Sapphire TOXIC R9 280X Pro Reviews

I have to say that Sapphire has pushed the envelope a little further on this card, driving performance up yet another notch to truly challenge cards that cost quite a bit more in just raw performance metrics. I have seen and used a broad section of Sapphire's Toxic and Atomic Edition cards in the past, and this one keeps that performance legacy alive with a great performing, cool running card that games well above its price point of $349.

Considering the $400 starting price point of the GTX 770 2GB, the new Radeon R9 280X 3GB from AMD really manages to hit at an awesome price point. Of course, we can't really mention on how the model compares at stock due to the fact that this particular offering from Sapphire is overclocked by a decent chunk from the factory. Coming in at least $50 cheaper than the GTX 770 2GB is really good news for AMD and buyers of mid-$300 level video cards. Getting a bit more specific on the Sapphire offering here today, you can see they've done a fantastic job. The new cooler is awesome and does an excellent job of keeping the core cool, while not producing too much noise. There's not much else you could ask for, but aesthetically the cooler also looks great, especially with the black PCB and the massive plate that is at the back of the card. Sapphire has put together a really sexy card here. While we don't have the price on the card yet, we're sure that even if it sat up there with the ASUS MATRIX, which is $349.99, the value of the card is still extremely strong. Anything below that price and the value becomes even better again. Sapphire has done a fantastic job with the R9 280X 3GB TOXIC. It's clear that AMD has given its partners an excellent starting platform. Sapphire has really come out of the gate swinging strong with the new model, and we really look forward to seeing what other companies offer us in the coming weeks and months.

Our experience with the card and our results prove that Sapphire has fundamentally achieved what they have set out to do: they’ve put together the fastest R9 280X card. It’s 13% faster than a stock 280X and it’s still 5% faster than the factory overclocked Asus card we looked at earlier this week. Out of the box the Toxic even maintains a hair’s lead over the Asus card when the Asus card is overclocked, which means we’re looking at a card that’s arguably competitive at stock with end user overclocked cards.

Sapphire Built a card that can perform far beyond its price point and can clock even more. Anyone looking for an upgrade would be hard pressed to find a better value.