At first I would like to thank HIS for offering a sample of their R9 390 IceQ X2 OC 8GB Video Card for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About HIS:

 

“HIS - Hightech Information System Limited is an internationally acclaimed graphics cards company. Time and time again, HIS were compared and tested by hundreds of worldly renowned critics. The results are phenomena, HIS have proven to offer far superior, cooler, quieter, and faster graphic cards than any other leading rivals. Up to the fourth quarter of 2011, HIS has won over 1600 awards with AMD graphic solution from major media worldwide. HIS is being recognized by providing performance leading and award-wining products: IceQ, IceQ X and Turbo Edition.

HIS was established in 1987 with the mission to produce the highest quality PC products in the industry. Besides strong devotion to excellent products and services, HIS has been conducting business with the aim to "Glorifying God". Honesty and integrity are the two key principals of how HIS are conducted. Ethical business practice has been an everyday commitment to our clients, vendors, and investors.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, and with sales offices and distribution networks in Europe, Middle East, North and South America, Asia Pacific Regions; our worldwide customers benefits from efficient and localized services. ISO Certified, HIS's manufacturing facility in China is managed by a team of professionals with expertise in quality control and production planning. Working with world-class clients, HIS has been consistently meeting high quality standards and fulfilled volume order in short lead-time.

HIS is proud to be AMD's Authorized 1st Tier AIB Partner, Certified Partner and Launching Partner. Long term and favorable relationship with AMD, enable HIS to work closely with AMD to promote the HIS AMD Graphics Board; and to strive for best value on the marketing and sales of HIS AMD Product Line.

In Sept 2003, HIS incorporated the state-of-the art Supreme Cooling Technology in the award winning HIS 9800Pro IceQ, which caught the attention of worldwide media. Since then, HIS IceQ series and the latest IceQ X series has been the limelight in the market for its outstanding performance and features over the other rivals.

Today, HIS continues its avid commitment to quality product and service. HIS is certain to be Your Choice of Graphics Board Supplier.”

Product Features:

 

IceQ X2 cooling system combines two types of heatpipes, a large heatsink and two superior dual axial fans for cooling the card more efficiently while keeping the noise to a minimum.

 

Thanks to the HIS special metal rib on the frontal side of the PCB and the backplate, the board won’t bend at all during use so the internal components won’t be damaged during prolonged use.

 

The card is equipped with improved power design delivery which is great for overclocking. HIS cards are utilizing Dynamic Phase Control PWM ICs to save power.

 

The dual-BIOS functionality of the card permits the user to use the card in two different modes (Quiet and Standard); while the Quiet mode is recommended only when we are not gaming, the Standard mode optimizes the fan curve in order to have optimal temperatures available during intense sessions.

 

Built for Crossfire

 

The card is armed with 2x Crossfire Connectors and is ready for up to 4-way crossfire for strengthened performance!

 

New Technology, New Experiences

 

AMD FreeSync™ Technology

 

The FreeSync™ technology resolves the communication issues between processor and monitor, eliminating image tears and choppiness for effortlessly smooth gameplay.

 

GCN

 

With AMD 2nd generation GCN technology, the card optimizes DirectX® 12 gaming performance automatically up to 2.5 times faster! It also offers up to 4.5x compute performance and up to 95% lower GPU Idle Power Consumption!

 

AMD TrueAudio

 

With the sonic brilliance of AMD TrueAudio technology, your games now sound as good as they look. You get the most revolutionary, realistic and breathtaking sound we’ve ever put in a GPU.

 

AMD Eyefinity

 

Set up Eyefinity on 3 displays with No ACTIVE DisplayPort Adapter is needed.

 

Enjoy HD Beauty

 

With Full HD 1080p support, the card delivers high quality 1920X1080 graphics, enabling seamless full-screen video playback. See HD, hear HD and feel HD - Enjoy the beautiful graphics now with the card!

 

Enjoy Copy Protected Movies

 

The card is HDCP complaint, enabling users to play copy-protected content, such as commercial DVD movies.

 

Enjoy True to Life Graphics

 

ULTRA HD videos have resolution four times that of current HD videos, meaning images too clear that may deceive your eyes! With the card, you are set for getting the movie theater experience to your home. You may be able to watch a video shooting the Eiffel tower and zoom it in to see your friend’s face clearly from the top! Get your eyes impressed and enjoy mind-blowing graphics with extreme clarity, depth and texture!

 

PCI-e 3.0 Support

 

Armed with the latest PCI-e 3.0 bus design maximizes performance by delivering double bandwidth per lane of PCI-e 2.x. Paired the card with the latest platforms and get the ultimate performance!

 

More Graphics, Less Power!

 

The new architecture of the card gets more usable processing power for your money, enabling better frame rates in the latest games at high resolutions. In addition, with AMD ZeroCore Power & AMD PowerTune technologies, you can optimize the balance between performance and power consumption of your system by adjusting the engine clock during runtime of the card. Manage the power and keep your wallet loaded!

 

See More, Enjoy More!

 

The card supports 30” LCD monitor and any large size TV up to 80" feature with 16:9 ratio in amazing 4096 by 2160 resolution. Up-scaling your computer into a multimedia center with the biggest display!

