The Asus Strix variant is also very solid(the new iteration of the DirectCU design actually cools the VRMs with a dedicated heat pipe unlike previous iterations). I have the Sapphire Nitro personally, and I love it. Finally a Sapphire card with a backplate too.
It really depends on the game, but in most situations and benchmarks, the 290x sits right between the 970 and 980
Yeah the Asus 390 strix is not a bad performing card.
But unfortunatly from a couple of tests and reviews i have seen, it still tends to run a bit too toasty for my taste.
Sapphire Nitro is obviously the better card imo.
Fun thing... The new Strix series is made to be silent. And how do they make it silent? By slowing down the fans... The issue with that, is that the GPU needs it's cooling. Insted of getting better fans, they slowed down whatever they had. And now the gpu is silent but hot.
Asus in the last couple of years are making really questionable GPUs...
they don't make questionable GPUS. they make questionable AMD GPU coolers. there's a difference. All their Nvidia cards seem to work fine. ASUS hasn't been able to properly cool an AMD GPU since the early 7000 series GPUs.
a big example was the Matrix Edition 290x. a lot of sources have stated it still reaches 90C with that custom cooler.. WHICH is supposed to be made for it.
i basicly agree with this, wenn it comes to the AMD 290 and 390 series of cards.
It's not just the new Strix... Lurking in my country's forums I have seen a lot of complaints even for the standard DCU2 models...
Asus are great when it comes to motherboards. But GPUs -they can't make...
exactly. they can't properly cool an AMD GPU. but Nvidia oh we can cool those.
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I used to buy Asus cards but went with MSI for the past 2 gens and I'm pretty satisfied.
the last time I owned an ASUS GPU was with the 270x / 7870.
Well, I have Sapphire Toxic 270X... Up until 40% fan speed it's really really quiet. Ant that 40% speed keeps it under 70C even after a looong stress... So I'm pretty happy. I can speed the fans up and get lower temperatures, but I don't really need to. I rarely hit over 60C and even if I do, the fans are really quiet. I can't recommend the aftermarket versions of Sapphire enough for AMD... According to people's feedback, the only other brand, coming close to cooling and silence is Gigabyte. For the price -whoever of those is cheaper will be my first choice...
the only thing I hate about Sapphire is the lack of backplates with some of their graphics cards.. there's seriously no excuse anymore.
Sapphire has listen to those complaints,
and they have launched an overclocked 390 Nitro with backplate.
There is also 380 Nitro with backplate...
But honestly, I love the look of black PCB with the traces and solders and everything. I don't really mind the lack of backplate... But I'm also the guy who thinks about removing D14 for smaller cooler, because this one makes 31cm GPU look modest...
finally
but i don't think the lower end cards have it. I looked around the 380 and the 370 still don't have it.
370 don't... 380 does.. .
Yes there it is, and i trully like it, because its realy beastly and sexy looking.
I would probably grab this over the Msi.
I want to upgrade my 290. but I'm going to wait for Greenland. or if anything if i'm impatient enough i will pick up a fury when its price drops.
I would recommend waiting for Greenland... The difference will be big... 290 is still a beast... Basically the reason I am looking at a monitor and not the new gpu is because of Greenland.
And fun fact, AMD have stated, that the next gen will be full replacement of the gpu lineup, so finally no more rebrands.
it better be. but if i remember correctly Greenland is just going to be a die shrink of the current lineup with HBM. i remmber reading an article like that somewhere.