ASUS Strix R9 380X Review

Introduction

AMD have produced a baffling array of graphics cards in recent times. Maybe it's a product of the marketplace, or their own business model, but each new card has been a bit like the last one, just with a new number. The giant leaps forward of old seem to be, for those of us with a special place in our heart for the Radeons, a distant memory.

Restructuring your company for greater efficiency always leads to a slack period in regards to actual product developments but with everyone facing in the right direction the 300 series is upon us and, in particular, today's model the R9 380X.

Our review sample comes to us as part of the ASUS Strix range, a suite of cards for the discerning purchaser. Free from the obvious brand recognition that comes with the ROG lot, the Strixs are quietly building a reputation as a seriously high performance card with a cooler that endures such rigorous demands.

We have a card, we have some benchmarks, let's get down to business.

Technical Specifications

Showing how important it is to not just look at dry specifications, the table for the R9 380X reads identically to the specification table for the R9 280X. AMD have come under fire from us on more than one occasion for rebranding, so we hope that this is merely a case of supplying a card at a certain price point and that price point dictating how many Stream Processors or how much bandwidth can be given for x unit cost. Certainly with 2048 Stream Processors on board the R9 380X should have enough to challenge the GTX960 at which it's aimed.