Seen these cards for over £250, friend bought it a month ago for £260~ and it is definitely worth it at this price. Good high end card that is better than a GTX 970 and is similar to a GTX 980 (maybe a bit less).
Taken from the ancient Roman and Greek word for owl, Strix means the keenest hearing and sharpest eyesight. Strix means feeling your environment so that you detect and react to the slightest movement. Strix means survival on the very edge of instinct.
ASUS STRIX R9 390 gaming graphics cards packed with exclusive ASUS technologies, including DirectCU III with triple wing-blade 0 dB fan design for maximum air flow with 30% cooler and 3X quieter performance. This card features exclusive ASUS AUTO-EXTREME technology with Super Alloy Power II for premium quality and best reliability. It also has GPU Tweak II with Xsplit Gamecaster, provides intuitive performance tweaking and lets you stream your gameplay instantly.
Top comments
dannyjones106
26 Apr 164#6
After an extremely disappointing experience with a GTX970, I may be tempted to convert to Amd! If I can bring myself to!
BetaRomeo
26 Apr 163#7
Seven comments and no-one's said to wait for all the new cards from June? :confused:
Hot if for some reason you need to buy today, but it's a terrible, terrible time to buy. Wait!
Latest comments (60)
frajule
28 Apr 16#60
Thanks for your comment, I get what you mean. I payed £299.99 Xmas just gone. That,s all the funds i had. Cheers.
frajule
28 Apr 16#59
dannyjones106
28 Apr 16#58
It wasn't the 3.5gb vram issue.
It's the fact that there seems to be an alarming number of cases of the 970 losing output signal and crashing the system. It's either an inherent fault within the cards determined by the 'silicon lottery' or there's an unstated compatibility issue out there.
If you Google 'GTX970 black screen' there are literally hundreds of threads on various forums out there with exactly the same problem, seemingly with no solution.
The bit that **** me off the most though is that there's NO official response from Nvidia on this, even though the geforce forums have the largest concentration of people reporting the issue. They just don't seem to care!
It's such a shame because when the 970 works, it's absolutely phenomenal!!
kentris
28 Apr 16#57
Good price on the card! Those worried about power consumption, I can confirm that a 500watt PSU might be enough.
I have a 6600k o/c'd to 3.4, 16gb ram, 2x2tb, SSD with the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 (which is known to use more power than most) and with the help of a plug power reader at most, my computer was consuming around 320-330watt, on odd occasion nearer 350 but that is once every blue moon. I checked whilst running Black Ops 3 and GTA5.
the_ghost
28 Apr 16#56
dont buy crappy branded PCs mate, next time build a custom one yourself or get one built by someone like ovetclockers
Mpt11
27 Apr 16#55
No specific reasoning, but the exchange rate is pretty poor at the moment with the whole brexit question, which may have an impact and the fact that the cards 300 series especially aren't that old, well the badges anyway.
I'm quite happy to be proven wrong but I can't see those sort of drops this time, as I said I read somewhere Nvidia has stopped producing 970 and above so we may see prices hold then the cards disappear
xela333
27 Apr 16#54
No need to upgrade the rest
rev6
26 Apr 16#45
Given the perfect scenario, scaling, support, it should run great. It's usually far from though.
godzillafan to rev6
27 Apr 16#53
looks like worth the wait as in not too much a hurry, also torn between doing a 50" TV screen setup and dual/triple monitor
cnewlol
27 Apr 16#52
Definitely not the best you can buy. MSI or Sapphire are renowned for being the best 390 cards. These Asus cards are known for overheating due to poor fans compared to others.
rev6
27 Apr 16#49
That sounds highly unlikely but who knows :smile:
OCP to rev6
27 Apr 16#51
Just checked and the site says discontinued ;(
mrniallcameron
27 Apr 16#50
really want this, big step up from 1gb 6870. Still have a 2500k though. Should I upgrade my CPU and motherboard too?
tahir_owen
26 Apr 16#48
My bad, been busy. Apprently the next Polaris card in this price range will be around the same performance as a 980 ti and a lower TDP
pimpchez
26 Apr 16#47
Smoking , well it will be if you had it in closed case like i did.95* in game wasnt fun , now with a vented case it sits around 72* with 42% fan duty.
Also i run it with a 550w psu just fine .It is a gold psu however
Ego-X
26 Apr 16#46
It's been said in just about every graphics card thread for the past three months.
RagingKileak
26 Apr 16#44
Looking at the 4K tests as I am, then indeed it seems SLI/Crossfire is sometimes the only way to achieve over 30 FPS.
