# AMD Readies Radeon R9 380X, XFX Ready with Card



## btarunr (Sep 14, 2015)

AMD is readying a new SKU to take advantage of the vast pricing gap between the GeForce GTX 960 and GTX 970, and to bolster its sub-$300 lineup, with the Radeon R9 380X. This SKU will be based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, which implements the latest Graphics CoreNext 1.2 architecture. The R9 380X could max out the specifications of the "Tonga" silicon, offering 2,048 stream processors spread across 32 compute units, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding either 3 GB or 6 GB of memory. 

Another equally plausible theory pins the R9 380X as a chip with 2,048 stream processors, but the same 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface of the R9 380, with 4 GB of memory, letting AMD keep the costs low. XFX appears to be ready with a "Double Dissipation" card based on the R9 380X. The card's new-generation Double Dissipation cooler features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink with four 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, and a pair of 100 mm spinners, which are easily detachable, letting you clean the heatsink underneath. Mass-production of the R9 380X is reportedly underway, so a launch is to be expected rather soon.



 

 



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## NC37 (Sep 14, 2015)

6GB would be an interesting one to the lineup. Certainly something nVidia isn't doing. But we can't forget the disappointment train...last stop was Nano, lets see if it makes a stop in 380Xville.


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## RejZoR (Sep 14, 2015)

You don't need 6GB on such card...


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 14, 2015)

main question... how well it clocks... the clock decides the fate of this card... if it is past 1200MHz, it will be a stellar thing for the price.

And yeah... 6GB is useless... 4GB is okay for everything now, especially in the middle tier.


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## siluro818 (Sep 14, 2015)

Now that will be an interesting thing to check out! I was just about to get a R9 380, but it will be just stupid not to wait for this and see how it'll scale up in terms of price & performance ^^


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## Jonathan Marshall (Sep 14, 2015)

I'm curious to see benches on this. Not sure it's going to make much sense slotted against a r9 390 above it and r9 380 below. 

I'm guessing its going to be 4gb + 256bit.


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 14, 2015)

Jonathan Marshall said:


> to make much sense slotted against a r9 390 above it and r9 380 below.



It will make much sense if it gives comparable performance as 970ies... And a bit cheaper. Thats called earning money.


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## darkangel0504 (Sep 14, 2015)

really same to 280X, It will beat the 280X with 7 8% increase performance ?

http://i.imgur.com/up0q6nM.gif


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 14, 2015)

Tonga has IPC boost...  

If we peek up at the Hilberts chart for the useless R9 380. OC at 1.1GHZ. And stock 990MHz. Additional shader cluster and more speed... it demolishes the old grandpa 280X. And how well additional 100MHz gained boost.


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## buildzoid (Sep 14, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> main question... how well it clocks... the clock decides the fate of this card... if it is past 1200MHz, it will be a stellar thing for the price.
> 
> And yeah... 6GB is useless... 4GB is okay for everything now, especially in the middle tier.



None of the big AMD chips can consistently hit over 1150mhz. Also Tonga doesn't seem to scale with Vcore from some short testing I did at 1.3V core. Right now the card is dead because I accidentally broke 2 SMD caps on it but I hope that Sapphire will tell me what to replace them with and then I'll test the card from 1.2V to 1.45V.


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## NC37 (Sep 14, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> And yeah... 6GB is useless... 4GB is okay for everything now, especially in the middle tier.



And 4GB will likely be useless in a year no matter what res you push. 4k is the buzz word now but you can't define future gaming in lower res as never going over requiring more than 4GB. Or that 4k will never break over 4GB. 1GB used to be the hot spot for 1080 and up, and now theres games that press past 3.5GB at 1080. 

For longevity purposes, AMD scored well with the 300 series for VRAM. nVidia has no counter. However, if the card has the muscle or not...that remains to be seen. Already seen that the 960 4GB vs 960 2GB means almost nothing. The GPU is just crippled by the the 128bit. 

However, at 256bit and up, now it has some headroom. 

Course all of this is moot with the new GPU lines coming next year. But at the very least, if you had to buy this year, I wouldn't go less than 6-8GB. Unless you planned to buy again within mere months. But not all of us have disposable income to constantly buy new GPUs. For the 2-5yr buyers, 300s are attractive as the nVidia cards will show their age very fast. Especially all those 970s. I imagine those will be in e-waste bins very quickly with their performance stuttering problems when pushed past 3.5GB.


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 14, 2015)

buildzoid said:


> I accidentally broke 2 SMD caps



Gosh mate... you have to practice the basics first... for a year or so , if it is dead after breaking caps... they were not caps I suppose.

