Review and testing of the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5 video: Specs | CPU

Review and testing of the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5 video card: Specs | CPU | Config – SAPPHIRE Technology, widely known as one of the largest manufacturers of video cards and one of the main AMD partners, of course, could not stay away from the announcement of a new line of AMD Radeon R9 300 graphics accelerators, presenting its own versions.

Contents hide

1 Details – Radeon R9 390 8G D5 Video

2 Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

3 Specifications

4 Testing

4.1 Test configuration

4.2 Synthetic tests

4.3 Game tests

4.4 Watch Dogs

4.5 Assassin’s Creed Unity

4.6 The Witcher III Wild Hunt

4.7 Grand Theft Auto V

4.8 Far Cry 4

5 Overclocking the graphics card

6 Conclusion

6.1 Related posts:

One of these new products is SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 390 8G D5, which compares favorably with the reference AMD Radeon R9 390 using a proprietary Tri-X cooler, factory overclocking to 1010 MHz, as well as a high-quality element base and a number of other improvements. Sapphire Nitro is something new, but if you look closely, we see a well-forgotten old one. The new models use semi-passive cooling with separate fan control: a pair of extreme ones works separately from the central one.

Details – Radeon R9 390 8G D5 Video

What is the Radeon R9 390? At the first glance at the technical characteristics of the video card, familiar features of the Radeon R9 290 are recognized. Although the Hawaii graphics processor has been renamed to Grenada, in fact it is produced according to the same 28-nanometer process technology and includes an identical number of functional blocks. Compared to AMD Radeon R9 290, the novelty received, although renamed AMD Grenada PRO, but in fact the already familiar AMD Hawaii PRO graphics core, which includes 2560 stream processors, 160 texture units and 64 rasterization units.

At the same time, the recommended GPU clock speed was increased from 947 MHz to 1000 MHz (+ 5.6%). The new adapter retained the 512-bit memory bus, but the operating frequency of the GDDR5 chips was also increased, and significantly – up to 6000 MHz, instead of 5000 MHz, recommended for the Radeon R9 290. Another notable difference from its predecessor – all video cards of the Radeon R9 390 line will be offered complete with 8 GB of storage, while the R9 290 was equipped with 4 GB of local RAM.

The doubled memory and 20% more bandwidth can be considered a hint that the Radeon R9 390 can be used for modes above 1440p. AMD’s marketing brochures point to the possibility of a comfortable game at 4K resolution, but still such statements should be taken with a certain degree of skepticism. In any case, an increase in GPU / memory frequencies promises an increase in performance, regardless of the mode. Although, the doubled amount of local RAM can still be considered more of a reserve for the future. However, it’s nice to have it now. How can you not remember that even the flagship Radeon R9 Fury X, due to the technical features of HBM, is offered “only” with 4 GB of memory, and the much more affordable Radeon R9 390 received 8 GB in the basic configuration. According to the manufacturer, even after increasing the operating frequencies and doubling the amount of memory, the thermal package of the reference Radeon R9 390 was kept within 275 watts.

To connect additional power, two connectors are provided as standard – 6- and 8-pin. Of course, this is not a dogma, video card manufacturers are free to change the configuration of the power subsystem and the composition of connectors at their discretion. The recommended cost for the Radeon R9 380 8GB is $ 329. Specifying such a price, the manufacturer deliberately opposes the new product to the GeForce GTX 970 4 GB video card, which has an identical recommended price tag. These are quite interesting opponents. If earlier the Radeon R9 290X had to compete with the successful GeForce GTX 970, then the upgraded “no-xed” version of the Radeon R9 390 with double the memory looks quite convincing in such a confrontation. The recommended cost for the Radeon R9 380 8GB is $ 329. Specifying such a price, the manufacturer deliberately opposes the new product to the GeForce GTX 970 4 GB video card, which has an identical recommended price tag.

These are quite interesting opponents. If earlier the Radeon R9 290X had to compete with the successful GeForce GTX 970, then the upgraded “no-xed” version of the Radeon R9 390 with double the memory looks quite convincing in such a confrontation. The recommended cost for the Radeon R9 380 8GB is $ 329. Specifying such a price, the manufacturer deliberately opposes the new product to the GeForce GTX 970 4 GB video card, which has an identical recommended price tag. These are quite interesting opponents. If earlier the Radeon R9 290X had to compete with the successful GeForce GTX 970, then the upgraded “no-xed” version of the Radeon R9 390 with double the memory looks quite convincing in such a confrontation.

