Home / AMD / AMD Radeon R9 380: Performance and Specs

AMD Radeon R9 380

AMD Radeon R9 380 in 2025: Is it worth considering this graphics card?

Overview of capabilities, performance, and relevance for modern tasks

Architecture and Key Features

GCN 1.2: A Legacy of the Past

The AMD Radeon R9 380, released in 2015, is based on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) 1.2 architecture. This is the third generation of GCN, optimized for improved energy efficiency and performance in DirectX 12. The manufacturing process is 28 nm, which is considered outdated by 2025 standards (modern GPUs use 5–7 nm).

Lack of Modern Features

The card does not support ray tracing (RTX) or similar AMD technologies like FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) that emerged later. However, it is compatible with the Mantle API and partially with Vulkan, which provided advantages in optimized projects during its prime.

Memory: Type, Size, and Impact on Performance

GDDR5: Moderate Bandwidth

The R9 380 is equipped with GDDR5 memory of either 2 or 4 GB (depending on the version) with a 256-bit bus. The bandwidth is 182 GB/s. This was sufficient for games from 2015 to 2018, but in 2025, even 4 GB becomes a critical minimum. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077 (2023) at medium settings in 1080p, the graphics card "consumes" over 3.5 GB of VRAM, causing FPS drops.

Usage Tips

For comfortable operation in 2025, it is recommended to:

- Play older or less demanding titles (CS2, Dota 2, Indie games).

- Avoid ultra texture packs in AAA games.

Gaming Performance

1080p: Acceptable for Light Tasks

In 2025, the R9 380 manages games at low-medium settings:

- Fortnite: 45–55 FPS (Low, 1080p).

- Apex Legends: 40–50 FPS (Medium, 1080p).

- The Witcher 3: 30–35 FPS (Medium, 1080p).

1440p and 4K: Not Recommended

Even in Rocket League (1440p, High), FPS drops to 40–45. The card is unsuitable for 4K due to VRAM shortage and weak computational power.

Ray Tracing: No Support

The R9 380 is incompatible with hardware ray tracing, and software emulation (e.g., Proton for Linux) reduces FPS to unacceptable levels.

Professional Tasks

OpenCL and Limitations

The card supports OpenCL 1.2, allowing its use in rendering (Blender), video editing (DaVinci Resolve), or scientific calculations. However, its performance is significantly lower than modern solutions:

- Blender (Cycles): Rendering a BMW scene takes approximately 45 minutes compared to 5–7 minutes with an RX 7600.

- Lack of CUDA: It cannot be used in Adobe Premiere Pro for render acceleration.

Conclusion: The R9 380 is suitable only for basic tasks or as a temporary solution.

Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

TDP 190W: A Hungry "Veteran"

Under maximum load, the card consumes up to 190W. In comparison, the modern RX 6600 (100W) delivers twice the FPS.

Cooling Recommendations

- A case with good ventilation (2–3 intake fans).

- Minimum power supply: 500W (with overhead for peak loads).

- Replace thermal paste every 2–3 years (relevant for used models).

Comparison with Competitors

Direct Competitors of 2015

- NVIDIA GTX 960 (4 GB): Comparable in performance but more energy-efficient (120W TDP).

- AMD R9 290: More powerful but hotter (250W TDP).

In 2025

Even budget newcomers like the Intel Arc A380 ($120) or RX 6400 ($130) surpass the R9 380 in energy efficiency and support for modern APIs (DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.3).

Practical Tips

Power Supply and Compatibility

- Minimum PSU: 500W (80+ Bronze).

- Compatibility: PCIe 3.0 x16 (works in PCIe 4.0/5.0, but without speed boost).

Drivers: Caution!

Official support from AMD ended in 2021. An enthusiast community releases unofficial patches, but stability is not guaranteed.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Low price (if you find a new unit -- around $100).

- Support for Multi-GPU (CrossFire) for experimental users.

Cons:

- Outdated architecture.

- High power consumption.

- No support for modern technologies (FSR 3, Ray Tracing).

Final Conclusion: Who is the R9 380 For?

This graphics card is a choice for:

1. Budget Builds: If you need a temporary GPU for office tasks or older games.

2. Retro Hardware Enthusiasts: For collectors or modding fans.

3. Second PCs: For streaming servers or media centers.

Alternative in 2025: With a budget of $150–200, it’s better to get a new RX 6500 XT or Intel Arc A580 — they will provide support for modern technologies with half the energy consumption.

Conclusion

The AMD Radeon R9 380 is a legend of the mid-2010s, but by 2025, its time has passed. It may serve as a nostalgic artifact or a temporary solution, but for serious tasks, opting for something current is advisable.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

June 2015

Model Name

Radeon R9 380

Generation

Pirate Islands

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

5,000 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.

112

Foundry

TSMC

Process Size

28 nm

Architecture

GCN 3.0

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

1375MHz

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.

176.0 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.

31.04 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.

108.6 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. 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.

3.476 TFLOPS

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.

217.3 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.

3.406 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.

1792

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

512KB

TDP

190W

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

2.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_0)

Power Connectors

2x 6-pin

Shader Model

6.3

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

450W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

3.406 TFLOPS

3DMark Time Spy

Score

2847

Hashcat

Score

128252 H/s

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon R9 M395X Mac Edition

3.797 +11.5%

Tesla K20c

3.594 +5.5%

Radeon R9 380

3.406

FirePro S10000 Passive

3.337 -2%

Radeon Pro 5300M

3.264 -4.2%

3DMark Time Spy

GeForce RTX 2060 Max Q Refresh

5488 +92.8%

Radeon R9 290X

4069 +42.9%

Radeon R9 380

2847

Radeon RX 560

1773 -37.7%

Radeon Vega 6 Mobile

968 -66%

Hashcat / H/s

Quadro P2000

141898 +10.6%

GeForce GTX TITAN

141221 +10.1%

Radeon R9 380

128252

Radeon R9 280

124363 -3%

Radeon HD 7950

114752 -10.5%