Actually voltage is not enough... judging from my experience clocking my old 7970... the Vbios is! I can top out different stable max at the same voltage. Just changing the video bios. The stock runs only at 1050 no matter what. I put some from 280X,  and bam 1150Mhz rock stable. The atombios source has some magic there, that helps clocking. Especially when overclocking and calculating different ratios. The dog is buried there actually.


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## buildzoid (Sep 14, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Gosh mate... you have to practice the basics first... for a year or so , if it is dead after breaking caps... they were not caps I suppose.
> 
> Actually voltage is not enough... judging from my experience clocking my old 7970... the Vbios is! I can top out different stable max at the same voltage. Just changing the video bios. The stock runs only at 1050 no matter what. I put some from 280X,  and bam 1150Mhz rock stable. The atombios source has some magic there, that helps clocking. Especially when overclocking and calculating different ratios. The dog is buried there actually.



Well I guess I'll go BIOS testing after I fix the card. The caps were hooked up to the VRM controller and now if I try to tun the card ON none of the VRMs start up. Also on the PCB they are labled as C517 and C21 so they are definitely caps. Unfortunately there is no publicly available spec sheet for the NCP81022 so there's not much I can do about it on my own except maybe test random cap values until I get the right one but I have no idea what those caps did.


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## moproblems99 (Sep 14, 2015)

This is actually the card I was hoping/waiting for.  I am really interested to see its performance.  Had this been available in July I more than likely would have bought it.  I can't say I am too disappointed because I ended up with a 980 instead (I know big difference in price).


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## john_ (Sep 14, 2015)

This looks interesting. Let's hope to see a 384bit data bus and price no more than $249, at least for the 6GB model. A 256bit data bus wouldn't offer that much more than 380, and probably we will have to wait for a R9 385 in the future.


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## GhostRyder (Sep 14, 2015)

Well its about time, I was actually wondering when we would finally see the full Tonga chip.  It should be a competitive product at the price range its probably going to inhabit seeing as how well the Tonga pro chip is already (That and the range between the R9 380 and R9 390 in terms of performance and price, hopefully on the lower end of price!).

The XFX cooler though is pretty cool and different.  Its similar to their recent design but with a new color scheme which I appreciate.


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## 2big2fail (Sep 14, 2015)

As someone with crossfire Tahiti XTs, I'd be very interested to see how the Tonga XT silicon performs in crossfire compared to Fiji XT.


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## Folterknecht (Sep 14, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> View attachment 67958



And thats why 3dMark is useless - the 280X is the faster card vs the 380


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## Steevo (Sep 14, 2015)

Looks like a Tahiti core actually from the specs, with a new BIOS and better voltage control and more memory.


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## nem (Sep 14, 2015)

*"2048 Stream Processors"  *

This is Full Tonga , NEW CORE!!!! 

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2609/radeon-r9-285.html
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...ly-win-for-amd-and-disappointment-for-nvidia/

Btw Tonga is near of fiji, if not believe me see the map. : b


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## Steevo (Sep 14, 2015)

http://hardocp.com/article/2015/07/...sipation_4gb_video_card_review/1#.VfcBTvQ3Mnk


Clock for clock the 380 was the same* as the 285.

* 4GB memory VS 2GB and perhaps a more refined memory timing for the 380 allowed very minor performance improvements. 


Perhaps this will be a better performing card than the 285 was compared to the 280, as it was almost even except the tahiti core was able to reach higher clock speeds.


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## lilhasselhoffer (Sep 14, 2015)

I don't get it.

This card has no performance figures, it has no actual specifications verified by AMD, and yet people are still willing to either crucify or worship it.


If it's a 970 without the memory crippling, it'll be a decent option.  It's come late to the the party, but it's not like it arrived early and dropped a deuce in the punch bowl.  If it doesn't compete with the 970 then we've got a late comer than didn't bring their own beer to a party. 


Either way, AMD is late to the game and competing with both an old process node and impending massive improvements due to an upcoming die shrink.  Call me crazy, but I think AMD could have released something half baked 4 months ago, and had more of a chance than what they've got now.  Early adopters aren't going to shell out more money for a middle-high tier card.  Late adopters are still scooping up 290s because the price to performance is huge.  Nvidia stole the compulsive upgraders months ago.  Who is really going to rush out and buy a 380x? Even if it's a great card, it's just not going to move.


