Although the AMD R9 300 series GPUs were released more than a week ago, Gigabyte just now sent us information and specs on these new GPUs. We now have the specs for Gigabyte's R9 390 and R9 380 GPUs, both of which utilize Gigabyte's Windforce 2X cooler.
It is clear that Gigabyte has recently spent a lot of time improving its GPU air coolers. The Windforce 2X, which is also featured on Gigabyte's Nvidia GTX 960, utilizes dual 90 mm fans with a unique blade design. Gigabyte claims that these fan blades enhance air flow by 23 percent while also reducing the turbulence caused by the fans.
The fans are also programmed to stop spinning when the GPU dips below a certain temperature. This should be evident by the decreased noise coming from the PC, but Gigabyte went ahead and added some extra LEDs that illuminate when the fans stop spinning.
Below the fans, the cooler has a typical aluminum heat sink with three 6 mm cooper heat pipes running through it. These heatpipes make direct contact with the GPU die. Gigabyte also put a metal back plate to support and cool the back of the card, rounding out the cooling solution.
Gigabyte opted to utilize 6-phase power designs on both GPUs, one phase higher than AMD's reference design for the R9 380. Power phases have a tendency to overheat on high-end hardware, but because they work in unison, having more phases typically helps to avoid overheating and can help the GPU overclock further and last longer as a result.
| Gigabyte AMD Radeon R9 390 and R9 380 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | R9 390 | R9 380 |
| Core Clock | 1025 MHz | 990 MHz |
| Memory | 8 GB GDDR5 | 4 GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Clock | 6 GHz | 5.7 GHz |
| Connections | DVI-D/ 3xDP/HDMI | Dual-Link DVI-I/DVI-D/HDMI/DP |
| Dimensions | N/A | 42mm x 234mm x 129mm (H x L x W) |
The cards are already available for sale from online retailers.
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