AMD Radeon R9 280X, R9 270X, And R7 260X: Old GPUs, New Names

[Onus]

One of the things that tamed the constant upgrade bug for me a few years ago was realizing that just because something new came out did not mean that my old stuff would slow down and be unable to play my games. No game I play now needs any more than a HD7870 to be maxed, which is why the HD7970 I originally got for BTC mining is in my backup rig. In fact, since most stuff I do during the week is office-type stuff, surfing, and casual games, I'm more interested in what a low-profile R7-250 will be able to do; it looks like it has fewer SPs but is clocked higher than the HD7750, and needs no PCIe power.

 

[ingtar33]

One of the things that tamed the constant upgrade bug for me a few years ago was realizing that just because something new came out did not mean that my old stuff would slow down and be unable to play my games. No game I play now needs any more than a HD7870 to be maxed, which is why the HD7970 I originally got for BTC mining is in my backup rig. In fact, since most stuff I do during the week is office-type stuff, surfing, and casual games, I'm more interested in what a low-profile R7-250 will be able to do; it looks like it has fewer SPs but is clocked higher than the HD7750, and needs no PCIe power.

i've been very intrigued by the fact that a fx6300 seemed able to play pretty much every game at 60fps when clocked to 4ghz... so it wasn't a real bottleneck, and that gpus in the 7850-7950 range pretty much were all the gpu you could ever need for 60fps in any game.

When you consider 95% of gamers are gaming on 1080p 60hz monitors or less, that sorta sets the standard performance levels for a MAINSTREAM gaming system doesn't it?

Now the real question people should be asking is do people want to overclock? and what monitor are they using or plan to use? cause those are the real considerations in making a quality gaming machine that real people will use. If they're planning on higher resolutions then 1080p or higher refresh rates then they'll need something better then a 6300+7950, if they have no interest in overclocking a simple bump up to a i5-3350p should be all they'll need.

when i see the debates in the forums about machines and parts it always seems so silly to me. the required hardware for most gamers is not all that impressive or expensive when you think about it.

 

[slomo4sho]

IMHO this article makes a good case to get a HD7970, particularly if the prices on them drop.

I don't see how. The GIGABYTE GV-R928XOC-3GD Radeon R9 280X is $300 and it is clocked at 1100 MHz boost and is equipped with Hynix ram that is capable of OCing past 7GHz. You will be hard pressed to find anything similar from the OCed 7970 (non-GHz) cards that are selling for $270-300 after rebate. I am sure that we will start seeing rebate and promo offers on the 280X soon enough.

 

[somebodyspecial]

Why test ref? What idiot buys those?

Reference cards use reference design boards and are easier/cheaper to water cool.

Beyond that, I am unsure why you are comparing the 760 to the 280X. The 280X competes with the 770 which is $100 more. The 7950 is still available at $50-70 less than the 760 and matches or exceeds its performance. Yes, the 270X is not a direct competitor for the 760 and it doesn't appear that AMD had any intention of having the 270X compete against the 760 but it does lock the $200 price point for performance. The 280 (non-X) will eventually be released as a rebranded 7950 to occupy the $250 price point and it shouldn't have any issues handling the 760 since the 7950 still overclocks well beyond the overclock capacity of the 760.

Also, not sure where you are getting the idea that the game bundle isn't included with the 280X. Models on sale in Europe include the bundles...

With that said, feel free to continue with your mindless rant

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7400/the-radeon-r9-280x-review-feat-asus-xfx
"Moving on to retail matters, buyers of the 200 series will want to pay attention to the fact that the 200 series is not currently part of Never Settle Forever. AMD’s video game bundle program is not being extended to the 200 series at this time, so on top of the price cuts for the 7000 series they will also have an active game bundle while the 200 series does not."

A particular place my give away a game, but it's not part of the AMD program.

