Php30,000 AMD Gaming Build Guide – 2016

30K AMD BUILD 1

AMD has always been known as a cheaper alternative when buying PC components compared to Intel and Nvidia. Their latest RX-480 graphics card costs only $200 (ironically Php14,000 here) and is a beast at 1080p gaming that’s also VR Ready. An extremely well known company, we are eager to see what graphics card would AMD throw against the 1080 since the RX-480 is only a match for the GTX 1060 and doesn’t even go near a GTX 1070 in terms of performance.

You can never go wrong with the RX-480 considering its price tag. It is a definite must have for those who are on a budget and wants to have a smooth 1080p gaming experience that is also VR Ready. Many people have been asking for a build guide within Php30k that utilizes AMD’s latest GPU. This is where this build comes in. In the near future we will be updating our guides once the RX-470 and RX-460 are released.

Below is our Php30,000 AMD PC Gaming Build Guide 2016. We have provided two different builds and I’ll be explaining the performance of each build and a recap on what build is for you. As I’ve mentioned we will be utilizing the RX-480 in one of our builds here.

Build 1:

Part Name Price
CPU: AMD Vishera FX-8350 4.0GHz 8,650
GPU: Sapphire NITRO R9-380 Dual-X OC 2GB GDDR5 9,890
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P 4,150
RAM: Gskill RipjawsX 8GB (4×2) 2133 CL9 2,620
HDD: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM ST1000DM003 2,450
SSD: N/A N/A
PSU: Corsair VS550 2,190
CASE: Tecware Infinity 1,240

PRICE: PHP31,190

The FX-8350 is still an extremely affordable and efficient processor. Despite being 2 years old, the processor still packs a punch because of its 8-core structure accompanied with a very fast clock speed of 4.0Ghz. This means you wont have to worry about mere bottlenecks especially if you’ll be playing small or casual competitive games such as Dota 2 and CS:GO.

For the graphics card we used the Sapphire NITRO R9-380 Dual X OC Edition. The R9-380 itself is already a grand card capable of playing AAA games in high settings at 1080p with decent framerates. Its not as powerful as Nvidia’s newer Pascal graphics card line or the RX-480, but considering our budget and since its Php4,000 cheaper, it’s still a good option.

If you have a slightly bigger budget, go for the 4GB version of the r9-380. The extra 2GB of RAM will do great when playing games with large texture files. Below are videos of the R9-380’s performance.

GTA V

Dark Souls 3

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Battlefield 4

Rise of the Tomb Raider

 

Build 2:

Part Name Price
CPU: AMD Vishera FX-8320E 3.50GHz 8-Core 6,390
GPU: Sapphire RX 480 8GB GDDR5 13,800
MOBO: ASRock N68C-GS4 FX 2,350
RAM: Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz 1,850
HDD: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM ST1000DM003 2,450
SSD: N/A N/A
PSU: Corsair VS550 2,190
CASE: Tecware Infinity 1,240

PRICE: PHP30,270

The energy efficient baby brother of the FX-8350, the FX-8320E is an efficient 8-core processor running at 3.50Ghz. It is a tad slower than the FX-8350, but it is also cheaper and more power efficient. We partnered it with Sapphire’s RX 480 graphics card. Unlike the other build, we have a slower RAM due to a much cheaper motherboard to make way for the RX-480, but is sufficient enough for gaming. You won’t notice much of difference in RAM speed either way.

The FX-8320E will most likely bottleneck the card if the game is CPU extensive. Other than that, you can expect this build to run selected AAA games at High/Ultra Settings in 1080p and mixed settings at 1440p with good framerates. Below are videos of the RX-480’s performance.

The Witcher 3

Batman: Arkham Knight

Tom Clancy’s Rainbox Six Seige

Need for Speed 2015

Just Cause 3

Bottomline:

With Php30,000 you could buy yourself a decent rig that’s capable of playing any game today with decent framerates. While of course you should expect performance to degrade as years pass by due to technological advancements, with this guide we assure you that you will give you a decent gaming experience as of now.

