PowerColor Radeon R9 390 PCS+ Review

We have been retesting a slew of graphics cards over previous weeks, focusing on the latest Nvidia and AMD drivers. We have also selected some new game sections to benchmark during our ‘real world runs’.

Additionally, even though it is not close to being finished, we wanted to include some findings from an early access build of the (Windows 10) Direct X 12 capable Ashes of The Singularity by Stardock (website HERE) – this uses the Nitrous game engine. We are confident this is not an indication of how the game will run when it reaches retail in the future, but still, it is interesting to showcase today. You can buy it from STEAM, over HERE.

If you want to read more about our test system, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page. We are using an Asus PB287Q 4k and Apple 30 inch Cinema HD monitor for this review today.

Due to reader feedback we have changed the 1600p tests to 1440p. Anti Aliasing is also now disabled in our tests at Ultra HD 4K resolutions as readers have indicated they don’t need it at such a high resolution.

If you have other suggestions please email me directly at zardon(at)kitguru.net.

PowerColor Radeon R9 390 PCS+ (1,010 mhz core / 1,500 mhz memory) & (1,150 mhz core / 1,693 mhz memory).

Comparison Cards on test:
Sapphire R9 295X2 (1,018 mhz core / 1,250mhz memory)

AMD Fury X (1,050 mhz core / 500 mhz memory)

Nvidia GTX Titan Z (706 mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory)

Nvidia GTX Titan X (1,000 mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory)

Asus GTX980 Strix (1,178 mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory)

Nvidia GTX980 Ti (1000 mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory)

Palit GTX970 (1,051 mhz core / 1,753 mhz memory)

Sapphire R9 390X Tri-X 8GB (1,055 mhz core / 1,500 mhz memory)

Sapphire R9 390 Nitro 8GB (1,010 mhz core / 1,500 mhz memory)

Software:
Windows 10 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3DMark 11
3DMark
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark

Games:
Ashes Of the Singularity (early access build)
Grid AutoSport
Tomb Raider
Grand Theft Auto 5
Metro 2033 Redux

We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.

Game descriptions edited with courtesy from Wikipedia.