XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X Video Card Review - Today we examine the XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X video card, comparing it to a fiercely priced custom GeForce GTX 770. Sporting new aesthetics this video card has the appearance of a truly professional looking video card. We'll find out if the overclock and Double Dissipation GHOST2 thermal technology justify its price.
 
game without fear of our video cards overclocking <- From the "Fan noise" section on page 9
 
I like the jab at AMD's pricing, its nice to see it being pointed out in a review, but its also funny thinking its going to change.
 
Nice card, but getting your hands on one is another story...

One quote in the article caught my attention :

"In Metro:" ..."PhysX was unplayable, it's just too demanding for AMD GPUs. The ASUS GeForce GTX 770 DC II was identical. Overclocking the ASUS GeForce GTX 770 DC II did allow for PhysX, providing the best overall gameplay experience for this game. "

Since nvidia makes sure physx doesn't run on AMD GPUs, it's hard for it to be too demanding. The crippled CPU version runs though... badly.
 
The new PhysX 3.3 runs on my CPU just fine in the alpha version of Project Cars. The catch is that Nvidia may still do GPU only features. In truth most people don't care about PhysX nowadays.
 
In truth most people don't care about PhysX nowadays.

Agreed, in my last few system installs I haven't bothered with the workaround to use old nvidia cards for physx I still have buried somewhere.

I just pointed out the quote cause it sounded like a "record player screech"(metaphor) when I was skimming the summary.
 
The new PhysX 3.3 runs on my CPU just fine in the alpha version of Project Cars. The catch is that Nvidia may still do GPU only features. In truth most people don't care about PhysX nowadays.

Probable there are some GPU only features in that game like in Batman. Didnt play it doe.. I like physx effects here and there ecs. in Metro but i can live without them esc. those that crush high end GPUs like puppies,,
 
I like the jab at AMD's pricing, its nice to see it being pointed out in a review, but its also funny thinking its going to change.

It is really AMD's pricing? I wonder if they get a slice of all the gouging or not.
 
It is really AMD's pricing? I wonder if they get a slice of all the gouging or not.

No AMD does not. I was told recently that etailers are making 30 to 40 points currently on AMD video cards.
 
Can AMD contractually enforce a Maximum Price on etailers? If companies can enforce a Minimum Advertise Price, or a Minimum Price like Apple does with their products, can the reverse be done?

I have never been made to understand that AMD has any sort of MSRP agreement in place, and these things are shied away from in our economic system. Usually the problem with etail/retail is selling too low, not too high.

30 to 40 points? Is that in dollars, or percent?

%
 
Is the MSRP for the 280X $299 or $399?

In the opening it says:
What truy separates the AMD R9 280X from the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is the price tag. The AMD R9 280X has a base MSRP of $399. This is $100 less than the launch price of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, which sold for $499. Basically, AMD is providing the same performance as a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition for a much more cost efficient price.
But then in the conclusion it says the MSRP for a 280X is $299.

I thought the MSRP for the 290 was $399, and the MSRP for the 280X was $299. Just pointing this out so you can clarify and/or fix :)
 
30-40% markup is really not that high of a markup for electronics and their accessories.

But that's on TOP of what the regular OEM=>Retail markup they normally sell at. So we're looking at a 70~100% of what retailer like Newegg bought the card for, ie that $700, 290x they paid $300 for....
 
Is the MSRP for the 280X $299 or $399?

In the opening it says: But then in the conclusion it says the MSRP for a 280X is $299.

I thought the MSRP for the 290 was $399, and the MSRP for the 280X was $299. Just pointing this out so you can clarify and/or fix :)

Ok here's the thing. They were all correct at some point or another.
At launch, the R9 280X came out at $299 USD, an amazing price compared to 7970 launch of $499. Halfway down the page here for reference, http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013...series_rebranding_introduction/3#.UwJ1v4XGW2A.

Ever since the Bitcoin(BS) craze a shortage may have cause the MSRP to rise to $399, where the R9 290 was before the shortages. R9 290 now sits at $499, R9 290x @ $549+.

Worth noting in context of this review is that at R9 280x launch prices were kind of reversed. GTX 770 was Msrp $399, R9 280x @ $299. We all knew who the price/perf winner was. Now the tables have turned, maybe Nvidia can ride this wave till Maxwell or AMD will comeback with a price cut on R9 390x.

With all those prices going up and down, maybe Grady/Brent got mixed up. I hope that helps!
 
