ASUS Radeon R9 380X Strix 4GB

[W1zzard]

Today, AMD launches their Radeon R9 380X, which is built on the company's fully unlocked Tonga silicon with 2048 shaders. In terms of price and performance, the card sits right in the middle of the GTX 960 and GTX 970, where it is supposed to capture market share from the green team.

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[RCoon]

So it's basically a 280X? (In terms of performance)

Also love the new chart design.

 

[VulkanBros]

the xx x xx does mean?


ASUS is using the same design on their R9 380X as on their 380. On the back you will find a nice metal backplate. Dimensions of the card are xx cm x xx cm.

 

[W1zzard]

the xx x xx does mean?


ASUS is using the same design on their R9 380X as on their 380. On the back you will find a nice metal backplate. Dimensions of the card are xx cm x xx cm.

forgot to measure fixed

 

[mab1376]

So it's basically a 280X? (In terms of performance)

Also love the new chart design.

I was maybe considering this as an upgrade from my 280x, but it seems like the 280x performs better in BF4 at 1080p.

Oh well.

 

[Dammeron]

I just can't get over the final notes here: "Price/performance not as good as other cards in this price-segment", "Not as energy efficient as NVIDIA Maxwell cards", "Lack of HDMI 2.0"... and yet the card scores 9.1/10, which is a fantastic note. For me it's a mediocre card, if it eats more and performs worse than GTX 970. I wouldn't give it more, than 7, maybe 7.5, considering it's shortcomings.

The same is with e.g. coolers' reviews - expensive, yet barely acceptable AiO WC in therms of performance, and the note is still over 8/10...

 

[Enterprise24]

Basically 380X is 7970/280X that got update to GCN 1.2 + improve Tessellation performance + cripple some bandwidth + increase VRAM to 4GB
So no change in term of performance when compare to 7970/280X.

 

[Firedrops]

I think 4GB VRAM is important at 1080p, for high-res texture mods. It's not that common, but it's still a huge boon in such cases, and I think it deserve mentioning, although understandably its not detected in your standard review processes with the stock games.

 

[W1zzard]

I think 4GB VRAM is important at 1080p, for high-res texture mods. It's not that common, but it's still a huge boon in such cases, and I think it deserve mentioning, although understandably its not detected in your standard review processes with the stock games.

Still playing Skyrim?

I just can't get over the final notes here: "Price/performance not as good as other cards in this price-segment", "Not as energy efficient as NVIDIA Maxwell cards", "Lack of HDMI 2.0"... and yet the card scores 9.1/10, which is a fantastic note. For me it's a mediocre card, if it eats more and performs worse than GTX 970. I wouldn't give it more, than 7, maybe 7.5, considering it's shortcomings.

But you can't buy GTX 970 if you have only $230. Personally I'd probably buy a used R9 290, unless you want better noise/heat, which is where R9 380X comes into play.

If you have more than $300, definitely get a GTX 970, which I think I made clear in my review, we also discussed it internally earlier:

 

[Assimilator]

Typo on the conclusion page: "R8 380X".

Hopefully this will lead to a big cut in GTX 970 prices just before Christmas. nVIDIA will be hoping to clear inventory before Pascal launches and I'm certain they'll still be making a nice profit off Maxwell chips even if they discount them by $20 or even further. GTX 970 at $270 would make the R9 290 obsolete, GTX 970 at $250 would make pretty much every other card obsolete.

 

[Moofachuka]

makes me think my current 7970 xfire purchased a few years back were still very worthwhile... I like it

 

[rtwjunkie]

One please!!!

 

[rruff]

Hopefully this will lead to a big cut in GTX 970 prices just before Christmas. nVIDIA will be hoping to clear inventory before Pascal launches and I'm certain they'll still be making a nice profit off Maxwell chips even if they discount them by $20 or even further. GTX 970 at $270 would make the R9 290 obsolete, GTX 970 at $250 would make pretty much every other card obsolete.

The GTX 970s have already been as low as $230 recently, and I'm sure next week we'll see many around that price. And it's still ~35-40% faster than this R9 380x.

The 380x is only 10% faster than a R9 380 so it doesn't exactly fill that gaping hole between the GTX 960, R9 380 and the GTX 970, R9 390. If it is priced accordingly though (<$180 on sale) it makes sense. If you have a 1440p monitor it's the cheapest card that kinda does ok.

 

[rtwjunkie]

The GTX 970s have already been as low as $230 recently, and I'm sure next week we'll see many around that price. And it's still ~35-40% faster than this R9 380x.

The 380x is only 10% faster than a R9 380 so it doesn't exactly fill that gaping hole between the GTX 960, R9 380 and the GTX 970, R9 390. If it is priced accordingly though (<$180 on sale) it makes sense. If you have a 1440p monitor it's the cheapest card that kinda does ok.

I need to shop where you do! Every 970 I have seen on sale you are lucky if it is marked down for a few days to $290. If you're even"luckier" they have a $20 rebate, which means by the time you see it you have basically paid $290.

