XFX R9-280 Black Edition OC Review

The AMD R9-280 looks to wrench the mid-range performance crown from NVIDIA. We put XFX’s OC Black Edition to the test and pitch it against NVIDIA’s GTX760…

Product on Review: XFX R9-280 Black Edition OC
Manufacturer and Sponsor: XFX
Street Price: £179.99 GBP / $275 USD

With the recent slowdown in new graphics card technologies we find the annual price wars starting to gear up. One of the most highly contested areas is the mid-range segment. Quite often we see a re-hash in model numbers – by this we mean re-badging an existing graphics card to make it appear new. Both AMD and NVIDIA are guilty of this practice and to be fair it makes perfect marketing sense. The enthusiast consumer usually yearns for the latest hardware and it is with this thought that a cunning but simple re-fresh of existing models proves both efficient and cost-effective as it uses up existing silicon while supplementing and supporting current gen product family. Like it or not, neither AMD nor NVIDIA are likely to massively reduce ‘last year’s stock’ when they can keep the price artificially high by a re-badge and BIOS flash.

The R9-280 is one such graphics card that has undergone this process. In a former life this was the very successful HD7950 – understudy to the mighty HD7970 flagship component which itself underwent the marketing transformation to the R-280X! Clearly then, the R9-280 has the performance pedigree but has anything else changed? Well, not a great deal actually. Aside from a very small boost in clockspeed (reference) and a redesigned cooler, the R9-280 is near identical to the HD7950 refreshed ‘boost’ edition. Not that this is a bad thing of course because when we tested the HD7950 we were thoroughly impressed. Time has since moved on but with a few driver tweaks and XFX’s own speed boosts being that our review sample is the ‘Black Edition OC’ we hope to see some good figures, especially with regards to value for money because at just £180 / $275, the R9-280 looks to give tremendous bang-per-buck. For this reason we will be pitching it up against NVIDIA’s GTX760. Not only is the green team’s card similarly priced but it also happens to be our current value for money champ.

XFX’s take on the R9-280 Black Edition OC:

For gamers who demand the very best, AMD Radeon R9 280 graphics shatter ordinary GPU performance. Groundbreaking GCN Architecture pushes your performance to insane levels while AMD TrueAudio technology and ultra-resolution gaming take you even deeper into the action. With Ultra Resolution Gaming you can leave HD in the dust by gaming on displays much, much larger. Whether using a 4k monitor or combining multiple HD monitors, you’ll get an expansive experience that’s truly out of sight. With AMD TrueAudio technology, you get the most revolutionary, realistic and breathtaking sound we’ve ever put in a GPU Mantle gives game developers the power to speak directly to the GPU core. With such a direct connection to your hardware, game developers are discovering a whole new world of immersion and performance made possible by AMD graphics leadership.

Specification

GENERAL
Product Description : BLACK DD RADEON R9 280 1000M 3GB D5 2XmDP HDMI 2XDVI
UPC Number : 778656065833

PROCESSOR & BUS
Bus Type : PCI-E 3.0
Chipset version : Tahiti Pro2
GPU Bus (bit) : 384
GPU Clock : 1000 MHz
Performance Category : Performance
Stream Processors : 1792

MEMORY
Memory Bus : 384 bit
Memory Clock : 5.2 GHz
Memory Size : 3 GB
Memory Type : DDR5

FEATURE TECHNOLOGIES
AMD CrossFire Technology : Y
AMD Eyefinity Technology : Y
AMD HD3D Technology : Y
AMD Hybrid Graphics Technology : 1
AMD PowerPlay Technology : Y
AMD Stream Technology : Y

ENVIRONMENTAL
RoHS : Y

DISPLAY OUTPUT
Display Port ready : 1.2
Dual link Support : Y
HDMI Ready : 1.4a
Max Supported Resolution (ANALOG) : 2048 x 1536
Max Supported Resolution (DIGITAL) : 2560 x 1600(DVI);4096 x 2160(HDMI DP)
Output – DL-DVI-I : 1
Output – HDMI : 1
Output – mini DP : 1
Output – SL-DVI-D : 1