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Model SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 390 8G D5 is made on an original printed circuit board in black, with a reference layout principle. The used element base includes exceptionally high-quality components: solid-state capacitors with extended service life, advanced IR3553 microcircuits and efficient Black Diamond Chokes. This improves the stability and reliability of the graphics adapter as a whole, and also extends its lifespan. Despite the fact that the video card in question is based on the Hawaii GPU, its video output scheme differs from the reference one.

Read This Now: Review and testing of the AMD Radeon R7 M460 video card: Test | Specs | CPU | Config

As you might guess, the developers of Sapphire had a hand in this. Now, instead of a combination of a pair of DVIs and one HDMI and DisplayPort each, the user is presented with one DVI, one HDMI and three DisplayPorts. The thickness of the novelty is slightly increased due to the protruding cooling system. The situation is similar with the length, a few extra centimeters are used for heat pipes and radiator fins. In general, the dimensions are quite consistent with the average model Radeon R9 290 / R9 390. The power supply of the novelty is made according to an enhanced 8-phase scheme: 6 phases are responsible for powering the graphics core, and 2 are intended for the video memory subsystem.

The reverse side of the printed circuit board is almost completely devoid of significant elements. Note also the complete absence of connectors for AMD CrossFireX bridges, since this technology is implemented at the software level. The nominal frequencies are 1010 MHz for the GPU and 1500 MHz for the memory. The official AMD frequencies for the Radeon R9 390 are somewhat different – 1000/1500 MHz (as well as power supply via 6 + 8pin connectors). Memory model SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 390 8G D5, total 8 GB, typed with 16 SK hynix H5GC4H24AJR-T2C chips with a capacity of 4 Gbit each, which operate at the recommended effective frequency of 6000 MHz. Data exchange between the GPU and memory is carried out via a 512-bit bus, which is capable of passing 384 GB of information per second.

The video card with the installed Tri-X cooling system occupies two expansion slots and has a total length of 308 mm according to the official website. The cooler consists of a massive two-section radiator, in the design of which 55 and 70 transversely arranged aluminum fins are used, and three 86-mm axial fans fixed on a plastic casing. The turntables themselves are produced by FirstDO and are marked “FDC10H12D9-C”. The rated voltage of their operation is 12 V, and the current strength is 0.35 A, which gives the final power at level 4, 2 watts To evenly distribute heat over the entire radiator area, five copper heat pipes of different diameters are used: one 10-mm, two 8-mm and two 6-mm. Note that the heat pipes are not covered with a nickel layer, which is intended to reduce the drop in CO efficiency during operation caused by the oxidation of metals. The main cooling system is in direct contact with the power elements of the power supply subsystem and video memory chips using a thermal interface, which should have a positive effect on the overclocking potential.

Specifications

CPU
Grenada PRO
Technical process
28 n.m.
GPU frequency MHz
1010MHz
Stream Processors (Shading Units)
2560
Texture Units (TMUs)
160
Raster Operations Pipelines (ROPs)
64
Memory type
GDDR 5
Memory bus width
Page 512
Memory size
8 GB
Memory frequency
1500 (6100) MHz
DirectXOpenGLShader Model
12,14,55,0
Interfaces
1 х DVI-D 1 х HDMI 3 х DisplayPort
Power consumption (TDP)
275 watts
Price
RUB 32,120

{gallery}/videoadapter/Sapphire_Nitro_R9_390_8G_D5/katalog{/gallery}

Testing

Power-saving CPU technologies are disabled in all tests. Testing the performance of video cards was carried out in a closed case of the system unit on a system with the following configuration:

Test configuration

PROCESSOR: Intel Core i7-4790K -4.0 (4.7) GHz
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Z97-DELUXE
MEMORY: 12GB (4x 4096 MB) DDR3 Corsair
HARD DRIVE: Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD
OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 8.1 x64

The performance of a video card is determined by the number of fps (frames per second) that it can produce in a particular application under certain settings. The performance of the video card in gaming applications is affected by the software installed on the PC, the version of the video driver, and the configuration of the computer.