Between the two builds I would prefer the first one due to its better motherboard, faster ram, and the R9-380 is actually sufficient enough for gaming. If you have a higher budget, even if its just Php5,000 more, choose the first build then buy yourself an RX-480. The advantage of the secondbuild compared to the first one is gaming performance out of the box thanks to the RX-480.

If you’re not sure which build to choose, here we state the differences and the advantages of each build.

  • Build 1 – FX-8350 and an R9-380
    • Best build between the two for long term upgrade. The build has better parts in almost every aspect compared to the second one.
    • Faster CPU but weaker GPU. The FX-8350 is stronger than the 8320e, but since the R9-380 is weaker than the RX-480, gaming performance will have a massive difference.
    • Choose this build if you plan on upgrading in the future. Just buy a new graphics card, or if you have a bit more money to spend, just buy an RX-480 instantly and you’ll get a significantly better performance than the second one.
  • Build 2 – FX-8320E and an RX-480

    • Only suitable for those who have little to no plans on upgrading, the FX-8320E whilst good, will bottleneck higher end cards much more than the FX-8350.
    • Gaming performance is significantly better than build 1, though with the cost of parts. This build has a cheaper motherboard, slower ram, and slower processor to make room for the RX-480.
    • Choose this build if you have little to no plans on upgrading. This is intended for those who wants to game out of the box at high settings in 1080p and even capable of 1440p thanks to the RX-480.

All in all with Php30,000 you could buy yourself a good rig that is VR Ready (R9-380 not VR ready though is capable in playing some VR Games based on experience). If you’re planning for a long term upgrade, go with the first build. But if you intend to max out everything at 1080p and have little plans on buying parts in the future, go with the second one. All in all, he hope this guide gives you an insight as to what your Php30,000 can do.

Are you looking for a cheaper rig? or a new laptop? Check out our:

We will be posting an Intel build sometime in the future.

The post Php30,000 AMD Gaming Build Guide – 2016 appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.

Php30,000 AMD Gaming Build Guide – 2016

30K AMD BUILD 1

AMD has always been known as a cheaper alternative when buying PC components compared to Intel and Nvidia. Their latest RX-480 graphics card costs only $200 (ironically Php14,000 here) and is a beast at 1080p gaming that’s also VR Ready. An extremely well known company, we are eager to see what graphics card would AMD throw against the 1080 since the RX-480 is only a match for the GTX 1060 and doesn’t even go near a GTX 1070 in terms of performance.

You can never go wrong with the RX-480 considering its price tag. It is a definite must have for those who are on a budget and wants to have a smooth 1080p gaming experience that is also VR Ready. Many people have been asking for a build guide within Php30k that utilizes AMD’s latest GPU. This is where this build comes in. In the near future we will be updating our guides once the RX-470 and RX-460 are released.

Below is our Php30,000 AMD PC Gaming Build Guide 2016. We have provided two different builds and I’ll be explaining the performance of each build and a recap on what build is for you. As I’ve mentioned we will be utilizing the RX-480 in one of our builds here.

Build 1:

Part Name Price
CPU: AMD Vishera FX-8350 4.0GHz 8,650
GPU: Sapphire NITRO R9-380 Dual-X OC 2GB GDDR5 9,890
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P 4,150
RAM: Gskill RipjawsX 8GB (4×2) 2133 CL9 2,620
HDD: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM ST1000DM003 2,450
SSD: N/A N/A
PSU: Corsair VS550 2,190
CASE: Tecware Infinity 1,240

PRICE: PHP31,190

The FX-8350 is still an extremely affordable and efficient processor. Despite being 2 years old, the processor still packs a punch because of its 8-core structure accompanied with a very fast clock speed of 4.0Ghz. This means you wont have to worry about mere bottlenecks especially if you’ll be playing small or casual competitive games such as Dota 2 and CS:GO.

For the graphics card we used the Sapphire NITRO R9-380 Dual X OC Edition. The R9-380 itself is already a grand card capable of playing AAA games in high settings at 1080p with decent framerates. Its not as powerful as Nvidia’s newer Pascal graphics card line or the RX-480, but considering our budget and since its Php4,000 cheaper, it’s still a good option.

If you have a slightly bigger budget, go for the 4GB version of the r9-380. The extra 2GB of RAM will do great when playing games with large texture files. Below are videos of the R9-380’s performance.