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30-40% markup is really not that high of a markup for electronics and their accessories.

It may be high for computer parts, but not when compared to other electronics.

Back in the day the store I worked for would sell most cables at 100% or higher markup.

The kicker was, we were still selling cables for about 25% of what other stores were selling the same cables for.

30 to 40 pts is not a 30% to 40% mark up. It's the % of the selling price that's profit. For example your 100% markup is 50pts. They pay $50 and sell for $100 = 50% of the selling price is profit or, 50 pts. Another example, if you sell something for $500 @ 40pts you paid $300. $200, the amt. of profit is 40% of $500, the selling price.

It's still a bad time to pick up a new graphics card, isn't it?

Amen to that!
 
There are a few things that can happen. AMD get the plug out of their ass and starts rolling these things off the assembly line at a rate high enough that demand is met and $$ goes down. They release a card that is tailored to mining (think low RAM but high speed, optimised BIOS, lack of display outputs, etc.....), but maybe not the best gamer out there, so to allow their gaming cards to get back in the hands of gamers.
 
There are a few things that can happen. AMD get the plug out of their ass and starts rolling these things off the assembly line at a rate high enough that demand is met and $$ goes down. They release a card that is tailored to mining (think low RAM but high speed, optimised BIOS, lack of display outputs, etc.....), but maybe not the best gamer out there, so to allow their gaming cards to get back in the hands of gamers.


No quite that simple.
 
Why is that?

Manufacturing at TSMC is not something where you just up the order for next month. It's likely set up ~1yr ahead of time and you have to be careful. If you don't meet the numbers it could cost you millions. Like what happened to AMD with GloFo in 2012.

As far as a special mining card, I can't figure out how that would work. How do you make a card that's better at mining than the Radeon equivalent so people pay more for it and stop buying the standard cards? The best card I could see for that would be reintroducing the 7990. That would wipe out 280X availability though.
 
Manufacturing at TSMC is not something where you just up the order for next month. It's likely set up ~1yr ahead of time and you have to be careful. If you don't meet the numbers it could cost you millions. Like what happened to AMD with GloFo in 2012.

As far as a special mining card, I can't figure out how that would work. How do you make a card that's better at mining than the Radeon equivalent so people pay more for it and stop buying the standard cards? The best card I could see for that would be reintroducing the 7990. That would wipe out 280X availability though.

Yes the Fab could be running at full capacity, or not. My point was if there is a way for AMD to get production up they should.
As for a mining card, it doesn't necessarily need to cost more. I was expecting it to cost less but not appeal to gamers. For example a R9 290x. Chop it down to 1GB RAM. Give it just one video output, special tweaked BIOS. No extras, ugly as hell. NOT appealing to gamers at all now. Sells for $449. Sell regular R9 290x's for $549.

Unless this is simply a matter of AMD not being able to produce more chips at all, no matter what, then it is what it is.
 
From what I read TSMC won't even give priority allocation to Apple so it's not going to help AMD either to meet demand. Just follow ShopBLT inventory to get an idea with it currently showing back-order count is higher than incoming and some of the incoming are overdue. I don't think the situation will get better anytime soon and will actually get worse as both AMD and Nvidia are releasing new lower cost models using the same 28nm.
 
What would be simple is for AMD to make a public statement about the lack of availability of their cards, and the high prices. And then tell us in specific detail what they are doing to remedy the current situation.


How is a "public statement" going to change anything? And also aren't you already aware of the situation?

Getting more silicon wafers processed is not as simple as going down to Costco and buying a couple of pallets worth then dropping those off at the fab. Do you somehow think that AMD sees this incredibly huge demand for its product and is making no strides to evaluate the demand and how to react to it?
 
Did the mantle renderer get used during these benchmarks for the R9? I have been told it may make a big difference. I didn't see that anywhere in the review on the config page or the bf4 results page.
 
I hate to be that guy, but I am going to say it, since I gave in myself.

You can either sit around and keep bitching how much over MSRP the cards are, or you can shut up and realize the longer you sit and bitch, the more money you, yourself are throwing away waiting for something that's not going to happen.
 
Kind of strange to expect to be spoon fed. When a storm hits you don't expect anyone to announce that water, food, essentials, etc. will be short supply and even higher cost.
 
I hate to be that guy, but I am going to say it, since I gave in myself.

You can either sit around and keep bitching how much over MSRP the cards are, or you can shut up and realize the longer you sit and bitch, the more money you, yourself are throwing away waiting for something that's not going to happen.
This. About the same thing I told myself earlier this month.
 
