XFX Radeon R9 380X DD Review - PAGE 1

Over a year ago, AMD released the Tonga-based R9 285 video card. It had a mission to take over the fight for the $250 MSRP price segment from the R9 280, with the prime target being the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760. Back then I looked at the PowerColor R9 285 TurboDuo version which performed nicely, accomplishing its main objective and establishing a solid offer from the Red team in a critical market segment. Fast forward a few months and the Tonga GPU was reborn as Antigua during the controversial Radeon 300 series release. The chip was at the heart of the R9 380 which traded blows with the GTX 960 without managing to steal the spotlight from the competition.

Today, AMD - or should I say the Radeon Technologies Group - will be launching the new R9 380X. The refined GCN 1.2 GPU brings more to the table than what was offered with the R9 380. It sports 2048 Stream processors, 128 Texture units, and 32 ROPs. In terms of memory configuration, we get 4GB of GDDR5 running at up to 1,425MHz on a 256-bit interface.  The TBP (Typical Board Power) stays unchanged however at 190W. The feature set is also quite impressive, with support for DirectX 12, FreeSync technology, Frame Rate Target Control, Virtual Super Resolution, and PowerTune Technology.

Looking at the beefed up specs and 190W TBP, I wasn't really surprised that AMD will not release a reference card for the R9 380X. Instead, multiple board partners will be releasing stock and factory overclocked cards. It was already confirmed that ASUS, Gigabyte, HIS, PowerColer, VTX3D, Sapphire, and XFX will have cards available by the time this article goes live. Officially, the AMD Radeon R9 380X retail prices will start at $229 USD with OC models expected to start at $239 USD. AMD is going after the obvious gap in the midrange market, aiming to establish its product between NVIDIA's GTX 960 and GTX 970. The Red Team is confident that the price/performance ratio of the R9 380X will make it an appealing choice for gamers still running GTX 660 and GTX 760 cards.

In this review I will be looking at the XFX R9 380X DD which comes with a factory overclock of 1030MHz on the core and 1450MHz on the memory. XFX fitted the card with its trusted and proven Double Dissipation cooling solution to keep everything running cool and quiet.

Closer Look:

The card featured in today's review was delivered in a generic packaging, hence the absence of the usual "unboxing" section. I've had the pleasure of owning a few XFX cards over the years, so I'm pretty sure that the retail packaging and accessories bundle for the R9 380X DD will live up to the manufacturer's reputation.

The XFX R9 380X DD looks identical to the manufacturer's R9 380 DD variant. This dual-slot card is equipped with a black plastic shroud housing two 90mm IP-5x fans. Flipping the card over, we see a black PCB and the usual spring-loaded screws that hold the cooling solution in place.

XFX fitted the card with its signature Double Dissipation cooling solution and Ghost Thermal 3.0 technology. The heatsink sports an improved design, new optimized fin arrays and four large lengthened electro plated heatpipes paired with two 90mm IP-5x fans for optimal efficiency and performance.

The shroud is easily detached from the heatsink by removing the eight screws, and is divided into two sections that serve as holders for the clip-on fans. This will make cleaning the fans an easy task if dust and pet hair becomes an issue. XFX is using Cooler Master fans (part number FY09010H12LPB).

In terms of connectivity, the XFX R9 380X features two DVI ports, and full size HDMI and DisplayPort connectors. Any combination of three out of the total four is viable for Eyefinity setups, and AMD's CCC makes the actual process very user friendly. The PCI bracket area has a vent that doubles as an XFX logo although looking at the card design, most of the heat is going to be dumped inside the case no matter what. The opposite side of the card shows two six-pin PCI-E power connectors. The location of the connectors should not be an issue, unless you are installing the card in a very cramped chassis.

Specifications:

Information courtesy of AMD