The AMD Radeon R9 380X Review, Feat. ASUS STRIX
by Ryan Smith on November 23, 2015 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Asus
- Radeon 300
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Our next benchmark is Monolith’s popular open-world action game, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. One of our current-gen console multiplatform titles, Shadow of Mordor is plenty punishing on its own, and at Ultra settings it absolutely devours VRAM, showcasing the knock-on effect that current-gen consoles have on VRAM requirements.
Shadow of Mordor is the first game in our benchmark suite that really hammers memory capacity, which in turn drives a very large wedge between the 4GB R9 380X and the 2GB R9 380 and GTX 960. There’s simply no comparison here; even at 1080p the R9 380X is 50% or more ahead. And situations like this are a big reason that I believe that anything other than a budget card should come with 4GB at this time. Even if one is not buying an R9 380X, they should at least be buying a 4GB R9 380 or GTX 960.
Meanwhile it’s interesting to note that this is the only game that shows a real advantage for the R9 380X over the 7970. It’s possible that we’re looking at the differences in 3GB of memory versus 4GB, but given the results at 1440p versus 1080p, I suspect there’s a bit more going on here. Either way it shows that there will be times where a full Tonga card is a distinct improvement over a full Tahiti card.
Our minimum framerates reiterate what we saw in our averages. Even at 1080p the smaller 2GB cards get hit hard.
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Asomething - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
The HSA foundation is partially founded by ARM which means they are already working on it (but as you said there isnt much motivation to make HSA enabled apps). AMD is the only high profile and headline grabbing member of it so they tend to get the most press because of clickbait articles. And a lot (if not all) of nvidia's efficiency improvements do come from the lower transistor density (also the main reason they can say their TDP is so low since the chip has a larger surface area with which to dissipate the same amount of heat as the same chip made using AMD's high density libraries would have), improvements to the memory and reductions in DP capabilities.tamalero - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
anyone can explain me why everyone says the new gpus are overpriced?their pricepoints seems to be similar to the performance of the nvidia cards.
the table on the first page shows clearly.
Even the review shows the 970 and the AMD 390 trading blows and have the same price point.
so, what did I miss? why suddenly fanboys demand even 15% reduction to "become competitive" ?
FriendlyUser - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
As everyone has noted, the cards are uncomfortably close to the higher tier (390 and 970). So, the 380X is not overpriced with respect to the competition from nvidia, but with respect to the 390. The jump in performance is so great, that we should either hope the 390 goes at $300 (practically eliminating the 380X) or the 380X completely dominates the sub-200 territory.Anyway, overall it's a very good product.
just4U - Friday, November 27, 2015 - link
Well.. here in Canada that's not quite the case. A 380/960 /w 4G mem sells for 300ish.. the 380X $330.A 970 runs you $450-500 and a 390 $430+ No way their priced similar to the 970/390.
BurntMyBacon - Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - link
@Samus: "They need to drop the prices across the entire line about 15% just to become competitive."That wouldn't fix the biggest pricing problem shown in this review. The 380X is priced too closely to the 390 given the performance difference. Drop them both by 15% and the 380X is still priced too closely to the 390. I'll leave the rest of you to argue performance vs premium cooler value on the high end and 390/390X vs GTX970/GTX980 performance per dollar, but I submit that a flat 15% drop is too simple an answer to the problem due to competition within their own lineup.
Azix - Wednesday, January 13, 2016 - link
but people were fine with the 960 at the same price...zeeBomb - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
Ryan smith blessed us with a great graphics card review.maecenas - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
At this point, NVIDIA or AMD, I'm not sure I would get anything other than an ASUS cooling system. I have the STRIX version of the GTX 970 and it really is fantastic.jasonelmore - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
It Depends on what you need. The Stock Blower Coolers keep hot air out of the case, so for Small Form Factor Builds, your not going to want Asus's coolers since they dump the hot air back into the case.theduckofdeath - Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - link
I have a mATX case with water cooling and internal padding all around to keep the noise down, and my ASUS Strix GTX 960 is not making a sound and the temp in the case does not go above 50-52 degrees celsius even after hours of playing. The problem with GPUs sucking air out from the rear and blowing the same air out is, they have to generate all of the airflow themselves, which always gets really noisy compared to using the air passing through a case.