Tom's Hardware were given the Sapphire 980 - but not for this test and it certainly didn't stop them comparing it to an MSI 980 and certainly wouldn't stop them pulling any punches.
The site has been doing "testing" for a long time - getting on for 40 years is it? Over that time it has also has provided some serious feedback to manufacturers - and helped identify bugs and provide fixes. No surprise the site is able to attract advertising.
I didn't see this article being about AMD vs. NVidia either; maybe some people should read it.
And the only thing I will add to Quizzical's summary above is to provide a reason why people might care when it comes to desktop solutions and that is noise.
And I for one am glad that Tom's Hardware started pushing noise as an issue some years ago now (think Andtech picked it up as well).
Here is one interesting test that one new enthusiast did on R9 390 (his ultimate goal was to find best power consumption/performance ratio):
GPU: Sapphire r9 390 Nitro CPU: i5-6600 RAM: 2x4 GB 2400 PSU: CM 650W M SSD: 850 EVO REST: couple of case fans and PCI-E sound card
In full load without GPU rig uses around 100W (CPU 65+RAM 7+ 5 case fans 15+SSD 2,5+soundcard 10)
Game was Witcher 3, MOST DEMANDING scene he could find ingame (so its NOT COMPARABLE to other benchmarks)
Settings: - Motion Blur/Blur - off
- AA - on
- Bloom - on
- Sharpening - low
- AO - HBAO+
- DOF/Chromatic/Vignette - off
- Light shaft - on
- Vsync - on
- Max fps - 60
- 1920x1200
- Hairworks - off
- rest - ultra
(notion: with Water and Foliage visibility on high he gets steady 60 FPS)
Author also noted that GPU works with -100mV, but there are diminishing results after -44mV and that he is satifsied with chosen setup so he will go with that.
He also noted that he played FO4 with same setup for around 10 hours and that with everything on max (with gimpworks on ultra) he gets constant 60FPS with very very occasional dips to 45 FPS (he observed it happened twice in 10 hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And there you have it, 150W TDP R9 390
If we translate this to how NVidia set up Maxwell, AMD could have used this setup and claimed R9 390 is 150W TDP GPU Of course, just for "reference card", and then just sell/test OC versions which use significantly more (and get much better results)
Comments
The site has been doing "testing" for a long time - getting on for 40 years is it? Over that time it has also has provided some serious feedback to manufacturers - and helped identify bugs and provide fixes. No surprise the site is able to attract advertising.
I didn't see this article being about AMD vs. NVidia either; maybe some people should read it.
And the only thing I will add to Quizzical's summary above is to provide a reason why people might care when it comes to desktop solutions and that is noise.
And I for one am glad that Tom's Hardware started pushing noise as an issue some years ago now (think Andtech picked it up as well).
GPU: Sapphire r9 390 Nitro
CPU: i5-6600
RAM: 2x4 GB 2400
PSU: CM 650W M
SSD: 850 EVO
REST: couple of case fans and PCI-E sound card
In full load without GPU rig uses around 100W (CPU 65+RAM 7+ 5 case fans 15+SSD 2,5+soundcard 10)
Game was Witcher 3, MOST DEMANDING scene he could find ingame (so its NOT COMPARABLE to other benchmarks)
Settings:
- Motion Blur/Blur - off
- AA - on
- Bloom - on
- Sharpening - low
- AO - HBAO+
- DOF/Chromatic/Vignette - off
- Light shaft - on
- Vsync - on
- Max fps - 60
- 1920x1200
- Hairworks - off
- rest - ultra
(notion: with Water and Foliage visibility on high he gets steady 60 FPS)
Peak power consumption for WHOLE RIG measured directly from the wall. PSU efficiency 91,06% (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CoolerMaster/V650/6.html)
Results: consumption (wall)/FPS/TEMP/FAN SPEED/GPU
Default: 1040/1500 362W (398W) 42.5 FPS, 75 C, 50%, 262W
-44mV, 1040/1500: 323W (355W), 42.5 FPS, 72 C, 47% 223 W
-44mV, 935/1500: 254W (273W), 39.7 FPS, 64 C, 39%, 154 W
-44mV, 935/1600: 399W (329W), 39.9 FPS, 66 C, 39%, 229W
-44mV, 935/1500: 254W (273W), 39.7 FPS, 67 C, 33% (custom fan curve) - chosen setup 154W
Author also noted that GPU works with -100mV, but there are diminishing results after -44mV and that he is satifsied with chosen setup so he will go with that.
He also noted that he played FO4 with same setup for around 10 hours and that with everything on max (with gimpworks on ultra) he gets constant 60FPS with very very occasional dips to 45 FPS (he observed it happened twice in 10 hours)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And there you have it, 150W TDP R9 390
If we translate this to how NVidia set up Maxwell, AMD could have used this setup and claimed R9 390 is 150W TDP GPU