When comparing AMD Radeon R9 390X vs AMD Radeon RX 460, the Slant community recommends AMD Radeon RX 460 for most people. In the question“What are the best GPUs for gaming?” AMD Radeon RX 460 is ranked 7th while AMD Radeon R9 390X is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose AMD Radeon RX 460 is:
The RX 460 offers a very decent performance in recent video games with a 1080p resolution, although the card may struggle with maximum settings. Anno 2205 manages to squeeze an average [framerate of 45 fps ](https://nl.hardware.info/reviews/6898/5/amd-radeon-rx-460-review-topper-voor-htpc-maar-ook-voor-gaming-benchmarks-anno-2205) out of the RX 460 in 1080p and medium graphical settings. Similar results can be seen for Far Cry Primal at [49 fps](https://nl.hardware.info/reviews/6898/9/amd-radeon-rx-460-review-topper-voor-htpc-maar-ook-voor-gaming-benchmarks-far-cry-primal) and [47 frames per second](https://nl.hardware.info/reviews/6898/15/amd-radeon-rx-460-review-topper-voor-htpc-maar-ook-voor-gaming-benchmarks-the-witcher-3) for The Witcher 3. In Grand Theft Auto V, the RX 460 manages to achieve an average framerate of [100 fps](https://nl.hardware.info/reviews/6898/10/amd-radeon-rx-460-review-topper-voor-htpc-maar-ook-voor-gaming-benchmarks-gta-v). In short, the AMD Radeon RX 460 is perfectly capable of playing games at a 1080p resolution, albeit not on high or ultra settings.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro High FPS in games
The R9 390X performs well in recent games. In Battlefield 4 for example, in 1080 and using ultra quality settings, the R9 390X achieves an average framerate of 130 frames per second, with a minimum measured at 72 FPS.
The card also performs well in Grand Theft Auto V (maxed out settings and 1080p), where it is able to achieve an average framerate of 97 frames per second, and a minimum of 45 fps.
In Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, the R9 390X is able to achieve an average 96 frames per second, with a minimum to 42.
For Tomb Raider (2013), the R9 390X scores 98 frames per second on average and a minimum of 74 frames per second, all under 1080p and maximum settings.
The R9 390X is also well-equipped with enough horsepower to handle 1440p gaming, where it scores an average of 111 FPS for Battlefield 4, 89 for GTA V, 72 frames per second for Shadow of Mordor and an average of 67 FPS for Tomb Raider.
Gaming in 4K resolution is also a possibility, albeit with lower graphical settings. The R9 390X can handle Battlefield 4 fluently on medium settings with an average FPS of 70, and 60 FPS in ultra settings with a minimum of 36 FPS. A maxed-out Grand Theft Auto V results in a minimum and average framerate of 24 and 69, and 35 and 64 FPS for Shadow of Mordor. Tomb Raider is very playable in 4K even with a high preset, with an average framerate of 76 fps and a minimum of 62.
Pro Supported by most high end games
Most games specifically optimize for this card (among others).
Pro Lower price point due to new GPU's
The Radeon R9 390X is an older graphics card and doesn't use AMD's new Polaris architecture such as the RX 480. As stores are trying to replace the previous generation GPU's with the new models, a lower price point is offered for the R9 390X. You can find a 390X graphics card for a little over 300 dollars, which is 100 dollars less than the recommended retail price.
Pro Good entry-level card for 1080p gaming
The RX 460 offers a very decent performance in recent video games with a 1080p resolution, although the card may struggle with maximum settings. Anno 2205 manages to squeeze an average framerate of 45 fps out of the RX 460 in 1080p and medium graphical settings. Similar results can be seen for Far Cry Primal at 49 fps and 47 frames per second for The Witcher 3. In Grand Theft Auto V, the RX 460 manages to achieve an average framerate of 100 fps.
In short, the AMD Radeon RX 460 is perfectly capable of playing games at a 1080p resolution, albeit not on high or ultra settings.
Pro Offers great value
The 2 GB version of the RX 460 retails for a bit over $100, which is an extremely competitive price tag in the entry-level segment. Performance-wise, the RX 460 is a bit faster than a 750 Ti but costs about $30 less.
Pro Asynchronous shaders improve performance in recent games
The RX 470 offers concurrent/parallel CPU to GPU communication in DirectX 12, Mantle and Vulkan with asynchronous shaders for the stream processors. Asynchronous shaders allow the developers of games to maximize the potential of AMD's new Polaris architecture and this technology is used to optimize DX12, Mantle and Vulkan performance in recently released compatible games. In short, developers can now use multiple task queues and split up GPU power across multiple tasks at the same time.
Pro Cheapest card that supports H.265 decoding and HDMI 2.0
The RX 460 is currently the cheapest graphics card on the market with support for H.265/HEVC decoding (and thus Ultra HD resolutions with a high 10-bit color spectrum) and a HDMI 2.0 port. Next to gaming, this makes the RX 460 very suitable for playing Ultra HD video content.
Cons
Con Very little new tech
Mostly, this card is just a rebranded Radeon R9 290X, a card that was released in October 2013.
Con Uses a lot of power
The Radeon R9 390X consumes a lot of power - more-so than any other GPU (other than the 290X). In total, the testing rig used 440W of power when using the R9 390X. For comparison, the GTX 980 - which is also a previous-generation GPU - only used 280W, a 36% decrease.
Con Almost end-of-life, causes availability issues
Con Disappointing Vulkan performance
Vulkan is a graphical API that allows developers to better communicate with the GPU, which generally results in performance improvements compared to the more standard DirectX 12 or OpenGL API's. Some recent games offer support for Vulkan, such as Doom, Dota 2 and Ashes of the Singularity.
The RX 460 is considered to be a low-end graphics card and doesn't perform noticeably better in Vulkan. In Doom with Ultra Settings and 1080p resolution, the RX 460 is able to achieve an average framerate of 33 FPS, with a minimum of 19 and a maximum of 76. When using Vulkan in the exact same situation, the RX 460 has an average framerate of 35 fps which is an improvement that not noticeable in-game, and a lower minimum of 10.5 fps and a higher maximum of 174 frames per second. This very small difference is quite surprising, as the stronger RX 470 and RX 480 siblings of the RX 460 do perform significantly better under Vulkan.
Con 4 GB version adds little value
The AMD RX 460 is available in both a 2 GB and 4 GB version, but the latter version adds little value to this graphics card. Despite doubling the available video memory, performance differences in games at a 1080p resolution are very minimal. Compared to the 2 GB version, RX 460 cards with 4 gigabytes of memory retail for about $40 more and have a slightly higher power consumption due to the extra memory chips as well.
Con Disappointing performance-per-watt ratio
The RX 460 uses AMD's new Polaris 11 architecture and while this new generation of chips is more energy-efficient than previous-generation GPU's, the overall performance-per-watt ratio disappoints. The TDP (thermal design point and maximum power consumption) of the RX 460 is measured at 75 watts. In terms of gaming performance, the RX 460 offers similar results to the previous-generation R7 370 chip but unfortunately, power consumption is roughly the same.