Ghost 3.0+ with 7 heatpipes and heatsink enlarged 20-30%, looking very similar to EVGA Classified size! Nice to see that XFX continues to step it up after their disastrous HD7000 series coolers.
Honestly, I'd feel better if the cooler was smaller and lighter than on the XFX R9 290X, because that might indicate that AMD got their power consumption under control. This cooler seems to hint that the R9 390X is still going to be a fire breathing monster - maybe even worse than the R9 290X, because of the higher memory speeds. (Higher RAM speeds was why the 200 series had worse perf/watt than their 7000 series counterparts.)
As crazy as your statement sounds (I've never seen a GPU generation where there was nothing worth buying between $330 and $650), right now it sure is looking like it. Gigabyte 970 with BAK bundle is also a great deal at
$300.
$220 after-market 290 is an incredible deal for someone with a modicum of common gaming benchmark research sense considering GTX960 and a > $20 PSU. That's why a lot of gamers were hoping for a $499 air-cooled Fiji PRO with 15-20% more performance than a 980.
If AMD brings any meaningful competition (still an open question at best), then Nvidia may drop the GTX 980 to $399. At that point it would be a reasonable choice, assuming that the R9 390X doesn't offer anything new. The GTX 980's massive advantage in features and perf/watt means that if its price was anywhere near that of the R9 390X, there would be absolutely no good reason to go with the AMD card (unless the Grenada respin is more than just a new stepping).
Keep in mind, GM204 isn't much bigger than Tonga, and it has a 256-bit bus width and modest power requirements. Nvidia has plenty of room to drop pricing on the GTX 980 while still maintaining good levels of profitability. Even $349 for the GTX 980 would still give Nvidia very respectable profit margins. Nvidia also has the option to create a GTX 970 Ti which is equivalent to the GTX 970 except with full L2 cache, ROPs, and memory controller - thus putting the 3.5 GB issue to rest once and for all. AIB partners wouldn't have to change anything at all on the boards, this could be a drop-in replacement.
AMD may yet surprise us with the R9 390/X and R9 380. If they come up with something beyond just a new stepping, I'll be pleasantly surprised. But if not, then AMD will have to cut prices drastically from the leaked figures to get anyone to buy their rebrands. The added RAM
might justify an extra $50 or so (even though it will be completely worthless in 90% of applications) - but that still means maybe $349 for the R9 390X and $299 for the R9 390. At those prices, AMD is still going to have trouble making a profit. The air-cooled Fury Pro, assuming what we've heard so far is accurate, might be a competitive product at $499 or so - but will AMD be making money on it at that price level, given the apparent expense and yield issues of first-generation HBM?
Facebook
Twitter