Consensous on best 390 available?

[Madpacket]

I'm looking for a "hold-me-over-until-next-gen" card and the 390 appears to be the best value to drive my 1440P Freesync monitor. I was hoping to get some feedback from owners here about what they think is the best overall 390?

I will be shopping at NewEgg.ca as I have a bunch of credit with them.

Here's a listing of the available cards:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...TMATCH&Description=Radeon+390&N=-1&isNodeId=1

I'm not sure if the length of the card will be an issue but I was able to fit my reference 290 in the case which is a Thermaltake V1 Mini.

 

[alexruiz]

Powercolor PCs+ gets my vote.

XFX or MSI gaming as second as second.
The XFX is fairly compact for a R9 390.

 

[Seba]

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 gets a lot of recommendations, but it will not fit in your case.

 

[Madpacket]

Thanks guys. The case can accommodate dual slot cards up to 11.2 inches in length but unfortunately the PCS+ and Nitro are triple slot. Guess I'll stick with MSI or XFX this time around.

 

[3DVagabond]

Thanks guys. The case can accommodate dual slot cards up to 11.2 inches in length but unfortunately the PCS+ and Nitro are triple slot. Guess I'll stick with MSI or XFX this time around.

Of those two I'd personally go XFX because of their service being outstanding.

 

[Seba]

The case can accommodate dual slot cards up to 11.2 inches in length but unfortunately the PCS+ and Nitro are triple slot.

Sapphire Nitro is also 12.1" long.

 

[ultima_trev]

I have a PowerColor PCS R9 390 and the fans are LOUD. Hopefully MSI Gaming or Gigabyte G1 editions are bit more on the quiet side.

 

[Madpacket]

Sapphire Nitro is also 12.1" long.

The Asus card looked good (dual slot) but is a tad too long as well. I'll probably go with MSI as they have an RMA centre in Canada so it's cheap to RMA if needed. My only worry with the MSI is coil whine which I find unacceptable, and not sure if if it's inherit in the design of the VRM's or not but there are enough complaints of coil whine on the Egg reviews it has me concerned.

Looking closer at the PowerColour PCS it appears you could easily remove the shroud which would make it fit but I'm not sure if that would have a negative affect on the cooling, plus if it's loud that sucks.

So Gigabyte (poor reviews with BIOS issues) or MSI Gaming and risk coil whine.

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

The Asus card looked good (dual slot) but is a tad too long as well. I'll probably go with MSI as they have an RMA centre in Canada so it's cheap to RMA if needed. My only worry with the MSI is coil whine which I find unacceptable, and not sure if if it's inherit in the design of the VRM's or not but there are enough complaints of coil whine on the Egg reviews it has me concerned.

Looking closer at the PowerColour PCS it appears you could easily remove the shroud which would make it fit but I'm not sure if that would have a negative affect on the cooling, plus if it's loud that sucks.

So Gigabyte (poor reviews with BIOS issues) or MSI Gaming and risk coil whine.

Hmm I recently bought a msi r9 390 from jet and so far no issues with coil whine here however I feel their twin frozr tech (I think they call it that) is nice but Unless you have a recent nvidia card or a r9 380 or below it runs a little hotter than I would like at idle after playing a game so im thinking of setting a custom fan curve through msi afterburner.

 

[cyclohexane]

I have a PowerColor PCS R9 390 and the fans are LOUD. Hopefully MSI Gaming or Gigabyte G1 editions are bit more on the quiet side.

The gigabyte card will operate on silent (fans off) below a certain temp. Can't get any quieter than that.

 

[Madpacket]

The gigabyte card will operate on silent (fans off) below a certain temp. Can't get any quieter than that.

MSI as well "Zero Frozr - Fans stop spinning in low load to keep the card quiet and increase lifetime." but when you have coil whine issues what use is it to turn off the fans?

 

[Shmee]

FWIW, I have heard a lot of complaints about the Asus coolers on AMD cards. Would not recommend them for AMD cards.

 

[Madpacket]

Thanks all for the input.

After looking at many cards I ended up grabbing the MSI Gaming model. The Visiontek unit looked pretty good as well but NewEgg.ca didn't sell it plus I worry about their RMA policy.

I'm taking a risk with coil whine but the MSI appears to be the best card that will fit in this particular case. I also plan on eventually moving the 390 my HTPC Fractal Design Node 304 case once the next gen cards arrive so size ended up being a bigger factor than originally thought.

 

[tential]

Sapphire Nitro R9 390 gets a lot of recommendations, but it will not fit in your case.

I would ONLY pick this because it's quietest if I'm not mistaken.
But if it won't fit in your case, you're pretty screwed.
I'd go with the MSI next, but I'd really make sure your next case can support Sapphire Coolers are they have been amazing these last couple years.

 

[Madpacket]

I would ONLY pick this because it's quietest if I'm not mistaken.
But if it won't fit in your case, you're pretty screwed.
I'd go with the MSI next, but I'd really make sure your next case can support Sapphire Coolers are they have been amazing these last couple years.

I like Sapphire cards but I'm done with anything larger than ITX form factors which can sometimes limit card choices. I only go mATX or ATX if I'm building a server or high end workstation.

Luckily the MSI card appears to have effective and quiet cooling despite it's smaller footprint.

Hopefully the next gen cards will give us much smaller, cooler and quiet cards that still perform as well as today's high end cards.

 

[RussianSensation]

I like Sapphire cards but I'm done with anything larger than ITX form factors which can sometimes limit card choices. I only go mATX or ATX if I'm building a server or high end workstation.

