what's on offer.
ASUS
ASUS has designed a pair of STRIX gaming graphics cards based upon the AMD R9 390 and 390X. As regular readers will know the forte of the STRIX range is its 'owl-like' quietness and coolness under light loads. ASUS has successfully applied its STRIX magic to previous Radeon and GeForce graphics cards including the GTX 980.
With either the ASUS Strix AMD R9 390 and 390X installed in your machine it is claimed that you will enjoy a graphics card that runs "30% cooler with our all-new DirectCU III technology, and when doing light gaming fans turn off for real 0dB silent gaming".
MSI
MSI hasn't held back, and has put out a full range of nine graphics cards based around the AMD 300 series. The AiB partner makes use of its Twin Frozr V to make its cards cooler and quieter. A full press release and breakdown upon what is on offer is available here on HEXUS. MSI has slotted some of its releases into its GAMING stable including the R9 390X GAMING 8G and R9 390 GAMING 8G cards which are equipped with 8GB of VRAM. All the GAMING series, including the mid range R7 370 GAMING 4G and R7 370 GAMING 2G models, are fitted with a metal backplate.
Black & white overclocked Armor models were also launched with the R9 380 2GD5T OC and R7 370 2GD5T OC featuring the Armor 2X Thermal Design for enhanced cooling capacity plus Military Class 4 Components.
Sapphire
Sapphire leverages its Tri-X and Dual-X cooling technologies on its new Radeon 300 series cards. The top of the range model is the Tri-X R9 390X with dual ball bearings in each of the three fans paired with enhanced Intelligent Fan Control (IFC-II) which turns off the fans completely for silent operation under light load.
The new Sapphire Nitro range includes R9 390, R9 380 and R7 370 models. The AMD AiB partner claims that this range offers "features previously reserved for high-end cards, including long-life capacitors and award-winning SAPPHIRE Black Diamond Chokes". The R9 390 is equipped with the latest Tri-X cooler, as detailed above, and the R9 380 and R7 370 models utilise a new similarly improved Dual-X cooler.
PowerColor
PowerColor's first Radeon 300 series cards were also announced yesterday. The firm has branded all its new cards as PCS+ models. The PCS+ R9 390X/390 offers a digital PWM fan cooler plus mute fan technology, an 8 phase (6+1+1) board design and a pure copper GPU cooling block connected to three 6mm heat pipes and one 8mm heat pipe. You can get the full rundown of the PowerColor models here.
Gigabyte
Gigabyte seems to have forgotten to send us a press release and its website doesn’t have one squirreled away. Nevertheless there are a host of new Radeon 300 Series graphics cards on the Gigabyte site (there seems to be six new cards in total). Gigabyte has also managed to update its Facebook and Instagram pages with pictures of the new range.
An example of what is on offer is provided by Gigabyte's top of the range R9 390X G1 GAMING card. It features its Windforce cooling solution with a 0dB Semi-Passive Dual 90mm fan configuration. Users benefit from Super Over Clock (but is just 10MHz faster than reference out of the box). As usual you can rest assured with Gigabyte's 'ultra durable' component comfort.
