Review: Sapphire Radeon R9 390X Tri-X

Conclusion

The Radeon R9 390X is a good GPU, period. Offering compelling performance at 2,560x1,440 and making a reasonable fist of 4K, the GPU's horsepower is generally comparable to Nvidia's dearer GTX 980. And this is the comparison that AMD wants you to make, drawing your eye away from the more attractively priced, limited volume R9 290X that this GPU is based upon.

Equipping the 390X with a standard 8GB of video memory is more marketing spin than of real-world relevance in 2015, for the GPU's throughput becomes the limiting factor at, say, 4K more so than the effects of overspill from a 4GB framebuffer. But hey, bigger numbers sell, with AMD literally banking on this fact. 2016's games engines may exact a different toll, mind.

Offering sage buying advice on a new GPU is always difficult when its price-ravaged predecessor, ostensibly the same GPU, lives on in the channel. We reckon a sub-£250 R9 290X still makes more sense, if you can find one, but once that's gone the R9 390X becomes a solid proposition.

The other fly in the ointment is just how £330-plus R9 390X will fare against the upcoming Fury Pro card, which is a cut-down version of the all-new GPU launching tomorrow. Whatever the case, the R9 390X is a viable option for the enthusiast whose budget doesn't extend to the real premium segment.

Sapphire jumps into the R9 390X arena with its popular Tri-X card priced at £345. Well-built, quiet and cool, the heatsink is a proven solution and thus one of the better AMD implementations available. We'd encourage the company to elevate the shipping clocks by a healthy margin, as competitors do, and also look at matching their three-year warranty. A tweak here and tweak there would raise this card's standing from good to excellent.

Sapphire Radeon R9 390X Tri-X 8GB

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The Sapphire Radeon R9 390X Tri-X 8GB graphics card is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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