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How We Tested Sapphire's Dual-X R9 280 OC

Sapphire's Dual-X R9 280 OC Graphics Card Review
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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.

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.


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
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
ThiefBuilt-in Benchmark
TitanfallVersion 1.05, Custom THG Benchmark

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  • 0 Hide
    BigBadBeef , 25 August 2014 15:40
    I have the R9 280X Dual-X from sapphire and I must say I am pleasantly surprised. while this is not the Vapor-X edition, its not much worse off.

    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... :D 

    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.
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