10 Aug 2021 - Graphics card reviewed

Based on current gaming requirements the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition is considered one of the weakest cards and wont meet modern AAA game specs.

Capable of running games with up to a DirectX 12 requirement.

Here is a quick game performance synopsis for the AAA games played in 2023. In particular we focus on how well the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition runs at Ultra graphics settings and what frames per second it is getting at 1080p, 1440p and 4K monitor resolutions. This graphics hardware can run 184 of the 1000 most demanding PC games played today.

With 1080p being the most common gaming resolution at the moment we explored how well the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition can run Far Cry 6 at 1080p and saw it return weak frame rates at the following graphics settings - Low: 0 FPS, Medium: 0 FPS, High: 0 FPS and Ultra: 0 FPS. For performance contrast we can see that Days Gone returns a weak 24 FPS at Ultra 1080p.

Next up we increase screen res tests to accommodate the growing in popularity 1440p screen size. So we booted up Far Cry 6 to see how the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition dealt with it. It scored up a weak series of FPS results across these graphics presets - Low: 0 FPS, Medium: 0 FPS, High: 0 FPS and Ultra: 0 FPS. Next we looked at Days Gone which was weak with a 18 FPS at Ultra 1440p. And finally looked at Forza Horizon 5 that got an Ultra 1440p FPS of 10. Gaming at 1440p with the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition is not going to be able to maintain a playable game at this resolution.

How many years will the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition graphics card play newly released games and how long until you should consider upgrading the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition in your PC? We think this Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition has around 6-12 months until an upgrade should be considered.

Whats a good PC graphics upgrade for the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition? A good choice when looking to upgrade the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition would be the RX 5000 Series Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB which meets 716 of the 1000 top game’s recommended system requirements and has 65% better performance. Alternatively a suitable upgrade choice for the Radeon R9 380 MSI Gaming 4GB Edition is the RX 5000 Series Radeon RX 5300, which is 32% more powerful and can run 300 of the 1000 most demanding PC games beating their recommended requirements.