PHYSICAL
Card Profile : Dual
Thermal Solution : DD Fansink
Thermal Type : Dual Slot
Card Dimension (cm) : 29.5 x 14.3 x 4.2
Card Dimension (inch) : 11.61 x 5.63 x 1.65
Master Carton Dimensions (cm) : 51.5 x 33.7 x 37.1
Master Carton Dimensions (inch) : 20.28 x 13.27 x 14.61
Master Carton Weight (Kg) : 15.09 est.
Master Carton Weight (lb) : 33.27 est.
Package Dimensions (cm) : 16 x 33.6 x 9.8
Package Dimensions (inch) : 6.3 x 13.23 x 3.86
Package Weight (Kg) : 1.41 est.
Package Weight (lb) : 3.11 est.
Units/Carton : 10

INCLUDES
6-pin to 4-pin power cable : 1
8-pin to 6-pin power cable : 1
Cross Fire Bridge : 1
Driver Disk Installation Guide : 1
Installation DVD : 1
Promotional Bundles : PSU Cross Marketing Insert
Quick Installation Guide : 1

REQUIREMENTS
External Power – 6-pins : 1
External Power – 8-pins : 1
Minimum Power Supply Requirement : 750 watt
XFX Recommended Power Supply : XFX 850W PSU

Features

-Up to 933MHz Engine Clock
-Up to 3GB GDDR5 Memory
-1250MHz memory clock (5.0 Gbps GDDR5)
-Up to 240GB/s memory bandwidth
-3.34 TFLOPS Single Precision compute power
-GCN Architecture
-Up to 28 compute units (1792x Stream Processors)
-Up to 112 Texture Units
-128 Z/Stencil ROP Units
-32 Color ROP Units
-Dual Geometry Engines
-Dual Asynchronous Compute Engines (ACE)
-OpenGL 4.3support
-Partially Resident Textures (PRT)
-Ultra-high resolution texture streaming technology
-Mantle API support
-Image quality enhancement technology
-Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
-Adaptive anti-aliasing
-Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA)
-16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
-128-bit floating point HDR rendering
-AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology2
-Up to 6 displays supported with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport
-Independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls, and video overlays
-Display grouping
-Combine multiple displays to behave like a single large display
-AMD App Acceleration3
-OpenCL 1.2 Support
-Microsoft C++ AMP
-DirectCompute 11
-Double Precision Floating Point
-AMD HD Media Accelerator
-Unified Video Decoder (UVD)
-H.264
-VC-1
-MPEG-2 (SD & HD)
-MVC (Blu-ray 3D)
-MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX/Xvid)
-Adobe Flash
-DXVA 1.0 & 2.0 support
-Video Codec Engine (VCE)
-Multi-stream hardware H.264 encoder
-Full-fixed mode: 1080p @ 60 FPS encoding
-Hybrid mode: Stream Processor-assisted encoding
-Enhanced Video Quality features
-Advanced post-processing and scaling
-Deblocking
-Denoising
-Automatic deinterlacing
-Mosquito noise reduction
-Edge enhancement
-3:2 pulldown detection
-Advanced video color correction
-Brighter whites processing (Blue Stretch)
-Independent video gamma control
-Flesh tone correction
-Color vibrance control
-Dynamic contrast
-Dynamic video range control
–AMD HD3D technology6
-Stereoscopic 3D display/glasses support
-Blu-ray 3D support
-Stereoscopic 3D gaming
-3rd party Stereoscopic 3D middleware software support
-AMD CrossFire multi-GPU technology4
-Dual, triple or quad-GPU scaling
-Cutting-edge integrated display support
-DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2
-Max resolution: 4096×2160 per display
-Multi-Stream Transport
-21.6 Gbps bandwidth
-High bit-rate audio
-Quad HD/4k video support
-HDMI (With 4K, 3D, x.v.Color and Deep Color)
-Max resolution: 4096×2160
-1080p60 Stereoscopic 3D
-Quad HD/4k video support
-Dual-link DVI with HDCP
-Max resolution: 2560×1600
-VGA
-Max resolution: 2048×1536
-Integrated HD audio controller
-Output protected high bit rate 7.1 channel surround sound over HDMI with no additional cables required
-Supports AC-3, AAC, Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio formats
-AMD PowerTune technology5
-Intelligent TDP management technology
-Dynamic clockspeed/performance enhancement for games
-AMD ZeroCore Power technology5
-Ultra-low idle power when the system’s display is off
-Efficient low power mode for desktop work
-Secondary GPUs in an AMD CrossFire technology configuration power down when unneeded
-AMD Catalyst graphics and HD video configuration software
-Software support for Windows 7 and Windows Vista
-AMD Catalyst Control Center – AMD Catalyst software application and user interface for setup, configuration, and accessing features of AMD Radeon products.
-Unified Graphics display driver – AMD Catalyst software enabling other PC programs and devices to use advanced graphics, video, and features of AMD Radeon products.