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## Xzibit (Sep 14, 2015)

lilhasselhoffer said:


> I don't get it.
> 
> This card has no performance figures, it has no actual specifications verified by AMD, and yet people are still willing to either crucify or worship it.
> 
> ...



No need they already have the 390 which takes on the 970. The 380 takes on the 960.  If this is a 380X its going to fill in the performance gap between 380 & 390 and priced around $279-299


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## Casecutter (Sep 14, 2015)

lilhasselhoffer said:


> Who is really going to rush out and buy a 380x? Even if it's a great card, it's just not going to move.


Have to say that's a good point... Even if it can punch into that 290-290X (quiet) at 1440p and do it at $250-260 it's not a card people will yearn an upgrade to.  It will as you say, is here to take the place of the 290, but working a 17% smaller die they can realize better profit supplanting a Hawaii Pro, while perhaps not see too many 970 prices coming down to contest its' BfB.

And no you're not crazy, it was for what even reason... crazy for AMD to hold off till July to drop the entire 300 Series. They should've started in late April releasing a 390, then 2-3 weeks the 380, early June the 390x while Pitcairn stuff camouflaged under Fiji. Or was it that they had to wait for the special-sauce 300 Series drivers...

It seems all the 300 series and Fury (not just Nano) was like AMD didn't want to have reviews. AMD needs to find some "mojo", because what they've been doing hasn't had much if any.  Let's hope they do a proper release with this, it appears a good niche is carved-out... They should be able to take full advantage as its a never been seen "full spec" part should not have any reason to hide it away.



Xzibit said:


> 380 & 390 and priced around $279-299


With a 380 4Gb at $220, while most 390 8Gb are $310 with some kind of rebate;  I would see the top end price for a nice custom like the XFX as Black Edition with 4Gb/256-bit not sensible above $280.  I figure MSRP $250-260 for most generic OC with AIB coolers.  If they pull a 6Gb/348-bit perhaps your price might have traction.


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## nem (Sep 15, 2015)

btarunr said:


> AMD is readying a new SKU to take advantage of the vast pricing gap between the GeForce GTX 960 and GTX 970, and to bolster its sub-$300 lineup, with the Radeon R9 380X. This SKU will be based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, which implements the latest Graphics CoreNext 1.2 architecture. The R9 380X could max out the specifications of the "Tonga" silicon, offering 2,048 stream processors spread across 32 compute units, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding either 3 GB or 6 GB of memory.
> 
> Another equally plausible theory pins the R9 380X as a chip with 2,048 stream processors, but the same 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface of the R9 380, with 4 GB of memory, letting AMD keep the costs low. XFX appears to be ready with a "Double Dissipation" card based on the R9 380X. The card's new-generation Double Dissipation cooler features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink with four 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, and a pair of 100 mm spinners, which are easily detachable, letting you clean the heatsink underneath. Mass-production of the R9 380X is reportedly underway, so a launch is to be expected rather soon.
> 
> ...



I think this card are not competing with anyone. Rather I think it will be positioned at the huge price gap between the 960/380 and 970/390


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## btarunr (Sep 15, 2015)

nem said:


> I think this card are not competing with anyone. Rather I think it will be positioned at the huge price gap between the 960/380 and 970/390



That's pretty much what I said.


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## Dieinafire (Sep 15, 2015)

Is this the last card made by amd before they are bought out?


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## john_ (Sep 15, 2015)

Dieinafire said:


> Is this the last card made by amd before they are bought out?


No they are already bought. We just try to hide it from you.


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## XFXSupport (Sep 15, 2015)

john_ said:


> No they are already bought. We just try to hide it from you.





The secret is out!!!


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## anubis44 (Sep 16, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> main question... how well it clocks... the clock decides the fate of this card... if it is past 1200MHz, it will be a stellar thing for the price.
> 
> And yeah... 6GB is useless... 4GB is okay for everything now, especially in the middle tier.



But it's welcome if the 6GB is 384bit memory instead of 4GB of 256bit memory. I'll take the wider bus and larger capacity, thank you.