Synthetic tests

To assess performance in synthetics, we used the 3DMark Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme benchmarks. Futuremark 3DMark allows you to compare devices ranging from smartphones to high-end PCs. In the Fire Strike settings, you can select the method and quality of texture filtering, the type of full-screen anti-aliasing and the number of multisampling samples, the partitioning factor of primitives for objects to which tessellation is applied, the maximum possible partitioning factor, the resolution and number of samples from shadow maps, the quality of volumetric lighting (sample step in the “ray marching” algorithm when calculating volumetric lighting – an important parameter, large values of which reduce performance), the number of samples per pixel when calculating indirect lighting in the ambient occlusion algorithm, as well as the quality of one of the post-processing types – imitation of the depth of field effect. This parameter adjusts the size of the bokeh texture used in post-processing for objects in the scene, while the Color saturation setting only changes the color saturation of the final image without affecting performance.

Futuremark 3DMark Fire Strike

Futuremark 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme

Futuremark 3DMark Fire Strike – Standard Graphics 1920×1080 (Score)

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Read This Now: Review and testing of a video card for AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 laptops: Test | Specs | CPU | Config

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960

AMD Radeon R9 380

Game tests

The performance of the video cards was tested in two resolutions: 1920 × 1080 and 3840 × 2160 pixels. For the tests, one graphics quality mode was used: Ultra (maximum) – texture quality, anisotropic filtering and full-screen anti-aliasing were enabled directly in the game settings. V-Sync was also forcibly disabled there.

Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs – A very cursory glance at Watch Dogs reveals only a series of borrowings. From Assassin’s Creed, the game inherits a segmented map with “sync points”, from GTA – “auto-theft” mechanics and an event-rich world. In the story, Ubisoft is trying to build a dramatic line in the manner of Max Payne. The motive of Aiden Pearce’s personal revenge for the murdered niece here gradually turns into opposition to the system. The graphics and sound in the game are not bad, although considering the stated system requirements, the picture could be better. However, thanks to the rather dynamic gameplay, all these shortcomings are simply not noticed.

1920×1080(1080p) Ultra, FXAA, HBAO+/High

3840×2160(2160p) Ultra, FXAA, HBAO+/High

Watch Dogs -(FPS)

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960

AMD Radeon R9 380

Assassin’s Creed Unity

Assassin’s Creed Unity Is a computer multiplatform action-adventure game from the Assassin’s Creed series. The new game is set in Paris in the 18th century. The developers presented to gamers a new assassin of Austrian-French origin named Arno Victor Dorian. Ubisoft took as its main storyline the events of the French Revolution of 1789, when France passed from monarchy to republic. The main events unfolded over 5 years, from the capture of the Bastille and the campaign against Versailles to the execution of King Louis XVI and the Thermidorian coup. It was during this era that class privileges were abolished and human rights were first enshrined. Assassin’s Creed Unity was developed with Anvi Next engine 2.0, a game engine created by Ubisoft Montreal, a subsidiary of publisher Ubisoft. Despite, that the game is a multiplatform project, since it was released not only on PCs and next-generation consoles, the developers in collaboration with NVIDIA were able to implement the most advanced graphics innovations in the PC version, such as HBAO +, PCSS, tessellation and TXAA anti-aliasing mode. Assassin’s Creed Unity in its arsenal has two graphical menu items – main and additional. We can change the setting in both basic and extended format.

1920×1080(1080p) Ultra, AFx16, MSSAx4, HBAO+

3840×2160(2160p) Ultra, AFx16, MSSA x4, HBAO+

Assassin’s Creed Unity- (FPS)

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5T

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960

AMD Radeon R9 380

The Witcher III Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Is a multi-platform computer role-playing game developed by the Polish studio CD Projekt RED based on the series of novels The Witcher by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, a sequel to the computer games The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The final part of the trilogy. According to the developers, the third part of the series will combine a non-linear storyline and a multi-regional open game world, which will be thirty times larger than the world of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. For movement, you can use various vehicles, such as a horse or a ship. The passage of the main storyline will take about 50 hours of the game. Side quests will take about the same amount. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was developed on the RedEngine 3 game engine, which is focused on next generation platforms and will ultimately break the boundaries between game graphics and CGI videos. The fundamental difference between RedEngine 3 compared to its predecessor is that REDengine 3 is built to support open world games. RED Engine 3 focuses not only on graphics and physics, but also on building a non-linear quest system, allowing you to make the gameplay even more close to real life. RED Engine supports dynamic shadows, normal mapping and parallax. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has both basic and advanced graphical settings. Any user can customize the game to their liking, based on the performance of the existing system. that REDengine 3 is built to support open world games. RED Engine 3 focuses not only on graphics and physics, but also on building a non-linear quest system, allowing you to make the gameplay even more close to real life. RED Engine supports dynamic shadows, normal mapping and parallax. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has both basic and advanced graphical settings. Any user can customize the game to their liking, based on the performance of the existing system. that REDengine 3 is built to support open world games. RED Engine 3 focuses not only on graphics and physics, but also on building a non-linear quest system, allowing you to make the gameplay even more close to real life. RED Engine supports dynamic shadows, normal mapping and parallax. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has both basic and advanced graphical settings. Any user can customize the game to their liking, based on the performance of the existing system. and advanced graphical settings. Any user can customize the game to their liking, based on the performance of the existing system. and advanced graphical settings. Any user can customize the game to their liking, based on the performance of the existing system.