GTA V

Dark Souls 3

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Battlefield 4

Rise of the Tomb Raider

 

Build 2:

Part Name Price
CPU: AMD Vishera FX-8320E 3.50GHz 8-Core 6,390
GPU: Sapphire RX 480 8GB GDDR5 13,800
MOBO: ASRock N68C-GS4 FX 2,350
RAM: Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz 1,850
HDD: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM ST1000DM003 2,450
SSD: N/A N/A
PSU: Corsair VS550 2,190
CASE: Tecware Infinity 1,240

PRICE: PHP30,270

The energy efficient baby brother of the FX-8350, the FX-8320E is an efficient 8-core processor running at 3.50Ghz. It is a tad slower than the FX-8350, but it is also cheaper and more power efficient. We partnered it with Sapphire’s RX 480 graphics card. Unlike the other build, we have a slower RAM due to a much cheaper motherboard to make way for the RX-480, but is sufficient enough for gaming. You won’t notice much of difference in RAM speed either way.

The FX-8320E will most likely bottleneck the card if the game is CPU extensive. Other than that, you can expect this build to run selected AAA games at High/Ultra Settings in 1080p and mixed settings at 1440p with good framerates. Below are videos of the RX-480’s performance.

The Witcher 3

Batman: Arkham Knight

Tom Clancy’s Rainbox Six Seige

Need for Speed 2015

Just Cause 3

Bottomline:

With Php30,000 you could buy yourself a decent rig that’s capable of playing any game today with decent framerates. While of course you should expect performance to degrade as years pass by due to technological advancements, with this guide we assure you that you will give you a decent gaming experience as of now.

Between the two builds I would prefer the first one due to its better motherboard, faster ram, and the R9-380 is actually sufficient enough for gaming. If you have a higher budget, even if its just Php5,000 more, choose the first build then buy yourself an RX-480. The advantage of the secondbuild compared to the first one is gaming performance out of the box thanks to the RX-480.

If you’re not sure which build to choose, here we state the differences and the advantages of each build.

  • Build 1 – FX-8350 and an R9-380
    • Best build between the two for long term upgrade. The build has better parts in almost every aspect compared to the second one.
    • Faster CPU but weaker GPU. The FX-8350 is stronger than the 8320e, but since the R9-380 is weaker than the RX-480, gaming performance will have a massive difference.
    • Choose this build if you plan on upgrading in the future. Just buy a new graphics card, or if you have a bit more money to spend, just buy an RX-480 instantly and you’ll get a significantly better performance than the second one.
  • Build 2 – FX-8320E and an RX-480

    • Only suitable for those who have little to no plans on upgrading, the FX-8320E whilst good, will bottleneck higher end cards much more than the FX-8350.
    • Gaming performance is significantly better than build 1, though with the cost of parts. This build has a cheaper motherboard, slower ram, and slower processor to make room for the RX-480.
    • Choose this build if you have little to no plans on upgrading. This is intended for those who wants to game out of the box at high settings in 1080p and even capable of 1440p thanks to the RX-480.

All in all with Php30,000 you could buy yourself a good rig that is VR Ready (R9-380 not VR ready though is capable in playing some VR Games based on experience). If you’re planning for a long term upgrade, go with the first build. But if you intend to max out everything at 1080p and have little plans on buying parts in the future, go with the second one. All in all, he hope this guide gives you an insight as to what your Php30,000 can do.

Are you looking for a cheaper rig? or a new laptop? Check out our:

We will be posting an Intel build sometime in the future.

The post Php30,000 AMD Gaming Build Guide – 2016 appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.

Php30,000 AMD Gaming Build Guide – 2016

30K AMD BUILD 1

AMD has always been known as a cheaper alternative when buying PC components compared to Intel and Nvidia. Their latest RX-480 graphics card costs only $200 (ironically Php14,000 here) and is a beast at 1080p gaming that’s also VR Ready. An extremely well known company, we are eager to see what graphics card would AMD throw against the 1080 since the RX-480 is only a match for the GTX 1060 and doesn’t even go near a GTX 1070 in terms of performance.

