Sapphire Nitro R9 380 4GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The Sapphire Nitro R9 380 4GB is currently available from OverclockersUK for the low price of just £179.99 and $219.99 from Newegg in the US.

Overview

Sapphire have produced a great card here, the Nitro range will be a great addition to the line-up. This might be based on the slightly aging Tonga GPU from the R9 285, but this doesn’t stop it performing well and the additional 2GB VRAM really allows this card to stretch its legs at the mainstream resolutions.

The overall build quality of this card is very good, a very strong cooling shroud protecting the internal heat sink. The cooling is excellent, the performance you would generally see on cards with high performance and high flow fans and heat sinks, but this also has a passive cooling feature. When given the task of overclocking, this card produced a very strong overclock, and increased the performance a great deal.

The only gripe I have with this card is the lack of a backplate, the overall finish of the card is let down by this.

Pros

• Amazing cooling capabilities
• Very quiet operation
• Great performance/ price ratio
• Passive cooling is a great feature
• 4GB VRAM allows better performance at higher resolutions.

Cons

• Lack of a backplate really detracts from the premium finish

“A great option for a HTPC with amazing overclocking, great cooling and whisper silent operation.“

Thank you to Sapphire for providing this review sample.