HIS Radeon R9 390X IceQ X2 Video Card Review - Most Unique 390X So Far

Introduction

After our review of the SAPPHIRE Tri-X R9 390X 8GB and MSI Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G cards, we now have the new HIS Radeon R9 390X IceQ X2 card in our lab to play with. I haven't used a HIS card in forever, so it was quite the reunion for me. I used to sell countless HIS products when I worked in a small computer retailer, where I used to love their interesting takes on cooling designs and packaging.

Fast forward to today, where we have their Hawaii-based Radeon R9 390X IceQ X2 card. HIS has used a different style cooler that is one of the most original I've seen, with the color scheme definitely something that will catch consumers' eyes.

Quick Specs

The Radeon R9 390X is virtually identical to the Radeon R9 290X that it is essentially a rebranding of the old product. AMD has pushed the VRAM up to 8GB on the 390X however, as well as tweaking the GPU and RAM clocks.

The Radeon R9 390X still features the same 2816 stream processors, 76 TMUs, 64 ROPs and 28nm process carried over from the R9 290X. The card is ready for DirectX 12, has support for AMD's FreeSync, EyeFinity and LiquidVR technologies.

Note that the Radeon R9 390X, while it is a brand new card, only supports DirectX 12. NVIDIA has support for DirectX 12.1 in all of its 900 series, including the GeForce GTX 980, GTX 980 Ti, and Titan X .

Availability & Price

AMD is pricing the Radeon R9 390X with 8GB of VRAM at around $399-$429 depending on the brand. You'll find some retailers pricing them higher than $429, but be sure to shop around before clicking the buy button. This means you're paying around a $100 premium for the 390X with 8GB of RAM, compared to the 290X with 4GB of RAM, which you can find for $329 or so.