VisionTek’s R9 280X brings solid value to AMD’s new lineup
Performance summary charts & graphs
Here are two summary charts of 31 modern PC games and 4 synthetic benches. The highest settings are generally chosen and it is DX11 when there is a choice; DX10 is picked above DX9, and the settings are generally ultra or maxed unless specified on the chart. Specific settings are listed on the charts. The benches are run at 1920×1080 and 2560×1600.
The first chart places the R9 280X in-between the stock HD 7970 and the GHz Edition. Performance wise, the VisionTek sits just below the Gigahertz edition until it is overclocked +85MHz on the core and +125MHz on the memory (to 1585/1625MHz). It then runs away from the GHz edition at reference clocks.
Batman: Arkham Origins is ABT’s very latest game benchmark and we did not have time to test the HD 7970. We used 3 sets of variables with everything On, Maxed out, and Ultra with these variables: (1) High FXAA/PhysX Normal, (2) 4xAA/PhysX normal, (3) High FXAA/PhysX High. EA has shut down the online servers for Battleforge, so Origins will replace it in ABT’s 30-game benching suite.
In the next chart we upgraded the drivers from Catalyst 13.11 Beta1 to 13.11 Beta6. We can see that AMD’s driver team has made some good performance improvements and we shall use these results in the main chart comparing the VisionTek 280x with the GeForce cards. Notice that AMD has fixed the AA performance in Batman: Arkham Origins.
The Main Chart:
Here we are comparing the HD 7970s (Catalyst 13.11 Beta1) with the stock and overclocked VisionTek R9 280X (Catalyst 13.11 Beta7) versus the GTX 770 and the GTX 780.
The stock VisionTek R9 280x wins in about 9 games out of thirty, with another 5 split depending on resolution, compared to a stock GTX 770. However, the results change to about 13 games in the Radeon’s favor, with another six split, when it is overclocked. In fact, we see the overclocked HD 7970 get close to GTX 780 performance in a couple of games. Of course, the GTX 780 is $500 and the VisionTek HD 7970 is $299.
It is impressive to see a $299 video card scoring well against the more expensive GTX 770 cards.
