It has been a while since we?ve seen a new graphics card launch, the last of which was AMD's capable little Nano. Historically, the time right before and during key events in the retail calendar like Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season is low time for new GPU products but high time for A-list game releases. GPU vendors typically hunker down with their existing wares and avoid launching anything new into an environment that's rife with heavily discounted merchandise. AMD is bucking that trend by introducing the R9 380X, a $230 card that may prove to be a lynchpin within their lineup in the coming months.

With the R9 380X, AMD is trying to thread a very thin needle with a product many had expected months ago. A price of $230 for reference-clocked versions and up to $260 for higher performing models means (if everything goes according to plan) it should be able to overcome the lower priced $210 GTX 960 4GB while plugging a gap between the R9 390 and R9 380 in AMD's product stack. However, overclocked versions come perilously close to the pricing structure of AMD's R9 390 ($290-$300) and NVIDIA's GTX 970 ($299 after rebates, with a free game) and that could pose a problem as gamers seek an optimal price / performance ratio for their purchases. This is a pricing segment that has been oddly underserved in the last year or so and with good reason: it is book-ended by extremely capable options.