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Sapphire R9 380 Nitro 4GB Review

The tests were performed in a controlled room with temperatures maintained at a constant 25°C – a comfortable summer environment for the majority of people reading this. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 15 minutes. Gaming measurements were acquired by repeating the GTA V benchmark for 15 minutes and taking the stabilised reading. All fan settings were left on automatic.

temps_

Sapphire's effective twin-fan cooler does a good job at cooling the R9 380 GPU while gaming. Under the heavy load of GTA V, the GPU temperature remained well below the 70C mark, which is perfectly safe for long-term usage.

AMD's R9 380 GPU core is not very well optimised for operation with a 0dB fan mode, hence the high idle temperature level.

IR-rear-card IR-card-hot-spot-R9-380-Nitro

There is no backplate on the Sapphire R9 380 Nitro 4GB graphics card, meaning that areas of the rear PCB can get hot. A hot spot of almost 75C was recorded behind the VRM components, implying that a low-cost backplate implementation may have been a useful addition.

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5 comments

  1. Can you try to make a CF (4GB) review?

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  3. To add perspective, this 380 was up against a 3-Slot Über OC Palit GTX 960 Super Jetstream 2Gb, and this even with cost disparity of being a 4G unit is just £4 more right today. I see a good purchase or a high priced 960!

    Considering the Palit GTX 960 Super Jetstream 2Gb you tested back Feb ’15 only provided 6% more OC it’s fairly spent in what it can provide in more FpS. Also, for the 3-Slot Palit cooler and Maxwell efficacy, the Nitro cooler is offering excellent cooling under gaming, even with the Palit having a big chunk of its cooler hanging out in the clear through flow air, because of it’s short PCB.

    As they stand they’re close competitors, but when the Sapphire Nitro truly pedestrian, while hardly any huge factory OC (985MHz) version. I say it held up excellent against what is one of the “preeminent 960” offered… which anymore seems overpriced. Perhaps a more proper vying would be something like XFX Black 380 4G with a 1030MHz, that would give a clear picture of what are the “ultimate versions” from either side.

  4. Hello! I have just received my r9 380 4g. Didn’t expect thechanges from the review product… The version I have received now have 1010 Mhz default core clock. And an unexpected backplate. Yes a backplate that looks similar to the r9 390 version. Plus a free Dirt 3 game. Although I was wondering, r9 380 is under Gold Reward group which was listed as to receive 3 games but I only got 1. (Is this only for reference cards? see AMD Never Settle Promo).

    Anyway Photos of the backplate could be seen at the link below.

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12208225/20151029_211102.jpg

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12208225/20151029_212041.jpg

    A great deal anyway! Thanks AMD and Sapphire!

  5. It deems Sapphire started to supply all the 300 series with Backplates now. And they have a nice design to them too, like yours.
    IMO, these little things make the 380 worth every penny.