Sapphire R9 380X compatibility questions

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Areksune

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May 2, 2012
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Hi all. So I've been looking at upgrading my current graphics card (a Sapphire Radeon HD 6870) to the Sapphire R9 380X, but have a few questions regarding compatibility.

Firstly, I notice that in the 380X's description it has "UEFI" in parenthesis. My motherboard (an ASUS M4A88T-M) is a few years old and my system is installed with "BIOS" instead of "UEFI", so I am wondering if this means that the card is only compatible with UEFI installs? Or will it work with my BIOS install too?

Second, the motherboard also only has PCI.e 2.0 instead of 3.0. Would this create a noticeable bottleneck?

And lastly, speaking of bottlenecks, my CPU is decently old too. It is an AMD Phenom II x4 965, 3.4 ghz. Would this cpu be likely to bottleneck the card as well?

Thank you for any help! Just trying to decide if I can buy this card now or if I need to wait until I can a full upgrade to my comp. :D
 
Solution
madmatt30
Buy the 380 , get a semi decent cooler & overclock the phenom to 4ghz.

You'll be fine at that , you can run the 380 at stock , just don't expect massive fps increases , just the ability to run at higher quality graphics settings.

BTW - the 380x is not worth the extra cost over the 380.
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Areksune

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May 2, 2012
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I see. Would you know of any significant video card upgrade I could get in the interim, then? I want an upgrade from my current card but I just won't have the funds necessary for a full upgrade anytime soon. Additionally, I assume a large CPU upgrade would also require a new mobo, yes?
 
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madmatt30

madmatt30

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Buy the 380 , get a semi decent cooler & overclock the phenom to 4ghz.

You'll be fine at that , you can run the 380 at stock , just don't expect massive fps increases , just the ability to run at higher quality graphics settings.

BTW - the 380x is not worth the extra cost over the 380.
 
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Areksune

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May 2, 2012
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So for instance, Total War: Warhammer would run smoothly on max-ish graphics even with the possible bottleneck? I suppose I could just get the card anyway and then follow with the rest of the parts regardless...
 
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madmatt30

madmatt30

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To put into perspective , the 380 will likely push the same fps on high graphics settings as your current card is managing on low.

What you won't see is a big fps increase across the board simply because the majority of the time you will be limited by the CPU.
 
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Areksune

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Ah ok, that makes sense. Thank you all for your help :)
 
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