You can never go wrong with the RX-480 considering its price tag. It is a definite must have for those who are on a budget and wants to have a smooth 1080p gaming experience that is also VR Ready. Many people have been asking for a build guide within Php30k that utilizes AMD’s latest GPU. This is where this build comes in. In the near future we will be updating our guides once the RX-470 and RX-460 are released.

Below is our Php30,000 AMD PC Gaming Build Guide 2016. We have provided two different builds and I’ll be explaining the performance of each build and a recap on what build is for you. As I’ve mentioned we will be utilizing the RX-480 in one of our builds here.

Build 1:

Part Name Price
CPU: AMD Vishera FX-8350 4.0GHz 8,650
GPU: Sapphire NITRO R9-380 Dual-X OC 2GB GDDR5 9,890
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P 4,150
RAM: Gskill RipjawsX 8GB (4×2) 2133 CL9 2,620
HDD: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM ST1000DM003 2,450
SSD: N/A N/A
PSU: Corsair VS550 2,190
CASE: Tecware Infinity 1,240

PRICE: PHP31,190

The FX-8350 is still an extremely affordable and efficient processor. Despite being 2 years old, the processor still packs a punch because of its 8-core structure accompanied with a very fast clock speed of 4.0Ghz. This means you wont have to worry about mere bottlenecks especially if you’ll be playing small or casual competitive games such as Dota 2 and CS:GO.

For the graphics card we used the Sapphire NITRO R9-380 Dual X OC Edition. The R9-380 itself is already a grand card capable of playing AAA games in high settings at 1080p with decent framerates. Its not as powerful as Nvidia’s newer Pascal graphics card line or the RX-480, but considering our budget and since its Php4,000 cheaper, it’s still a good option.

If you have a slightly bigger budget, go for the 4GB version of the r9-380. The extra 2GB of RAM will do great when playing games with large texture files. Below are videos of the R9-380’s performance.

GTA V

Dark Souls 3

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Battlefield 4

Rise of the Tomb Raider

 

Build 2:

Part Name Price
CPU: AMD Vishera FX-8320E 3.50GHz 8-Core 6,390
GPU: Sapphire RX 480 8GB GDDR5 13,800
MOBO: ASRock N68C-GS4 FX 2,350
RAM: Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz 1,850
HDD: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM ST1000DM003 2,450
SSD: N/A N/A
PSU: Corsair VS550 2,190
CASE: Tecware Infinity 1,240

PRICE: PHP30,270

The energy efficient baby brother of the FX-8350, the FX-8320E is an efficient 8-core processor running at 3.50Ghz. It is a tad slower than the FX-8350, but it is also cheaper and more power efficient. We partnered it with Sapphire’s RX 480 graphics card. Unlike the other build, we have a slower RAM due to a much cheaper motherboard to make way for the RX-480, but is sufficient enough for gaming. You won’t notice much of difference in RAM speed either way.

The FX-8320E will most likely bottleneck the card if the game is CPU extensive. Other than that, you can expect this build to run selected AAA games at High/Ultra Settings in 1080p and mixed settings at 1440p with good framerates. Below are videos of the RX-480’s performance.

The Witcher 3

Batman: Arkham Knight

Tom Clancy’s Rainbox Six Seige

Need for Speed 2015

Just Cause 3

Bottomline:

With Php30,000 you could buy yourself a decent rig that’s capable of playing any game today with decent framerates. While of course you should expect performance to degrade as years pass by due to technological advancements, with this guide we assure you that you will give you a decent gaming experience as of now.

Between the two builds I would prefer the first one due to its better motherboard, faster ram, and the R9-380 is actually sufficient enough for gaming. If you have a higher budget, even if its just Php5,000 more, choose the first build then buy yourself an RX-480. The advantage of the secondbuild compared to the first one is gaming performance out of the box thanks to the RX-480.

If you’re not sure which build to choose, here we state the differences and the advantages of each build.