Read This Now: Review: How to Mine RaveOS configuring & Installation - Windows 10/ 11 and Linux

1920×1080(1080p) Ultra, AFx16, SSAO, Nvidia hairworks OFF

3840×2160(2160p) Ultra, AFx16, SSAO, Nvidia hairworks OFF

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt- (FPS)

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960

AMD Radeon R9 380

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V is a multi-platform action and open world video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. Is the fifteenth in a rowFor the first time in the history of the series, there are three main characters in the game, and you can switch between them almost at any time. In some missions, two players are available, in some missions the player is thrown onto other characters by a script. For the first time in the series, the main characters have special skills that give them an edge over other characters. The scene of Grand Theft Auto V was the fictional city of Los Santos, the prototype of which is Los Angeles. Los Santos first appeared in one of the previous games in the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released in 2004. In addition to the city itself, the game also contains the surrounding areas of the countryside, mountains, forests, hills, and beaches, called “Blaine County” in the game. There is also a separate play space – the fictional state of North Yankton; probably a parody of the real state of North Dakota close to the Canadian border. There is only one gloomy city in this state – Ludendorff. You cannot get into North Yankton, with the exception of two story missions, which take place directly in Ludendorff. The entire map of Los Santos and its environs is open to players from the outset, and Grand Theft Auto V is based on the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine. Rockstar Advanced Game Engine is a fully featured game engine that contains a graphics engine, physics engine, sound engine, animation engine, game AI, networking, scripting language and other components .rand Theft Auto V has a very extensive range of graphical settings.

1920×1920(1080p)Very High, 4xMSSA,FXAA/off, Nvidia TXAA/off

3840×2160(2160p)Very High, 4xMSSA, FXAA/off, Nvidia TXAA/off

Grand Theft Auto V -(FPS)

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

AMD Radeon R9 380

Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4 Is a multi-platform action and open world video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal with contributions from Ubisoft Red Storm, Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Shanghai and Ubisoft Kiev and published by Ubisoft. Far Cry 4 is based on the Dunia Engine 2. Dunia Engine is a game engine developed by Ubisoft Montreal for its internal projects and used for the first time in the first-person shooter Far Cry 2. In our opinion, the game looks most attractive in SMAA mode. as the most optimal in terms of quality / performance. But behold, no anti-aliasing mode provides perfect anti-aliasing. Far Cry 4 is essentially a direct heir to Far Cry 3, both in terms of gameplay and graphics. But if the gameplay has changed little relative to the last part of the game,

1920 x 1080 (1080p), Ultra, 4xMSAA, 16xAF

3840x 2160 (2160p), Ultra, 4xMSAA, 16xAF

Far Cry 4- (FPS)

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

Nvidia GeForce GTX 960

AMD Radeon R9 380

Overclocking the graphics card

Despite the fact that the manufacturer added a certain level of factory overclocking to the video card, we decided to additionally overclock it manually. Overclocking software such as MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision, ASUS GPUTweak or Sapphire’s TRIXX tool can be used. The result of overclocking the Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5 is 1175MHz (13%) for GPU and 1785MHz for memory (19%). During the overclocking process, the cooling system was switched to maximum performance mode in order to avoid possible problems with overheating of key components.

11920×1080(1080p) Ultra, AFx16, SSAO, Nvidia hairworks OFF— разгон

1920×1080(1080p) Ultra, AFx16, SSAO, Nvidia hairworks OFF— номинал

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt- (FPS)

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5T- разгон

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 8G D5

Conclusion

As a result, the SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 390 8G D5 video card performed just fine, so it can be safely called a very successful modification of the AMD Radeon R9 390. The new product from SAPPHIRE pleased us with an enhanced 8-phase digital power subsystem, high-quality element base, and the presence of an HDMI cable in the delivery set , a wide range of interfaces, as well as support for albeit small, but factory overclocking.