All GTX 960's are going to 4GB, and are nearly all selling in the $215 to $225 range. This thing blows the 960 away, so therefore, price is great!

 

[EarthDog]

I need to shop where you do! Every 970 I have seen on sale you are lucky if it is marked down for a few days to $290. If you're even"luckier" they have a $20 rebate, which means by the time you see it you have basically paid $290.

All GTX 960's are going to 4GB, and are nearly all selling in the $215 to $225 range. This thing blows the 960 away, so therefore, price is great!

PREACH brother!!!

Good thing TPU has no limit on thanks (DUMB IDEA... makes thanks useless!), or I would have run out on your posts today about this card, LOL!

 

[IamEzio]

Is it only me that thinks its wierd that the gtx960 has the same performane of the 270x at 1080p in the performance summery charts ?

 

[rruff]

I need to shop where you do! Every 970 I have seen on sale you are lucky if it is marked down for a few days to $290. If you're even"luckier" they have a $20 rebate, which means by the time you see it you have basically paid $290.

All GTX 960's are going to 4GB, and are nearly all selling in the $215 to $225 range. This thing blows the 960 away, so therefore, price is great!

You need to keep up to date on the deal sites. This is the season. I know where you can get a MSI GTX 960 2GB right now for $126 after $20 rebate. Interested? R9 380 Strix was as low as $118 AR. And forget 4GB on these unless you have some odd requirements. I checked the benchmarks and it isn't worth the extra money. Buy a better card if you want better performance.

 

[Luka KLLP]

Hmm...

Thought that this was gonna be a GTX970 killer, but it loses even in performance/dollar.

I guess it's a nice card, but once again I'm let down

 

[rtwjunkie]

PREACH brother!!!

Good thing TPU has no limit on thanks (DUMB IDEA... makes thanks useless!), or I would have run out on your posts today about this card, LOL!

LOL, too funny! Guess you can tell I found an AMD card I can get excited about? Perfect replacement for my 760. Now...must find some green stuff...

 

[newtekie1]

This is good, I like this card. Not much more than the GTX960, but a good bump in performance. Hopefully this brings prices down. Though it does mean my GTX970s are probably going to start loosing value very quickly.

Maybe this means we'll see a GTX960Ti in the near future to compete, and definitely some lower prices.

 

[EarthDog]

Now...must find some green stuff...

You talking money or..............................

 

[rtwjunkie]

You talking money or..............................

LOL! Money.

 

[geon2k2]

I have the R9 380 (without x) version of this card and everything looks identical, box, pcb, everything. Its a good card, but please check the VRM temps. On my card it goes to >120 degrees Celsius in Furmark, while on Heaven loop it sits on 100 Celsius. While gaming occasionally reaches 100, but in average it's a bit under. All this on stock, not even the OC profile which comes OOB.

I contacted Asus and they told me they have high quality components ... yala yala yala, and its perfectly fine for this model ... go figure. Somehow, as there was actually nothing wrong with it and it was working perfectly, I did not return it.

Anyway for this reason, I'd definitely not give it the "Highly Recommended" mark, at least not to this Asus. R9 380X is great and I saw on other brands, like Saphire a solution which had VRMs touching the big heatsink so for sure they didn't had this problem.

 

[Assimilator]

Hmm...

Thought that this was gonna be a GTX970 killer, but it loses even in performance/dollar.

I guess it's a nice card, but once again I'm let down

There was never any chance of a fully-enabled Tonga beating a GTX 970.

 

[GhostRyder]

You need to keep up to date on the deal sites. This is the season. I know where you can get a MSI GTX 960 2GB right now for $126 after $20 rebate. Interested? R9 380 Strix was as low as $118 AR. And forget 4GB on these unless you have some odd requirements. I checked the benchmarks and it isn't worth the extra money. Buy a better card if you want better performance.

Send me to the sites your on, I cannot find anything close to those prices even with rebates!

I just can't get over the final notes here: "Price/performance not as good as other cards in this price-segment", "Not as energy efficient as NVIDIA Maxwell cards", "Lack of HDMI 2.0"... and yet the card scores 9.1/10, which is a fantastic note. For me it's a mediocre card, if it eats more and performs worse than GTX 970. I wouldn't give it more, than 7, maybe 7.5, considering it's shortcomings.

The same is with e.g. coolers' reviews - expensive, yet barely acceptable AiO WC in therms of performance, and the note is still over 8/10...

It also costs less and has 4gb of full speed ram while running cool which is why it got points...Plus it also depends on what the negative consequences are for the card for the point deductions which by the looks of it were considered minor infractions.

This is good, I like this card. Not much more than the GTX960, but a good bump in performance. Hopefully this brings prices down. Though it does mean my GTX970s are probably going to start loosing value very quickly.

Maybe this means we'll see a GTX960Ti in the near future to compete, and definitely some lower prices.

Only if they release the GTX 960 OEM or similar, would be nice to see something like that.

Not a bad card if I do say so myself, though its kinda fitting how every other AMD card has been lately which is just ~10% higher than the slightly locked variant which is unfortunate. I also wish it overclocked a bit more but maybe its limited to the sample...