Sapphire Radeon R9 380 Nitro 4 GB

Last year’s Radeon R9 285 was hardly a success for AMD. The circuit performed unevenly at launch, which in combination with strange pricing against both the competitor and older models held back interest. Although improved software smoothed out the sharpest edges, graphics cards based on Tonga never became particularly popular.

For 2015, the Radeon R9 285 and Tonga Pro will return under the name R9 380 with the Antigua Pro under the hood. How big the purely technical differences really are, AMD keeps to itself, but basically it’s about the same graphics circuit.

Despite the similarities, much is also different. In addition to increased base frequencies, AMD also takes the opportunity to push extra hard around 4 GB VRAM rather than the 2 GB that was standard for the Radeon R9 285 – something that will solve many lagging performance problems. Admittedly, the R9 380 is also available in 2 GB versions, but it is the 4 GB variant that is in focus when the red team goes to war.

The Sapphire Radeon R9 380 Nitro with just 4 GB of graphics memory is looking for SweClocker’s test lab. Join us as we check if the model can challenge the Geforce GTX 960 in the middle class!