MSI Radeon R9 390 GAMING 8G 8GB GDDR5

The MSI R9 390 GAMING 8G is an old card that still handles 1080p gaming okay, with 8GB of VRAM and a surprisingly good cooler. But it's power hungry, huge, and lacks modern features like proper ray tracing. Only worth buying if you find it very cheap and don't care about newer games.

The R9 390 pushes 27.65 FP32 TFLOPS and hits a PassMark G3D score of 8780. That's enough for solid 1080p gaming on older titles, and 1440p is doable if you're willing to dial settings back. The 8GB of VRAM helps with texture-heavy games, but the 1040MHz boost clock and GDDR5 memory mean this card is firmly in the past. Ray tracing is basically a non-starter at the 31st percentile, and 4K gaming is the weakest area at 20.4 out of 100. If you're playing esports titles or games from a few years ago, you'll be fine. If you want Cyberpunk at max settings, keep scrolling.

Stacked against the Gigabyte AORUS GV-N5080AORUS M-16GD, ASUS TUF Gaming TUF-RTX5070TI-O16G-WHITE-GAMING, or ZOTAC SOLID SFF OC ZT-B50710J3-10P, this MSI card gets absolutely demolished. Those cards are from a completely different generation with ray tracing, DLSS, and efficiency that makes the R9 390 look like a space heater. The Sapphire NITRO+ 11348-01-20G and XFX Mercury RX-97TRGBBB9 are also far ahead. The only reason to pick the R9 390 is if you find it dirt cheap and only play older games. Otherwise, save up for something newer.

Pricing is all over the place. You'll find this card listed at USD 389 in the US, GBP 505 in the UK, and EUR 642 to EUR 952 across European vendors. That EUR 310 spread is wild, and the best deal we see is at the lower end of that range. At USD 389, this card is a tough sell when you can get newer cards with better performance for not much more. But if you're on a strict budget and find one used or at the low end of that EUR range, it's a reasonable stopgap for 1080p gaming.

The MSI R9 390 GAMING 8G is a card from a different era, and it shows. 8GB of GDDR5 on a 512-bit bus sounds beefy, but the underlying chip is old enough that modern games will make it sweat. That said, for 1080p gaming on a budget, it still has some life left.

Our database puts this card's thermal performance at the 83rd percentile, which is genuinely impressive for a 295W card with a triple fan cooler. But the raster performance sits at the 20th percentile, and efficiency is down at 14th. This is a card that trades raw power for heat and electricity, and you'll feel it on your power bill.

Skip this card if you want to play modern AAA games at high settings, do any ray tracing, or care about power efficiency. Also skip it if you have a small case or a PSU under 650W. If you're building a new system in 2025, there are far better options that won't turn your room into a sauna.

The MSI R9 390 GAMING 8G is a relic that still works for 1080p gaming if you manage expectations. It runs cool for its power draw, has enough VRAM for older titles, and the build quality is solid. But the high power consumption, massive size, and outdated feature set make it a hard recommendation in 2025. If you're building a budget rig for esports or older AAA games and find this card for under USD 200 used, it's worth a look. Otherwise, put your money toward something with modern features.