  • Build 1 – FX-8350 and an R9-380
    • Best build between the two for long term upgrade. The build has better parts in almost every aspect compared to the second one.
    • Faster CPU but weaker GPU. The FX-8350 is stronger than the 8320e, but since the R9-380 is weaker than the RX-480, gaming performance will have a massive difference.
    • Choose this build if you plan on upgrading in the future. Just buy a new graphics card, or if you have a bit more money to spend, just buy an RX-480 instantly and you’ll get a significantly better performance than the second one.
  • Build 2 – FX-8320E and an RX-480

    • Only suitable for those who have little to no plans on upgrading, the FX-8320E whilst good, will bottleneck higher end cards much more than the FX-8350.
    • Gaming performance is significantly better than build 1, though with the cost of parts. This build has a cheaper motherboard, slower ram, and slower processor to make room for the RX-480.
    • Choose this build if you have little to no plans on upgrading. This is intended for those who wants to game out of the box at high settings in 1080p and even capable of 1440p thanks to the RX-480.

All in all with Php30,000 you could buy yourself a good rig that is VR Ready (R9-380 not VR ready though is capable in playing some VR Games based on experience). If you’re planning for a long term upgrade, go with the first build. But if you intend to max out everything at 1080p and have little plans on buying parts in the future, go with the second one. All in all, he hope this guide gives you an insight as to what your Php30,000 can do.

Are you looking for a cheaper rig? or a new laptop? Check out our:

We will be posting an Intel build sometime in the future.

The post Php30,000 AMD Gaming Build Guide – 2016 appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.

Asus Strix Radeon R9 380 DirectCU II Review

Only a day after the official launch of the new AMD Radeon R9 300 series graphics cards, Asus Philippines already lent us a Strix Radeon R9 380 DirectCU II to take out for a spin.

Strix Radeon R9 380 Philippines

Introduction

The Strix Radeon R9 380 is Asus’ take on the R9 380 which is one of the latest graphics card from AMD. It was launched alongside the R9 390/390x, the new R7 300 Series graphics cards and the top of the line Radeon Fury lineup.

At the heart of the R9 380 is Tonga, the same 28nm-based GPU found inside the R9 285 which made its debut last year.

Specs

GPU isn’t the only thing that the R9 380 shares with the R9 285. It also has the same architecture, Stream processor count (1792) and same maximum TDP which is rated at 190W. So technically speaking, the R9 380 is more of a slightly revamped version of the R9 285 with higher engine clock speed instead of an entirely different beast.

For Asus’ part, the company has only made nominal tweaks on the GPU’s clock speed. From 970MHz of a reference R9 380, ASUS has bumped it up by 20MHz and has kept all the other settings untouched.

Design and Construction

Like other graphics cards under the Strix lineup, the Strix Radeon R9 380 sports an owl-inspired plastic shroud that holds two 11-bladed PWM-controlled fans that aids in keeping the graphics card cool under load.

Strix Radeon R9 380 (web)

A total of three copper heat pipes (2x 8mm and 1x 10mm) pass through the card’s aluminum heatsink. One end of these heat pipes are flattened out and soldered together to form a copper base plate that directly touches the GPU.

The shroud, as well as the heatsink underneath it, overlaps the actual graphics card by a few centimeters, making the card a tad longer.

On the flip side is a fairly thick black back plate with a brushed metal finish. This provides better structural integrity to the card and also adds some style points.

Strix R9 380 (Web)

Only a small portion of the card’s black PCB can be seen peeking out of the back plate. A small cut out on the back plate shows an LED light located just below the 6-pin power port. The LED acts as an indicator if the power connector is properly hooked up (white) to the graphics card or not (red).

Rounding up the list of the Strix Radeon R9 380’s external components are the video out ports located at the back of the card. There are two DVI ports perched on the right, an HDMI out in the middle, and a DisplayPort on the left.

Test Bench and Software Used
AMD A10-7850K @ 4.0GHz
ASUS A88X Gamer Motherboard
8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 2133Mhz dual-channel DDR3 RAM
256GB ADATA XPG SX900 Solid-State Drive
EVGA 500B 500W PSU
ASUS VX239H 1080p IPS Monitor

Windows 8 64-bit
AMD Catalyst 15.20-150505a-183821E-Asus
Fraps (frame rate measurement)
Open Hardware Monitor (Temp Monitoring)
Asus GPU Tweak II (Overclocking)

Synthetic Benchmark Tests

The results that we saw on the synthetic benchmark tests we’ve ran on Radeon R9 380 were pretty close to the ones we saw on the R9 285. It’s worth noting, however, that the R9 380 fared slightly better compared to the R9 285 on all of the test that we’ve ran.

