XFX AMD R9 Fury X 4GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Price

Due to the extremely limited availability of the graphics card, prices are set to fluctuate massively in the coming weeks. Currently you can pre-order an XFX model from Scan.co.uk for £546.62, however, in stock prices are as high as £649.99. In the US, prices start at $649.99 from Newegg.com

Overview

So today we have the XFX R9 Fury X in for review. I can only say I am pleased with how this card has performed, Okay it was a lacking slightly behind the GTX 980Ti in some tests, but at 4K where these cards are designed to perform, we can see a definite lead by the R9 Fury X. It very much looks the part, the shadow chrome metal casing and soft touch covers really gave this card a nice feel and proves that a high-end graphics card doesn’t have to have sharp edges or be plastic to be appealing. Even though this is a much shorter card that its rivals, it’s longer than I was lead to believe from images; I thought that the overall footprint was similar to the NVIDIA GTX 970 ITX, this is around 30mm longer. The integration of the water pipes to the internals of the graphics card casing was a great idea on AMD’s behalf, it not only hides the ends of the pipes, but gives slightly more movement in the pipes also.

The performance was simply amazing. It more than put up a fight against NVIDIA’s offerings and proved that size isn’t everything, when referring to VRAM. It struggled to get traction in some tests, but at 4K it really proved it was a contender for the top spot. AMD still have some way to go to fully match NVIDIA on the performance front, the overall performance of the GPU core was shown in the Compute test, where it lagged behind the GTX 980.

With this graphics card, we saw the introduction of HBM. This has proven that the quantity of VRAM isn’t a limiting factor, more of the quality (or bandwidth) of the connection. It has been proven that just 4GB can more than compete on the same level as the 6GB GTX 980Ti and 12GB Titan X. In the next version of HBM, we are keen to see a much higher quantity of VRAM to 6/8/12GB capacities to see what it can really do. The card carries an early adopter premium, but in the next generation of cards, HBM could be introduced within the more mainstream market.

Sadly, an issue we pointed out earlier was the pump buzzing, despite the overall sound levels of the unit being lower than the competition, the noise was evident. If your computer is completely silent, I would wait until this issue has been fixed, otherwise it will be extremely irritating. Another point was the availability of the graphics cards. Due to under supply and over demand, the prices of these cards have shot up from ~£500 pre-order to well over £600 for cards in stock. Yes, this is retailers making money, but if AMD planned this properly, it should have had either notified the world regarding a limited supply or had more memory manufacturers producing to meet demand. We are waiting on an official reply from AMD regarding the pump noise and whether it is a fault or an issue that is going to be rectified in the next wave of stock.

Pros

• AIO Water cooling keeps temperatures down
• Short PCB opens up ITX case compatibility
• Advancement in VRAM technology
• Competition set for NVIDIA

Cons

• Early models have loud pump buzzing
• Early adopter price premium
• Low stock availability
• Additional 120mm fan and radiator can limit some consumers due to placement constraints

“AMD have really pulled it out of the bag with this graphics card. It’s a good sign that they have produced something that can compete with the top end NVIDIA cards. The introduction of HBM has really shone through here, with just 4GB being adequate at 4K gaming resolutions; let’s hope this is a sign of things to come from AMD.“

XFX AMD R9 Fury X 4GB Graphics Card Review