Radeon RX 540X vs R9 380X

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking332not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation7.98no data
Power efficiency5.84no data
ArchitectureGCN 3.0 (2014−2019)GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameAntiguaPolaris 23
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date19 November 2015 (8 years ago)11 April 2018 (6 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$229 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores2048512
Compute units32no data
Core clock speedno data1124 MHz
Boost clock speed970 MHz1219 MHz
Number of transistors5,000 million2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)190 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rate124.239.01
Floating-point processing power3.973 TFLOPS1.248 TFLOPS
ROPs3216
TMUs12832

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
Bus supportPCIe 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x8
Length221 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Form factorfull height / full lengthno data
Supplementary power connectors​2 x 6-pinNone
Bridgeless CrossFire+-

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5GDDR5
High bandwidth memory (HBM)-no data
Maximum RAM amount4 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed970 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth182.4 GB/s96 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPortNo outputs
Eyefinity+-
Number of Eyefinity displays6no data
HDMI+-
DisplayPort support+-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

CrossFire+-
FRTC+-
FreeSync++
HD3D+-
LiquidVR+-
PowerTune+-
TrueAudio+-
ZeroCore+-
VCE+-
DDMA audio+no data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (12_0)
Shader Model6.36.4
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL2.02.0
Vulkan+1.2.131
Mantle+-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 19 November 2015 11 April 2018
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 2 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 14 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 190 Watt 50 Watt

R9 380X has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.

RX 540X, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 2 years, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 280% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 380X and Radeon RX 540X. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon R9 380X is a desktop card while Radeon RX 540X is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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AMD Radeon R9 380X
Radeon R9 380X
AMD Radeon RX 540X
Radeon RX 540X

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.8 181 vote

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3.6 50 votes

Rate Radeon RX 540X on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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