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## siluro818 (Sep 29, 2015)

The thing with XT AMD chips is that they're often overpriced for the performance increase they offer. The 390X is 10% faster than 390, but almost 25% more expensive. The 380X will be likely 15% faster than 380, but you'll surely have to pay at least 50 euro premium for that, which is again over 20% of the 380's current price. In the end instead of waiting for the Tonga I actually went with the 390, cause it's more fairly priced compared to the 380 - 50% more cash for a 50% performance increase. Yeah no GCN 1.2 compression, but with 512bit/8GB VRAM setup who needs it ^^


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## john_ (Sep 29, 2015)

siluro818 said:


> The thing with XT AMD chips is that they're often overpriced for the performance increase they offer. The 390X is 10% faster than 390, but almost 25% more expensive. The 380X will be likely 15% faster than 380, but you'll surely have to pay at least 50 euro premium for that, which is again over 20% of the 380's current price. In the end instead of waiting for the Tonga I actually went with the 390, cause it's more fairly priced compared to the 380 - 50% more cash for a 50% performance increase. Yeah no GCN 1.2 compression, but with 512bit/8GB VRAM setup who needs it ^^


Thats the case ALWAYS and for every company when you have two products. The one performing faster will always cost more than what it offers. If it doesn't the cheaper model will not make sense and will not sell. For example 970 compared to 980, and before you tell me about the 390 example compared to 380, the same is true with 980Ti compared to 980.


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## Disparia (Nov 2, 2015)

http://www.kitguru.net/components/g...firmed-will-feature-4gb-vram-and-258-bit-bus/

http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-r9-3...-vram-antigua-xt-arriving-consumers-november/

Seems like it's going to be 256bit and 4GB. Time to cross my fingers for an ITX-sized model. I really don't want a GTX 960 or R9-380...


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## medi01 (Nov 10, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Tonga has IPC boost...
> 
> If we peek up at the Hilberts chart for the useless R9 380. OC at 1.1GHZ. And stock 990MHz. Additional shader cluster and more speed... it demolishes the old grandpa 280X. And how well additional 100MHz gained boost.



May I ask what makes R9 380 "useless"?


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## Ferrum Master (Nov 10, 2015)

medi01 said:


> May I ask what makes R9 380 "useless"?



Existence of 7970.


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## XFXSupport (Nov 10, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Existence of 7970.



Well, technically the R9 380 = the r9 285, the Tonga chipset, not the Tahiti.  biggest difference is the newer GPU Architecture which supports Freesync, Dx12, and 3 monitor support without the need of a displayport or DP adapter.  The 380 4GB is the upgraded version of the older 285 2GB.

The 380 4GB is my personal favorite from this lineup, its a beast at the price point and feature wise, i find it far more relevant that the 280 series launch in 2013.

Mark at XFX


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## Ferrum Master (Nov 10, 2015)

XFXSupport said:


> Well, technically the R9 380 = the r9 285, the Tonga chipset, not the Tahiti.



Well Tonga really sucked at OC. And overclocked Tahiti mops the floor with it... I owned a 7970 and know it well. It was a stellar card btw. Tonga was a misunderstanding really. I had to clock high just under Hawaii pro performance, but it didn't... it was worse than the previous gen. Even with 7950 breathing in the neck.

The DP are kind of out of place for a mid range buyer really... 3 monitors on a Tonga? Really? Especially then the 2GB one. For what? 60FPS? Flight simulator won't run? Dirt won't run... What else? Some old exotics? Wow? It will stutter sub 60FPS on triple 1080p setup. And I don't really see any worthy LCD without display ports really... Zero problems there.

The idea is... you still can pickup a R9 280X and it will perform better... they cost the same... and that's a bit bonkers rendering this card useless.

See the OC charts from Hilbert. Well 10FPS more is 10FPS more... ain't it... ?

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_radeon_r9_380_strix_review,22.html

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/asus-radeon-r9-280x-top-review,26.html


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## buildzoid (Nov 11, 2015)

I had a 7970 Ghz ed it did not have better core clock than the average Tonga. Also it pulled more power.


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## Ferrum Master (Nov 11, 2015)

buildzoid said:


> I had a 7970 Ghz ed it did not have better core clock than the average Tonga. Also it pulled more power.



Average Tonga is under 1Ghz and your 7970Ghz on stock is over that already...


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## Prima.Vera (Nov 11, 2015)

This will be rebrand generation <#>? Which one?


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## buildzoid (Nov 11, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Average Tonga is under 1Ghz and your 7970Ghz on stock is over that already...



Average Tonga with 1792 SPs clocked at 950mhz is equal to a 1050mhz 2048 SP Tahiti. A 2048 SP Tonga at 1Ghz will significantly beat the 2048 SP Tahiti while pulling less power and supporting all the new features that GCN 1.0 doesn't like Fsync.

The 380X makes sense.


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## Ferrum Master (Nov 11, 2015)

Prima.Vera said:


> The 380X makes sense.



Yea... I was talking about 380 that doesn't


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## buildzoid (Nov 11, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Yea... I was talking about 380 that doesn't



How does it not? It's replacing the 280 not the 280X.


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