Arc A380 vs Radeon R9 390X
The Arc A380 is significantly faster than the Radeon R9 390X, leading by roughly 20% in our performance index. The Radeon R9 390X, however, delivers more performance per dollar — $56 EUR cheaper.
Market Value Leader
Radeon R9 390X is the clear winner, offering 29.0% better value than Arc A380.
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Arc A380 vs Radeon R9 390X: In-Depth Breakdown
Performance: Arc A380 vs Radeon R9 390X
The Arc A380 is significantly faster, around 20% ahead of the Radeon R9 390X. Both cards sit in the same broad class, well suited to entry-level 1080p.
Price & Value
Right now the Radeon R9 390X starts at $103 EUR against $159 EUR for the Arc A380. Despite being slower, the Radeon R9 390X offers the better performance-per-dollar (~29% better value), so budget-focused buyers should weigh it carefully. The Radeon R9 390X is trading below its $429 EUR MSRP — a genuine deal.
Power & Efficiency
The Arc A380 draws just 75W versus 275W for the Radeon R9 390X, and it also delivers more performance per watt — so it runs cooler and quieter and needs less PSU headroom. Its more modern Alchemist architecture on a TSMC N6 process is part of why it does more with each watt.
VRAM & Future-Proofing
With 8GB against 6GB, the Radeon R9 390X has more headroom for 4K textures and memory-hungry creative/AI tasks where the Arc A380's 6GB can fall short.
Generation & Longevity
The Arc A380 is roughly 7 years newer than the Radeon R9 390X (Alchemist vs GCN 2.0), so it generally benefits from a more modern architecture and longer driver-support runway.
Features & Ecosystem
Beyond raw numbers, the Arc A380 brings Intel XeSS upscaling and AV1 encoding, while the Radeon R9 390X offers AMD FSR upscaling and strong rasterization value. If you lean on upscaling or ray tracing, that ecosystem difference can matter as much as the frame-rate gap.
Which should you buy: Arc A380 or Radeon R9 390X?
Choose the Arc A380 if you want the most performance and can absorb the higher price. If you're optimizing for value, the Radeon R9 390X stretches your money further for only slightly lower performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Arc A380 better than the Radeon R9 390X?
Which is better for 4K gaming, the Arc A380 or the Radeon R9 390X?
Is the Arc A380 worth the extra $56 EUR over the Radeon R9 390X?
Does the Radeon R9 390X have enough VRAM advantage to matter?
Which should you buy: Arc A380 or Radeon R9 390X?
Technical Specifications Comparison
Architecture & Cores
| Specification | Arc A380 | Radeon R9 390X |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Alchemist | GCN 2.0 |
| Process Node | TSMC N6 | TSMC 28nm |
| CUDA Cores (Shading Units / Stream Processors) | 1,024 | 2,816✓ |
| Ray Tracing Cores | 8 | — |
| Tensor / AI Cores | 128 | — |
Clock Speeds
| Specification | Arc A380 | Radeon R9 390X |
|---|---|---|
| Base Clock | 2,000 MHz✓ | 1,050 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2,450 MHz✓ | 1,050 MHz |
Memory
| Specification | Arc A380 | Radeon R9 390X |
|---|---|---|
| VRAM Capacity | 6 GB | 8 GB✓ |
| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus | 96-bit | 512-bit✓ |
| Memory Speed | 15.5 Gbps✓ | 6 Gbps |
| Bandwidth | 186 GB/s | 384 GB/s✓ |
Connectivity & Power
| Specification | Arc A380 | Radeon R9 390X |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| TDP | 75 W✓ | 275 W |
| Power Connectors | 1x 8-pin | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |
| Released | Jun 2022 | Jun 2015 |