Gadgetory

welcome back to our unboxed for this week's episode of throwback Thursday we're checking out the AMD radeon r9 280x which means we're also checking out the Radeon HD 7970 here Hertz Edition which is a factory overclocked 7970 and for those of you unaware all three models are based on the same GPU code names tahiti xt this means they pack 2048 cos 128 texture mapping units and 32 render output units they all feature the same gddr5 memory interface using a 384 bit wide memory bus the only real changes have been made to the core and memory clock speeds the 7970 gigahertz Edition and the r9 280x are very similar in terms of clock speeds and they're basically factory overclocked versions of the original 7970 released in early 2012 in order to better compete with the geforce gtx 680 and take back the performance crown AMD decided to overclock the 79 and 70 by almost 15% to create the 7970 gigahertz edition for their efforts they charge an additional $50 u.s. anyway 18 months later with nothing new to push out the 7970 gigahertz Edition was rebranded as the r9 280x the MSRP was dropped from 500 u.s. down to $300 u.s. so even though we were getting the same performance and basically the same graphics card it was at least a fair bit cheaper shortly after the release of the 280x the Radeon 200 series was completed with some GC and second-generation parts which included the uh nine to ninety to ninety x and 295x2 we also got the Radeon r9 285 which was based on the third-generation GCN architecture but that model was probably a bit of a flop or at least it was in my opinion anyway despite being a rebranded graphics card the 280 X was actually a pretty hot item at the new MSRP and sold quite well today they can often be selling for between a hundred and twenty one hundred and ninety dollars us on the second-hand market so given today's horrible market conditions that places it alongside the GTX 1050 and rx 560 so for those seeking maximum bang for their buck which option provides the best results well we're about to find out representing the old vintage GPU is the Sapphire vapor-x r9 280x 3G model all testing has been conducted on our Corsair GPU test rig which comprises of a core i7 8700 k clocked at 5 gigahertz with 32-year bytes of vengeance ddr4 3200 memory the Radeon r9 280x gets off to a flying start in our battlefield 1 test and it's the first older card we've revisited this year capable of averaging more than 60 FPS in this title at 1080p using the ultra quality settings as a result it was 13% faster the GTX 1050 TI and 24% faster than the GTX 680 which also means the 7970 gigahertz Edition would be at least 20% faster in this title moving on a Dona for 3 and here we see the r9 280 continuing to tear the competition apart with an average of 79 fps this minute was 16 percent faster the GTX 1050 to an 18 percent faster than the HD 7950 and GTX 680 I should also note that the one percent low result of 59 FPS was greater than the average result for the rx 560 and GTX 1050 the r9 280x also does well in dirt 4 and here it managed to edge out the GTX 680 by a 7% margin testing was conducted using the median quality settings so it's fair to say you could crank up the visuals with the 280x next that we have fer honor and for the first time so far we see the gtx 680 beating the r9 280x there only by a mere 4% margin overall performance was good and you could probably get away with higher quality settings and still see an average of over 60 fps moving on to Ghost Recon wildlands in here the r9 280x match the GTX 680 and GTX 1050 while those 10% slower than the GTX 1050 Ti so a reasonable result in this title though we are only using the low quality preset optimizations aren't particularly great for this one then the r9 280x runs away with it Mass Effect Andromeda hitting 81 FPS on average making it 14 percent faster than the GTX 680 it also edged out the GTX 1050 Ti and crushed the g2 x 1050 then in pray the 280x beats the GTX 1050 to while it was comfortably ahead of the GTX 680 the with both pushing over 60fps at all times you'd probably struggle to spot the difference the GTX 280 also blasted the competition a Resident Evil 7 beating the GTX 1052 by a whopping 20% margin and the GTX 680 by 23% so a clear victory for AMD's rebadged HD 7970 here we can see that on average across the eight games tested the r9 280x was 10% faster than gtx 680 though it has to be said our spread of games is somewhat kind to the red team and no this wasn't intentional we recently saw that the HD 7950 struggled against the GTX 760 and title such as counter-strike donut who fought night overwatch and player on owns battlegrounds had those titles been included than the 280 X and the GTX 680 might have come out of this offering a very similar level of performance so just keep that in mind that said let's move on to see how the r9 280x plays