In this single-product review, we'd like to focus on how Sapphire's Dual-X R9 280 OC fares against its predecessor, the Radeon HD 7950 Boost reference card, and Nvidia's similarly-priced competition, the GeForce GTX 760.
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Two of the games we're testing have an option to use a Mantle code path, so we're running those benchmarks (Thief and Battlefield 4) with Mantle enabled and disabled to measure the API's impact.
Graphics cards like the Radeon R9 280 require a substantial amount of power, so XFX sent us its PRO850W 80 PLUS Bronze-certified power supply. This modular PSU employs a single +12 V rail rated for 70 A. XFX claims continuous (not peak) output of up to 850 W at 50 degrees Celsius.
We've almost exclusively eliminated mechanical disks in the lab, preferring solid-state storage for alleviating I/O-related bottlenecks. Samsung sent all of our labs 256 GB 840 Pros, so we standardize on these exceptional SSDs.
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| Test System | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E), 3.3 GHz, Six Cores, LGA 2011, 15 MB Shared L3 Cache, Hyper-Threading enabled. | ||||
| Motherboard | ASRock X79 Extreme9 (LGA 2011) Chipset: Intel X79 Express | ||||
| Networking | On-Board Gigabit LAN controller | ||||
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LP PC3-16000, 4 x 4 GB, 1600 MT/s, CL 8-8-8-24-2T | ||||
| Graphics | Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 OC 850/940 MHz GPU, 3 GB GDDR5 at 1250 MHz (5000 MT/s) Reference AMD Radeon HD 7950 Boost 850/925 MHz GPU, 3 GB GDDR5 at 1255 MHz (5000 MT/s) Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 980/1033 MHz GPU, 2 GB GDDR5 at 1502 MHz (5008 MT/s) | ||||
| SSD | Samsung 840 Pro, 256 GB SSD, SATA 6Gb/s | ||||
| Power | XFX PRO850W, ATX12V, EPS12V | ||||
| Software and Drivers | |||||
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | ||||
| DirectX | DirectX 11 | ||||
| Graphics Drivers | AMD Catalyst 14.6 Beta, Nvidia GeForce 337.88 WHQL | ||||
| Benchmarks | |||||
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| Watch Dogs | Custom Tom's Hardware Benchmark, 90-second Fraps run, Driving | ||||
| Arma 3 | V. 1.20, 30-sec. Fraps "Infantry Showcase" | ||||
| Battlefield 4 | Version 1.0.0.1, Custom THG Benchmark, 90-Sec | ||||
| Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag | Version 1.05, Custom THG Benchmark, 40-Sec | ||||
| Thief | Built-in Benchmark | ||||
| Titanfall | Version 1.05, Custom THG Benchmark | ||||


This card will do whatever it takes to keep below 70° Celsius, it will scream like a lunatic if it has to, but it WILL keep cool... unless, you know, clog the fins with axle grease or something...
I was skeptical about buying this card because it was the second "slowest" R9 280X at the time, but its quiet when you don't need it and strong when it has to be.
Both mine and the one presented are the goldielox zone for the performance/watt franchise.