Conclusion
Conclusion
Historically ASUS has built some of the best custom graphics cards on the market and this generation is no exception. We’ve given high marks to their GTX 980 Ti STRIC OC, R9 Fury STRIX and even the substantially more pedestrian GTX 960. Within those reviews, there were always the same highlights for the cards: they were quiet, provided excellent cooling and included a wide-ranging feature set. The R9 390X STRIX OC features many of those same achievements but it is also faced with some unique challenges as well.
Before I get into the specifics of this particular card, I fell like there’s a need to reiterate my feelings about AMD’s R9 390X. Its core is very much an elder statesman among the market’s enthusiast-class graphics architectures. That means it ends up competing against significantly newer, cooler running and more power efficient designs like Fiji, GM200 and the GTX 980’s GM204. However, regardless of its astronomical power consumption numbers, I still feel that the R9 390X represents an absolutely phenomenal value for the amount of money you’ll invest in it. Compared to the $500 you’ll end up paying for a similarly-performing GTX 980, the ASUS R9 390X STRIX OC’s $430USD price tag feels like an absolute steal, particularly when you take 4K gaming into account.
Past the raw price / performance ratio of this particular STRIX OC card, it has everything a gamer could possibly want: great looks, an excellent heatsink design, good framerates at high resolutions, quiet acoustics and high level components. All of the hallmarks of ASUS’ 2015 products are on full display here. In addition, AMD’s new Radeon Crimson software suite pushes things to the next level on the driver front.
There are however some minor points of concern in comparison to what the competition is offering. The overclocked Hawaii-based core tends to put out thermonuclear-type heat which means the accompanying heatsink needs to be at the top of its game for adequate heat dissipation. While the DirectCU III cooler is one of the best on the market, I feel like ASUS saddled it with a fan speed profile that’s slightly too conservative. While acoustics were excellent, Sapphire has a card with substantially more cooling mass, allowing their fans to operate at similar RPM levels but deliver cooler temperatures.
The STRIX OC’s superiority obviously lies in the relative compactness of their heatsink design and its zero decibel technology but the actual value of the STRIX OC over the competition is somewhat dubious. Granted, that extra gear between 1050MHz and 1090MHz may look good on paper but it doesn’t add one iota of visible performance to what you’re seeing onscreen. That element alone certainly isn’t worthy of a $20 premium over alternatives from Sapphire, XFX, Gigabyte and other AMD board partners that all offer upgraded, custom cooled and overclocked R9 390X’s.
Considering the technological limitations of the Hawaii core, what ASUS has achieved here is nothing short of impressive. Despite its head-scratching premium, the R9 390X STRIX OC is one heck of a GPU and that sub-$450USD price tag is just icing on the cake when compared against NVIDIA’s offerings in this bracket. Just be aware of the myriad of other options before falling for this particular card.
