AMD Radeon R9 280X Pro Reviews

AMD's Radeon R9 280X is a Radeon 7900-class of card now invested with a new name. Roughly analogous to the HD 7970 GHz Edition in performance, representing the best of the current generation, the prominent feature is the $299 (£230) price, which is (currently) substantially lower than the perf-equivalent GeForce GTX 770 from Nvidia. The new Radeon is powerful enough to play most modern games at a 2,560x1,440 resolution allied to high image quality, and the 3GB framebuffer is ideally suited to running Battlefield 4 at maximum settings. Moving on, the $199 (£150) Radeon R9 270X can legitimately be thought of as an overclocked Radeon HD 7870. The underlying architecture enables decent performance at the usual 1,920x1,080 setting. Nvidia's GTX 760 (£180+) is a little quicker in our benchmarks, intimating that AMD has priced the R9 270X just right. The Radeon R7 260X, meanwhile, is a card suitable for 1,920x1,080 gaming with medium/high image settings in tow. A faster variant of extant Radeon HD 7790 and competitively priced against the Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti/Boost cards, AMD ensures it has a strong presence at almost all pricing levels. Don't be confused by the new names; these are certainly not true next-generation cards. AMD's using a three-pronged attack of new naming, frequency-modified architecture, and keener pricing to invigorate the mainstream graphics card market for its roster of board partners. The real winner out of this is you, the buyer, because there's simply more in-game performance for every pound spent. Finally, we believe that AMD's Radeon R9 280X, 270X, and R7 260X set new price-to-performance benchmarks and can therefore be recommended, even if, as we've mentioned ad nauseam, the technology is rehashed. Nvidia is likely to counter with a round of price cutting, one would assume, thus making the graphics decision for the next PC upgrade or build even more interesting.

A good mid-range GPU, but it isn’t vastly superior to the card it replaces

There is very little new about the technology behind the R9 and R7 series of graphics cards. But the price drops alone would be a huge story even if AMD wasn't also rebranding everything to a new naming scheme at the same time. The R9 280X is clearly and without question the best graphics card for $299 and the same is clear for the R9 270X at $199. NVIDIA has no option today that is currently priced to compete with the performance these two cards can now flaunt. AMD is definitely going to get some attention with this release. The R7 260X is just fine and is competitive against the likes of the GTX 650 Ti Boost but loses the performance battle more than it wins it, leaving me much less impressed with the positioning AMD has put it in. At this point I would normally give a product with this much praise our highest awards but there is one issue that prevents me from doing so. The ugly words that AMD hates: frame pacing. AMD still has some work to do to match the multi-GPU scaling capabilities of NVIDIA's GeForce line especially in the fields of Eyefinity and 4K gaming. Single monitor issues have been mostly addressed and once AMD's driver team can release an update for single large surface resolutions then the products being showcased today are going to burst into the spotlight again. As it stands today though, if you know you are a single GPU gamer, or have no plans to go beyond a single panel display configuration, the Radeon R9 280X and R9 270X are the best GPU options I can point you to.

This new card certainly has the performance per dollar metric sealed tight but there are currently some slightly better buys out there which also use the Tahiti XT core. You can easily find a HD 7970 3GB (the non GHz Edition of course) for just $280 after rebates and it comes with access to AMD’s Never Settle Gold bundle, which is something the R9 280X lacks. Just make sure to grab these deals now since they won’t last all that long as Tahiti allocation is shifted to the 280X and certain HD 7900-series SKUs move into EOL status. For the time being, the R9 280X is the most appealing card in AMD’s refreshed lineup. Not only is it affordable but it provides performance metrics that were previously unheard of within the $299 price bracket, adding some much-needed value to a segment that will be in high demand as new games are released over the Christmas season.