AMD ZeroCore Power Efficiency

When a discrete GPU is in a static screen state it works to minimize idle power by enabling a host of active power saving functions including (but not limited to); clock gating, power gating, memory compression, and a host of other features. However, GPUs with AMD’s exclusive ZeroCore Power technology can take energy savings to entirely new heights by completely powering down the core GPU while the rest of the system remains active.

Nearly all PCs can be configured to turn off their displays after a long period of inactivity. This is known as the long idle state; where the screen is blanked but the rest of the system remains in an active and working power state (ACPI G0/S0). As soon as the system goes into long idle state and applications are not actively changing the screen contents, the GPU enters the ZeroCore power state. In the ZeroCore power state, the GPU core (including the 3D engine / compute units, multimedia and audio engines, displays, memory interfaces, etc.) is completely powered down.

However, one cannot simply remove the GPU and its associated device context completely; particularly when it is the only GPU in the system as is the case in many enthusiast platforms. The operating system and SBIOS must still be aware that a GPU is still present in the system. For this reason, the ZeroCore Power state maintains a very small bus control block to ensure that GPU context is still visible to the operating system and SBIOS. The ZeroCore power state also manages the power sequencing of the GPU to ensure that the power up/down mechanism is self-contained and independent of the rest of the system.

The enablement of the ZeroCore Power feature is controlled by the driver. The driver monitors the display contents and allows the GPU to enter the ZeroCore Power in the condition that the GPU enters long idle and subsequent work requests are no longer being submitted to the engine. If any applications update the screen contents, ZeroCore Power technology can periodically wake the GPU to update the framebuffer contents and put the GPU back into the ZeroCore Power state. Furthermore, applications such as Windows 7 desktop gadgets are architected to minimize activity and save power in the long idle state. These applications are active during screen-on mode to display dynamic content such as weather, RSS feeds, stock symbols, system status, etc. but also have the intelligence to suspend any updates and activity when the system enters long idle. These applications will not wake the GPU from the ZeroCore Power state in long idle.

AMD ZeroCore Power technology delivers tremendous energy savings. Many PCs remain in the long idle state for a variety of use cases that are highly relevant to everyday consumers, enthusiasts and professionals. In ZeroCore Power mode, users can still enjoy non-graphics activities such as file serving/streaming, motherboard audio and music, and remote access while the GPU core is essentially powered off.

ZeroCore Power technology also scales with AMD CrossFire™ technology. With an AMD CrossFire platform, all non-primary GPUs are in the ZeroCore Power state when not in use. For AMD CrossFire workloads, the driver will engage the non-primary GPUs to deliver full performance on-demand. The primary GPU can also enter the ZeroCore Power state during long idle as well. This delivers scalable benefits for the enthusiast. First, it effectively removes the power increase for users of AMD CrossFire under idle and light (single GPU) workloads. Second, it removes the noise penalty multiGPU users have always had to endure since the GPU fans are off in ZeroCore Power mode.

GCN (Graphics Core Next)

Available on select, high-performance AMD Radeon™ R9 and HD 7000 Series graphics products, the Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture is a radically new approach to the design of a consumer GPU.

