AMD launched the R7 and R9 300 series cards shortly before E3, replacing most of the 200 series product stack with one notable omission: The R9 280X was left out of the refresh, leaving a big price and performance gap between the R9 380 and the R9 390. The R9 380X is finally here to fill that gap, and several partners have announced, and even released, their own versions of this highly anticipated graphics card.
AMD’s R9 380X is built on the Tonga core, and it is the first GPU from AMD to finally make use of the core in uncut form. The company is targeting gamers looking to upgrade from mid-range graphics cards from 2012-2013 such as the GTX 660 and 760 cards from Nvidia or AMD’s own 7850 and R9 270X cards. AMD is positioning the R9 380X as an ideal solution for 1080p and 1440p gaming.
| Radeon R9 380X | |
|---|---|
| Compute Units | 32 |
| Engine Clock | 970 MHz |
| Texture Units | 128 |
| ROPs | 32 |
| Memory Configuration | 4 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Typical Board Power | 190W |
| PCIe Standard | PCIe 3.0 |
| API Support | Direct X 12, Vulkan, Mantle |
| FreeSync Support | Yes |
| Virtual Super Resolution (VSR) | Yes |
| Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) | Yes |
AMD’s reference specifications for the R9 380X mirror the base specs of the R9 380 but with four additional Compute Units (256 additional stream processors). AMD calls for GPU engine clock speeds up to 970 MHz and memory bandwidth of 182.4 GB/s, although partners are free to overclock the GPU and memory as they see fit, and it seems each of the announced R9 380X boards take advantage of that.
MD announced seven different vendors will be selling R9 380X based graphics cards, and six of those companies sell to the U.S. market. Asus, Power Color, XFX and Sapphire have announced and launched their renditions of the card, and each company is offering them with varying clock speeds and features. Gigabyte and HIS have cards coming too, according to AMD, but we haven’t received any details about their specifications. VTX3D is also making a 380X, but the company doesn’t have a presence in North America. Each of the announced R9 380X cards features the custom cooling solution from their respective board partner.
| Board Partner | GPU Model | Computer Engine Clock Speed | Memory Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| XFX | Radeon R9 380X DD XXX OC 990 MHz 4 GB DDR5 | 990 MHz | 5700 MHz |
| XFX | Radeon R9 380X DD BLACK EDITION OC 1030 MHz 4 GB DDR5 | 1030 MHz | 5800 MHz |
| Asus | Strix-R9-380X-OC4G-Gaming | 1030 MHz / 1050 MHz OC Mode | 5700 MHz |
| Asus | Strix-R9-380X-4G-Gaming | ? | 5700 MHz |
| Power Color | PCS+ R9 380X MYST. EDITION | 1020 MHz | 5900 MHz |
| Sapphire | Nitro R9 380X 4G D5 | 1040 MHz | 6000 MHz |
| Gigabyte | R9 380X Gaming 4GD | ? | ? |
| HIS | R9 380X IceQ X2 | ? | ? |
AMD’s R9 380X partner cards are available today. The suggested retail price for each one varies somewhat, but prices start at $239.99.
