We recently published our annual ranking of the best graphics cards for every price range. The majority of the action occurred at price points of $100, $150, $200, and $300. High-end graphics cards such as the Radeon R9 390X and GeForce GTX 980 Ti drive the price up to $400 and beyond.
We recommended that you spend between $100 and $200 on an AMD R7 360, R7 370, or R9 380. We’ve been waiting for AMD and Nvidia to release a $250 graphics card. But due to the price difference between the $200 Radeon R9 380 and the $300 Radeon R9 390.
When we first heard about the Radeon R9 380X a few months ago, we assumed it was a completely new graphics card. The Radeon R9 285 and R9 380 are the only two Radeon R9 300 series graphics cards. To include AMD’s latest generation Tonga GPU, which is built on a 28nm process and operates on the GCN 1.2 architecture.
Is it a good idea to buy the AMD Radeon R9 380X?
The best value is found in components that have both high performance (yellow) and a low price point (green) (green). The less overlap there is between the yellow and green bars, the higher the value.
Features
The initial GPU clock speed of 1040MHz on this card is quite impressive. Sapphire includes one of its sleek Dual-X heatsinks to keep the 380X’s Tonga chip from overheating. The cooler’s dual ball-bearing fans will stop spinning under low loads, allowing for completely silent operation. From this angle, you can also see the numerous copper heat pipes on this card.
The Nitro is an unusually large graphics card with a solid, weighty feel in the hand. This heft, combined with the exposed copper, indicates the presence of a high-end cooler hidden behind the Nitro’s exterior. With a length of about 9 inches, this card should be usable in the vast majority of standard cases.
Sapphire includes a nicely finished aluminium backplate to protect the Nitro 380X PCB. The card receives power from two PCIe power connectors, each with six pins. Sapphire anticipates that the Nitro 380X will have an MSRP of $239.99.Â
Specifications
The R9 380X, despite using the modern Graphics Core Next architecture. Moreover, it is powered by the nearly four-year-old Radeon HD 7970 graphics card. Also, 7970 was AMD’s flagship component when it was released in January 2012 for $550.
The AMD Radeon r9 380x has 1792 Stream Processor Units (SPUs), 112 Texture Address Units (TAUs). Furthermore, the 32 Raster Operations Pipelines (ROPs), are just like the HD 7970 and R9 280X. The HD 7970 is now 5% faster than the original model and nearly 15% faster than the R9 280X thanks to an increase in clock speed.
The R9 380X appears to have a lot going for it until you learn that its memory subsystem reduces the memory bus from 384 to 256 bits.
Performance
In Assassin’s Creed Unity at 1080p with ultra settings and Nvidia’s Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows (PCSS) disabled, the Radeon R9 380X averaged just 48 frames per second. Based on these results, the 380X was only 7% faster than the AMD Radeon r9 380x and GTX 960, and 16% slower than the R9 390. The R9 380X only outperformed the older Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and R9 280X by 4%.
Despite delivering a respectable 59 frames per second, the Radeon R9 380X was 2% slower than the R9 280X. The R9 380X outperformed the R9 380 by 9% but was 29% less powerful than the R9 390.
Also read: Here Is Everything You Need To Know About AMD Ryzen 5 3500