Sapphire Announces The R9 390 TOXIC Graphics card

Even though AMD’s new Polaris architecture is arriving relatively soon, it hasn’t stopped leading vendors like Sapphire from producing new models based on the current line-up. The R9 390 offers exceptional value-for-money and its 8GB of VRAM makes it a suitable choice compared to the GTX 970 for VR setups. Driver updates from AMD have helped the R9 390 to become more competitive especially in DirectX 12 games. Today, Sapphire unveiled a brand new custom model which targets the Greater China region. This particular GPU sports a heavily overclocked core running at 1120MHz which is a boost of 120MHz compared to the reference design. The graphics card also utilises an effective 6000MHz GDDR5 memory. This latest model features Sapphire’s VaporX cooling technology consisting of 8mm heatpipes which transport heat to two aluminium fin stacks.

Sapphire have deployed a triple fan solution to aid overclocking headroom and keep the noise output to a minimum. The card incorporates a premium aluminium back-plate which covers the PCB to reduce temperatures and prevent GPU droop. This is important on a card of this size and enthuses a premium feel. Sadly, there’s no image of the backplate but I’m presuming it’s going to be similar to the 290X Vapor-X edition. 

As always, we will be requesting a review sample and see how the card performs compared to other high-end products on the market.