Indeed, even a 980 Titan/6700k combo seems to struggle with 4K, but SLI 380 TI's get close to. 60-70 fps.
Matt
jcrider
26 Apr 161#43
I'm speaking from old experience here, when I crossfired my 5850's in 2010. I was extremely excited as I managed to get a second 5850 fairly cheap shortly after their release... and imagined a world of hypnotic, unparalleled speed.. :smiley:
I suspect things have improved a little more now, but my experience was this:
• Frames per second improvements where seen in most games, especially BF3
• The driver I used made a big difference. I ended up using an older driver which ensured my BF3 experience was getting optimal frame rates (the second card improved the frame rates by over two thirds).
• Although all the games I tried saw an improvement, not all were that big
• From time to time the second graphics card wasn't recognised by my system despite trying numerous things (reinstalled Windows 7, reapplied the driver, re-seated the cards, etc..)
Eventually, I had to conceded to myself that I only bought the second card for novelty reasons more than actually needing it.... and in truth I saw very little difference as it was the FPS counter telling me there was a difference rather than me actually seeing it.
Anyway, not sure that has helped at all.. but thought I would share this lil chestnut anyway :smiley:
Will keep an open mind at upgrade time in that case, cheers.
cigbunt
26 Apr 16#41
just answering my own question 390 does not have hdmi 2.0, i would have to use displayport and add an adaptor (£35)
xela333
26 Apr 161#40
Because it's not as simple as double the performance. Some games do not even see any difference at all. Nvidia and AMD are very lacking in dual card support in games
hokers
26 Apr 16#39
Can you elaborate on this a bit please? I was planning to double up my 970 when the prices drop, why is it not a great experience.
joshmay94
26 Apr 16#38
As this is a triple fan, how does this compare to the sapphire tri model? i hear that sapphire are the leading manufacturer for AMD cards... I wouldn't mind paying that small bit more for a more premium card
cigbunt
26 Apr 161#37
does this have hdmi 2.0? i want 60hz on a 4k tv
BetaRomeo
26 Apr 16#36
We saw the 780 hitting £180 multiple times at the start of last year, dropping as low as £165. We saw the 290X scrape below £200, and the 290 in the £170-190 range really quite frequently.
The 770, which the 970 replaced, was £110-140 many times during the first quarter of 2015 - formerly a £230 card, just like the 970.
Do you have some specific reasoning behind your guess that it will be different this time?
shaunmorgan3994881
26 Apr 16#35
Since when have production costs correlated with off the shelf price?
retrend
26 Apr 16#34
Really better off waiting for the new cards, they're cheaper to make as well so they should also be good prices.
It's hard to tell really, I would expect around the £220 mark but thats just my opinion, the old 290 got to about £170 ish if I recall correctly.
I've read somewhere that Nvidia has stopped producing 970 and above chips so you might see some deals on those then they just disappear. New cards are due to be announced around June I believe so if you can it may be worth waiting to see.
People seem to be expecting prices to drop like a stone but I can't see it happening, they'll probably drop a bit then just disappear.
UZOR
26 Apr 161#31
I got sent one of these for as a warranty replacement for an asus 290x. I was relieved to find that it does actually fits inside a fractal node 304! (just in case anybody was wondering. silent fans on low load are great for media and general office use.
xela333
26 Apr 16#30
Yes, big jump
xela333
26 Apr 161#29
Avoid crossfire or SLI, not a great experience
cigbunt
26 Apr 16#28
Is it for a upgrade from a 280x
K1LLER HORNET
26 Apr 16#27
Probably 3.5GB :wink:
Got A 980 myself. I think I'm going to switch to AMD next gen. I can't take any more of this planned obsolescence bullsh*t anymore.
frajule
26 Apr 16#26
Thanks for your comment,Cheers
frajule
26 Apr 16#25
Thanks for your valued comment. cheers.
godzillafan
26 Apr 16#24
Anyone have any ideas or thoughts on how much the price of these cards will drop to/by?
Read a few threads now and someone does mention waiting. I held off buying the recent ebuyer deals with the free ssd. In the hope that the drops will be like the ps3 when the ps4 came out!
sergiup
26 Apr 16#23
Agreed! They're milking it a fair bit now since the R9 290X was going for a fair bit less than this on its way out. Still happy with my 290X VaporX for £227! :laughing:
deezus
26 Apr 16#22
You need to check if your Power Supply is atleast 650w. Also they might not have included the amount pci-e cables this card needs to be powered. And you'd have to check if there's enough room in your case to accommodate this GPU, which I don't reckon there will be after seeing pics of it. Also, that case seems horrible for any kind of airflow, the card may choke.