3DMark 11(Performance and Extreme)

3DMark Fire Strike (Performance and Extreme)

CineBench R15

3DMark Vantage (Performance and Extreme)

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Gaming Performance (1080p)

Taking into account that the Radeon R9 380 has only seen nominal improvements from the R9 285, we were expecting that the frame rates that we’ll get from the R9 380 would roughly be in the same figure.

True enough, the R9 380 churned out near-identical frame rates to the ones we got from the R9 285 on almost all of the games we ran on our system.

Battlefield 4

Bioshock Infinite

Crysis 3

Tomb Raider 2013

The only two titles that saw dramatic improvements in frame rates are Far Cry 3 and GRID Autosport. On the latter, the average frame rates jumped by 10 fps giving us a smooth 60fps across the board.

It is on Far Cry 3 that we saw the most significant increase in frame rate. From barely reaching 30fps on the R9 285, the Strix Radeon R9 380 gave us a above 50fps on this game without breaking a sweat.

Far Cry 3

GRID Autosport

Temperature and Fan Noise

The Strix lineup takes pride in being a silent option for gamers and that holds true for the Strix Radeon R9 380. The graphics card’s fans are configured to only kick in when the temperature reaches a certain threshold (70 degrees Celsius) and will ramp up the RPM accordingly when the temps goes beyond that.

So in essence, users will barely hear anything from the graphics card on idle or medium load. But even when the fan started spinning, the noise that these fans generated was still well below the audible levels – a huge plus especially for nitpicky users with a silent rig.

Idle Temp
Snapshot taken 15 minutes after boot up.

During idle, the graphics card’s temperature hovered around 39°C to 44°C with the two fans not even moving an inch.

Gaming Temps
Snapshot taken 15 minutes in to game play.

When we fired up Tomb Raider, the temperature rose to about 65° C until it peaked to 76 degrees Celsius. It slowly decreased down to 69°C when the fans started to spin at a rate of 1100 – 1400 RPM.

FurMark Temps
Snapshot taken 10 minutes in to FurMark 1080p burn-in benchmark test.

When the Strix Radeon R9 380 got floored using the FurMark, the temperature rose to slightly above 80°C and stayed there during the whole course of the test. This was the only time we started to hear any sort of noise from the card’s two 11-bladed fans which was spinning at around 1900 – 2400RPM.

Here are the results that we got from the test.

FurMark (1080 and 720)

Overclocking

In addition to the modest factory overclock that Asus has applied on the Strix Radeon R9 380, we were able to push it a little bit by tweaking some of its settings.

OC Specs

We ended up with an 11.1% increase in engine clock which translates in to 1100MHz. We were also able to bump up the memory clock speed from its stock frequency of 1375MHz to 1500MHz without any crashes or issues.

To test the stability and measure the performance gains from our overclock, we’ve ran the same set of benchmark tests and played the same games on it. Here are the results we got:

Synthetic Benchmarks

Games

With the exception of the CineBench R15 OpenGL test, we saw a small increase in results from the R9 380 after we overclocked it.

We also saw minor improvements on the frame rates from the titles we ran, particularly in Far Cry 3 and Tomb Raider.

Conclusion

The Radeon R9 380 is in awkward spot for a few reasons. For one, it doesn’t really offer a lot of improvements from the R9 285 which was just released nine months ago and might have already received a generous price cut with the release of the new R9 300 series graphics cards in the market.

This, in effect, narrows down the potential consumers, particularly existing HD 7000 series users who might have probably already went for the R9 285. Luckily, the R9 380 can bank on its cheaper market release price tag, currently pegged at $199, compared to the R9 285 which made its debut with a $250 sticker price.

Radeon R9 380 Strix (Web)

Now if you still opt to go for an R9 380, we think that the Strix Radeon R9 380 should be on top of your list. Sure, the factory overclock is modest at best, but its rigid design and commendable cooling solution should be enough to justify the $20 premium that Asus has put on top of the reference card’s SRP.

