PowerColor R9 390 PCS+ 8GB Graphics Card Review

Rikki Wright / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The PowerColor R9 390 PCS+ is currently available in the UK from OverclockersUK for £249.95. In the US, it can be picked up from Newegg.com for just $329.99. This low price point makes this model the cheapest R9 390 on the market at the moment and even cheaper when it’s on offer.

Overview

Overall dealing with this card has been simple and refreshing. It’s nice to see more options in the high-end market rather than just the big hitters like the Fury range, this keeps things interesting for both AMD and NVIDIA to keep prices competitive and offer more bang for buck. The R9 390 is a rebrand yes, but that shouldn’t put you off. This card shows that the optimised manufacturing processes and higher factory overclock offered are enough to please consumers, while offering it at a low price.

I’ll say it now, it’s not the most attractive option on the market, but the PCS+ motto is “Ultra Cool, Ultra Performance”, which is a nod towards function over form. I find this a better way to make a graphics card, especially if it’s on the cheaper end of the market as the focus is on performance rather than looks. That being said, the straight cut lines and easy removal of the cooling shroud screams to the modder in me to spray in different colours to match my colour scheme.

The performance is strong for an R9 390, it holds a consistent lead over the slightly more expensive GTX 970 and sometimes edges the GTX 980 in some of the 4K benchmarks. The low price also lends itself well to Crossfire in the future, which is great considering the high scaling percentage with AMD graphics cards. Due to this card featuring older technology which has been optimised hugely through the production process and overclocked higher from the factory, there is very little additional headroom for an overclock at home. This might be enough to put some consumers off, but when compared to other R9 390’s, this overclock was one of the highest we’ve seen so far and gave some great results.

Pros