Designed to push not only the boundaries of DirectX® 11.2 gaming, the GCN Architecture is also AMD’s first design specifically engineered for general computing. Equipped with up to 32 compute units (2048 stream processors), each containing a scalar coprocessor, AMD’s 28nm GPUs are more than capable of handling workloads-and programming languages-traditionally exclusive to the processor. Coupled with the dramatic rise of GPU-aware programming languages like C++ AMP and OpenCL™, the GCN Architecture is truly the right architecture for the right time.

Performance

In simple terms, increasing the number of transistors in a GPU has a big impact on the potential performance of a graphics card-but transistors alone are not enough. It takes a truly great design, like the GCN Architecture, to effectively utilize that potential for real-world performance.

Below you will find just a few examples of how this truly next-generation architecture delivers on one very simple design goal: enable the world’s most powerful graphics cards.1

Starting with GPU utilization, AMD has taken great strides to ensure that the GCN Architecture is capable of efficiently using its hardware resources. This seems like such a simple idea, but designing a GPU to frequently approach its peak theoretical performance is a challenge the GCN Architecture tackles with ease.

The GCN Architecture is designed for improved utilization, which ensures that the GPU is making optimal use of its resources for maximum performance.

The GCN Architecture also benefits from dramatically improved tessellation performance. Games featuring this DirectX® 11 technology are considerably faster than they were on the previous generation of AMD Radeon™ products. There is also the new Mantle API which promises to dominate NVIDIA, especially in titles such as Battlefield 4. Project Mantle is one of AMD’s most innovative and game-changing features, delivered with the Radeon™ R9 and R7 Series product line. Mantle is a new application programming interface (API), leveraging the commonality between the next-gen consoles and Radeon™. It enables game developers direct communication to our GPUs, unlocking the true potential of GCN and resulting in significantly higher gaming performance at all segments. We will be looking at Mantle in a separate article but if what we hear is correct, Microsoft (who are responsible for DirectX) should be very worried.

Every gamer knows that the GPU’s clockspeed also has a big impact on the performance of a graphics card, and the GCN Architecture keeps that in mind.

But what many don’t know is that every graphics card is designed to draw only a certain amount of power from your PC’s power supply. This is called the Thermal Design Profile, or TDP, and it’s critical that the GPU architecture is capable of making the most of every watt. The GCN Architecture can do that thanks to a technology called AMD PowerTune technology.

AMD PowerTune is an intelligent system that performs real-time analysis of the games and applications that utilize a GPU. Examples of such software might include Battlefield 3 or Furmark. In the event that an application is not making the most of the power available to the GPU, AMD PowerTune can improve that application’s performance by raising the GPU’s clockspeed by up to 30%! Best of all, this technology is completely automatic and is designed specifically to improve gaming performance.

Available on all 28nm AMD Radeon™ products, AMD PowerTune is designed to enable significantly higher clockspeeds in your favorite games-automatically!

Image Quality

But performance is not enough for today’s demanding gamers. Image quality, or the clarity and accuracy of textures and effects, is equally important. The GCN Architecture is equipped with three key technologies that dramatically raise the bar in this regard.

Partially Resident Textures (PRT)
Even in the latest titles, gamers may have noticed that games often re-use or repeat textures, particularly on the ground or in background scenery such as mountains or trees. This is because increasing the physical size or number of textures in a game can have a negative impact on the performance of a GPU. PRT is a radical new technology that hopes to break this cycle.

PRT can utilize absolutely enormous texture files, up to 32 terabytes large, with minimal performance impact. PRT accomplishes this by streaming small bits of these massive textures into the GPU as needed, giving compatible games a virtually endless supply of unique texture data it can apply to the game world. The GCN Architecture in 28nm AMD Radeon™ products is the first GPU design to feature a hardware implementation of this technology.

Partially Resident Textures (PRT) enables future games to utilize ultra-high resolution textures with the same performance as today’s small and often repetitive textures.

