What is the Best AMD R9 280X

Sapphire
SAPPHIRE TOXIC Edition graphics cards offer sheer, brute performance for the most serious multi-screen gamers and most demanding, graphically intensive tasks such as content creation, video editing and fast rendering. They deliver outstanding performance – whatever you’re doing. The SAPPHIRE TOXIC R9 280X 3GB is factory-overclocked by default. Featuring the industry-first, innovative Triple-X cooling technology, which delivers up to 30% more performance than our standard R9 280X cards. We also offer the R9 270X in a TOXIC Edition.

The SAPPHIRE R9 280X and R9 270X Vapor-X models feature second generation Vapor-X cooler design, which is lighter in weight but still delivers industry acclaimed quiet and efficient cooling. SAPPHIRE Vapor-X technology is used in conjunction with a heatpipe and fan assembly to deliver outstanding cooling results.

The SAPPHIRE R9 280X and R9 270X Dual-X models are the most cost effective member of the family and yet are still overclocked compared with the reference design to give users the best possible value for money in this performance class.

Learn more about the family, read the reviews, and find out where to buy them. Anandtech.com
"...[O]ur experience with the card and our results prove that Sapphire has fundamentally achieved what they have set out to do: they’ve put together the fastest R9 280X card. It’s 13% faster than a stock 280X and it’s still 5% faster than the factory overclocked Asus card we looked at earlier this week. Out of the box the Toxic even maintains a hair’s lead over the Asus card when the Asus card is overclocked..."


KitGuru
"If you are in the market for a new high performance AMD graphics card then we have to put the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition at the top of the list. It is not only faster than any other R9 280X we have tested to date, but it is actually very competitively priced at £269.99 inc VAT."


Bjorn3D
"Any gamer who may be in the market for a nice enthusiasts level graphics card with a great value would be out of their mind to not consider this card [the Sapphire Toxic R9 280X ]."

The custom cards we looked at from ASUS, MSI and XFX were found to be solid cards. Let’s take a second and talk about each card.

The MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming is priced the lowest at $299. This card has a well designed Twin Frozr GPU cooler that kept the card cool and quiet. The performance was solid in all of our testing, but we hoped to get a bit more from it when came to overclocking. If space is a concern, note that this is the shortest length card of the group at just 10.6-inches. If you’re looking for the best $299 AMD Radeon R9 280X video card, this one would be hard to pass up.

The ASUS Radeon R9 280X is a beast at 11.25-inches in length, but you can really tell that ASUS put a ton of thought in this card. The reversed power connectors, LED power connection lights, 10-phase super alloy power, CoolTech fan and the crazy 10mm thick heatpipe on the DirectCU II cooler are all testament to this. This card performed the best in our group of three and it also overclocked the best. The only downside is that it consumes more power when gaming than the others! ASUS marked this card up $10 over there SRP, so it is available for $309. If you are looking for a fast factory overclocked card or want to overclock it even more, this is the card for you.

The XFX Radeon R9 280X Double D features reference clock speeds and was the slowest card of the bunch. Overclocking proved tough for this card as the voltages are locked down and the core overclock we got was the lowest of the bunch. The Ghost2 GPU cooler helped this card run the coolest of the group when gaming, but it also happened to be the loudest of the group. The price on this card is $309, which makes it a tough sell compared to the other two cards. The one big highlight of this card is the lifetime warranty on it that you get if you register it within 30 days.

Click to expand...

Link
Asus for the win.

I second the Sapphire TOXIC Edition

Sapphire R9 280X Toxic best of the lot.

sapphire toxic and asus rog matrix are close..whichever you pick is good. asus has a voltage and reset on the hardware itself..but i picked up sapphire toxic..idk..

maybe coz asus is too bulky and heavy(3 slots).sapphire has 2 and i can xfire it surely..performance wise..they are close.

So the toxic is 350 and the basic is 300. What does the extra 50 bucks actually mean in real world performance ? Is it a substantial step up or will I only gain 1 or 2 fps? I don't mind spending the extra 50 if it's worth it

Was asking that same question myself but as you should be able to OC Dual-x further (somewhere around 1100MHz) and narrow down the difference in performance compared to Toxic, I couldnt justify myself the extra 60€ (in here the difference in price is around 80$) for Toxic. The lower price of Dual-X also means less $$$ when upgrading to xfire.

1:Sapphire Toxic
2:Gigabyte
3:ASUS
4:HIS

+1 for msi... Better cooler, quieter and easily oc'ed...

Dual X is the best bang for buck you can OC to reach those other cards

I must second that.

I have Gigabyte one, and i WAS working good for a couple of months. The cooling was fine, but now when i play games or animate, the card goes crazy, the fan goes to 100% and in few minutes i see lots of artifacts, and then i see grey screen, so if i were you, i would rather go for TOXIC, but if you dont do a lot of heavy duty stuff, then Gigabyte will be fine...

what should really concern the threadstarter is the possible artifacting from various 280x including the toxic that until now isnt resolved by AMD nor the various manufacturers including sapphire.

I have the XFX and am able to OC to 1100mhz/1650mhz stable (1000/1500 default) with no voltage change since it's locked at 1.2v (despite their claims otherwise). That gives me a few more FPS in most games. It's the cheapest of the bunch (which isn't saying much with the currently inflated prices) and I've had no issues with artifacting at any point.

Currently @ 1170mhz / 1700mhz with core voltages (power limit +20% max) with Asus DirectCU 2 vanilla edition.