XFX R9 390X Double Dissipation Review

In our next review of AMD’s R9 390X we take a look at what XFX has to offer in the R9 390X Double Dissipation graphics cards – custom cooled with the all-new Ghost 3.0+ solution.

Product on Review: Radeon R9 390X Double Dissipation
Manufacturer & Sponsor: XFX
Street Price: £330 GBP / $419 USD

XFX are renowned in the graphics card industry for their loyalty to AMD. Over the years they’ve presented enthusiasts with some rather impressive custom cooled and factory overclocked offerings – stepping outside of the norm and engineering a variety of noteworthy products.

Today we’ll be looking at XFX’s take on the 390X to see what benefits they can bring to the table. The 390X Double Dissipation graphics card utilises the Ghost 3.0+ thermal design with an all new-GPU heatsink, VRM heatsink and dual-90mm cooling fans.

The 390X is designed for ultra-high resolutions, so later in the review we’ll be putting this card through its paces and also seeing how effective this custom cooled solution responds to some thorough testing.

XFX on their 390X Double Dissipation

The XFX Radeon R9 390 Series graphics cards puts premium 4K gaming and Virtual Reality within reach. Experience smooth, true-to-life and stutter-free gameplay with ultra-high performance and resolution thanks the 8gb of onboard memory.

A whole new dimension of gaming, for a whole new reality. Your days of gaming in mere HD are behind you. All the power you need for the most immersive 4K gaming experience and beyond, now and tomorrow.

Technical Specifications

PROCESSOR & BUS
Bus Type : PCI-E 3.0
Chipset version : Grenada XT
GPU Bus (bit) : 512
GPU Clock : 1050MHz
Performance Category : Enthusiast
Stream Processors : 2816

MEMORY
Memory Bus : 512 bit
Memory Clock : 6.0 GHz
Memory Size : 8GB
Memory Type : DDR5

FEATURE TECHNOLOGIES
AMD Eyefinity Technology : Y
AMD HD3D Technology : Y
AMD PowerPlay Technology : Y
AMD Stream Technology : Y

OTHER FEATURES
Highlight Features – 1 : Double Dissipation
Highlight Features – 2 : Unlocked Voltage

ENVIRONMENTAL
RoHS : Y

DISPLAY OUTPUT
Display Port ready : 1.2
Dual link Support : Y
HDMI Ready : 1.4a
Max Supported Resolution (ANALOG) : 2048 x 1536
Max Supported Resolution (DIGITAL) : 2560 x 1600(DVI);4096 x 2160(HDMI

P)
Output – Display Port : 1
Output – DL-DVI-D : 2
Output – HDMI : 1

PHYSICAL
Card Profile : Dual
Thermal Solution : DD Fansink
Thermal Type : Dual Slot
Card Dimension (cm) : 29.5 x 14.3 x 4.2
Master Carton Dimensions (cm) : 43 x 49 x 35.5
Master Carton Weight (Kg) : 17.16 est.
Package Dimensions (cm) : 34 x 24 x 8
Package Weight (Kg) : 1.57 est.

Packaging & Bundle

390X DD arrives in a large box which follows XFX’s new branding of the diamond pattern. The front is layered with plenty of stylish typography which details the model of the card, the memory size and some of the prominent features. Around the back the fundamental features get even more detail.

Opening the box up, there are a number of included items within the bundle. These items are as follows:

• Documentation – Quick start guide, Driver CD guide
• Driver CD
• PCI Express adapters – 6-pin to 4-pin and 8-pin to 6-pin

Closer Look (With Cooler)

Core Clock (OC): 1050MHz
Memory Clock (OC): 6000 MHz
Memory Size: 8GB GDDR5

The most immediate thing to notice about 390X DD is of course that double dissipation cooler to which this card gets its name, we’ll be looking closer at this cooler and its construction on the next page. The diamond pattern we saw on the packaging also finds its way onto the shroud of this cooler and offers a matt/glossy finish. The card looks super-sleek and will add that touch of class to any system configuration.

We’ve seen many graphics cards omit any sign of a backplate – they are often bare, but this is not so with the 390X DD. Fixed onto the back of the PCB there is a large aluminium plate with some ventilation cut-outs and a large XFX emblem. This plate doubles up to offer rigidity and protection against any knocks or scratches. Again, even with the aesthetics on the reverse, XFX has nailed it!

390X DD measures 29.5×14.3×4.2 cm. observing the physical dimensions reveals quite a short graphics card. Both the heatsink and shroud sit beneath the Rear IO.

Our card uses the new Ghost 3.0+ thermal design (more on this over the page) which takes advantage of twin 90mm cooling fans.

Focusing our attention on the IO area there are an assortment of different ports available.

