ASUS Strix R9 380X Review

Up Close

The design team might have stepped back somewhat from the owl motif on their actual products, but the packaging still has that scary bugger front and centre. It makes us glad we’re not field mice. The Strix R9 380X has ASUS’ Direct CU II cooler in place, so it should be lovely and quiet with plenty of cooling capacity.

If a picture tells a thousand words then the looks of the Strix definitely tells the story of how hard they’re trying to ensure that this is the best possible R9 380X. Because of the smaller PCB than usual there is some overhang, but there is no doubt that you couldn’t cram any more cooling ability onto this.

This has to be one of the fattest heatpipes we’ve seen in a while. Usually it’s a selection of thinner ones, but why tap at the problem with a plastic hammer when you can use a sledge. It’s a monster.

The business end of the R9 380X Strix is two six pin PCIe inputs and outputs are handled by twin DVI, a single HDMI and a single DisplayPort.