You’re probably wondering, “wait, but the 380 was launched months ago, back in 2015. Why are we talking about it again?” Well, you’re probably right, XFX’s new release has nothing new in it when it comes to board architecture or tech specs. However, the Crimson edition has one thing that the board didn’t typically come with – a toggle switch in the BIOS. As you are probably aware, every high-end graphic card you can find these days has dual, sometimes trips BIOS designs. You can switch between the multiple designs using a switch that can be found in the BIOS. Interestingly, once you toggle this switch for the R9 380, it becomes a full-fledged 380X with higher features compared to the reference point!
Once you completely unlock the GPU, it has better specifications, to be precise, it has a 1040 MHz clocked processor streams counted at 2048. IT also has DDR3 Memory that is clocked at 5800 MHz, compared to the 5700 of the reference point. The PWM design of the card is a custom 4+1+1. The cooler that it comes with is pretty robust, works hard enough to cool the device at both configurations. The crimson colour of the market is designed to reflect, potentially, the current Chinese new year, something the reflects the culture of the Chinese market – oh yes, we forgot to mention – the card is only being released for China. If you’re in America, your only chance of laying your hands on it is if you have a relative or a friend in China.
All the same, the toggle BIOS switch is interesting and opens up a range of opportunities for owners.