• Dual-Link DVI (Up to 3K @ 60Hz)
• HDMI 1.4a (Up to 4K @ 24Hz)
• DisplayPort 1.2 (Up to 4K @ 60Hz)

To get the most out of this card, if you’re using a 4K monitor it’s better to use a DP cable as 60Hz is an option – unlike HDMI which only supports lower refresh rates.

On the back edge of the card we have 8+6-pin PCI Express ports. To ensure proper stability, AMD recommend 750W power supply with 50A on the +12v rail.

Closer Look (Without Cooler)

To detach the cooler from the graphics card a total of just six screws need to be removed from the backplate. After removing the heatsink we can clearly see the Ghost 3.0+ design which makes use of two large heatsinks and a plethora of thick copper heatpipes.

Having detached the cooler from the graphics card we can now see the PCB in-the-flesh and the additional heatsinks which XFX has placed over key areas. Over the memory there is a large plate which is fixed via screws – underneath this plate there are thermal pads to assist with heat dissipation. Covering the VRMs there is also a heatsink configuration which will deliver optimum cooling for these components.

At the very heart of 390X we have the Grenada XT GPU. This is the same design as the 290X (Hawaii XT) – the same circuitary and design but with better manufacturing. Many were hoping for a bigger step-up from this but the 300 series has only had a minor facelift.

Dotted around the PCB we have 16x 512MB GDDR5 chips courtesy of Hynix (H5GC4H24AJR T2C). The memory on our card operates at 6000MHz. Another thing to note is that XFX has made use of Japanese Solid CAPs for long-life usage.

As an additional feature, XFX has given 390X DD a dual-BIOS switch, allowing you to choose between two different modes and effectively have a back-up should anything go pear-shaped.

Test Setup & Methodology

How we test graphics cards

Testing a graphics card is an extremely lengthy process. We sometimes see reviews where a graphics card has been tested using out of date equipment, out of date games and even out of date drivers. While the latter can be excused due to the sheer amount of driver updates making a thorough review impossible we will however notify the reader when we have used a different driver to the normal for example a pre-release driver. For the most part however we will always use the same hardware and latest drivers so this does certainly need to be taken into consideration when viewing our testing results. Each game and benchmark is tested times with the lowest and highest scores omitted out of the 5 results and the average then taken from the three remaining to give us our final result for each resolution and setting used.

Hardware

With the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X79 setup to the very latest X99 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to a realistic, achievable 4GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB (4x4GB) of GDDR4 at 2666MHz and a 500GB SSD there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

High End Graphics Cards on test:
XFX R9 390X Double Dissipation (Catalyst 15.15)
MSI R9 390X GAMING 8G (Catalyst 15.15)
NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti 6GB (Forceware 352.90)
ZOTAC GTX 970 AMP! EXTREME CORE(Forceware 344.75)
ZOTAC GTX 970 AMP! EXTREME(Forceware 344.75)
MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G(Forceware 344.75)
GIGABYTE G1 GAMING SOC GTX 970(Forceware 344.75)
ASUS STRIX GTX 970 4GB GDDR5(Forceware 340.60)
NVIDIA GTX 980 4GB GDDR5(Forceware 340.52)
SAPPHIRE TRI-X R9-290X 4GB GDDR5(Catalyst 14.3)

Special thanks go to Intel, Corsair, MSI and AOC for providing the extreme spec components used for our test bench:

Motherboard: MSI X99S GAMING 9 AC
CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition @ 4GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair LPX Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 2666MHz 16-17-17-35 C1
Power Supply – CORSAIR RM Series™ RM1000
Hard Drive – CORSAIR Force Series™ LX 512GB SATA 3 6Gb/s SSD
Cooler – CORSAIR Hydro Series™ H105 240mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Monitor – AOC 28″ 4K U2868 PQU
Cables – Startech DP 1.2 Cable

Benchmarks
If you are a regular reader of our reviews you will know we like to test the latest hardware with the latest games and benchmarks on the market. Here are the games we have chosen:

Battlefield 4
Watchdogs
Company of Heroes 2
Thief
GRID: 2
Metro: Last Light

We also take into consideration the benchmarkers out there so have included three of the more popular synthetic benchmarks available:

Unigine: Valley
Unigine: Heaven 4
Futuremark 3DMark Firestrike

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Power, Temperatures, Acoustics

To test for power consumption we take a measurement from the plug socket. It is important to note that the figures below represent total system power use and not just the GPU. The CPU was always in a fixed state (4GHz overclock) so did not affect the additional power load when the GPU was placed under 100% load using Furmark which was ran for 15 minutes at which point a load reading was taken. Idle readings were taken 5 minutes after system boot to ensure any background services and applications had loaded.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we would normally run Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained however we found that this throttled the card and resulted in spurious results. So we set Heaven running continuously for 20 minutes and used this as a temperature result.

Acoustics

Overclocking

To overclock the XFX 390X DD we used MSI Afterburner Tool since it gives extensive options for modifying the graphics card.

