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- Date:
- Monday , December 14, 2015
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:
ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC Overclocking Review
We take the new ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC based on AMD's new Radeon R9 380X GPU and overclock this video card to its highest potential. We'll compare performance in six games, including Fallout 4, to a highly overclocked ASUS GeForce GTX 960 4GB video card and find out who dominates 1440p gaming.
Introduction
On November 19th of this year AMD dropped its fully speced Tonga GPU, the AMD Radeon R9 380X which enables all the stream processors on Tonga. We evaluated a custom retail ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC video card at the recommended 1440p this video card is marketed as providing a good gameplay experience.
The AMD Radeon R9 380X contains 2,048 stream processors (32 compute units), 128 texture units, 32 ROPs and runs at 970MHz default specification. Memory consists of 4GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit memory bus at 5.7GHz. At this frequency the memory bandwidth provided is 182GB/sec. The MSRP for the AMD Radeon R9 380X is $229.99, however add-in-board partner overclocked video cards will start at $239.99.
The ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC video card we evaluated has a higher priced MSRP of $259.99, well over AMD suggested pricing. Current street pricing is showing $259.99 at Newegg, however there is a welcomed $20 rebate making the video card the suggested $239.99 price point. Amazon has the video card at $239.99, unfortunately it is out of stock currently.
In our first evaluation we compared the ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC with an MSI GeForce GTX 960 GAMING 4GB video card at its factory overclocked clock speeds. We also threw in a GeForce GTX 970 just to give us some perspective on GPU performance at 1440p. It showed that both the Radeon R9 380X and GeForce GTX 960 struggle quite a bit at 1440p compared to the next card up from that, the GeForce GTX 970.
Our Evaluation Goals
The one thing we did not have time to cover initially was overclocking potential. The ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC performed better than the GeForce GTX 960 4GB video card at 1440p, but it still did not offer a completely enjoyable 1440p experience as AMD claims. We wondered if overclocking would save the ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC and the AMD Radeon R9 380X GPU as a whole at 1440p.
In this evaluation today we overclock the ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC to its fastest clocks we could manage. We will compare that overclock to an ASUS STRIX GeForce GTX 960 4GB video card also overclocked. We will also re-test the ASUS STRIX R9 380X DirectCU II OC at its default out-of-box clock speeds for comparison so you can see how much of a benefit the overclock makes.
All of our gameplay testing today is brand new and fresh compared to the previous evaluation. We are using new game patches in this evaluation, half of the games being used received game patches since the last evaluation. We are also using the new AMD Radeon Crimson Edition driver for the latest performance. In addition we have added Fallout 4 to our gaming suite.
Where The Overclocking Potential Comes From
ASUS starts by using an oversized heatsink assembly that is 1.5x larger than the reference design. This provides greater heat dissipation. ASUS also expands the heat-pipe's ability to remove heat by including a larger 10mm heatpipe and then two 8mm heat-pipes. In the reference design AMD specifies only three 8mm heat-pipes. This means ASUS has taken one of the 8mm heatpipes and changed it to 10mm for greater heat transfer. All three of these heat-pipes make direct contact with the GPU as well.
The reference design also specifies one fan and ASUS has expanded this to two wing-blade 0dB fans. The wing-blade design maximizes airflow and increases static air pressure. Since this is a "STRIX" model video card the fans also remain off during idle or light load gaming and switch on when the temperature ramps up.
ASUS has implemented an 8-phase Super Alloy Power power delivery system. This utilizes concrete alloy chokes, longer life space capacitors and a 30% higher voltage threshold. Utilizing DIGI+VRM ASUS claims 30% more stable overclocking and 15% better power efficiency.