AMD Radeon R9 380X Review: Fastest GPU Under $250
Introducing The Radeon R9 380X
AMD is poised to make a lot of noise as we head into the holiday shopping season. The Radeon Technology Group has already announced its Radeon Software Crimson Edition, which completely revamps the company’s GPU software suite, and promises improved stability and performance. And that insane, dual-Fiji powered graphics card we had the opportunity to show you back during E3 in June, probably isn’t too far off either. Today though, it’s the mid-range GPU market that’s getting a shot of adrenaline.
As much as we all love uber-powerful, high-end graphics cards around these here parts, it’s in the more mainstream price segments where AMD and NVIDIA sell the bulk of their GPUs. Although AMD’s mid-range GPU line-up has been relatively strong for a while now, the company is launching the new Radeon R9 380X today with the goal of taking down competing graphics cards like the popular GeForce GTX 960.
The Radeon R9 380X may be a new member of the Radeon family, but it’s packing technology we’re already familiar with. Take a look at the specifications below and then we’ll dig into the rest of this story and explain...
As much as we all love uber-powerful, high-end graphics cards around these here parts, it’s in the more mainstream price segments where AMD and NVIDIA sell the bulk of their GPUs. Although AMD’s mid-range GPU line-up has been relatively strong for a while now, the company is launching the new Radeon R9 380X today with the goal of taking down competing graphics cards like the popular GeForce GTX 960.
The Radeon R9 380X may be a new member of the Radeon family, but it’s packing technology we’re already familiar with. Take a look at the specifications below and then we’ll dig into the rest of this story and explain...
A Reference Radeon R9 380X - You Probably Won't See Many Of These
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| Process | 28nm |
| Stream Processors | 2048 |
| Engine Clock | ≥ 970 MHz |
| Compute Performance | 3.97 TFLOPs |
| Texture Units | 128 |
| Texture Fill-Rate | 124.26 GT/s |
| ROPs | 32 |
| Pixel Fill-Rate | 31.04 GP/s |
| Z/Stencil | 128 |
| Memory Configuration | 4GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Speed / Data Rate | Up to 1,425MHz/5.7Gbps |
| Memory Bandwidth | Up to 182.4 GB/s |
| Power Connectors | 2 x 6-pin |
| Typical Board Power | 190W |
| PCI-E Standard | PCI-E 3.0 |
| API Support | DirectX 12, Vulkan, Mantle |
| FreeSync Support | Yes |
| Virtual Super Resolution | Yes |
| Frame Rate Targeting Control | Yes |
If you’ve got a really good memory, many of the main specifications listed above will ring a bell. That’s because the Radeon R9 380X is powered by a version of a GPU that was released over a year ago. The Radeon R9 380X is built around the Tonga GPU, which debuted on the Radeon R9 285 in September 2014. Although the Radeon R9 285 has only 1792 stream processors arranged in 28 compute units, with 112 texture units, and 32 ROPs, the GPU features more. In our review of the Radeon R9 285 we said, “...the Tonga GPU actually features a total of 32 compute units and 2048 stream processors. And there’s speculation that the chip may have the capability to support a 384-bit memory interface. The moral of the story is that while the Radeon R9 285 may be the first graphics card powered by Tonga, it likely won’t be the most powerful. A full implementation of Tonga will probably arrive at some point, perhaps after NVIDIA shows its next hand.” Well, that “some point” is now.
The Radeon R9 380X has a fully-functional Tonga GPU with all 32 compute units / 2048 shader processors enabled (assuming 256-bits is the max width of the memory bus). AMD’s reference specifications call for a 970MHz+ engine clock with 4GB of 1425MHz GDDR5 memory (5.7 Gbps effective). Typical board power is 190W and cards require a pair of supplemental 6-pin power feeds. The vast majority of the Radeon R9 380X cards that will hit the market, however, will likely be custom models that are factory overlcocked and look nothing like AMD’s reference design.
The Radeon R9 380X we’ll be testing here comes by way of Sapphire, but as you can see, a number of other board partners are at the ready with cards of their own. We don't have a full list of specifications handy for all of the cards shown above, but you can bet they are clocked higher than AMD's reference specs.The Radeon R9 380X has a fully-functional Tonga GPU with all 32 compute units / 2048 shader processors enabled (assuming 256-bits is the max width of the memory bus). AMD’s reference specifications call for a 970MHz+ engine clock with 4GB of 1425MHz GDDR5 memory (5.7 Gbps effective). Typical board power is 190W and cards require a pair of supplemental 6-pin power feeds. The vast majority of the Radeon R9 380X cards that will hit the market, however, will likely be custom models that are factory overlcocked and look nothing like AMD’s reference design.
Sapphire Nitro R9 380X - Front View
The Sapphire Nitro R9 380X Is A Dual-Slot Solution
The Sapphire Nitro R9 380X Features A Stylized Backpate