 

See More, Win More!

 

The card is capable to turn your computer into a super gaming machine. Enjoy the latest 3D games with stunning graphics and effects that your enemies cannot match! Get an immersive experience with AMD Eyefinity!

Expand your game across up to 3 displays while your opponents have one monitor. Along with all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation and brand new display configurations, take the unfair advantage over your opponent and win more with the surround sight

 

View More, Work Better

 

Having one dedicated screen just for twitter or Facebook and a second for outlook is not a dream anymore. The card features a DisplayPort for enhanced workspace flexibility. You can easily connect to the 27” Apple LED Cinema Displays with the DisplayPort. The dual-link DVI port allows you connect to a 30” DVI display up to 2560x1600. Resolution can even reach 4096x2160 with HDMI® , good for TV up to 80"!

 

Hear Better in Video Conference

 

Most GPUs today support only one audio stream at a time. The card, however, has Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio that can simultaneously output multiple, independent audio streams. Audio seamlessly follows the video, providing affordable multi-display, multi-audio conferencing for consumers!

 

Product Specifications:

 

After we have been quite impressed with the HIS R9 390X OC offering, we would like to continue our journey by looking at the HIS R9 390 IceQ X2 OC 8GB and see how this board fits in when compared with many other cards. As the situation with the 390X, the 390 is based on the refreshed Hawaii GPU which was released back in October 2013 but the latest ASIC version is now baptized Grenada and features the same specifications as before. We would like to remind that the fabrication process is still 28nm, we have 2560 shading units, 160 texture units and 64ROPs. Since we are doing with refined hardware versions, AMD also saw fit to increase the clocks for both memory and GPU; if on the R9 290 we had a GPU clock of 947MHz while the memory was running at 5000MHz (effective) clock, for the R9 390 we have a GPU clock of 1000MHz, while the memory is running at 6000MHz (effective). The HIS version has also been further overclocked on the GPU so we are dealing with a 1020MHz GPU core speed, while the memory clock was left at default speeds. One more important aspect of the R9 390 is the fact that the available memory has been increased from 4GB to 8GB in order to help more when multiple cards are paired via CrossFireX configurations for displaying 3D content on multiple monitors.

 

If we return on the packaging aspect of the HIS R9 390 IceQ X2 OC 8GB card, we will get to see a similar arrangement as with the 390X; the box art tries to tell us right from the start that we are dealing with a high-performance cooling solution which should keep our card in good operating conditions even after long gaming sessions:

 

 

 

By using small icons, HIS tries to display some of the board main features:

 

 

 

 

If we turn the box on one side, we will get to see the box contents via pictograms:

 

 

 

Also the system requirements will be printed here:

 

 

 

On the back side of the enclosure, HIS felt the need to explain in more detail the main product features:

 

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with a medium-sized black cardboard box, which has a white HIS logo printed in the middle:

 

 

 

By lifting its top cover, we will get to see the documentation, which is composed from a HIS envelope but also a leaflet which explains how the card should be installed into the slot in order to avoid damages:

 

 

 

If we open the envelope we will discover the driver disk, one multi-language installation guide, but also a small case sticker:

 

 

 

In order to avoid any damage during transit, HIS saw fit to use a lot of foam material, but has also wrapped the card inside an anti-static bag:

 

 

 

The R9 390 has a very similar look to the R9 390X we have just reviewed so it sports the same high-performance cooler from the manufacturer which implies the use of two 90mm two ball bearing fans which have a life span of up to 50000 hours; the top metallic shroud is meant to optimize the airflow and HIS also likes to name it an “anti-dust cover”.

 

 

 

On the left and right sides of the shroud we can discover two stickers, which give the card a more aggressive, sporty look:

 

 

 

 

In the vicinity we will also get to see an IceQ X2 chromed logo:

 

 

 

The sides of the card allow us to see the heatpipe arrangement; we will get here 3x6mm heatpipes which are joined by 2x8mm heatpipes, which help remove the heat from the GPU copper plate and bring it on top to the large, aluminum-fin heatsink. For easier manipulation, HIS has also incorporated a carry handle:

 

 

 

 

The HIS R9 390 OC needs extra power from one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI-Express connector:

 

 

 

As we have seen before with 290/290X/390X cards, these feature dual-BIOS capabilities; one of the BIOSes is meant for very quiet operation while the other one is the Standard version, which should be used during gaming:

 

 

 

On the back side of the card we have a backplate which takes like two thirds of the card PCB and helps reinforce it in order to avoid bending:

 

 

 

The cooling system is extending more than the 390 PCB length so the card has a total of 29.7cm:

 

 

 

On the I/O we will find a small grill for hot air evacuation, two DVI ports with HDCP support, one HDMI and one DisplayPort 1.2 port:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 4690K Retail @ 4.6GHz

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX

Motherboard: BIOSTAR Z97X Gaming

RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 4x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)

Video: Currently reviewed card

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 240GB + OCZ Vertex 460

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

With the help of the GPU-Z utility, we could extract lots of information regarding the video card clocks,memory type, pixel and texture fill rate and so on:

 

 

To receive more in-depth information regarding the GPU, we have used the AIDA64 utility:

 

 

 

 

Temperature tests:

For finding out the temperatures in both IDLE and Full Load with the fan set on Auto, we left the computer IDLE for about 25 minutes and then started monitoring with HWINFO64 and logged the values obtained while running Heaven 4.0 at the 1920x1080 resolution for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, with details at Maximum and Tesselation set to Extreme. During this time, the ambient temperature was held steady at 26.7 degrees Celsius:

 

 

Noise measurements

Before measuring out the noise the video card was producing, we have first measured the noise inside the room the tests took place and we found out it was 29.1 dBA (with everything turned off).