Not so mindless eh? You need to read more. and I don't get your point. Nobody buys ref, don't care they are easy to watercool here, not many of us do that either...Whatever.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-122-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842
Don't see a game bundle on a bunch of cards.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-322-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842
Not even the platinum...What games? Throw that link up thinking I wouldn't check? ROFL. No games on any I checked, and certainly not advertised with any. I don't see one with games. Other sites like anandtech have said no games, but maybe later (like right after NV cuts pricing on the top end I'd guess...LOL). But official from AMD none for now.

Also, most of my post is about CUDA. Which drives you guys to just change the subject costs of cards etc. It's not a rant if it's true. Toms ignores Cuda vs. OpenCL. Not sure why you're ignoring the crux of most of the post about cuda, plugins comparing cuda to opencl etc. Nice dodge though. 😉

 

[mirakul2]

OMG these names are just too much, seriously have they heard the word about less I more? R9 280x-FDHD... Seriously that has to be one of the worst names for a card ever. What does the X even stand for? If the name is already long and redundant why bother adding on even more redundant things?

The naming scheme is simple, just like Intel's CPU. Something like i7 3770k and r9 280x!

 

[xcamas]

the best moment i had while reading

" Remember when the original 7970 sold for $550? Boy, that escalated quickly."

 

[jimmysmitty]

What in the earth? My old Radeon HD4850 has more pixel rate and memory bandwidth than R9 280X?? R9 280X has 9.6GPixels/s, HD4850 has 10.4GPixels/s!!! R9 280X has 28.8GB/s memory bandwidth, HD4850 has 67.2GB/s?
How is it possible? Is it a slower card to HD4850?

If you want real specs, just look at a HD7970GHz. That's pretty much the exact same in terms of bandwidth.

Hmmm, I'm not getting any unique hostility toward AMD. Perhaps, people are just finally so tired of the rebrand-shuffle, they're more strident in their displeasure.
It also seemed to me, that the GTX770 is a notably faster, cheaper GTX680, but these new AMD cards are not significantly faster and cheaper than the originals; IMHO this article makes a good case to get a HD7970, particularly if the prices on them drop.

Well keep in mind that we have not seen the 290x just yet(I am hoping its not an HD7990 rebrand, that will tear me up very bad).

Um its already known the 290X will be a single GPU based on Hawaii XT. I would assume it to be either the 295X or the 290X X2, depending on how they want to name it, for the HD7990 replacement.

It will go like this:

290X - HD7970
290 - HD7950
280x - HD7870
280 - HD7850

And so on.

That's the replacement scale.

 

[Novuake]

What in the earth? My old Radeon HD4850 has more pixel rate and memory bandwidth than R9 280X?? R9 280X has 9.6GPixels/s, HD4850 has 10.4GPixels/s!!! R9 280X has 28.8GB/s memory bandwidth, HD4850 has 67.2GB/s?
How is it possible? Is it a slower card to HD4850?

If you want real specs, just look at a HD7970GHz. That's pretty much the exact same in terms of bandwidth.

Hmmm, I'm not getting any unique hostility toward AMD. Perhaps, people are just finally so tired of the rebrand-shuffle, they're more strident in their displeasure.
It also seemed to me, that the GTX770 is a notably faster, cheaper GTX680, but these new AMD cards are not significantly faster and cheaper than the originals; IMHO this article makes a good case to get a HD7970, particularly if the prices on them drop.

Well keep in mind that we have not seen the 290x just yet(I am hoping its not an HD7990 rebrand, that will tear me up very bad).

Um its already known the 290X will be a single GPU based on Hawaii XT. I would assume it to be either the 295X or the 290X X2, depending on how they want to name it, for the HD7990 replacement.

It will go like this:

290X - HD7970
290 - HD7950
280x - HD7870
280 - HD7850

And so on.

That's the replacement scale.

You are a little confused there.

280X is pretty much a slightly slower HD7970 GHZ.

290X is SUPPOSEDLY new silicon.

 

[nokiddingboss]

What in the earth? My old Radeon HD4850 has more pixel rate and memory bandwidth than R9 280X?? R9 280X has 9.6GPixels/s, HD4850 has 10.4GPixels/s!!! R9 280X has 28.8GB/s memory bandwidth, HD4850 has 67.2GB/s?
How is it possible? Is it a slower card to HD4850?

