Thermals and Noise

Thanks to the custom cooler design, the PCS+ does not have a problem keeping its GPU clock high during extended intensive GPU load scenarios. The temperature goes up to 74 degrees Celsius, which is relatively low for such a big GPU.

PowerColor initially set the BIOS to keep the GPU temperature under 65 degrees, but during our review we received a new BIOS that will ship on retail cards. The new bios allows for 74 degrees, trading temperature for lower noise.

The PCS+ cooler is powerful enough to keep the card cool under load, so you can play around on your own as well. You don’t actually need a new BIOS to try out different settings. In any case, we can confirm that the PCS+ R9 390 8GB is not very loud during gameplay. The PCS+ cooler can be heard in a closed chassis, but it’s relatively quiet. The card is very silent in 2D mode.

Unfortunately, we can also report that coil whine is audible as well. You won’t hear it when the card is idling, but you can hear it under load. The issue plagues many graphics cards nowadays.

PowerColor PCS+ R9 390 : idle

PowerColor PCS+ R9 390 - load with old BIOS


PowerColor PCS+ R9 390 - load with new BIOS