What we liked about it:

  • Great design and build quality
  • Rigid back plate for added durability and style points
  • Respectable cooling solution
  • Barely audible fan noise even at heavy load
  • Free 1-year subscription to X-Split
  • Handles overclocking fairly well
  • Reasonable premium on top of reference card’s SRP

What we didn’t like about it:

  • Not enough horsepower to drive demanding titles at 1440p
  • No bundled game/s
  • Doesn’t offer a lot for existing R9 200 users

The Asus Strix Radeon R9 380 DirectCU II will be sold locally for Php12,200.

The post Asus Strix Radeon R9 380 DirectCU II Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Asus Strix Radeon R9 380 DirectCU II Review

Only a day after the official launch of the new AMD Radeon R9 300 series graphics cards, Asus Philippines already lent us a Strix Radeon R9 380 DirectCU II to take out for a spin.

Strix Radeon R9 380 Philippines

Introduction

The Strix Radeon R9 380 is Asus’ take on the R9 380 which is one of the latest graphics card from AMD. It was launched alongside the R9 390/390x, the new R7 300 Series graphics cards and the top of the line Radeon Fury lineup.

At the heart of the R9 380 is Tonga, the same 28nm-based GPU found inside the R9 285 which made its debut last year.

Specs

GPU isn’t the only thing that the R9 380 shares with the R9 285. It also has the same architecture, Stream processor count (1792) and same maximum TDP which is rated at 190W. So technically speaking, the R9 380 is more of a slightly revamped version of the R9 285 with higher engine clock speed instead of an entirely different beast.

For Asus’ part, the company has only made nominal tweaks on the GPU’s clock speed. From 970MHz of a reference R9 380, ASUS has bumped it up by 20MHz and has kept all the other settings untouched.

Design and Construction

Like other graphics cards under the Strix lineup, the Strix Radeon R9 380 sports an owl-inspired plastic shroud that holds two 11-bladed PWM-controlled fans that aids in keeping the graphics card cool under load.

Strix Radeon R9 380 (web)

A total of three copper heat pipes (2x 8mm and 1x 10mm) pass through the card’s aluminum heatsink. One end of these heat pipes are flattened out and soldered together to form a copper base plate that directly touches the GPU.

The shroud, as well as the heatsink underneath it, overlaps the actual graphics card by a few centimeters, making the card a tad longer.

On the flip side is a fairly thick black back plate with a brushed metal finish. This provides better structural integrity to the card and also adds some style points.

Strix R9 380 (Web)

Only a small portion of the card’s black PCB can be seen peeking out of the back plate. A small cut out on the back plate shows an LED light located just below the 6-pin power port. The LED acts as an indicator if the power connector is properly hooked up (white) to the graphics card or not (red).

Rounding up the list of the Strix Radeon R9 380’s external components are the video out ports located at the back of the card. There are two DVI ports perched on the right, an HDMI out in the middle, and a DisplayPort on the left.

Test Bench and Software Used
AMD A10-7850K @ 4.0GHz
ASUS A88X Gamer Motherboard
8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 2133Mhz dual-channel DDR3 RAM
256GB ADATA XPG SX900 Solid-State Drive
EVGA 500B 500W PSU
ASUS VX239H 1080p IPS Monitor

Windows 8 64-bit
AMD Catalyst 15.20-150505a-183821E-Asus
Fraps (frame rate measurement)
Open Hardware Monitor (Temp Monitoring)
Asus GPU Tweak II (Overclocking)

Synthetic Benchmark Tests

The results that we saw on the synthetic benchmark tests we’ve ran on Radeon R9 380 were pretty close to the ones we saw on the R9 285. It’s worth noting, however, that the R9 380 fared slightly better compared to the R9 285 on all of the test that we’ve ran.

3DMark 11(Performance and Extreme)

3DMark Fire Strike (Performance and Extreme)

CineBench R15

3DMark Vantage (Performance and Extreme)

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Gaming Performance (1080p)

Taking into account that the Radeon R9 380 has only seen nominal improvements from the R9 285, we were expecting that the frame rates that we’ll get from the R9 380 would roughly be in the same figure.