If you want real specs, just look at a HD7970GHz. That's pretty much the exact same in terms of bandwidth.

Hmmm, I'm not getting any unique hostility toward AMD. Perhaps, people are just finally so tired of the rebrand-shuffle, they're more strident in their displeasure.
It also seemed to me, that the GTX770 is a notably faster, cheaper GTX680, but these new AMD cards are not significantly faster and cheaper than the originals; IMHO this article makes a good case to get a HD7970, particularly if the prices on them drop.

Well keep in mind that we have not seen the 290x just yet(I am hoping its not an HD7990 rebrand, that will tear me up very bad).

Um its already known the 290X will be a single GPU based on Hawaii XT. I would assume it to be either the 295X or the 290X X2, depending on how they want to name it, for the HD7990 replacement.

It will go like this:

290X - HD7970
290 - HD7950
280x - HD7870
280 - HD7850

And so on.

That's the replacement scale.

You are a little confused there.

280X is pretty much a slightly slower HD7970 GHZ.

290X is SUPPOSEDLY new silicon.

i don't think he is. i believe he is referring to hierarchy placement of the r9 2xx family and not the equivalent performance/rebadge wise of 7xxx gpu's they are replacing. meaning the 7970 (which was the old flagship before ghz ed) will be replaced by the new flagship 290x and so on and so forth. well i don't know about him by that's my take so i may have over explained myself here 😀

 

[Novuake]

AH of course... Wondering if there will even be a Hawaii XT x2 GPU.
Unless Nvidia is considering a dual Titan / GTX780 card, there is no point to a dual Hawaii if you consider how horribly the HD7990 was selling before it got discontinued.

 

[nokiddingboss]

AH of course... Wondering if there will even be a Hawaii XT x2 GPU.
Unless Nvidia is considering a dual Titan / GTX780 card, there is no point to a dual Hawaii if you consider how horribly the HD7990 was selling before it got discontinued.

it was *his* words not mine. no need to be sarcastic. i take it that you don't like it when people "shares" their views to you, correct? the 7990 was just unfortunate to be released 2~3 months before amd could iron out and release a driver fix (it should have not have those issues to begin with. that is amd's fault and they were duly punished for it). hopefully by the time (should it ever happen) 290 x2 be released, the problems that plague the 7990 will exist no more, hopefully.

 

[Ayaseharuka]

It is too weak to beat the GTX780，Franking speaking ，re-branding the old series to obtain more profits is a very stupid measure

 

[Onus]

Let's keep it on topic please. Thanks.

 

[nokiddingboss]

It is too weak to beat the GTX780，Franking speaking ，re-branding the old series to obtain more profits is a very stupid measure

the r9 280x wasn't supposed to compete against the gtx780, thats the r9 290x's job. a job that includes the titan on the hitlist. the r280x is meant to take on the 760 and take away some of the 770 mojo by being smack in the middle of the two with the r290 providing as the real head to head competitor against the 770 and the r290 will also be handed the job of swaying some of the 780 potential buyers to amd's camp.

 

[Mas3nk0]

When will you post the article with the non-reference R9 280X comparisons?

 

[youssef 2010]

True Audio sounds like the bridge between the two 4870s in the 4870X2. AMD then said that this bridge might be enabled by future software. Yet it was never enabled. I hope True Audio fares better

 

[Onus]

Troll post deleted. Please at least attempt to add something useful to the discussion.

 

[sicom]

Why the hell isn't 770 on this review? Especially now that the 770 is within $15 of the 280X.

 

[thasan1]

Why the hell isn't 770 on this review? Especially now that the 770 is within $15 of the 280X.

well because GTX 770 was around the 400$ price point at the time of review.and its price dropped only after the intro of R9-290 and 290X 10-15 day's ago. besides this card is a 7970Ghz edition rebrand so it should perform identically to it. so just compare GTX 770 with a 7970ghz.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Would have been nice to have some foresight and test it too, though...

Doesn't take a genius to work out that prices tend to drop when new tech turns up.