3 AMD R9 380X GPUs pictured

[Lacoste]

 

3 AMD R9 380X GPU pictured
 
It is rumored that AMD will launch their R9 380X will launching within the next week with 4GB of GDDR5 Memory, meaning that it will only be using a 256-bit memory bus instead of the silicon's full 384-bit memory bus like was previously though. 
This will mean that the new GPU can be made using the same, or lightly modified versions of the PCBs used for producing AMD's existing R9 380 GPUs, which will allow this GPU to be made at a reduced cost. Sadly this will mean that the GPUs full 384-bit bus size will not be used by the GPU, which will reduce this GPUs maximum memory bandwidth and mean that it will have to be used with a lower amount of memory. 
This chip will take advantage of the price gap which is between Nvidia's GTX 960 and GTX 970 GPUs and should fit neatly between AMD's existing R9 380 and R9 390 GPUs. If recent rumors are correct this GPU will have 2048 GCN 1.2 GPU cores and a 256-bit memory bus. 
Below is a chart comparing the specifications of AMD's R9 380 and R9 390 GPUs to the rumored specifications of AMD's upcoming R9 380X.
 

 

  R9 380 R9 380X R9 390 Compute Units 28 32 40 Stream Processors 1792 2048 2560 ROPs 32 32 64 Architecture GCN 1.2 GCN 1.2 GCN 1.1 Clock Speed 970MHz 1000-1100MHz 1000MHz VRAM 4GB 4GB 8GB Memory Clock 5.6GHz 5.6-6GHz 6GHz Memory Bus 256-bit 256-bit 512-bit TDP 190W - -
 

 

 

    

 
In essence the R9 380X will be the same Tonga based GPU that Apple used in their 5K iMac, which at that time was named the R9 m295X.
All of these GPUs look very similar to their existing R9 380 counterparts, but they all nonetheless look very good, especially the ASUS Strix model which we see has a full cover backplate. 
 

    

 
It looks like XFX's R9 380X does however have a new feature for their GPUs, as it looks like it used the same removable fans that were in the prototype model that was leaked earlier this year. This will be very useful for cleaning your GPU, especially if you have dust inside your system. 
The Gigabyte model will be part of their G1 Gaming series and is cooled by their Windforce 2X cooler. For visual outputs all of these GPUs have dual DVI connectors, a single HDMI connection and a single Displayport connector. 
 
  
 
 
With such a huge price gaps between the mid-range GTX 960 and GTX 970 this is a great opportunity for AMD to take advantage of this market gap, let's hope these rumors of an AMD R9 380X GPU are true and that this GPU is as impressive as it sounds.