Luckily the MSI card appears to have effective and quiet cooling despite it's smaller footprint.

Hopefully the next gen cards will give us much smaller, cooler and quiet cards that still perform as well as today's high end cards.

How are your temperatures on the 390? I am surprised you decided to go for the 390 at current CDN prices instead of buying an after-market 290 a year ago for $300 CDN or going into the used market of 290/290X cards since you are just looking for a stop-gap.

MSI Gaming 390 is $430CDN+$9 shipping @ 13% HST => $496 CDN / 1.32 => $375 US. Other than the price, the MSI Gaming 390 seems to be a very popular card in the 390 category.

 

[Madpacket]

How are your temperatures on the 390? I am surprised you decided to go for the 390 at current CDN prices instead of buying an after-market 290 a year ago for $300 CDN or going into the used market of 290/290X cards since you are just looking for a stop-gap.

MSI Gaming 390 is $430CDN+$9 shipping @ 13% HST => $496 CDN / 1.32 => $375 US. Other than the price, the MSI Gaming 390 seems to be a very popular card in the 390 category.

Bit of a long story really. Yes the card cost me 500 before a 20 dollar rebate so should be $480 ish altogether. I paid yesterday with BTC when it hit 620 CAD per coin which I bought at $300 a while back so I'm not to worried about the cost to be honest. The card basically cost me around 0.83 BTC or around 260 CAD ;D

Got the card today already. It's very well constructed and very quiet under load and only produces minor but totally acceptable coil whine. It rates at 75.6% ASIC quality and hits about 66 celcius under load so should have plenty of room for overclocking. Houses Hynix memory as well. 8GB is a bit of a waste today and probably won't make a difference down the road but I'm sure it'll help with resale value.

But now I have a silly dilemma. The card is short enough in length but I failed to realize it takes up 2.5 slots so it won't fit into either my Thermaltake ITX case nor my Fractal Design Node 304! I tried to buy a card to fit these cases specifically but was so fixated on length I forgot to measure the width of the MSI. So im a little disappointed to say the least

Now I need to find an ITX case that will fit this beast. Any ideas?

I have a 500W Gold SFX Silverstone power supply I was going to use for the Osmi but can be repurposed for a new SFX case therefore I'm not really limited by case choice. I also have an 850W Bronze SeaSonic ATX that I was going to use in the Thermaltake.

For testing I measured total load paired up with a 7850K overvolted running 8GB of 2400Mhz memory and it was pulling a max of 375W from the wall.

I'll be pairing the 390 up with a stock 4790K or an undervolted Xeon 1231v3 if need be so I suspect a max of 350W watts or less which should be fine with a 500W gold power supply.

Now I just need a proper ITX case that can house it.

 

[Madpacket]

Found a case that should fit the MSI Gaming R390.

SilverStone FTZ01B.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163278

Little pricey but small enough for my liking. Just wonder if it can handle the heat output?

 

[RussianSensation]

Found a case that should fit the MSI Gaming R390.

SilverStone FTZ01B.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163278

Little pricey but small enough for my liking. Just wonder if it can handle the heat output?

That looks pretty good. I've never built a miniITX; so you might want to create a thread in the Cases&Cooling sub-section to get proper advice from users who specialize in these builds. HardOCP sub-forum might also be a good place as they have some gamers who are into miniITX builds.

 

[ClockHound]

The Core V1 would work: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133260

V1 received a Hardop Gold award: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/08/15/thermaltake_core_v1_miniitx_case_review

Or the new Cougar Qbx is pretty sexy for $79CDN: http://www.ncix.com/detail/cougar-qbx-ultra-compact-pro-c9-110548-1382.htm - GPU upto 350mm. Lots of cooling options and a great match for a SFX PSU.

It's like a full phat nCase. ;-)

 

[Madpacket]

RS,

I will probably post over there to get some advise but I did a bit more research over the weekend myself. I believe the ideal case is the Fractal Design Node 202 as it's a little bit smaller in volume than the Silverstone models but currently unavailable for purchase. I've asked Fractal Design when they will be releasing it but I'm not holding my breath for it.

Alternatively the Milo ML07B is the same internally as the FTZ01B minus a few fans and filters but it's much cheaper. The Raven RVZ01 is also the same as the FTZ01 and includes the fans and filters but looks ugly to me so I'm leaning towards the ML07B or FTZ01B. I'll probably splurge on the FTZ01 as I really dislike faux metal / plastic and I'll have to buy fan filters anyways as these are positive pressure cases. I also found a place selling the FTZ01B for $149 CAD with free shipping and this will likely be a case I keep for a while so why not spend the extra.

Clockhound,

The Core V1 is the case I currently own and it will *not* fit the MSI R9 390 Gaming edition card due to the width of the card. AFAIK the only 390's that will fit in the Core V1 is the two slot Visiontek or Gigabyte models but these cards aren't built as well as the MSI (IMHO). The MSI seems to hit 1150Mhz core pretty easily and in many cases closer to 1180-1200Mhz. At these speeds I should be on par with or a little ahead of stock 390X / Geforce 980 GPU's which I'm really good with for a "hold me over until next-gen" cards arrive.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The Core V1 is a tight fit. My EVGA 970 barely fits in there.

 

[Madpacket]

Heh, just heard back from Factacl Design. They expect the first half of December for Node 202 availability. Guess I'll be going with the Silverstone...

 

[Madpacket]

The Core V1 is a tight fit. My EVGA 970 barely fits in there.

Yeah it's a tight case for larger video cards. I really like the Core V1 but I'll probably move over my 7850K to it and use it for a HTPC instead of a main gaming machine.