At all times, the sound meter was placed 20cm near the video card.

The GPU fan was controlled by the latest version of the MSI Afterburner utility:

 

 

 

3DMark 11

 

3DMark 11 is a DirectX 11 video card benchmark test for measuring your PC's gaming performance. 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of DirectX 11 features including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 consistently and reliably tests your PC's DirectX 11 performance under game-like loads.

 

 

3DMark 2013

 

3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware in one app. Whether you're gaming on a smart phone, tablet, notebook, laptop, desktop, or a high performance gaming PC, 3DMark includes a benchmark designed specifically for your type of device. And it's not just for Windows. You can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It's the best 3DMark we've ever created.

 

 

Unigine Heaven 4.0

 

Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system's potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

 

 

Hitman Absolution

 

Hitman: Absolution is a stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix. It is the fifth installment in the Hitman game series, and runs on IO Interactive's proprietary Glacier 2 game engine.

 

 

DIRT: Rally V0.5

 

Dirt Rally is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows. An early access version of the game was released on 27 April 2015, via digital distribution service Steam.

 

 

Sleeping Dogs

 

Sleeping Dogs is a 2012 open world action-adventure video game developed by United Front Games and Square Enix London. It was published by Square Enix and Bandai Namco Games for Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

 

 

Tomb Raider

 

Tomb Raider is a media franchise that began as a video game series and includes comic books, novels, theme park rides, and movies, centering around the adventures of the British archaeologist Lara Croft.

 

 

Sniper Elite III

 

Sniper Elite III is a tactical shooter video game developed by Rebellion Developments and published by 505 Games for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

 

 

Metro Last Light

 

Metro: Last Light is a single-player post-apocalyptic-themed first-person shooter video game with stealth and survival horror elements, developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver.

 

 

Bioshock Infinite

 

BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games.

 

 

Crysis 2

 

Crysis 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek, published by Electronic Arts and released in North America, Australia and Europe in March 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

 

 

Batman Arhkam Origins

 

Batman: Arkham Origins is a 2013 action-adventure video game developed by Warner Bros. Games Montréal and released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 video game consoles.

 

 

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

 

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an open world action-adventure video game set within Tolkien's legendarium, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

 

 

Alien: Isolation

 

Alien: Isolation is a first-person survival horror stealth video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega.

 

 

Grid Autosport

 

Grid Autosport is a racing video game released by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 24 June 2014 in North America and 27 June 2014 in Europe.

 

 

Again, it is time to wrap-up and draw the final conclusions concerning the HIS R9 390 IceQ X2 OC video cards: as we have stated before, the technology incorporated inside the R9 390 GPU is not new, but is based on the Hawaii (now baptized Grenada), with the same shader count, texture units, ROPs and so on. The manufacturing process is also still 28nm but there are minor improvements which allow running the card at higher speeds and the memory quantity has been doubled, from 4GB to 8GB. Since the HIS R9 390 IceQ X2 is marketed as a pre-overclocked card, the GPU clocked has been raised to 1020MHz instead of 1000MHz stock, while the memory clock remains the same as the OEM AMD cards.

 

Speaking of the overclocking capabilities again, with the R9 390 from HIS we were quite lucky since the card has permitted us to raise the clocks up to 1100MHz for the core and 1650MHz for the memory and this without any extra voltage added. Thanks to this, the score in 3DMark 11 has been raised considerably:

 

 

 

The card comes with the exact same cooler we have seen with the R9 290/290X/390X from HIS and this is not a bad thing since it can keep the card quite cool as we have seen from the Unigine Heaven test; the fan did also remain at a relatively low speed so if we have a well ventilated case we should obtain an overall quiet gaming system.

 

Regarding the card performance at stock clocks, we can say that it gets owned by the Gigabyte overclocked 290X model, but its performance is still quite enough to play most games at 1440p resolutions, while for 4K we would recommend a CrossfireX setup composed from two 390 or better, two 390X cards. There is a “but” though if we are planning to use the card with one of the latest 4K Smart TVs: the R9 390/390X cards do not feature HDMI 2.0 so the displayed framerate will be limited at 30, which won’t result in a smooth gameplay. In order to get over this we will have to use the DisplayPort interface instead.

 

The HIS R9 390 IceQ X2 OC 8GB video card can be found online for about 350 Euros which places it in the middle when compared with the prices of the same card from other manufacturers.

 

HIS R9 390 IceQ X2 OC 8GB is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to HIS for making this review possible!