discussion AMD R9 280X, R9 270X & R7 260X Review Comment Thread

[great_big_abyss]

Retailers are selling the 280X anywhere from $330 TO $360.

 

[sf101]

Retailers are selling the 280X anywhere from $330 TO $360.

pretty sad if thats true.
almost like intentionally tanking a products release.

 

[addbot]

NCIX:
Gigabyte Radeon HD R9 280X OC 1100MHZ 3GB 6.0GHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2XMINIDP PCI-E Video Card = 329.99

Powercolor Radeon HD R9 280X 1000MHZ 3GB 6.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card = 319.99

XFX Radeon HD R9 280X 1000MHZ 3GB 6.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI 2XMINIDP PCI-E Video Card = 309.99

Sapphire Radeon Toxic R9 280X 3G GDDR5 PCI-E DVI-I/DVI-D/HDMI/DUAL Mini DP (UEFI) Video Card = 371.98

Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X R9 280X 950MHZ 3G GDDR5 6200MHZ PCI-E Dual DVI-D/HDMI/DP Oc(uefi)video Card = 348.98

Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 870MHZ 3G GDDR 6000MHZ PCI-E DVI-I/DVI-D/HDMI/DP DUAL-X OC (Uefivideo Card = 318.98

ASUS Radeon ROG Matrix R9 280X 1100MHZ 3GB 6.4GHZ 2xDVI 4xDisplayPort PCI-E Video Card = 449.99

ASUS Radeon R9 280X OC 1070MHZ 3GB 6.4GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card = 369.99

MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition Twin Frozr IV 1.05GHZ 3GB 6GHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI PCI-E Video Card = 319.99


http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX48764

 

[Killswitch]

One advantage to these cards is that they will crossfire with their "un-re-branded" equivalents, so unlike nVidia who did not allow GTX 6xx and 7xx cards to SLi, AMD is at least allowing people to upgrade their current 7xxx cards to Crossfire for a longer period of time, so no need to scramble and find 78xx or 79xx cards to Crossfire with in the future.

And from what I know those that flashed GTX 7xx BIOSes to their nVidia cards bricked 'em.

Good review though, and I agree that the 280X is definitely a good bang-for-the-buck card.

Those exact facts have me wondering... could a 7970 be flashed to a 280x? If so, would any features be gained such as being able to utilize any combination of display connectors when using Eyefinity?

 

[fortkentdad]

Not Vanilla, Not Ghz, it's the "O.C." Version.

Did you get a vanilla 7970, or a 7970 Ghz?

I got this one Gigabyte HD7970 OC

It was reviewed here at HWC last year when it fetched $600 (ouch). HWC Gigabyte HD7970 OC review

Not sure what you call vanilla, but it is not a Ghz edition. It is "OC" OK?


Been playing around with "OCing" my OC'd card today. I got the GPU Clock up to 1060 Mhz before it would cause the system to reboot when I ran 3D Mark 11 benchmarks, and I got the memory clock up to 1525 Mhz. No idea whether this is what I should expect or if I should be disappointed, but that's what I got from playing around with it today. Used Gigabytes own tweaking software, tried MSI Afterburner ( I discovered that MSI's will display the GPU data on my G13 while I play games - cool) and I found the easiest way to adjust the settings was from within AMD's Catalyst Control Centre.

Best 3D Mark 11 score was 4964. When I look at the 4900-5000 scores for Mark11 I see a range of processors including i7 and i5's not too bad company for my A10. Comparing apples to apples my set up comes in 98 out of 164 A10's running one HD7970. Won't win any contests but could be worse. I am a complete knob of a novice when it comes to overclocking.

Looking at the HWC review the overclockers here who know what they are doing and were using a i7 machine not an A10 APU system scored much better than I.

One thing I don't understand is the Memory Clock Mhz, my default is 1375 and I took it up to 1525 but I read in the HWC review of 6204 - the adjustments I have only go up to 1650. (I stopped after 1525 because that value returned a lower benchmark than 1515 and I was getting tired of tweaking) maybe I could have gone higher but 6204???

One thing they did point out in the review which held true on my system is how well the "windforce" three fans work at keeping the card cool. In all my repeated testings today I barely broke 60° C and then only by a degree or two on occasion.

I asked earlier about Crossfiring the HD 7970 with the new card - and looks like it is possible. That's cool because in a couple of years when I might want to extend the life of the system through cross firing it might be harder to find a HD 7970 than a 280X

 

[shark974]

Dont see the point in 270x, get a 7950 for ~200 after rebates right now and it'll be faster plus have 384bit bus and an extra GB RAM, which could be huge going forward with the next gen consoles looming.

Of course, once 7950 supply dries up that caveat no longer exists.

 

[sf101]

Dont see the point in 270x, get a 7950 for ~200 after rebates right now and it'll be faster plus have 384bit bus and an extra GB RAM, which could be huge going forward with the next gen consoles looming.

Of course, once 7950 supply dries up that caveat no longer exists.

all that and still have mantel support aswell.

 

[Squeetard]

And 2 free games.

 

[Bond007]

The info is on page 2 of the R9 270X review. They're both Oland.

Thanks. Read the 280x review first and jumped over the first few pages of the 270x/260x review. I wonder if Oland will bring any performance gains to the <$100 market.

 

[Delavan]

From Hardware.fr:

FLIR picture of VRMs on the MSI Gaming 280X

Les Radeon R7/R9 de MSI - Cartes Graphiques - HardWare.fr

Quote from said article (in french sry):

Pour rappel, notre échantillon de test de Radeon R280X Gaming OC voyait ses performances drastiquement réduites par intermittence, dans Furmark mais aussi 3Dmark 11 et Anno 2070, suite à la mise en protection de la carte qui réduit la fréquence GPU à 501 MHz dès que les VRM atteignent 115 °C. MSI, qui tente de désamorcer la situation au plus vite, semble cependant avoir été pris de court et s'emmêler quelque peu les pinceaux dans ses explications.

Quick translation: Card's performance was drastically reduced intermittently in Furmark, 3D Mark11 and ANNO 2070, because the card's GPU throttled down to 501 mhz when VRMs are reaching 115 deg celsius. MSI is trying deal with this situation ASAP.

The article also states that MSI mentions that the sensors on the card are reading wrong and the temp is actually lower than 115deg celsius. The writers, with FLIR, noted a temp of 117deg celsius!