and a few of these titles first up I played a few rounds of Rainbow six siege and I found on average that the r9 280x was good for over 100 FPS at all times using the medium quality settings at 1080p in the same sections of the game the 280x was roughly 30% faster the GTX 680 whereas the GTX 680 average of 108 FPS with dips as low as 88 fps the 280 never dropped below 106 FPS and this allowed for an average of 139 fps we saw that previously the r9 280x was over 20% faster than the gtx 680 in battlefield 1 and this had a big impact on the quality things that were able to use whereas the gtx 680 was limited to the medium quality things for playable performance the r9 280x could handle the ultra quality settings and still push over 50 FPS at all times when gaming at 1080p so an impressive result here for the old AMD GPU the r9 280x powered through battlefront 2 using the higher quality settings providing smooth highly playable performance under the same conditions it was 18% fast in the GTX 680 in this title and overall we saw an average of 69 FPS with a minimum of 59 fps moving on the fortnight here we saw an average of 105 FPS with drops down to 69 FPS and and minitest although this performance using the medium quality settings at 1080p is only comparable to what we saw with the GTX 760 it's obviously still very playable and if it certainly afford to turn the quality settings up I'm not John to although not an apples to apples comparison with the GTX 680 and overwatch we did use the same quality settings and overall performance was almost identical using the ultra quality settings the r9 280x was silky smooth churning at 87 FPS on average with a minimum of 70 FPS so overall a great result then finally I gave pub G a whirl and here I was forced down to the medium quality settings and this was also the case with the GTX 680 in fact despite playing on a different map we still saw an average of 66 FPS the exact same average as the GTX 680 so overall performance should be very similar between the two in my tests with the 280x I saw a minimum of 52 FPS with an average of 66 fps so overall very playable but if you want to maintain over 60 fps at all times you will have to go down to the low or very low quality settings then finally we have some power consumption figures the Radeon r9 280x wasn't the most power efficient GPU released in late 2013 and remember it is still based on year and a half old technology still compared to the GTX 580 it was a massive improvement and given that it beat the GTX 680 and most of our tests included in this video performance / what is still very good also you have to keep in mind that we are using an 8700 K clocked at 5 gigahertz and with the r9 280x this combo consumed at less than 300 Watts when gaming so it's not exactly gonna put your power supply to the test well they have a 2013 s Radeon r9 280x or 2012 HD 7970 looks to be very capable after all these years of course you'd never normally entertain the idea of spending well over $100 US on one of these graphics cards but today if you had a thousand of them and you listed them all for $100 US they probably all sell before week's end because the way the market is right now you can expect to pay around 170 dollars u.s. and that's actually the average sale price for 280x on a major in the march period at the time of making this video the our X 560 and GTX 1050 cards are selling for one hundred and six dollars u.s. at best while the 1052 is fetching at least two hundred and twenty dollars u.s. given the 280 X was on average nine percent faster than the GTX 1050 Ti and the fact that it costs around 20 to 25 percent less makes it a very viable option meanwhile for around the same money as the vanilla 1050 we saw a 25% improvement in performance of course again it is worth noting that the much older prior to the 280x does consume it considerably more power and therefore will run a bit warmer but the big aftermarket models that I have on hand from sapphire and a suits do run reasonably cool and quiet the big hurdle though for potential buyers is the fact that these are secondhand graphics cards with no chance of being replaced under any kind of warranty should something go wrong all that said I'd put my budget cap for a 280x at 150 dollars u.s. and there are examples of working cards selling for as little as a hundred and thirty dollars u.s. but of course you'd have to be a bit lucky to snag one of those anyway for Tony P gaming the Radeon r9 280x is still a great option and you can heap of fun with it and that's where I'm going to end today's video if you enjoyed the video be sure to hit the like button subscribe for more content if you appreciate the testing we do here at harbor our box then consider checking out our patreon page we do a monthly live stream and we have a discord chat thanks for watching I'm your host Steve see you next time