Maxwell GPU Surface Book vs Radeon R9 380X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon R9 380X, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the Maxwell GPU Surface Book stacks up against Radeon R9 380X, check out specs charts below.

Maxwell GPU Surface Book is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Maxwell GPU Surface Book is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with Maxwell GPU Surface Book here:

Main Specs

  Maxwell GPU Surface Book Radeon R9 380X
Power consumption (TDP) 190 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
  Check Price Check Price
  • Radeon R9 380X has 3 GB more memory, than Maxwell GPU Surface Book.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 380X - in Desktops.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon R9 380X - with GCN 3.0.
  • Maxwell GPU Surface Book and Radeon R9 380X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Maxwell GPU Surface Book is 4042 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 380X.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 8−9 35−40
ultra / 1080p 5−6 21−24
QHD / 1440p 0−1 16−18
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 20−22 60−65
medium / 1080p 10−12 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 380X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 272% more, than Maxwell GPU Surface Book.

Full Specs

  Maxwell GPU Surface Book Radeon R9 380X
Architecture Maxwell GCN 3.0
Code name Surface Book Antigua
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 1 October 2015 19 November 2015
Pipelines 384 2048
Core clock speed 954 MHz
Boost Clock 993 MHz 970 MHz
Transistor count 5,000 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 124.2
Floating-point performance 3,973 gflops
Length 221 mm
Memory bus width 64 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 5012 MHz 970 MHz
Memory bandwidth 182.4 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX DirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.0
Shader Model 6.3
OpenGL 4.5
OpenCL 2.0
Vulkan +
CUDA +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.58 kh/s
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Optimus +
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
TrueAudio +
ZeroCore +
Mantle +
Design reference
Bridgeless CrossFire +
Number of Eyefinity displays 6
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
VCE +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 0.89 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.63 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 175 Sol/s
Compute units 32
Form factor full height / full length
High bandwidth memory (HBM) -
LiquidVR +
FRTC +
  Check Price Check Price