XFX R9 280x vs. XFX R9 280

[Espionage1337]

Not sure which one to go with. I have a 550w PSU.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/F4Lj7P

280 - 200w
280x - 250w

The price difference is not much, 10$ maybe.

Also XFX for the R9 280 series? Looking to spend $200.

 

[Kitt Sue]

I would personally choose MSI or Sapphire over XFX since XFX doesn't have great quality control on GPUs or customer support, but yeah the 280X is worth it. Will not be a problem with that XFX 550W PSU (oddly enough XFX has good quality PSUs, their GPUs just don't have the best support).

Even though the R9 280X is rated for 250 watts, it's more likely to use around 175-200W. If you compare it to power consumption tests of cards like the GTX Titan, GTX 780 Ti etc. which also have 250W TDP, you will see that these higher end ones of same TDP consume a good amount more under load.

While the estimated max power draw is 438W (incidentally you almost never reach anywhere close to theoretical max in real life), I would estimate that while gaming power consumption at the wall will be like 350W, and the PSU itself is only needing to provide around 300W to the components.

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph7400/58715.png

This is with an i7-4960X CPU @ 4.2GHz also, which consumes more than an i5.

 

[Espionage1337]

Couldn't agree more. XFX has quality PSUs but their GPUs I'm not sure of. I'm currently using the XFX 7870... not that great.

MSI 280x - 300$
Sapphire 280x - 280$
XFX 280x - 200$

Reason why I'm going with XFX is because of price.

 

[ryder57]

You get what you pay for, I paid 220 for a XFX 6850 Black Edition it overclocks really well but is still a Medocre Card . Other brands such as MSI ,Gigabyte ,etc.,seem to do better (my friends have the other brands),I personally have not had to deal with the customer service of XFX , so on that point I have no knowledge. Take kitt sue advice and think about paying more for the other brand names .

 

[Kitt Sue]

Did not realize the gap was that big, wow.

Well as long as you dont mind a higher risk of having to RMA it then the 280X for $200 is a good deal. What about a 280 non-X from the other brands? Gap between R9 280 and 280X is only like 10%... so if you can get a Sapphire or MSI R9 280 for the price of the XFX R9 280X it might be worth sacrificing that 10%. Up to you though. Either way only a minority of people will have issues with their card, so saving $80 might very well be worth a higher risk of having to RMA it.

 

[Espionage1337]

Did not realize the gap was that big, wow.

Well as long as you dont mind a higher risk of having to RMA it then the 280X for $200 is a good deal. What about a 280 non-X from the other brands? Gap between R9 280 and 280X is only like 10%... so if you can get a Sapphire or MSI R9 280 for the price of the XFX R9 280X it might be worth sacrificing that 10%. Up to you though. Either way only a minority of people will have issues with their card, so saving $80 might very well be worth a higher risk of having to RMA it.

Looking to spend about 200$ so should I sacrifice the XFX R9 280x for a MSI R9 280 or Saphire? I'm not too sure.

Thinking about going with the R9 280 just because of power consumption.

 

[dachiesa]

I like my powercolor r9 280 oc turboduo . . . got a nice overclock on it. i have a friend who runs a powercolor 280x and i think you can find them about 200 sometimes too, these days. Anyhow, just a suggestion, good luck!

 

[Espionage1337]

750W (minimum)... uh

 

[dachiesa]

I'm also using a 750W . . . but if you're looking to upgrade, why not wait a bit and shoot for a 290? Powercolor is selling for $250 at the moment and that'll be more than enough card for a while, just a thought.

 

[disturbed force]

Your 550w psu is more then enough for a 280/x. The power draw of the 280x is about 250w stressed out or around 200w while gaming.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-280x-r9-270x-r7-260x,3635-18.html

My crossfire 290x 4k rig pulls under 700w while gaming there's no need for a 750w psu for a 280x.