TL:DR no there's a high chance you can't upgrade mate :disappointed:
James123
26 Apr 161#21
According to the 550-111na details (http://support.hp.com/th-en/document/c04804119) it only has a 180W power supply, under load this card can use ~400W. Unless you also replace the power supply it definitely won't work (and even then, I'm not sure - didn't look into it past the PSU).
RagingKileak
26 Apr 16#14
I'm looking into 4k gaming options and so far the 980 TI seems the best power/pound, with a view that I'll add a second when they get cheaper to achieve maybe 50-60 FPS at 4K.
Any idea how two of these in crossfire would perform? I couldda that now and not wait!
Rgds
Matt
delvey1987 to RagingKileak
26 Apr 161#20
Not sure but I had a 290 and 290x running in crossfire giving me 150 fps on battlefield 4 at 1440p on max settings for a brief time
frajule
26 Apr 16#19
hi, I have a HP Pavilion 550-111na Desktop PC it has a R7 installed from new can i upgrade to this R9, If so what else do i need to know or do. Not very good with the tech bits so go easy. Thanks
dannyjones106
26 Apr 164#6
After an extremely disappointing experience with a GTX970, I may be tempted to convert to Amd! If I can bring myself to!
Nate1492 to dannyjones106
26 Apr 16#18
What was disappointing?
Danze1984
26 Apr 161#17
MSI is the best one, followed by Sapphire. Asus is supposed to be the worst of the bunch on the 390.
Incognitoso
26 Apr 16#16
HD7970 new architecture in 2012 they call GCN 1.0 Next Year 2013 they release R9 280X basically it is HD7970 GCN 1.0 but they have Radeon R9 290X which is improved GCN 1.1 Whats new in GCN 1.1 - DX12 more compute power etc nothing new in real ..
2014 Radeon R9 390X and Radeon R9 390 is GCN 1.1
So if you buy R9 390 it is 2012-2013 architecture with 8 GB of memory Does it bad 2013 not really as PS4 and xbox HD7000 series GPU + architecture but they tweaked GPU
I will be wait for new Nvidia GPU release is it will be soon and GTX 980 Ti will drop the price plus all other radeons
If you do not have PS4 or xbox just get and enjoy gaming for another 5 Years and do not bother about GPU frame rates etc ..... will save you money and time
pbyron1
26 Apr 16#15
Given the power consumption of these little babies on overclock, this is literally a very hot deal :smiley:
brendanhickey
26 Apr 16#13
cards not cars stupid phone
brendanhickey
26 Apr 16#12
I don't believe the price drops on new cards. nvidia stopped production of the gtx 970 and so they will be harder to find. it's not unheard of for the price to go up. the price of second hand cars drop like a sac of crap but not brand new cards.
adam45417
26 Apr 161#11
Not sure about that, isn't this the hottest running 390 ?
PR1
26 Apr 16#10
Yeah if the next gen weren't round the corner I'd be sorely tempted (heck I am, but I'm resisting)
Maybe a 490 or a 1070 and treat myself to new mobo/CPU too later in the year - fingers crossed AMD zen lives up to the hype...
Easy2BCheesy
26 Apr 16#9
Good point. Assuming Nvidia does launch 1070/1080 in July, we can expect prices on 970/980 and 390/390X to drop like a stone. Maybe even 980 Ti too, depending on how powerful the new architecture is.
Easy2BCheesy
26 Apr 161#8
Probably the best 390 you can buy - I've got one. However, be warned. It's HUGE. And heavy. It's factory overclocked and there's a bit more overclocking headroom on it, but put it on a watt meter and you'll see an enormous leap in power consumption and heat production.
BetaRomeo
26 Apr 163#7
Seven comments and no-one's said to wait for all the new cards from June? :confused:
Hot if for some reason you need to buy today, but it's a terrible, terrible time to buy. Wait!
Donkii
26 Apr 16#5
I'd take the leap at £200, il wait and see what the new architecture offers first il stick with my 280x till then.
Donkii
26 Apr 162#3
Expect these to keep dropping in price, still a good price in the here and now.
rev6 to Donkii
26 Apr 161#4
After the 3xx was released, I saw the XFX 290X go for about £200, and the Sapphire go for around £230. I doubt these will drop that much more, but anything is possible :smile:
Opening post
Taken from the ancient Roman and Greek word for owl, Strix means the keenest hearing and sharpest eyesight. Strix means feeling your environment so that you detect and react to the slightest movement. Strix means survival on the very edge of instinct.
