{"id":39209,"date":"2013-11-04T13:51:44","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T13:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=39209"},"modified":"2013-11-04T15:01:26","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T15:01:26","slug":"visionteks-r9-280x-brings-solid-value-amds-new-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/visionteks-r9-280x-brings-solid-value-amds-new-lineup\/","title":{"rendered":"VisionTek’s R9 280X brings solid value to AMD’s new lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

After nearly two years, the HD 7970 has been superseded as AMD’s flagship video card by the R9 290X and replaced by the R9 280X. We tested a VisionTek HD 7970<\/a> recently and concluded it was still a good match for the GTX 770.\u00a0 Last week, Nvidia lowered the GTX 770 pricing from $399 to $329 while including a game bundle, and it is now positioned directly against the VisionTek R9 280X which is priced about the same.\"280X-a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When the HD 7970 first launched in December 2011, it was $550.\u00a0 Since then, the pricing has dropped so that in the United States, the reference HD 7970 is currently priced from just below $289<\/a> with mail-in-rebate to about $409<\/a> for a now-discontinued VisionTek HD 7970 with a flexible 3-game bundle.\u00a0 Its replacement, the VisionTek R9 280X is priced at $299 at Newegg<\/a>, but without a game bundle.<\/p>\n

We want to see how the R9 280X compares with a stock HD 7970 as well as to one clocked to GHz Edition Boost speeds.\u00a0 Naturally, we will compare the 280X with the reference GTX 770 ($329) as well as to the $499 reference EVGA GTX 780.<\/p>\n

The R9 280X vs. the HD 7970 vs. the GTX 770\/GTX 780<\/h2>\n

The reference version of the HD 7970 is clocked at 925\/1375MHz while the more expensive GHz Edition is clocked at 1000\/1500MHz with a boost of an extra 50MHz available to the core.\u00a0 The R9 280X is a rebadge of the HD 7970 with a slightly different BIOS and is clocked at a fixed 1000\/1500MHz. \u00a0 The R9 280X is priced starting at $299,<\/a> including the VisionTek 280X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reference GTX 770 can be found for as little as $329<\/a> and it is generally sold with a three game bundle as well as with a $100 Shield discount. We will benchmark using the reference version of the GTX 770 and a reference EVGA GTX 780. We will also bench our VisionTek HD 7970, clocked at reference and at GHz Edition speeds.\u00a0 We need to ask, is <\/em>a GTX 770 2GB\u00a0 video card<\/em> worth $30 more than a 3GB VisionTek R9 280X?
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The VisionTek R9 280X versus the reference and GHz Edition HD 7970 versus the reference GTX 770, and overclocked versus the reference GTX 780<\/strong>
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For this evaluation, you will see us pit the VisionTek R9 280X against the reference and GHz Edition HD 7970, and against the reference GTX 770 at stock clocks. We are also going to compare with the EVGA reference GTX 780 to see how well the overclocked VisionTek 280X Radeon does. For this evaluation, we are benching 31 modern games and 4 synthetic benchmarks at 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 resolutions.<\/p>\n

Since we do not want any chance of our CPU “bottlenecking” our graphics, we are testing all of our graphics cards by using our Ivy Bridge Intel Core i7-3770K<\/a> at 4.50GHz, 16 GB Kingston “Beast” HyperX<\/a> DDR3 at 2133MHz, and an EVGA Z77<\/a> FTW motherboard. The EVGA FTW motherboard features the 16x+16x PCIe 3.0 specification for CrossFire\/SLI. \"\" The Core i7-3770K at 4.5GHz is fast enough to differentiate even high-end video cards at high resolution and at high detail settings. \"\"<\/p>\n

Before we look at our test bed and run benchmarks, let’s unbox our VisionTek R9 280X video card and look at its specifications.<\/p>\n

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The VisionTek R9 280X<\/h2>\n

The VisionTek R9 280X is not a reference version. \u00a0 VisionTek’s main differentiation from other AMD partners is the company that stands behind it with a lifetime warranty, excellent customer service, and technical support should you need it.\"280X-box-1\"<\/a>There is nothing fancy to see from the outside of the box. The card arrives in a small VisionTek box that advertises the card without its specifications. It emphasizes 3GB of GDDR5 memory, intelligent overclocking, and it also mentions VisionTek’s lifetime warranty and US “Tek” support.<\/p>\n

On the back of the box, Ultra-HD, Performance scaling, low idle state and ready for Compute are emphasized. VisionTek offers a lifetime warranty to the original purchaser provided that they register their new R9 280X within 30 days of purchase, otherwise it is one year.\"280X-box-obv\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The side panels of the VisionTek box feature the system requirements, the connectors, and VisionTek’s Scorpion logo is explained:\"280X-endpanel-scorp\"<\/a>\"280X-endpanel-require\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The VisionTek 280X video card comes well-protected by padding and also protected from static electricity.\"280X-boxpacking\"<\/a>Inside the box, besides the new Radeon, we find a driver CD, manual, DVI to HDMI adapter, DVI to VGA connector, and a Molex to 6-Pin PCI-E power connector as well as a 8-pin Molex adapter.\"280X-access\"<\/a>The VisionTek R9 280X has a good looking design and it uses two cooling fans that do a great job of keeping the GPU cool. \u00a0 Please not that the cooling is not designed for exhausting hot air out of the PC, and this open design is not often chosen for CrossFire setups unless there is excellent case cooling and a space between the cards.\"280X-heatP-PCIE\"<\/a> There is one dual-link DVI, one HDMI 1.4, and two DisplayPort 1.1a connectors available to easily connect to 4 displays and even to use them simultaneously. \"280X-connect\"The R9 280X is setup for pairing with another 280X (or even with HD 7950\/7950) with a CrossFire bridge which is not included. Just like with Nvidia cards, you can mix cards from different vendors with different clock speeds.\u00a0 In addition, unlike with Nvidia cards, there is much more flexibility to mix cards with different amounts of cores and different framebuffers.<\/p>\n

As we turn the card over, we can see the CrossFire connectors as well as the 6-pin+8-pin connectors for the PCIe cables.\"280X-obv\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s check out the VisionTek R9 280X specifications from their website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Specifications<\/strong><\/h2>\n