[katos]

 
Introduction
It's taken a while but we finally have a new, properly new, AMD GPU to review in the form of the R9 Fury X. We are sure we're not the only ones excited to see if the Fury X matches up to the GTX980Ti in the same way the R9 290X matched the GTX780Ti, and with the theoretical improvements of High Bandwidth Memory we're anxious to throw some benchmarks at the Fury X and see how it performs.
 
'High Bandwidth Memory', we hear you say, 'what's that?'. Assuming that you have been under a rock, or not paying attention to this very website, HBM is taking the 3D Memory chip idea that we're used to seeing in Solid State Drives, and putting it onto the GPU PCB. By having the smallest possible distance between the physical GPU and the 3D High Bandwidth Memory, and tiny spaces between each bank of DRAM AMD have ended up with an extremely compact, power efficient solution which promises massively improved bandwidth. As the gaming marketplace moves - in the high-end at least - towards demanding resolutions and Virtual Reality, so the need for immense memory bandwidth becomes a pressing one.
 
 
Whether you think that VR will revolutionise the industry, or be a flash in the pan akin to 3D displays, there is no doubt that it's coming and so manufacturers have to be ready. We're of the firm opinion that resolution is actually the future but either way the requirement of oodles of bandwidth remains. Probably the most surprising aspect of the HBM solution is the low clockspeed. GDDR5 is normally found running around the 1750MHz mark whereas AMDs HBM only pops up at 500MHz. If the performance is equivalent to GDDR5 then considering the technology is in its infancy it will prove to be the way forwards for everyone. When was the last time AMD changed the rule book?
 
Technical Specifications
Away from the unique memory solution the GCN at the heart of the Fury X is similar to most graphics processors. Plenty of Stream Processors, running at a fast pace, form the backbone of the AMD range and the Fury X is no exception. DirectX 12 support ensures that you can take advantage of the latest iteration of Microsofts revolutionary API. Add this to the new Virtual Super Resolution, a similar downscaling idea to the nVidia Dynamic Super Resolution, AMDs own FreeSync technology, and our favourite, Frame Rate Target Control, and there is no doubt that the Fury X has all the bells and whistles. We'll cover FRTC on the power page.
 
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Test Setup
Quote

 
AMD R9 Fury X
AMD Catalyst 15.15.1004
Intel Core i7-4960X @ 4.4GHz
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
Corsair Dominator Platinum 2133
Corsair AX1500i
Corsair Neutron GTX
Corsair H100i
Windows 7 x64

 
Temperatures
The AIO cooling solution performs brilliantly here. This is, as always, the absolute highest result we achieved during testing. Most games though had the card around the 50°C mark which is where you'd probably find it in general use.

 
Power Draw
Yes, the Fury X can use an extraordinary amount of power if left untethered. It doesn't have to though, as Frame Rate Target Control allows you to set a maximum frame rate in the Catalyst Control Centre and the card will be powered down sufficiently to hit that target. Rather than those "easy on the GPU" moments where hundreds of frames can be rendered needlessly, the Fury X just wont bother. This, particularly in titles like Alien Isolation where the FPS is in the hundreds, have a massive impact on the power draw, dropping it by well over 100W, and in some cases more than that. Of course we're after the highest numbers possible in benchmarking terms, so we've got FRTC disabled, but in real world usage the power draw will be much lower.

 
3D Mark Vantage
It's odd that so many people still place such stock in a 3D Mark Vantage P Score. When was the last time you ran a game at such a meagre resolution and with such terrible image quality? The Extreme preset is a greater reflection on modern gaming and the Fury X does extremely well, up with the heavy hitting GTX980Ti. An excellent start.

3D Mark 11
A perfect encapsulation of why we were more impressed by the 390X than many people expected us to be, and yet also excited for the Fury X. Similar low-res performance but the Extreme preset difference is night and day.
 

 
source: http://www.overclock...fury_x_review/1

[Sir Twisted]

Thank you for sharing Katos!

[Tyler]

Nice share Katos :D

[VRLife]

Those closed loop water coolers work amazing on GFX cards.   About 2 years ago I installed the Antec Kuhler H2O 620 to a GTX 560TI. Temps went from 90C to 50C under load. You could also do some monster overclocking.

[katos]

Those closed loop water coolers work amazing on GFX cards.   About 2 years ago I installed the Antec Kuhler H2O 620 to a GTX 560TI. Temps went from 90C to 50C under load. You could also do some monster overclocking.

Absolutely, hoping to upgrade my system over time to update to a h100 gti closed loop cpu cooler and then looking at a closed loop 6-8gb GFX card. :)