ASUS STRIX R9 390 gaming graphics cards packed with exclusive ASUS technologies, including DirectCU III with triple wing-blade 0 dB fan design for maximum air flow with 30% cooler and 3X quieter performance. This card features exclusive ASUS AUTO-EXTREME technology with Super Alloy Power II for premium quality and best reliability. It also has GPU Tweak II with Xsplit Gamecaster, provides intuitive performance tweaking and lets you stream your gameplay instantly.
Top comments
Hot if for some reason you need to buy today, but it's a terrible, terrible time to buy. Wait!
Latest comments (60)
It's the fact that there seems to be an alarming number of cases of the 970 losing output signal and crashing the system. It's either an inherent fault within the cards determined by the 'silicon lottery' or there's an unstated compatibility issue out there.
If you Google 'GTX970 black screen' there are literally hundreds of threads on various forums out there with exactly the same problem, seemingly with no solution.
The bit that **** me off the most though is that there's NO official response from Nvidia on this, even though the geforce forums have the largest concentration of people reporting the issue. They just don't seem to care!
It's such a shame because when the 970 works, it's absolutely phenomenal!!
I have a 6600k o/c'd to 3.4, 16gb ram, 2x2tb, SSD with the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 (which is known to use more power than most) and with the help of a plug power reader at most, my computer was consuming around 320-330watt, on odd occasion nearer 350 but that is once every blue moon. I checked whilst running Black Ops 3 and GTA5.
I'm quite happy to be proven wrong but I can't see those sort of drops this time, as I said I read somewhere Nvidia has stopped producing 970 and above so we may see prices hold then the cards disappear
No need to upgrade the rest
Also i run it with a 550w psu just fine .It is a gold psu however
Indeed, even a 980 Titan/6700k combo seems to struggle with 4K, but SLI 380 TI's get close to. 60-70 fps.
Matt
I suspect things have improved a little more now, but my experience was this:
• Frames per second improvements where seen in most games, especially BF3
• The driver I used made a big difference. I ended up using an older driver which ensured my BF3 experience was getting optimal frame rates (the second card improved the frame rates by over two thirds).
• Although all the games I tried saw an improvement, not all were that big
• From time to time the second graphics card wasn't recognised by my system despite trying numerous things (reinstalled Windows 7, reapplied the driver, re-seated the cards, etc..)
Eventually, I had to conceded to myself that I only bought the second card for novelty reasons more than actually needing it.... and in truth I saw very little difference as it was the FPS counter telling me there was a difference rather than me actually seeing it.
Anyway, not sure that has helped at all.. but thought I would share this lil chestnut anyway :smiley:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2015-vga-charts/12-Tomb-Raider-1080p,3675.html
But it seems not uncommon for there to be no SLI support at launch.
Will keep an open mind at upgrade time in that case, cheers.
Because it's not as simple as double the performance. Some games do not even see any difference at all. Nvidia and AMD are very lacking in dual card support in games
The 770, which the 970 replaced, was £110-140 many times during the first quarter of 2015 - formerly a £230 card, just like the 970.
Do you have some specific reasoning behind your guess that it will be different this time?
I've read somewhere that Nvidia has stopped producing 970 and above chips so you might see some deals on those then they just disappear. New cards are due to be announced around June I believe so if you can it may be worth waiting to see.
People seem to be expecting prices to drop like a stone but I can't see it happening, they'll probably drop a bit then just disappear.
Yes, big jump
Avoid crossfire or SLI, not a great experience
Got A 980 myself. I think I'm going to switch to AMD next gen. I can't take any more of this planned obsolescence bullsh*t anymore.
Read a few threads now and someone does mention waiting. I held off buying the recent ebuyer deals with the free ssd. In the hope that the drops will be like the ps3 when the ps4 came out!
TL:DR no there's a high chance you can't upgrade mate :disappointed:
Any idea how two of these in crossfire would perform? I couldda that now and not wait!
Rgds
Matt
2014 Radeon R9 390X and Radeon R9 390 is GCN 1.1
So if you buy R9 390 it is 2012-2013 architecture with 8 GB of memory Does it bad 2013 not really as PS4 and xbox HD7000 series GPU + architecture but they tweaked GPU
I will be wait for new Nvidia GPU release is it will be soon and GTX 980 Ti will drop the price plus all other radeons
If you do not have PS4 or xbox just get and enjoy gaming for another 5 Years and do not bother about GPU frame rates etc ..... will save you money and time
Maybe a 490 or a 1070 and treat myself to new mobo/CPU too later in the year - fingers crossed AMD zen lives up to the hype...
Hot if for some reason you need to buy today, but it's a terrible, terrible time to buy. Wait!