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

[cangelini]

AMD is introducing a handful of new model names today, based on existing GPUs. Do the company's price adjustments make this introduction newsworthy, or will the excitement need to wait for its upcoming Radeon R9 290 and 290X, based on fresh silicon?

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

 

[CaptainTom]

Wow what's with the AMD hate? As it stands they are doing the same thing Nvidia did except without the outrageous prices. The GTX 770 wasn't a great deal when the 7970 was $50 cheaper. Have fun trying to run BF3 with 2GB of VRAM...

 

[slomo4sho]

Nothing revolutionary but better prices I suppose.

The MSI R9 280X Gaming at $299 appears to outperform the GTX 770 at 1600P and is within margin of error at 1080P according to Techpowerup. Not a bad value at $100 less and still overclocks well:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/R9_280X_Gaming/26.html

 

[jimmysmitty]

So long story short, if you have a HD7970GHz then these do nothing for you.

Best to hold out till the reviews on the R9-290X I guess. But considering the specs I hope for at least 20% performance increases over a 7970.

 

[Shankovich]

What happened to Chris? I didn't see this kind of hate with all of the 700 series rebrands. Also, to the Canadians here, grab the $270 7970 GHz edition cards while you still can.

 

[BigMack70]

I don't like this new strategy AMD and Nvidia are taking of rebranding an old series at improved price points and then releasing only one new chip at a stupidly expensive price point.

Are the days of (nearly) annual simultaneous full line GPU launches from $100-500 with a dual GPU chip to follow at $750-1000 really over?

 

[cangelini]

Hate? The R9 280X won an *award*. I think Tahiti at $300 is pretty much brilliant.

I wrote one of the least flattering GTX 780 stories out there. I only identified a couple of situations where a Titan made any sense at all. And although the 760 *did* change the balance at $250, that card still didn't get an award. I liked the 770 for the simple fact that it delivered better-than-680 performance for close to $100 less.

The rest of AMD's new line-up is a lot like what exists already. Again, the 7870 is a better value than 270X. So what are you getting worked up over? The fact that I'm pointing out these aren't new GPUs? They're not.

 

[Shankovich]

Ok Chris, I agree with you, sorry for the over reaction. But I really don't like how nVidia made price increases for some of the rebrands. Looking forward to your 290 and 290X reviews

 

[ingtar33]

i'll take a 7950 at $129 thank you very much (or two). There is a major retailer selling them for that this week. Best buy all year. two 7950s for the price of one r9-280x? yeah... i'll do that all day every day.

 

[tomfreak]

Radeon 7790 has true Audio = but not enabled boooooo = as a 7790 owner I somewhat disappointed . Anyone have any idea if we can crossfire 1GB 7790 and 2GB 260x?

 

[net_nakul]

By the time a R9 380X comes out, the GCN Tahiti XT achitecture may be 4 years old (assuming end of 2015). AMD better come up with an awesome new architecture by then, considering the R&D time they have.

That goes to you too Mr. NVIDIA

 

[ingtar33]

Radeon 7790 has true Audio = but not enabled = as a 7790 owner I somewhat disappointing . Anyone have any idea if we can crossfire 1GB 7790 and 2GB 260x?

you won't want to. the 260 is more expensive, and you'll only get 1gb of it's memory in a xfire with a 7790. (in xfire/sli, the video memory is duplicated on both cards... not shared... so the total memory of the xfire/sli setup is equal to the smallest total mememory on each of the cards. so a 2gb + 1 gb gpu in xfire will have basically 1gb of vram for the xfire setup.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Would have been nice to see the 770 in there.

 

[tomfreak]

Radeon 7790 has true Audio = but not enabled = as a 7790 owner I somewhat disappointing . Anyone have any idea if we can crossfire 1GB 7790 and 2GB 260x?

you won't want to. the 260 is more expensive, and you'll only get 1gb of it's memory in a xfire with a 7790. (in xfire/sli, the video memory is duplicated on both cards... not shared... so the total memory of the xfire/sli setup is equal to the smallest total mememory on each of the cards. so a 2gb + 1 gb gpu in xfire will have basically 1gb of vram for the xfire setup.

I know crossfire dont add up VRAM, I was just curious if it can crossfire or not since it is diff VRAM.

the true audio thing is still a mystery. We have to see if this thing really takes off or not. If this thing is at least has a just small success like physyx, I guess I wont mind shelling out just extra $10-20 for it.

 

[ingtar33]

Would have been nice to see the 770 in there.

the 7970/r9-280x is not competing in the 770's price bracket anymore. the 770 is 400 min... until that price comes down reviewing it against the 7970 would make as much sense as reviewing a 7950 against a gtx 650.

 

[cangelini]

Someone, that would have been the next card to add if I had time after getting 10 boards benchmarked in time for this. I'll add to these numbers for the next launch though, don't worry!

 

[Novuake]

I am happy with this IF the R290X shapes up to be a decent board at a decent price...

 

[blackjackedy]

i'll take a 7950 at $129 thank you very much (or two). There is a major retailer selling them for that this week. Best buy all year. two 7950s for the price of one r9-280x? yeah... i'll do that all day every day.

What retailer is doing this deal? I've been holding out to upgrade my 5850 for a while now and a pair of these would be a nice little (gigantic) upgrade

 

[Novuake]

I hope that the XFX cards are not as poor this iteration of GCN.

 

[yannigr]

I am an AMD fan and I am FURIOUS. If I wanted a company that thinks that it's customers are MORONS I would be going for another brand.

 

[slicedtoad]

Kind of a boring announcement from AMD but it is very nice to see a price drop.

It feels like the price per pixel (in games at a given setting) has stayed the same for a while despite the increase in average display resolutions. Which would equate to gaming getting more and more expensive if you like to max the settings. I don't know if this is AMD/NVidia's fault or the game developers fault or both but it's kind of annoying.

 

[slicedtoad]

I am an AMD fan and I am FURIOUS. If I wanted a company that thinks that it's customers are MORONS I would be going for another brand.

Most of their customers are "morons" (I'd prefer "non-techies") and this move will make them more money. They're a company and they need to make money to survive. I'm not saying I like this strategy but both companies do it and compared to the mobile side, this is nothing.

 

[nerrawg]

Wow this new naming scheme is crap. It make no sense whatsoever. The natural connections between AMD and NVidia that you are going to make from the names:
GTX 780 - R9 280X, GTX 770 - R7 270X, GTX 760 - R260X, all end up with AMD losing the comparisons by a mile. OF course we already know this, but new customers are going to find it ridiculous and confusing.

 

[eddieroolz]

Wow what's with the AMD hate? As it stands they are doing the same thing Nvidia did except without the outrageous prices. The GTX 770 wasn't a great deal when the 7970 was $50 cheaper. Have fun trying to run BF3 with 2GB of VRAM...

There is no AMD hate. How is placing the R9 280X on the Smart Buy list hating AMD?

Please provide constructive feedback instead.

 

[net_nakul]

By the time a R9 380X comes out, the GCN Tahiti XT achitecture may be 4 years old (assuming end of 2015). AMD better come up with an awesome new architecture by then, considering the R&D time they have.

That goes to you too Mr. NVIDIA