JohnSmith4321 :
I personally own the R9-280X Toxic and previosuly owned the Asus Matrix R9-280x. I dont know if it was bad luck or something but both cards were causing artifacting issues. I am currently RMA'ing my Toxic. I would wait till they make the revisions to the card which is late November but I would still wait a bit longer because the Revision is going to be a different silicon. The new chip will have lower power consumption and heat output.
source
http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8218&lang=english
Hi, this is interesting..thanks for your comments! I have read on another forum that the first release might give better performance than the new chip later in Nov but I guess we'll find out soon..I've copied below the comments I read on another site...thanks
I found this...not sure if it is of any help?
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25195666&postcount=13
Quote:
Hi there
Just had a conversation with one of AMD's board partners in China, this is the conversation:-
[08:37:20] CHINA: yes, new shipment from AMD will be XTL instead of XT2
[08:40:39] GIBBO: what is the exact difference please?
[08:41:34] CHINA -: well, i do not know know exactly what is the difference
[08:43:12] GIBBO: Please try to find out m8
[08:43:23] CHINA -: ok ok
[10:11:03] CHINA -: Mate, just checked. There is no difference on the specification between XT2 and XTL. The only difference maybe that the overclockability of XT2 is better than XTL.
[10:14:27] GIBBO: why is that m8?
[10:14:30] GIBBO: different power design?
[10:14:53] GIBBO: Will XTL feature the new HD sound found on R260X and R290's ?
[10:15:21] CHINA: no, XTL does not support True Audio
[10:15:55] GIBBO: Why do you think it won't clock as well?
[10:16:35] CHINA: well, i got this from my product development people
[10:17:12] CHINA: maybe related to the screening
[10:17:37] GIBBO: so in short current version is better for OC then
[10:17:48] CHINA: you are correct
Seems that current R280X are using the full blown HD 7970 GHz chip and the new XTL version will be a lower cost design which gives the same performance out the box, but won't have the OC headroom of the current chip.