The XFX Radeon R9 380 is a mid-range graphics card with 4 GB of memory and support for DirectX 12 and Crossfire. There are two DVI-ports, an HDMI-port and a DisplayPort connection. A $20 rebate card is available, bringing the price of this GPU down to $169.99.
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Pros
Pro Outstanding temperatures
The Double Dissipation cooler on the R9 390 performs extremely well. In a non-gaming situation, highest GPU temperature measured was 32° Celsius. Under full load, 63° C was the maximum measured temperature. Low temperatures result in a longer lifespan and less throttling. Throttling occurs when a GPU clocks itself down in order to reduce temperature, which also results in a performance loss.
Pro Overclocks well
You can further increase the performance of the R9 380 by overclocking it and thus increasing the clock speeds. The Double Dissipation edition has a base GPU clock of 990 MHz - which is small 20 MHz bump compared to a reference 380. Luckily, a manual overclock of up to 1150 MHz can easily be reached.
Pro Excellent 1080p performance
The R9 380 Double Dissipation performs well in 1080p benchmarks, even in recent games. For example, the card reaches an average framerate of 57 FPS in Dying Light with maximum settings. Another example is Grand Theft Auto V, where the R9 380 has an average framerate of 51.1 with ultra settings.
Cons
Con Previous generation chip
The R9 380 chip has been around for a while and is based on older architecture from 2014. Both NVIDIA and AMD are introducing new mid-range graphics cards in the remainder of 2016. It's only a matter of time before a new graphics card debuts with increased performance and the same price tag, such as the RX 480 by AMD.
Con Factory overclock is negligable
XFX markets this Double Dissipation edition as an overclocked card with better performance compared to a regular 380, but the performance improvement isn't noticeable in normal situations. The overclock itself is very small, from 970 to 990 MHz. The memory didn't receive an overclock at all, which is a missed opportunity to further increase performance.