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AMD Radeon R9 390X

The AMD Radeon R9 390X is a high end desktop graphics card that was announced in summer 2015. It is based on the same chip (Hawaii, now called Grenada) as the predecessor the Radeon R9 290X with slightly increased clock rates. AMD specifies the R9 390X with a core clock of 1050 MHz and memory clock rate of 6000 MHz (effective) for the GDDR5. However, most third party vendors are using slightly higher clock rates. 

The chip is based on the second generation of the GCN architecture (also called GCN 1.1) and supports DirectX 12 with Feature Level 12_0. It offers 2816 shaders, 176 TMUs, 64 ROPs and a 512 Bit GDDR5 memory system.

The similar named AMD Radeon R9 M390X for laptops is a lot slower as its based on the smaller Tonga chip with 2048 shaders and slower clock rates.

The performance is depending on the game but on average it is similar to a desktop GeForce GTX 980 (or notebook version, that is similar). Compared to the older R9 290X it is only minimally faster due to the slightly increased clock rates.

With a TDP of 275 Watt, the R9 390X is a relatively power hungry card and cant compete with the efficiency of the Nvidia counterpart.

R9 300 Series

Radeon R9 390X2 compare 2x 2520/ cores @ 1 GHz512 Bit @ 5400 MHz
Radeon R9 390X 2816 @ 1.05 GHz512 Bit @ 6000 MHz
Radeon R9 380 compare 1792 @ 0.97 GHz384 Bit @ 5700 MHz
CodenameGrenada XT
ArchitectureGCN
Pipelines2816 - unified
Core Speed1050 MHz
Memory Speed6000 MHz
Memory Bus Width512 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory8 GB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 12 (FL 12_0), OpenGL 4.4
Power Consumption275 Watt
Transistor Count6.2 Billion
technology28 nm
FeaturesMantle, Eyefinity, CrossFire, PowerTune, ZeroCore, HD3D, TrueAudio, FreeSync
Date of Announcement16.06.2015
InformationPCI-E 3.0, HDMI mit 4K-Support (max. 30 Hz)
Link to Manufacturer Pagewww.amd.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
5.6 pt (17%)
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit
112.7 fps (39%)
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15 OpenGL Ref. Match 64 Bit +
GFXBench 3.0 - GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan Offscreen
156.1 fps (9%)
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 +
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

low 1024x768
274.5  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
216.5  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
145  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
107.6  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
54  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
72.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
65.9  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
54.1  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
48.6  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
31.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
161.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
140.8  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
117.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
104  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
42.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
73.9  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
68.4  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
61.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
25.6  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
26.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Fallout 4

Fallout 4

2015
low 1280x720
154.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
140.8  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
89.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
72.8  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
33.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
137.8  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
131.5  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
97.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
86.7  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
37  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Anno 2205

Anno 2205

2015
low 1024x768
143.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
132.6  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
69.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
27.7  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
29.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1366x768
191.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
148.5  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
129.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
124.1  fps    + Compare
4K 3840 x 2160
56.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1024x768
60  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
60  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
60  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
60  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
48.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Mad Max

Mad Max

2015
med. 1366x768
201.5  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
135.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
116.4  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
46  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
low 1280x720
125  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
124  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
93  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
32  fps    + Compare