Overclocking was very easy, and we managed to boost the memory clock beyond that of our previously reviewed MSI 390X. The XFX card sits at 6000MHz and we managed to push this up to 6800MHz by tweaking the memory clock to 1700MHz. In return, this gave us a slight boost in Ungine Heaven 4.0 as shown below!

3DMark FireStrike

Fire Strike is the new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is Futuremark’s most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms.

Unigine Valley

Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.

Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by Swedish video game developer EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronic Arts. It is a sequel to 2011’s Battlefield 3 and is perhaps currently the most popular online First Person Shooter for PC gamers. It has an extremely powerful gaming engine that will stress components more than most FPS titles available.

Watchdogs

Watch Dogs is a 2014 open world action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Set within a fictionalized version of Chicago, Illinois, the single-player story follows a hacker and his efforts to seek revenge after the accidental death of his niece. The open world design lets players freely roam Chicago, which includes the urban city, open countryside, and slums. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. As such this is a very demanding game, especially when graphical options are turned up.

Thief

Thief is a stealth video game developed by the Canadian video game developer Eidos Montreal, and published by Square Enix. It is a revival of the cult classic Thief series of stealth games, of which it is the fourth game. Thief is set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Victorian, gothic, and steampunk aesthetics. Using a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 it makes for a challenging game to pitch against our range of components.

Company of Heroes 2

Company of Heroes 2 is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment. It is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2006 game Company of Heroes.As with the original Company of Heroes, the game is set in World War II but with the focus on the Eastern Front, with players primarily controlling the side of the Soviet Red Army during various stages of the Eastern Front, from Operation Barbarossa to the Battle of Berlin. Company of Heroes 2 runs on Relic Entertainment’s proprietary Essence 3.0 game engine and is extremely demanding of both CPU and GPU.

Metro Last Light

Metro: Last Light is a single-player post-apocalyptic-themed first-person shooter video game with stealth and survival horror elements, developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic Moscow, part of the universe of the novel Metro 2033 and its sequels, written by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. The second of our FPS titles, it runs on the 4A gaming engine which again, has the capability to stress even the best GPU components.

GRID 2

Grid 2 (stylised as GRID 2 and known as Race Driver Grid 2 in Japan) is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters and is the sequel to 2008’s Race Driver: Grid. The game includes numerous real world locations and cities such as Paris. It also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility. It uses the EGO 3.0 engine which while not overly challenging, is representative of games of this genre.

Overall Performance

Here we take a look at the overall performance of the graphics card. This figure is determined by finding the average FPS across all of the settings used in a particular benchmark(game) to give us an overall value.

Value For Money

We make a simple calculation for this set of results. For each game we add all of the resulting FPS totals together and then divide by the four sets to give us an overall performance figure. While the figures alone do not give you an accurate picture of how the card will perform in any given scenario, they do tell you, when averaged, which GPU is the more capable across all of the benchmarks and settings tested.

Conclusion

Being the top offering within the 300 series, the 390X brings with it some key benefits over the 290X – especially at ultra-high resolutions. XFX has taken the 390X and applied trademark features which bring with it a number of a benefits.

This new card has been given XFX’s Ghost 3.0+ thermal design which has some interesting attributes such as a new GPU heatsink fin array, VRM heatsink design and DDR heatsinks. All of these contribute to great thermal conduction and also meant we were able to place a conservative overclock to the memory clock. Even under full-load the Ghost 3.0+ configuration, with its dual 90mm cooling fans presented low-noise.

As we saw with the first 390X we reviewed, the 390X DD is a good match for the GTX 980 and builds on the 290X by giving better results, especially when used with a 4K monitor at higher resolutions. Although the 390X DD lacks any factory overclock for the memory clock it still demonstrated prowess in a number of gaming titles and on the preceding pages you’ll see we managed to apply a substantial overclock to the card (while keeping within decent temperature parameters). So there is headroom to squeeze more performance out of this card if desired.

Overclocked versions of the 390X sit around the £350 / $429 mark but since this card doesn’t have a factory overclock it comes in even cheaper at just £330 / $419. At this price-point we have a good value for money offering in the 390X when comparing it to the rival GTX 980. Casting an eye over the “Overall Performance” and “Value For Money” charts on the previous pages of this review highlights the value that 390X DD really brings to the table.

The XFX 390X Double Dissipation embodies quality. This graphics card is equipped with an impressive cooling solution which delivers low-noise with decent thermal performance and is a suitable, cheaper alternative to the GTX 980 at ultra-high resolutions.

Pros
+ Impressive styling
+ Low-noise operation
+ Great thermal results
+ Overclocks well
+ DirectX 12 ready
+ Dual BIOS
+ 2 years warranty

Cons
– Stock GTX 980 is still faster in some scenarios