XFX R9 380 DD 4GB Graphics Card Review

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Conclusion

Behind every great graphics card, is a great manufacturer and to some people, that is more important than the actual chip inside them.  Obviously XFX are bound to producing and manufacturing AMD cards so choice is fairly limited and XFX haven’t exactly had the greatest reputation as a company over the last couple of years; mainly customer service issues, but every company has them!  AMD launched the 300 series and we were almost certainly going to see an XFX variant and as the review has dictated, we tested, benched and put the XFX R9 380 DD 4GB card through its paces.  Does it measure up to the GTX 960 from NVIDIA and does it match our expectations?

Performance

I think we are going to start with the blistering negative here and that’s XFX’s marketing strategy regarding the R9 380; XFX advertise 4K, but there is no way on earth that this card is suitable for 4K resolutions on decent settings.  In fact, this particular card (R9 380) can’t even max some of the more demanding games out at 1080p without either lagging behind, or teetering on the edge of 60fps, so what’s the deal?

Taking what was just said above out of the equation, the R9 380 actually performs brilliantly at its price point and relative to the obviously R9 385/R9 380 rebrand which happened, the XFX 4GB version actually offers much better value than the previous launch.  This card goes as far as beating the NVIDIA GTX 960, whilst offering more VRAM and coming in at a slightly cheaper RRP.  Overall, performance wise, the XFX R9 380 DD 4GB is exactly what it should be, although it is nothing like XFX claim it to be with such a bold statement as “The XFX Radeon R9 380 GPU was made to play the most demanding games at maximum settings in 1080p, 1440p and all the way to 4K resolution” You frankly just can’t say that in all fairness!

Design

For a cooler which doesn’t have to do too much in terms of cooling, it still does a decent job and is one of the coolest cards on test so far; it’s pretty silent in terms of cooling too, mainly due to the dual 9cm fan configuration.  It would have been good to see the white illuminated XFX logo like we seen on the R9 290, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be; probably a cost saving thing on XFX’s part.  Although the card is a bit of a mixed bag in the looks department for me, functionality wise it does more than enough to tickle my fancy, just nothing “special” that makes me sit in awe like some cards have done previously; ironically the last cooler to do this was the XFX R9 290 Double Dissipation cooler!

Value

If we were to take the XFX R9 380 DD 4GB for what it actually is and not what XFX “claim” it can do, then this card does represent some serious value for money.  Ranging from £175-180, the 4GB model not only beats out the rival NVIDIA GTX 960 card, but it has double the VRAM and for the price, isn’t going to be beaten by anything NVIDIA has to offer.  The next NVIDIA card in the range to throw down and beat the R9 380 is the GTX 970, but they go for £250+ so hardly a fair comparison.  If we had to give a definite answer to the pricing of the XFX R9 380 Double Dissipation 4GB graphics card, we would simply say, value award!

Final Thoughts

So you have a budget of let’s say £200, but you want the best bang for buck you can get with a nice amount of VRAM for those super crippling games such as GTA V or Shadow of Mordor; what do you do?  Well there are 2 main options, the GTX 960 and the R9 380, which is the better buy?  Well the R9 380 with 4GB represents better value for money and I doubt there are any models comparable to the XFX R9 380 DD on the market, which as previously mentioned can be picked up for £176 depending on your choice of retailer.  Aside from the dodgy marketing, judging the card at face value, it’s a recommended purchase for 1080p gamers looking to save a bit of cash and ultimately, grab themselves a bargain!

• Silver Award – I had toyed between Gold and Silver here, but I just felt something was missing and with the card being marketed a certain way, I felt that it was let down greatly by this.  Performance wise, for the price it is a great card and taking that into consideration, I really recommend considering the R9 380 for a budget 108p gaming system; the XFX Double Dissipation in particular!
• Value Award – Compared to the NVIDIA GTX 960, the XFX R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation model isn’t only a winner overall, but it’s also quite a bit cheaper than the GTX 960 4GB models.  Shame it’s a rebrand and not new technology though!