Conclusion; A Day Late & A Dollar Short?
Conclusion; A Day Late & A Dollar Short?
AMD’s R9 380X’s launch is an interesting one from a number of different perspectives. Not only is this card being parachuted into a slim segment which is bookended by some extremely capable alternatives on both the high and low end but its success or failure will be ultimately determined by how well AMD threaded that proverbial needle. To make matters even more interesting, the 380X is hitting at a nightmarish time; retailers will be in discount mode and as a result it will face an epic uphill battle for relevance over the next few months. But that doesn’t mean the R9 380X will fail. Quite the opposite actually.
On paper at least AMD’s latest card won’t offer all that much more performance than an R9 285 since its Antigua XT core simply adds a quartet of additional compute blocks and a memory capacity / speed bump to the legacy Tonga architecture. However, those deceptively simple factors add enough processing power to leverage the R9 380X past the GTX 960 4GB and into the niche it needs to be in. This was also accomplished while retaining an acceptable power consumption envelope. Adding up those elements results in a wholly appealing $230 product for gamers who are currently on a 1080P display but want enough spare horsepower for a 1440P monitor.
Unfortunately, evaluating the R9 380X at a $230 price point is a bit of a red herring since AMD sampled us with the STRIX OC, for which ASUS is demanding a not-so-insignificant $30 premium. Those thirty bucks may not seem like much but they push the 380X dangerously close to a completely different market segment, one that’s dominated by the R9 390 and GTX 970. Luckily ASUS has added an amazing heatsink, super quiet acoustics, upgraded components and higher frequencies, all of which should help soften the STRIX OC’s financial blow.
Now before I get into the raw numbers you see above, it’s important to note that ASUS claims their clock speed improvements translate into a framerate uplift of between 3% and 10% depending on the game being played. For argument’s sake, let’s average that out to 5% and you can likely get a relatively accurate view as to where a reference-clocked R9 380X would stand against the other stock cards in this review.
The R9 380X STRIX OC fairly dominates the GTX 960 even when that card is equipped with 4GB of memory, and it should given the $30 to $40 price spread. Truth be told that memory extra capacity likely amounted to a negligible difference since NVIDIA’s GM206 core will become a bottleneck long before memory bandwidth shuts things down. Essentially, the GTX 960 is a card tailor made for 1080P gaming whereas AMD’s latest addition has the capability to become a competent entry-level 1440P option.
Looking at the rebrand side of this equation we come to the R9 280X, a card that’s been around in some form or another for the better part of four years. While that old timer can’t compete in the features department it gives up nothing to the R9 380X, actually gaining ground at 1440P. Considering overclocked versions of this card have been at the $250 price point for tabout 16 months, it becomes obvious the price / performance yardsticks haven’t moved all that much.
The GTX 970 and R9 390 meanwhile aren’t even in the same dimension on the performance front yet only cost about $40 more. This doesn’t necessarily point to something “wrong” with the R9 380X or its positioning but rather it highlights how low the prices have gone for significantly higher end alternatives. It also goes to show that even a small premium for a pre-overclocked card can have some serious repercussions.
NVIDIA certainly isn’t doing themselves any huge favors by leaving a yawning gap between the GTX 970 and GTX 960 4GB since it gave AMD a perfect opening. However, there seems to be a method to that madness. Both have plenty of built-in cost flexing without running face first into a performance per dollar battle against one another. Not so with the R9 380X and R9 390 since the latter seems like an insanely good purchase given its relative dominance in our charts and 8GB framebuffer. The $40 premium you’ll need to pay for a baseline 390 or GTX 970 over the STRIX OC would be money well spent. For the record, I’d be saying the same thing had this 380X’s price been $20 less; the $300 cards are that far ahead.
NVIDIA seems to have come to the conclusion they don’t need a card to bridge the $100 chasm between more affordable offerings with their enthusiast-oriented product stack. Meanwhile, AMD feels like there is a ready and willing market around this bracket just waiting to be tapped by new blood. I’m actually on the fence about which approach is best. At its current $260 the ASUS R9 380X STRIX OC will likely just push would-be buyers to the GTX 970 and R9 390 but those reference-clocked (yet still custom cooled) $230 380X’s could be quite appealing for anyone who wants very good performance on a budget.
Another thing we have to wonder is what took AMD so long to introduce a fully enabled Tonga / Antigua core. The R9 280X was long in the tooth nine months ago, the Tonga architecture certainly isn’t new and folks have been actively looking for a lower wattage $250 option from AMD. In addition, the current crop of GPUs are seeing some pretty dramatic price reductions as of late which causes an unenviable situation for a card like the R9 380X.
So where does this leave things? Unfortunately, all over the place. On one hand the R9 380X is a step in the right direction but its placement within the current scheme of things gives AMD’s board partners very little room to work with. A few bucks higher than $230 and they’re competing against cards that look completely overpowered by comparison. Any lower and they have to offer up R9 380 margins like a sacrificial lamb. Personally, I am going to recommend everyone wait to see what kind of prices the next few weeks will bring before jumping onto the R9 380X bandwagon. Once things settle down a bit this could become a very compelling graphics card but right now questions of value will understandably dominate the conversation.