Improved Anisotropic Filtering (AF)

Available on every modern GPU, anisotropic filtering is a technique that assists the GPU in making sure textures in your favorite games remain razor sharp, even at a distance. Most games now offer the ability to enable this feature, and the AMD Catalyst™ driver suite has long provided players with the option to force enable anisotropic filtering for all of their games.

Where every GPU design differs, however, is in the way the anisotropic filtering is actually executed. The GCN Architecture has been specifically optimized to produce superior results when AF is enabled.

Improved anisotropic filtering in products like the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series ensure gamers get sharper, better textures when this technology is enabled.

Improved DirectX® 11 Tessellation
As DirectX® 11 titles become more mature, game developers are naturally pushing the envelope of realism by utilizing a greater degree of special rendering effects. One such effect is tessellation, which can dynamically generate additional detail in a scene on the fly.

A wireframe scene of a rally car in DiRT 3 driving through water. On the left, notice there are no ripples. On the right, after tessellation, there is new and dynamic detail in the game.

As with anisotropic filtering, tessellation is not new to GPUs, but the manner in which tessellation is executed can have a large impact on the gaming experience. Because of this, the GCN Architecture has again been optimized to deliver up to 4x the performance of the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 Series in heavily-tessellated games.

Packaging & Accessories

The graphics card comes packaged in typical XFX packaging being that it is very compact. XFX pride themselves on efficiency and environmental kindness and this is borne true in their packaging because there is very little waste. The front of the exterior sleeve features the product title along with the special features assigned to this card including DD (Double Dissipation) cooling, 90mm Fans and unlocked voltage tuning.

Flipping the box over we see that XFX go into greater detail listing the remainder of the features of the R9-280 which is also displayed in numerous other languages both on the back and sides of the packaging.

After removing the outer sleeve we see a plain brown cardboard box (environmentally friendly) which flips up to reveal a compartmentalised box containing accessories and the graphics card. The accessory list is as complete as most any other GPU vendor. A selection of leaflets are accompanied by GPU driver and twin power adaptor cables ensuring you have everything to get you going. Perhaps the only item missing that we could identify is the VGA-DVI adaptor but as most gamers are now using either DVI/HDMI or DisplayPorts this is not a major issue although worth noting.

First Look

The top of the card is stylistic yet minimalist in design. While this is the Black Edition of the card and features the DD cooler, it is not the only card featuring this design in XFX’s product line up. Not that this is a bad thing of course as we really like this design.

We were pleased that XFX didn’t falter and give the PCB a colour anything other than black, especially as this is the aptly titled Black Edition! We have seen a few coloured PCB’s of late and none of which added to our appeal of the card so we beg all manufacturers to stick with tried, tested and generally accepted black PCB’s please!

The cards dimensions are 29.5cm x 14.3cm x 4.2cm so it cannot be described as compact and will require a fair sized PC enclosure to house it so please check before purchasing.

From a sideways on vie we get to see how the XFX component would look in your PC (assuming you have an ATX style case). We loved the sleek look to the card which by the way is as heavy as it looks! The sandwich styles cooler hides a behemoth cooling solution inside with only highlights visible from the exterior.

The R9-280, like its predecessor the HD7950 will require both 6 and 8 pin PCIe power cables attached to a PSU capable of delivering 750W which is more than is required for the competing GTX760.

Lest we forget, the previous generation Radeon cards had to make do with crossfire bridges and ribbon cables to enable Crossfire so hopefully you have not disposed of these items as this card will need at least one to pair up with another R9-280.

The I/O area features the usual connections found on the last generation GPU: DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI and 2x Mini-DisplayPorts. A neat feature was the air vent which was cut to mimic the XFX logo.

Closer Look

Following a worrying trend, XFX have opted to attach protective stickers preventing users from removing their cooler without voiding the warranty. Throwing caution to the wind we removed the cooler anyway and like what we found.

6 x Copper heatipes spread out from a copper baseplate, itself soldered to a twin aluminium finned heatsink array.

Adding to the cooling is a mid-plate which gives direct cooling to both VRM and memory areas. Thermal pads enhance heat transfer.

