AMD 300 Series reviews ...

D

Deleted member 2197

Guest
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It seems that some websites are testing new R9 390X with older 15.5beta drivers and some are using new 15.15beta and 15.20beta drivers for 300 series. New drivers are responsible for some of the bigger gains seen from 300 series cards over 200 at the same clock.

This is from a post on another forum:

Greebo wrote:
Im using the 15.20 drivers and no card not flashed, the inf is just modded.

Just run 3dmark firestrike. Total score went from 14109 to 14599 but more importantly the gfx score went from 21735 to 22792, a 9.1% increase!

I suspect a lot of the positive gains from the 3 series cards in reviews over their equivalent 2 series is purely down to the new drivers.

There is even better to come with the 15.30 drivers so AMD claim!

If i can get a 9% increase in games as well then all is good. I am beating some titan tx which are overclocked now in the ocuk 3dmark database!
eek.gif
Click to expand...

Someone else also mentions that they've got 10FPS extra in Witcher 3 after flashing R9 290X to 390X and installing 15.15beta driver (another way of making them work than modifying .inf).

This must be that completely rewritten driver AMD mentioned not long ago. It would be interesting to check how many draw calls Hawaii can do with it compared to current driver. I'm expecting this aspect to be improved and closer to nVidia in DX11.
 
It was during their PCGaming event I think. I'm sure I've heard it and not read.

Anyway I went ahead and installed modded cat. 15.15beta on my R9 290X. It gave me 1FPS (3%) extra in Witcher 3 at the Skellige on the sea. The location is not very demanding and I had no time to go back to Novigrad or Velen to test there. Important to note is that I play at 2560x1440 so performance gains might be bigger at lower resolutions. Also the guy claiming 10FPS gain in Witcher 3 is on cat. 15.20 and he has CF!

Still 3% is more than 15.5beta gave me 2 weeks ago :)

EDIT: Before someone says - Pics or it didn't happen ...

Cat 15.5Beta sea
Cat 15.15Beta sea
Cat 15.5Beta port
Cat 15.15Beta port
 
Last edited:
It turns out Windows 8.1 is no better for Witcher 3 on AMD :)

Identical performance so nothing really to report.

That's all I have time to test for now as it's already 1:30AM here, time to bed!
 
Last edited:
It would also be interesting to see if there are any gains with less powerful CPUs and also whether VLIW GPUs have had any gains.
 
http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/an...-kitguru-fury-x-sample-over-negative-content/

On the 11th June AMD informed us via email that the upcoming FIJI hardware was reserved for KitGuru, as would normally be the case. Earlier this week I had a call from Christine Brown, Senior Manager, EMEA Communications at AMD to let me know that the company had withdrawn their sample from KitGuru labs and that we would now not be involved at all in the launch next week.

She said that with limited product they wanted to focus on giving the samples to publications that are ‘more positive’ about AMD as a brand, and company. Based on what AMD had seen via KitGuru editorial in recent weeks it was felt that overall coverage was just too negative.
Click to expand...

Not a good look for AMD.
 
I don't understand the glowing reviews for the 390 series, considering the enormous price difference between those and the 290 cards.
Why would anyone buy a 390 for 350€ when the faster 290X can be had for 330€ or the similar performing 290 can be found for as little as 270€?
And the 390X's 450€ price is nothing short of obscene. 120€ for more VRAM and a minimal boost in the clocks (so minimal that it's practically non-existent, considering how many - if not most - 290X cards were already using those clocks).

The 390 cards are a terrible deal, compared to the 290 models.
Same thing with the other 300 offerings. 150€ for the 370 with a 16 CU Pitcairn, while the 270X with the full 20 CU Pitcairn and higher clocks can be found for 145€.
R360, a cut-down Bonaire with 12 CUs can be found for minimum 115€, while the 260X with the full 14CUs Bonaire and same 2GB GDDR5 costs around 110€.

The only new SKU with somewhat increased value is the 380 over the 285 because of the increased base clocks, but even there we could already find higher-clocked 285 cards with the same 980MHz, for the same 210€.


Perhaps the prices in the USA are drastically different, but for an European these reviews make no sense to me.
Are they only testing the 390 series against those rare and old 290/290X units with the horrid stock coolers that no one bought?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Clukos
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Reviews
2
Replies
32
Views
14K
Alexko
A
D
Pricing Discussions around AMD VEGA *over-flow*
23 24 25
Replies
493
Views
82K
DmitryKo
DmitryKo
CarstenS
AMD R9 Nano official specs (and later, reviews)
3 4 5
Replies
90
Views
30K
Deleted member 13524
D
F
AMD Radeon R9 Fury reviews
4 5 6
Replies
115
Views
26K
dbz
D
I
AMD RyZen CPU Reviews
4 5 6
Replies
110
Views
32K
xEx
X
Back
Top