Introduction

Radeon R9 390 Market Segment Analysis Radeon

R9 280X Radeon

R9 380X GeForce

GTX 780 Radeon

R9 290 Radeon

R9 390 Sapphire

R9 390 Nitro GeForce

GTX 970 Radeon

R9 290X Radeon

R9 390X GeForce

GTX 780 Ti GeForce

GTX 980 Shader Units 2048 2048 2304 2560 2560 2560 1664 2816 2816 2880 2048 ROPs 32 32 48 64 64 64 56 64 64 48 64 Graphics Processor Tahiti Tonga GK110 Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii GM204 Hawaii Hawaii GK110 GM204 Transistors 4310M unknown 7100M 6200M 6200M 6200M 5200M 6200M 6200M 7100M 5200M Memory Size 2 GB 4 GB 3 GB 4 GB 8 GB 8 GB 4 GB 4 GB 8 GB 3 GB 4 GB Memory Bus Width 384 bit 256 bit 384 bit 512 bit 512 bit 512 bit 256 bit 512 bit 512 bit 384 bit 256 bit Core Clock 1000 MHz 970 MHz 863 MHz+ 947 MHz 1000 MHz 1040 MHz 1051 MHz+ 1000 MHz 1050 MHz 876 MHz+ 1126 MHz+ Memory Clock 1500 MHz 1425 MHz 1502 MHz 1250 MHz 1500 MHz 1500 MHz 1750 MHz 1250 MHz 1500 MHz 1750 MHz 1750 MHz Price $190 $225 $290 $240 $290 $340 $300 $340 $390 $390 $480

AMD's approach to new generations of graphics processors has been different for the past two generations. The Radeon R9 200 series initially saw the introduction of just one silicon codenamed "Hawaii" which drove the company's previous flagship R9 290 series, while the rest of the lineup saw a cascading re-badging from the previous generation. AMD's previous generation flagship, the HD 7900 series, went on to become the performance-segment R9 280 series, and so on, and the performance-segment "Tonga" silicon was added afterward. The story is predictable even today.With this generation, there is essentially one new silicon, the HBM-equipped "Fiji" that will eventually drive up to five products from AMD. The previous-generation flagship silicon "Hawaii" now drives AMD's performance-segment products, the Radeon R9 390X and R9 390 Non-X.The Radeon R9 390 is based on the "Hawaii" silicon (now referred to as "Grenada" without any silicon changes) and features the same core-configuration as the R9 290. The standard memory amount has been doubled to 8 GB across the board and clock speeds are increased from 950 MHz to 1000 MHz on the core and from 5.00 Gbps to 6.00 Gbps on the memory.The Sapphire R9 390 Nitro comes with a GPU overclock of 40 MHz out of the box, while memory has remained at the AMD default of 1500 MHz. With a price of $340, the card is more expensive than other R9 390s from other manufacturers, sitting at a price point that competes with many high-end GTX 970 cards.