The R9 300 series makes its way to Sapphire’s Dual-X range of graphic card, sporting the distinct Dual-X cooling system.
Make no mistake, it’s a Dual-X cooling system alright. The R9 380 card here requires 2x 6-pin PCI-E connection to operate.
Heatpipes visible from the bottom.
As always with the Dual-X models – no backplate.
Here’s the view of the I/O panel.
Last but not least, here’s the GPU-Z capture.
More details at the official product page.
Test Setup
| Processor | Intel Core i5-4670K |
| RAM | Kingston HyperX 2x 4GB DDR3 2400Mhz Kit |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 3 |
| Cooler | NZXT Kraken X31 |
| Monitor | Dell U2414H |
| Power Supply | FSP AURUM S 700W |
| Casing | NZXT S340 |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit |
Benchmarks
The closest (faster) card available for comparison would at goldfries’ lab is the R9 270X.
Unigine Heaven 4.0
*NOTE : Details are set to maximum.
*NOTE : AA disabled in 4K test.
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| Sapphire R9 380 2GB | 36.5 |
| AMD R9 270X | 27.9 |
Metro Last Light
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| Sapphire R9 380 2GB | 57.5 |
| AMD R9 270X | 41.5 |
Bioshock Infinite
Settings are at
2 – UltraDX11_DDOF | 2 – Custom | 1 – 16:9 | 4 – FullHD / 4K
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| Sapphire R9 380 2GB | 82.26 |
| AMD R9 270X | 54.91 |
Shadow of Mordor
Settings : Set to maximum, V-sync off.
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| Sapphire R9 380 2GB | 40.73 |
| AMD R9 270X | 26.05 |
Grand Theft Auto V
Settings : Set to Very High for every possible option. 8xAA enabled for Full HD test, AA Disabled for 4K test.
| Card | 1080p (avg) |
| Sapphire R9 380 2GB | N/A |
| AMD R9 270X | 21.17 |
For some reason the system refused to load the game, the game crashes during loading and subsequently reboots the system. I have no idea why.
Temperature
Furmark Burn-in Test was used to stress the card. Fan settings are at Auto. Room set to ~25c.
| Card | Idle(°C) | Load (°C) |
| Sapphire R9 380 | 31 | 72 |
| Sapphire R9 380 Full RPM | 45 | 65 |
The fan design is awesome but at AUTO settings it hovers at around 40% RPM and it does produce some faint whirring noise, it should’t be audible when the casing is closed.
Power Consumption
The stress was done with Furmark Burn-in Test. Power consumption reading was taken from the watt-meter, actual power draw by the entire system from the wall point. I’m using an FSP Aurum S 700W with 90% efficiency and the estimated system power draw (CPU, not including GPU) during Furmark test is 60w.
| Card | Sapphire R9 380 |
| Furmark Burn-in | 254 |
| Estimated Actual System Draw | 228 |
| Estimated Card Power Draw | 168 |
The Verdict
The Sapphire Dual-X R9 380 2GB GDDR5 retails at RM 879 which is quite a steep price considering it’s just a Dual-X card, no back plate, stuck with 2GB RAM and being unable to load GTA V, which is why there is no GTA V benchmark on this review. Even if it did pass the test, I’d give this card a pass.
There’s just no reason to look at it considering you could opt for a used R9 285 or R9 280X with 3GB RAM.
