After a prolonged absence, AMD has decided to acknowledge its once target audience — PC gamers. With the release of the new R9 380X, AMD is hoping to recapture the portion of the PC gaming market of which, at one point of time, it was king.
The reason for bringing the AMD R9 380X into the market at this point is simple — AMD wants to capitalise on the vacuum left between NVIDIA’s GTX 960 and the GTX 970. Theoretically, this
fully-enabled card may not give all that much of a boost in terms of performance from the old 7970s, but it is the price point that makes this card dictate its true value.
The price for the GPU will be '19,990 for the reference model. This puts it at a very competitive price point when compared to the GTX 960 and cheaper than the GTX 970. Moreover, throw in the extra 2GB of VRAM that the R9 380X has to offer when compared to the cheaper variants of the GTX 960, and you are looking at the go-to choice of GPU for any gamer on a tight budget.
But the main concern that many gamers are sharing with regards to AMD GPUs has nothing to do with the hardware, but rather driver support. It seems AMD is trying hard to address this concern by completely revamping its software support with the new Crimson Catalyst centre Radeon settings, essentially AMD’s version of GeForce Experience.
Overall, the AMD R9 380X is looking like a very viable choice for people looking to play games maxed out at 1080p and even get decent performance at 1440p without breaking the bank. The card should be out first week of December.
