MSI Radeon R9 280 GAMING OC Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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MSI Radeon R9 280 GAMING OC Video Card Review - Priced at roughly $260 we have the MSI R9 280 GAMING OC video card, which features pre-overclocked performance, MSI's Twin Frozr IV cooling system, and highest end components. We'll focus on performance when gaming at 1080p between this boss and the GeForce GTX 760 video card!
 
The 7950 / 280 still has some legs!

At under $250, choice of three included games, and the increasingly important 3GB Vram the card really is a great value.

Nice write-up.
 
I suppose this would handily spank my GTX 580? Seems like a really good value - shame none of the games in the gold pack really catch my fancy.
 
Exactly the kind of card I'll be looking for when I get out of the shithole I live in. Great performance at 1080p with an affordable price. Nice review!
 
Nice card, but its still tough for any enthusiast whose in the 250-300$ price point to swallow is pride and buy a card that is really 3 years old in terms of tech.
 
Nice to see the price finally be getting back to what we were paying last year for the 7950, since it's the same card.
 
"This really comes down to user preference, since both the MSI R9 280 GAMING OC and GeForce GTX 760's will perform identically. In this evaluation we saw a slight edge go to the MSI R9 280 GAMING OC, which was also more practical at 2560x1600 thanks to the 3GB of memory, as opposed to the 2GB on the GeForce GTX 760."

The conclusion is not reflecting the performance difference seen in the actual benchmark scores.The performance edge that the MSI R9 280 OC possess over GTX 760 at 2560 x 1600 is due to the higher memory bandwidth and not the 3GB VRAM. btw there is a world of inconsistency in Highest playable settings across different reviews for the same performance.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/06/02/pny_gtx_770_xlr8_oc2_video_card_review/5#.U5vzoXbVGBk

If you believe PNY GTX 770 OC in Metro Last Light at at 2560 x 1600 Very High AAA with avg 40.8 fps min 27 fps is borderline playable but you still publish it as Highest playable settings why do you not do the same for MSI R9 280 OC which has avg 40.6 fps min 29 fps for the same settings. In Tombraider too you mention the MSI R9 280 OC is playable at 2560 x 1600 FXAA Highest settings Normal Hair.

So out of 5 games in 3 games the MSI R9 280 OC provides better performance out of the box and higher playable settings. Even when overlocked in these 3 games the edge will remain with R9 280 OC as the gap is significant. Also BF4 and Metro don't figure in OC results. These are games where OCing won't help the GTX 760 to catch up.

Here is a review which says it as it sees it

http://www.kitguru.net/components/g...280-gaming-v-pny-gtx760-xlr8-185-shootout/22/

GTX 760 Cons

"It is facing a very tough time against the R9 280 at the same price.
Even at 1,100+ it won’t compete against the R9 280 at 970mhz."
 
I been out of the loop since I sold my R9 290 (BITCOIN) and I been wanting to jump back in but just couldn't decide on a card as I been looking at R7 265 at $149 or 7850 2Gb at $119 or refurb 7870 Ghz at $149..

Ran across the Sapphire Dual X R9 280 for $209 before $20 rebate = $189.99 plus 3 free games..
now what are the games selling for if I sold them?

Also I made enough profit on the 290 ($399 card) to buy this card for free and the games put me over the profit.
 
Optik said:
Nice card, but its still tough for any enthusiast whose in the 250-300$ price point to swallow is pride and buy a card that is really 3 years old in terms of tech.
Click to expand...


It always seems that AMD cards needs some time to be refined with driver support and rebranding to me as I been running AMD since 4890XT up to R9-290.. I can tell you that the 280 is more refined then my old ref 7950 as they have added windows 8/8.1/ DX 11.1 /11.2 and Mantle since the release of the 7950(3 year ago) to the software/hardware and now better custom cooling at cheaper prices as my Sapphire Dual X was $209 before rebate and I have it clocked at 1005/1301 with 10% board power and the cooler gives me that same as what is shown in this review ..worth every penny to me once you run a ref 290 with 95c working temp.
 
Kyle.. I don't know why you guys had such bad luck over clocking the card.. I been playing with my Sapphire R9-280 Dual X and as you can see it does 1106/1503 using Trixx with just 20% board power..it may go higher as I don't know but very stable at these clocks

R9-280.gif
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I had it in CX with a 7950 and why gpu-z see's it as 7900 as I pulled the other card but didn't reset cmos for update.
 
Sorry to bump a year old thread but...

Did anyone ever find a simple/easy way to unlock the voltage on this card?

I can get mine to 1160/1315 stable as is [it's the memory that needs more juice] but feels like there's more there if only...
 
I have a Sapphire Tri X 280 that I use TriXX software on.. it will unlock voltage for you.
 
Since this has been revived... Anyone know what the vram on a reference 7950 board is good to? Im refering to the designed linit, not AMD's limit.
 
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