FRONTPAGE AMD XFX R9 280X Graphics Card Review

Didn't the GTX 770 at least feature clock speeds that were significantly higher than the GTX 680? And optionally, more video memory?

Nope. There are 680 varients with 4gb and varying clocks.


@ xsuper - seen the contrary on H forum... But not sure if that wasn one sample or what bios...etc. here is to hopng!

Hardin said:

Well the 770 is the winner because it came out in May or so..... Now Nvidia can probably do a price drop or release a new card or something.

These cards are rehashes despite what AMD says. True Audio is something to be excited about, but we will have to see if games will support it. Mantle is probably the most exciting thing about this launch, and that will be available on the 7000 series.

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Really comes down to semantics. If you think the gtx 770 wins over the 280x. Granted benchmarks are a reference and not the be-all sign of a clear cut winner, depends on if your a die-hard green fan or red fan. And the fact that you state that nVIDIA can, and i quote, "probably do a price cut", doesn't make it a winner. If its any price cut like the gtx 600's, if they knock off $20 on the gtx 770 its still not a winner if you can pay $80 less and get either the same, or near same performance cheaper. Just because it came out first doesn't make it a winner. I would need at least a 5-10% increase to make me pay almost $100 more. Just means for now, till 20nm comes out and its amazing and huge increase, nVIDIA has nothing to counter back other then trying to reach the price-point of AMD.

So if this is between a 760 and a 770, then it can be surmised that the R9 290x will be between a 770 and 780, since AMD themselves said they were trying to compete with the GTX Titan (ololol wonder why)

Perhaps they won the battle but not the war?

Not really, could a 760 suit my needs? It very well could. Hard to say it will be the "zomghaxxorzpwncard" when it varies from party to party. I do love the green team, as I have never experienced any issues from them like I did AMD.

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Story of my life.

R290 will be between the 770 and 780. R290x will be between the 780 and Titan.

ninjacore said:

Any idea if the 280X will work in Crossfire with a 7970, then, or was there enough architectural change to make them incompatible?

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CONFIRMED: R9 280X & HD 7970 Work Just Fine In CrossfireX

Nice! Not sure I'll ever do it, but if I ever decide to go CF, at least it gives me more options to shop for

nice review and that is a really nice looking card

Good review. Is the R9 280X the exact same GPU as the 7970? Or are the audio processing capabilities the only difference?

I don't understand the need for audio processing capabilities on a video card at all -- especially
when the video card still needs a separate sound device to actually output the sound. I'd rather
have a faster GPU than a GPU that can do audio as well as video processing.

Sorry, I meant to write 7970 in place of 6970.

I think you mean the 7970? Yes, it is, just clocked a bit higher. I don't think the 280X has the new audio capabilities.

7970 Mag.

As mentioned above, TrueAudio does not apply to the R9 280X (nor the R9 270X), only the R7 260X and the big dogs that aren't released yet.

Also as mentioned, this is the same GPU as the HD 7970.

EarthDog said:

Nope. There are 680 varients with 4gb and varying clocks.


@ xsuper - seen the contrary on H forum... But not sure if that wasn one sample or what bios...etc. here is to hopng!

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So Nvidia played the same game AMD is playing now w/the R9-280x?

What game is that? Rebrands? Yes. The 7 series (770 and 760) are rebrands. The 780 is a cut down Titan.

At least they've finally stopped putting those stupid vapour chambers on them.

We have a bunch of threads about these cards so I hope this is not posted somewhere already but this has my attention. Not fond of the price point over normal 280x but its price to performance looks solid. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7406/the-sapphire-r9-280x-toxic-review/1

For a yellow build thats like the perfect center piece.

Yesterday I received an ASUS Matrix Platinum R9 280X. Won't have time to get to it until next week, but it is pretty. Seems like it's nearly identical to the Matrix Platinum HD 7970, which stands to reason. I will try, but will probably be hard pressed to tell any differences aside from the model number.

EarthDog said:

7970 Mag.

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They use magnetos to power 7970's?

It has been revealed weeks ago how AMD is handling it... and that means, the same way just as Nvidia regarding the 700 series. Compared to the GTX 770, previously the archrival of the 7970, the GTX 760 cant hold a candle (thats well said) and the GTX 770 have to accept defeat and a price cut could be the result. But im truly not sure about the full testing conditions but even without OC, the GTX 770 is not able to match performance. Thats not different from the 7970 but the 280X is that agressively priced (300$) that it will be the better deal as long as Nvidia isnt catching up.

Regarding performance, im not sure the clocks, its not fully visible. The TOP should be clocked to 1 GHz i assume? Thats not more than a standart GHz edition, confusing.

Well as far as i can see, the only cards with a "true" improvement (known as GCN 2.0) is the 290 specced cards, comparable to GTX 780 + Titan. Of course thats rather disappointing but have to remember that Nvidia did exactly the same considering the 700 series and the "fans" was still hyping it like crazy. So far AMD didnt release any "bomb", because they are still hiding the two GCN 2.0 beasts from the public, for whatever reason. Bomb would mean: To beat 780 + Titan, thats the stuff most of the people want to know. In term its only a match... its at least "good news" but nothing able to nuke. When i look at the specs i know so far (shader count, ROP, memory bus, TFLOP*), its possible to have a "bomb attack". But those cards will surely surpass the price of the "mainstream old tech cards" by a clear margin (much higher priced), comparable to Nvidia.* Expected TFLOP for 290X is above 5 TFLOP (officially stated by AMD), while a GTX 780 is around 4.5 TFLOP, Titan slightly higher (prehaps 4.7 or so).