Viewing the PCB in all its naked glory re-enforces our conclusion that the R9-280 is simply a HD7950 in new clothing. While there are certainly improvements to the design over the previous HD7950, we find that everything is where it should be which is a near mirror of the refreshed HD7950 design.

The VRM are has seen some improvements over the old HD7950. The 7 x R22 chokes remain but older MOSFETs are replaced by updated versions. There are quite a few less solid caps on the 280 compared to the HD7950 too making for higher efficiency. The card does however require a 6+8pin design which is a couple of pins more than the 6+6 we saw on the HD7950 Black edition.

Controlling these voltages is the CHiL controller which if you weren’t already aware, allows the tweaking of both clock frequencies and critical voltages (memory and GPU core).

The 3 GB of HYNIX memory is clocked at an impressive 5.2 GHz but as we know, this memory is easily capable of higher clockspeeds so we will be looking to see how far this can be pushed.

Finally we get to the exposed Tahiti Pro2 core of the R9-280. Featuring 1792 cores and a 1GHz clockspeed, the R9-280 will no doubt churn out some impressive figures. How impressive these are when compared to the GTX760 we hope to find out so before we do let’s take a look at today’s test setup…

Test Setup & Methodology

How we test graphics cards

Testing a graphics card is an extremely lengthy process. We sometimes see reviews where a graphic card has been tested using out of date equipment, out of date games and out of date drivers. While the latter can be excused due to the sheer amount of driver updates making a thorough review impossible we will however notify the reader when we have used a different driver to the normal for example a pre-release driver. For the most part however we will always use the same hardware and where possible the same drivers unless a newer driver rectifies an issue we have encountered or significantly improves performance to such an extent that continuing with an outdated driver is not feasible.

Frame Time Analysis
We have also seen the emergence of frame time analysis. We covered this in a separate article here: GPU Reviews: Why Frame Time Analysis is important so we won’t go into the reasoning again but to summarise, our testing comprises both FPS testing and perhaps arguably more importantly, frame time analysis. We also look at overall performance by equating averages across the games and finally before concluding our review we take a look at value for money.

HardwareWith the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

High End Graphics cards on test:

XFX R9-280 Black Edition OC 3GB GDDR5
(Catalyst 14.6 BETA)
PALIT GTX 760GB 2GB GDDR5
(Forceware 337.88)
MSI R9 290X LIGHTNING OC 4GB GDDR5[/COLOR](Catalyst 14.3 BETA)
ASUS R9 290 DIRECTCU II OC 4GB GDDR5(Catalyst 13.12)
MSI GTX 780 Ti Twin Frozr OC GAMING 3GB GDDR5(Forceware 331.70)
GIGABYTE GTX 780 GHz Edition 3GB GDDR5(Forceware 331.70)
HIS R9 280X ICEQ X2 TURBO 3GB GDDR5](CAT 13.11)
GIGABYTE R9 280X WINDFORCE 3X OC 3GB GDDR5(CAT 13.11)
AMD RADEON R9 290X 4GB GDDR5(CAT 13.11 Beta v5)
ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II 3GB GDDR5(CAT 13.11 Beta v1)
ASUS GTX760 DirectCU Mini OC 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
Inno3D iChill GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra 3GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
ASUS GTX770 DIRECT II CU OC 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
MSI GTX760 Twin Frozr Gaming 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
GIGABYTE GTX780 Windforce x3 OC 3GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
GAINWARD GTX780 PHANTOM ‘GLH’ 3GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
INNO3D GTX760 ICHILL HERCULEZ 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
GIGABYTE GTX770 WINDFORCE 3X OC 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.49)
ZOTAC GTX760 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.39)
NVIDIA GTX760 2GB GDDR5(Forceware 320.39)
]NVIDIA GTX760 2GB GDDR5 SLI(Forceware 320.39)
SAPPHIRE DUAL-X HD7950 3GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 13.6 beta)
CLUB 3D HD7970 royalAce 3GB GDDR5 (Catalyst 13.6 beta)
GAINWARD PHANTOM GTX 770 2GB GDDR5 (Forceware 320.18)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2GB GDDR5 (Forceware 320.18)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB GDDR5 (Forceware 320.18)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 4GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN SLI 12GB(2x6GB) GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
NVIDIA GTX680 2GB GDDR5 (Forceware 314.22)
AMD HD7970 3GB GDDR5 (AMD CAT 13.3 beta)

Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler – Corsair H100

Benchmarks
If you are a regular reader of our reviews you will know we like to test the latest hardware with the latest games and benchmarks on the market. Here are the games we have chosen:

Battlefield 3
Crysis 3
Far Cry 3
BioShock Infinite
DiRT: Showdown
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

We also take into consideration the benchmarkers out there so have included 3 of the more popular synthetic benchmarks available:

Unigine: Valley
Unigine: Heaven 4
Futuremark 3DMark Firestrike

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Overclocking

For overclocking today’s sample we will be using MSI’s Afterburner tool as this gives us all of the options we require included the additional voltage controls. It should also be noted that MSI have their own VGA fan control tool specific to this model which allows independent fan control along with temperature monitoring of both GPU and PWM.

Above is a screenshot of GPU-Z showing the reference (factory overclocked) and manually attained overclock speeds.

Overclocking the XFX R9-280 was simply a matter of maxing out all of the sliders. We did try raising the clockspeed with no voltage adjustments but encountered driver errors or on-screen anomalies. Despite overclocking very well indeed, we felt a little bitter toward the limits set on both the memory and core as both clearly had more left to give.

Above we can see that the R9-280 demolished the GTX760 in Unigine Heaven when overclocked thanks to the massive increases available. If overclocking is your bag then clearly the R9-280 is the GPU to go for.

Temperature, Acoustics and Power Consumption

Power Consumption

To test for power consumption we use the included iPower Meter found with our Thortech PSU. As system load figures obviously differ from idle it is extremely difficult to get an accurate figure of system draw and then simply take this figure away from the overall amount because each game will generate varying levels of CPU and hard drive activity. Dynamic power adjustments which fluctuate in game will also affect accurate power figures thus rendering any such power consumption calculations redundant at worst and approximate at best.

We will therefore take our system readings averaged over a benchmark run of Tessmark (100% load) and after 20 minutes of being idle in Windows 7. These can then be used as a comparison to other graphics cards to determine how much more or less power you can expect a GPU to consume.

The XFX R9 280 is a hungry beast for sure. This power hunger is inherited from the Tahiti core of the 7900 series which was never known for its power efficiencies when under load conditions. Couple this with the factory overclock and our power consumption test was unlikely to show the R9-280 as a world beater.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we would normally run Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained however we found that this throttled the card and resulted in spurious results. So we set Heaven running continuously for 20 minutes and used this as a temperature result as the card did not throttle with this application.

Despite all that power being swallowed by the card, the temperatures were very good indeed. This no doubt, was due to the Double Dissipation cooling design of the XFX card. The gorgeous aesthetics of the cooler are matched by some very impressive figures. Even when overclocked to the max, the card barely broke 70c which is a fantastic achievement.

Acoustics

The twin 90mm fans barely edged above murmur level. Certainly during our gaming sessions we couldn’t hear the card over our case fans. Raising the fan profile manually to 100% did make the card audible but not excessively so.

Cool, quiet and high performing; the Double Dissipation cooling design not only has some great looks but also performs exceptionally well while keeping noise to an absolute minimum. Great work XFX!

Gaming Experience (Frame Time Analysis)

Here we take a look at both average (black) and 99th Percentile (coloured) response times of the graphics cards. It is highly unlikely a user will notice any micro stutter (also incorrectly referred to as lag but the effect can be interpreted to be similar) at anything below 30ms but every gamers perception differs.

Comment

The graphs above may appear very daunting however, what you want to see is a smooth line (not fuzzy) with very few peaks and troughs. While you are unlikely to notice peaks and troughs below 30ms, any peak above 30ms may be seen as a stutter during gameplay. This will however depend greatly on your own perceptions. Multi card setups are more likely to show frame lag due to the nature of cross communicating to render frames.