True enough, the R9 380 churned out near-identical frame rates to the ones we got from the R9 285 on almost all of the games we ran on our system.

Battlefield 4

Bioshock Infinite

Crysis 3

Tomb Raider 2013

The only two titles that saw dramatic improvements in frame rates are Far Cry 3 and GRID Autosport. On the latter, the average frame rates jumped by 10 fps giving us a smooth 60fps across the board.

It is on Far Cry 3 that we saw the most significant increase in frame rate. From barely reaching 30fps on the R9 285, the Strix Radeon R9 380 gave us a above 50fps on this game without breaking a sweat.

Far Cry 3

GRID Autosport

Temperature and Fan Noise

The Strix lineup takes pride in being a silent option for gamers and that holds true for the Strix Radeon R9 380. The graphics card’s fans are configured to only kick in when the temperature reaches a certain threshold (70 degrees Celsius) and will ramp up the RPM accordingly when the temps goes beyond that.

So in essence, users will barely hear anything from the graphics card on idle or medium load. But even when the fan started spinning, the noise that these fans generated was still well below the audible levels – a huge plus especially for nitpicky users with a silent rig.

Idle Temp
Snapshot taken 15 minutes after boot up.

During idle, the graphics card’s temperature hovered around 39°C to 44°C with the two fans not even moving an inch.

Gaming Temps
Snapshot taken 15 minutes in to game play.

When we fired up Tomb Raider, the temperature rose to about 65° C until it peaked to 76 degrees Celsius. It slowly decreased down to 69°C when the fans started to spin at a rate of 1100 – 1400 RPM.

FurMark Temps
Snapshot taken 10 minutes in to FurMark 1080p burn-in benchmark test.

When the Strix Radeon R9 380 got floored using the FurMark, the temperature rose to slightly above 80°C and stayed there during the whole course of the test. This was the only time we started to hear any sort of noise from the card’s two 11-bladed fans which was spinning at around 1900 – 2400RPM.

Here are the results that we got from the test.

FurMark (1080 and 720)

Overclocking

In addition to the modest factory overclock that Asus has applied on the Strix Radeon R9 380, we were able to push it a little bit by tweaking some of its settings.

OC Specs

We ended up with an 11.1% increase in engine clock which translates in to 1100MHz. We were also able to bump up the memory clock speed from its stock frequency of 1375MHz to 1500MHz without any crashes or issues.

To test the stability and measure the performance gains from our overclock, we’ve ran the same set of benchmark tests and played the same games on it. Here are the results we got:

Synthetic Benchmarks

Games

With the exception of the CineBench R15 OpenGL test, we saw a small increase in results from the R9 380 after we overclocked it.

We also saw minor improvements on the frame rates from the titles we ran, particularly in Far Cry 3 and Tomb Raider.

Conclusion

The Radeon R9 380 is in awkward spot for a few reasons. For one, it doesn’t really offer a lot of improvements from the R9 285 which was just released nine months ago and might have already received a generous price cut with the release of the new R9 300 series graphics cards in the market.

This, in effect, narrows down the potential consumers, particularly existing HD 7000 series users who might have probably already went for the R9 285. Luckily, the R9 380 can bank on its cheaper market release price tag, currently pegged at $199, compared to the R9 285 which made its debut with a $250 sticker price.

Radeon R9 380 Strix (Web)

Now if you still opt to go for an R9 380, we think that the Strix Radeon R9 380 should be on top of your list. Sure, the factory overclock is modest at best, but its rigid design and commendable cooling solution should be enough to justify the $20 premium that Asus has put on top of the reference card’s SRP.

What we liked about it:

  • Great design and build quality
  • Rigid back plate for added durability and style points
  • Respectable cooling solution
  • Barely audible fan noise even at heavy load
  • Free 1-year subscription to X-Split
  • Handles overclocking fairly well
  • Reasonable premium on top of reference card’s SRP

What we didn’t like about it:

  • Not enough horsepower to drive demanding titles at 1440p
  • No bundled game/s
  • Doesn’t offer a lot for existing R9 200 users

The Asus Strix Radeon R9 380 DirectCU II will be sold locally for Php12,200.

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