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AMD Radeon R9 370

AMD Radeon R9 370 in 2025: Is it Worth Getting a Legend from the Past?

Professional Analysis for Budget Segment Enthusiasts

Introduction

Even a decade after its release (in 2015), the AMD Radeon R9 370 remains a topic of debate among gamers and PC builders. In 2025, this graphics card is more of an artifact than a relevant solution, yet it can still be found for sale (new units are rare, priced between $50–$80). Who is it suitable for? Let’s delve into the details.

Architecture and Key Features

GCN 1.0: The Foundation

The R9 370 is built on the Graphics Core Next (GCN 1.0) architecture with a 28 nm manufacturing process. This is the first generation of GCN, which laid the groundwork for future AMD solutions. The Trinidad Pro chip includes:

- 1024 stream processors;

- 32 texture units;

- 64 raster operation units.

Unique Features:

- Mantle API (the predecessor to Vulkan and DirectX 12) — improves optimization for multi-core CPUs;

- Eyefinity — support for up to 6 monitors;

- TrueAudio — hardware sound processing.

What’s Missing?

- FidelityFX (introduced in 2019) — the card does not support modern sharpness enhancement algorithms;

- Ray Tracing — not possible at the hardware level.

Memory: GDDR5 and Bandwidth

- Memory Type: GDDR5 (not GDDR6 or HBM);

- Capacity: 2 GB or 4 GB (versions differ in price and performance);

- Bus: 256-bit;

- Bandwidth: 179.2 GB/s (for the 4 GB version).

Impact on Performance:

- 2 GB — critically low for 2025 games even on low settings (for example, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty "consumes" 3–4 GB of VRAM at 1080p);

- 4 GB — the minimum acceptable option for lighter projects like Fortnite or CS:GO 2.

Gaming Performance: Realities of 2025

1080p Resolution (Low/Medium settings):

- CS:GO 2: 90–110 FPS (Medium);

- Apex Legends: 45–55 FPS (Low);

- The Witcher 3: 30–35 FPS (Low);

- Hogwarts Legacy: 20–25 FPS (Low, with drops due to VRAM shortage).

1440p and 4K: The card is not intended for these resolutions. Even in older games (like GTA V), 1440p delivers 25–30 FPS on Medium.

Ray Tracing: The lack of hardware support makes RTX effects unavailable. Software emulation (via Proton or mods) reduces FPS to 5–10 frames.

Professional Tasks: The Weak Link

- Video Editing: In DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro, rendering 1080p video will take 3–4 times longer than on a modern iGPU (e.g., Ryzen 8600G);

- 3D Modeling: Blender and Maya work, but only with simple scenes. OpenCL acceleration exists, but its effectiveness in 2025 is 15–20% compared to NVIDIA RTX 3050;

- Scientific Computing: The card supports OpenCL 1.2, but is unsuitable for machine learning or physical simulations.

Conclusion: The R9 370 is only suitable for basic tasks (office work, web design in Photoshop).

Power Consumption and Thermal Output

- TDP: 150 W;

- Recommended PSU: 450–500 W (considering headroom for the CPU and peripherals);

- Temperatures: 70–85°C under load (depends on the cooling system).

Cooling Tips:

- Use a case with at least 2 fans (1 intake, 1 exhaust);

- Replace thermal paste if the card is used (will reduce temperatures by 5–10°C);

- Avoid compact cases — hot air will stagnate.

Comparison with Competitors

Analogues from 2015-2017 (relevant in the second-hand market):

- NVIDIA GTX 950: Lower TDP (90 W), but worse performance in DX12 games;

- AMD RX 460: More energy-efficient, but weaker in OpenCL tasks;

- NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti: Better driver optimization in 2025, 4 GB GDDR5, 75 W TDP.

Modern Budget Analogues (2025):

- Intel Arc A380 ($120): Supports DX12 Ultimate, 6 GB GDDR6, 2-3 times higher FPS;

- AMD Radeon RX 6400 ($130): PCIe 4.0, 4 GB GDDR6, low power consumption.

Practical Tips

Power Supply:

- Minimum 450 W (80+ Bronze or higher);

- Ensure there is a 6-pin PCIe connector.

Compatibility:

- Platforms: Works with PCIe 3.0 and newer, but in PCIe 4.0/5.0 slots — no speed boost;

- Drivers: Official support from AMD ended in 2022. Use modified drivers (e.g., NimeZ) for Windows 11 24H2.

Nuances:

- Not compatible with Resizable BAR (technology from 2020+);

- On Linux, AMDPRO drivers work stably but without optimizations for new games.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Extremely low price for basic tasks;

- Repairability (simple design);

- Support for Multi-GPU (CrossFire) for experimenters.

Cons:

- Lack of VRAM for modern games;

- High power consumption relative to performance;

- No support for DLSS, FSR 3.0, or ray tracing.

Final Conclusion: Who is the R9 370 Suitable For?

This graphics card is an option for:

1. Builders of ultra-budget PCs (up to $200) for office work, studies, or retro gaming;

2. Enthusiasts experimenting with mods on old hardware;

3. Owners of old systems, where upgrading to a modern GPU requires replacing the PSU and motherboard.

Alternative: If your budget allows $120–150, it’s better to get a new Intel Arc A380 or AMD RX 6400 — they will reliably handle 2025 games on low settings and save on electricity.

Postscript

The R9 370 in 2025 is an example of a "surviving" GPU that continues to serve despite its age. It should only be considered as a temporary solution or a component of a nostalgic build. For all other scenarios, the market offers far more advantageous options.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

May 2015

Model Name

Radeon R9 370

Generation

Pirate Islands

Base Clock

925MHz

Boost Clock

975MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

2,800 million

Compute Units

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

28 nm

Architecture

GCN 1.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

2GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

256bit

Memory Clock

1400MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

179.2 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

31.20 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

78.00 GTexel/s

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

156.0 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

2.446 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

1280

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

512KB

TDP

110W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.2

OpenCL Version

1.2

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (11_1)

Power Connectors

1x 6-pin

Shader Model

5.1

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

300W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

2.446 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Quadro T1000 Mobile

2.555 +4.5%

Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

2.509 +2.6%

Radeon R9 370

2.446

GeForce GTX 965M

2.402 -1.8%

Radeon HD 8970M

2.35 -3.9%