Average and 99th Percentile response times (Frame Time Analysis)

Futuremark 3DMark Fire Strike (Synthetic)

Fire Strike is the new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is Futuremark’s most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

Unigine: Heaven 4 (Synthetic)

Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms.

Unigine: Valley (Synthetic)

Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.

Battlefield 3 (FPS)

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next installment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.

Crysis 3 (FPS)

Crysis 3 from Electronic Arts is the fourth instalment of the Crysis franchise and sequel to Crysis 2. It uses the CryEngine 3 gaming engine which is perhaps the most advanced gaming engine to date and therefore the most demanding. The meme ‘Can it run Crysis’ has never been so apparent…

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Far Cry 3 (FPS)

Far Cry 3 is a tropical survival shooter video game from Ubisoft Montreal and Massive studios. It’s open world design has similar traits to it’s forbear Far Cry 2 but it does it all so much better. With stunning visuals and settings to bring a PC to it’s knee’s, this game is so much more than the ‘just another console port’ it was reported to be.

BioShock Infinite (FPS)

Set in 1912 during the growth of American exceptionalism, BioShock Infinite is a thrid person shooter developed by Irrational games and published by 2K Games. It is the third instalment of the BioShock franchise. the game utilises the Unreal Engine 3, modifying it with their own lighting engine to present a visually stunning experience like no other.

DiRT: Showdown (FPS)

DiRT Showdown is the new arcade racing game from the team that brought you the award-winning DiRT series, uncaged in 2012. Pick up and play controls combine with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills from event one.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (FPS)

Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.

Overall Performance

Here we take a look at the overall performance of the graphics card. This figure is determined by finding the average FPS across all of the settings used in a particular benchmark(game) to give us an overall value.

Value For Money

We make a simple calculation for this set of results. For each game we add all of the resulting FPS totals together and then divide by the four sets to give us an overall performance figure. While the figures alone do not give you an accurate picture of how the card will perform in any given scenario, they do tell you, when averaged, which GPU is the more capable across all of the benchmarks and settings tested.

Conclusion

Rehashing a product line might get enthusiasts blood pressure boiling as some feel it stunts the introduction of new technology which invariably, is reserved for top-of-the-line products however, while the R9-280 is invariably a prime example of a re-hashed product, it has shone through and shown that there is life in the old dog yet. You don’t have to look close to see that the R9-280’s bigger brother, the R9-280X is also a re-brand of an existing product (HD7970 GHz Edition). This isn’t an AMD only trait, NVIDIA or GPU producer either. Car manufacturers to fashion designers will use existing items left over from previous designs and tout them as a new product.

The XFX R9-280 Black Edition OC is, despite its ageing underpinnings, a fantastic card. It can still churn out the FPS at an astonishing rate and despite being surpassed by the latest and greatest efforts of both AMD and NVIDIA; it is still a very capable performer. It is hard to believe we first reviewed the HD7950 some two and a half years ago and while this version is very heavily tweaked from the original HD7950, the technology that made the HD7950 a peoples champ still remains and performs extremely well when compared to today’s competition. This leads me to the comparative efforts of the green team and their GTX760.

Throughout our testing, the R9-280 was faster, cooler and quieter than the GTX760 which no mean feat as the GTX760 is a former Silver award winner. The jewel in the crown for the R9-280 though is the value for money it offers. So not only is it faster it also represents better value for money because the two cards will cost around the same (the GTX760 will cost more if you want and after market cooler like the R9-280). For this reason we have no qualms in awarding the XFX R9-280 Black Edition our value for money and silver awards as it offers better value for money than the competition and despite its ageing tech, this old dog still has plenty of bite left in it.

To summarise:
If you don’t mind the jibes of ‘last year’s tech’, you will be pleasantly surprised because this card is still very much a high performing graphics card.

Pros
+ Great Value for Money
+ Excellent cooling
+ Factory overclocked
+ Faster than the competition

Cons
– Limited overclocking via software