It is really AMD's pricing? I wonder if they get a slice of all the gouging or not.

It's the *coin mining folks. Spend $1200 building rigs that "pay off" in a few months of running 24/7 "mining" for doge/lite/WTF coin. The demand for AMD cards for building scrypt engines is high and not likely to go away since scrypt is not well suited for FPGA or ASIC dedicated solutions. Good news for AMD.
 
What would be simple is for AMD to make a public statement about the lack of availability of their cards, and the high prices. And then tell us in specific detail what they are doing to remedy the current situation.

Do you have any idea how self righteous and entitled that sounds? Call the fucking whaaaambulance.

AMD is not a charity. They do not owe you anything. It is not your RIGHT to get cheap GPUs. In what way are they obligated to remedy anything? They make chips and IHVs make the cards after buying chips in bulk. They are not providing food or some other necessity that demands justification of their action. You will not starve, die or lose your job if you don't get a cheap AMD card.

There is high market demand. Yes, it's the imaginary money guys driving it. But so what? AMD finally built a card that's faster than NVIDIA at SOMETHING.

With the excitement over the 750Ti and it's low price coupled with power consumption/hash ratio it might take some of the pressure off AMD units.

Soon, with the improved NVIDIA perf seen in the 750 eveyone can suffer under the thumb of the minetard driven pricing.
 
This model is a dud from the XFXs I own. It suffers from the known 2D screen jump such as in Windows desktop, Chrome, etc. when clocks are near idle but doesn't show when under load in 3D games. Symptoms are identical to the XFX 270X but was fixed with video BIOS update. XFX support is fully aware of the issue but are deliberately dragging their feet saying it's the power supply or the system when the issue occurs with three different known working power supplies and in a different system that works fine with XFX 290X.

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=440&threadid=168806&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear
 
Goin on the 6th week of ownership(break-in almost done) and am completely satisfied w/Purchase. Fan noise is nill keeping ~51C temps @78% Fan speeds 24/7. Also came w/BF4 code that wasnt advertised. Pleasantly surprised discovering the redeem code amongst the included docs:)
One thing to note is that the PCB side heats up a little which can increase case temps if the system lacks adequate flow/H2O cooling. Not a prob for my setup but may explain how some owners are experiencing undesired temps. Also, the CCC settings needed a bit of changing from what ran my cfx 5770's. AA settings were[ Filter: Standard/AA Method: Multisampling] changed to [Filter: Edge-detect/AA Method: Adaptive multisampling] which somehow increased framerates and overall fps rendering smoothness. A welcome enhancement. Seems to respond better w/the "Use app settings" for tessalation also. Regardless, the card simply owns. 7.9WEI easy:cool:

Question: Has this card been BIOS unlocked to 290x specs by any savvy users??
 
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Goin on the 6th week of ownership(break-in almost done) and am completely satisfied w/Purchase. Fan noise is nill keeping ~51C temps @78% Fan speeds 24/7. Also came w/BF4 code that wasnt advertised. Pleasantly surprised discovering the redeem code amongst the included docs:)
One thing to note is that the PCB side heats up a little which can increase case temps if the system lacks adequate flow/H2O cooling. Not a prob for my setup but may explain how some owners are experiencing undesired temps. Also, the CCC settings needed a bit of changing from what ran my cfx 5770's. AA settings were[ Filter: Standard/AA Method: Multisampling] changed to [Filter: Edge-detect/AA Method: Adaptive multisampling] which somehow increased framerates and overall fps rendering smoothness. A welcome enhancement. Seems to respond better w/the "Use app settings" for tessalation also. Regardless, the card simply owns. 7.9WEI easy:cool:

Question: Has this card been BIOS unlocked to 290x specs by any savvy users??

People were able to unlock some 290's to 290X's. The 280X is a different chip and it's already completely unlocked.
 
Good to know, Relayer. Using the 14.4's now w/o issues, errors, etc. Haven't run through all my games with it, however, WHQL's seem more stable than the BETA 14.3'. Mixed monitors and inputs all activating properly & the temps actually went down about 3-4C overall. Noticing the activity meter is much steadier on 14.4 adding to my satisfaction. 14.3's were a bit "jumpy". Lost like 30points on my RE6 bench tho--still close to 13k--not a big deal. Might be a toggle in CCC or something. Sticking with them regardless.
 
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