R9 270x vs R9 280 vs R9 280xWhich is the best?

[NFLsaints]

Which would be the best for a $650-$670 Gaming PC

 

[Eduello]

The one you can afford. If you can get the R9 280X, then you should do so.

 

[chucknificent]

Try to get the highest one that you can. However I would try to make sure to get at least the r9 280. There is a big difference between the R9 270x and the R9 280. The difference between the 280 and the 280x can be compensated by overclocking the 280 to the clock speed of the 280x. There are multiple applications that will allow you to do this. I recommend using MSI Afterburner. It is comprehensive and easy to use. Best of luck.

 

[NFLsaints]

Try to get the highest one that you can. However I would try to make sure to get at least the r9 280. There is a big difference between the R9 270x and the R9 280. The difference between the 280 and the 280x can be compensated by overclocking the 280 to the clock speed of the 280x. There are multiple applications that will allow you to do this. I recommend using MSI Afterburner. It is comprehensive and easy to use. Best of luck.

Ok. I'm not a huge expert on GPU's. So the 280 is clocked at 800-900 MHz. While the 270x is clocked at at least 1.00 Ghz or above? What are you essentially after in a graphics card?

 

[Eduello]

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3BKuNXdM5A"][/video]

 

[chucknificent]

Which would be the best for a $650-$670 Gaming PC

Try to get the highest one that you can. However I would try to make sure to get at least the r9 280. There is a big difference between the R9 270x and the R9 280. The difference between the 280 and the 280x can be compensated by overclocking the 280 to the clock speed of the 280x. There are multiple applications that will allow you to do this. I recommend using MSI Afterburner. It is comprehensive and easy to use. Best of luck.

Ok. I'm not a huge expert on GPU's. So the 280 is clocked at 800-900 MHz. While the 270x is clocked at at least 1.00 Ghz or above? What are you essentially after in a graphics card?

Your first concern is the amount of stream processors. The R9 270 has 1280 stream processors while R9 280 has 1792 stream processors
Also, the R9 280 has a wider bandwidth on the RAM. These are not the end all deciding factors, but they do matter. Hence if you look at my system specs, I'm running 2x R9 270x cards. It takes both of these cards to outdo the performance of 1x R9 280/280x. The clock speed of the card is not the best indicator because the R9 280s and R9 290s run at lower clock speeds. You will be far better served by getting the 280. There are a multitude of tools to help you decide which card is best for you, but 280s outperform 270s hands down. They are a higher end gaming card. Hope this helps.

 

[NFLsaints]

Oops

 

[NFLsaints]

chucknificent

So you said the R9 280s outperform the R9 270s. What about the R9 270x?

 

[oxiide]

Try to get the highest one that you can. However I would try to make sure to get at least the r9 280. There is a big difference between the R9 270x and the R9 280. The difference between the 280 and the 280x can be compensated by overclocking the 280 to the clock speed of the 280x. There are multiple applications that will allow you to do this. I recommend using MSI Afterburner. It is comprehensive and easy to use. Best of luck.

Ok. I'm not a huge expert on GPU's. So the 280 is clocked at 800-900 MHz. While the 270x is clocked at at least 1.00 Ghz or above? What are you essentially after in a graphics card?

Don't get distracted by the clock frequency, there's a lot more to it than that. For instance, at the same clock speed, the 280X is still faster than the 280. You can only accurately compare technical stats between video cards based on the same GPU—i.e. the 280's are based on the Tahiti chip, 270's on Pitcairne, etc. To make it very simple, you can basically just look at the prices: you pay more for better performance, and 280X > 280 > 270X (> 270, etc.).

The fastest one is the 280X but the "best one" for you is the one that fits into your budget. One other consideration is your monitor: if you're gaming at less than 1920x1080, then the 280X is probably more powerful than you need.

chucknificent

So you said the R9 280s outperform the R9 270s. What about the R9 270x?

The 270X is one of the 270's.

 

[RobCrezz]

chucknificent

So you said the R9 280s outperform the R9 270s. What about the R9 270x?

The 280 out performs it.

In order of performance: 295x2 > 290x > 290 > 280x > 280 > 270x > 270.... and so on.

 

[chucknificent]

The "x" versions of the R9 cards has the same GPU architecture as the regular version. The x simply means that it is factory overclocked and in some cases more ram is added. For example, I have two R9 270x cards. These cards normally come with 2gb RAM, but I purchased ones that have 4gb ram each. Buying the x version of a card guarantees that you can overclock it to that speed. However, I have seen many people overclock their regular cards to the x card's speed without a problem. They are the same card, just one has been factory overclocked.

 

[manofchalk]

"Which of these incrementally better cards is best?"
Look up the AMD and Nvidia naming schemes, that will tell you all you need to know.

The "x" versions of the R9 cards has the same GPU architecture as the regular version. The x simply means that it is factory overclocked and in some cases more ram is added. For example, I have two R9 270x cards. These cards normally come with 2gb RAM, but I purchased ones that have 4gb ram each. Buying the x version of a card guarantees that you can overclock it to that speed. However, I have seen many people overclock their regular cards to the x card's speed without a problem. They are the same card, just one has been factory overclocked.

Nope.
The X versions do contain more hardware as well as (typically) being clocked higher. Usually its more stream processors and/or GPU cores. The memory doubling isn't correct either, that's a 3rd party modification to the reference design. As for why it only happens on "X" cards, its because why would you do it on the inferior card?

 

[oxiide]

The "x" versions of the R9 cards has the same GPU architecture as the regular version. The x simply means that it is factory overclocked and in some cases more ram is added. For example, I have two R9 270x cards. These cards normally come with 2gb RAM, but I purchased ones that have 4gb ram each. Buying the x version of a card guarantees that you can overclock it to that speed. However, I have seen many people overclock their regular cards to the x card's speed without a problem. They are the same card, just one has been factory overclocked.

What you're describing is closer to the sort of "Superclocked" marketing terms thrown around by EVGA and other board partners. Those board partners can also add however much VRAM they want to their cards, again having nothing to do with the 270X name. 270X's are available in both 2 GB and 4 GB variants.

AMD's designation for the R9 270X is a specific step in their lineup. The 270/270X is a bit of an oddball in that they have the same number of stream processors and differ only in their reference clock frequencies. But the others (290 vs. 290X and 280 vs. 280X) differ in both reference clocks and the number of active stream processors. Its a really confusing/stupid naming scheme, but the X's do denote actual reference products rather than just "overclocked" variants.

 

[NFLsaints]

"Which of these incrementally better cards is best?"
Look up the AMD and Nvidia naming schemes, that will tell you all you need to know.

The "x" versions of the R9 cards has the same GPU architecture as the regular version. The x simply means that it is factory overclocked and in some cases more ram is added. For example, I have two R9 270x cards. These cards normally come with 2gb RAM, but I purchased ones that have 4gb ram each. Buying the x version of a card guarantees that you can overclock it to that speed. However, I have seen many people overclock their regular cards to the x card's speed without a problem. They are the same card, just one has been factory overclocked.

Nope.
The X versions do contain more hardware as well as (typically) being clocked higher. Usually its more stream processors and/or GPU cores. The memory doubling isn't correct either, that's a 3rd party modification to the reference design. As for why it only happens on "X" cards, its because why would you do it on the inferior card?

I would over lock but I don't want my computer to overheat