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Which of these R9 280x should I buy.

Tags:
  • Sapphire
  • Graphics
  • Gtx
  • GPUs
  • Hewlett Packard
  • Compatibility
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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December 25, 2013 8:02:20 PM

I recently bought a GTX 770 4Gb for myself. It ended up not working with my motherboard, but I had it fit into my smaller HP case. My choices that will fit are the Club 3D, Gigabyte, and Sapphire Toxic editions of the R9 280x, product specs http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-280x-third-party-round-up,3655-2.html. I'm leaning towards the Sapphire because of the better speeds, but can anyone give me a recommendation? Also, if my PC will support the chosen card. Thanks in advance.

-B

Specs:

Motherboard: M3970AM-HP (Angelica)
Expansion Slots:
PCI Express x16: 1 (Generation 2 speed)
PCI Express x1: 3 (Generation 2 speed)
PCI Express x1 minicard socket: 1 (Generation 2 speed)
Chipset: AMD 970
Power: 750w Corsair CX750M
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-8150 Eight-Core 3.6GHz
RAM: 10 GB (2 x 4 GB + 1 x 2 GB) DDR3 PC3-10600

More about : 280x buy

December 25, 2013 8:06:45 PM

Sapphire edition is probably the best, unless you want to OC, the Gigabyte windforce is great for overclocking. Even then you can OC with the Sapphire edition card, and overall it's a better brand. Go with Sapphire.

Hope this helps!
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a b α HP
December 25, 2013 8:40:11 PM

My 2 cents:

1) First, get rid of that single 2GB memory module. Read your motherboard manual and put ONLY the 2x4GB sticks in the proper slots (sometimes the 2nd and 4th). By adding that third stick you are forced into single-channel mode which could bottleneck your CPU slightly.

2) Check PRICES for these cards. If they are too high you may wish to consider a GTX780 instead like the awesome EVGA 967MHz with ACX cooler for $520 or a GTX770 for about $330.

3) I would get THIS ASUS, but in North America the prices are simply too high at $420:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_280X_Direct_...

4) You can buy something like an MSI GTX770 for about $330 which gives nearly exactly the same performance.

BENCHMARK (AVERAGE OF SEVERAL GAMES):
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_280X_Direct_...

From the benchmark we see the overclocked 280X barely beating a stock GTX770. An overclocked GTX770 will beat the 280X.

Aside from other NVidia/AMD differences the only advantage the 280X has is more Video RAM which arguably NO games need, even BF4.

Summary:
- if prices are much lower than $420 the R9-280X is a good card (prices should drop after Christmas. They're much lower in the UK. Some blame bitcoin miners.)
- I recommend the Asus DC2 version (1070MHz)
- *I currently recommend something like the MSI N770 TF if the R9-280X is still priced too high or you want a feature like PhysX, Shadowplay, Gamestream, or G-Sync.


Merry Christmas.
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December 25, 2013 8:50:47 PM

sapphire. another viable options are asus ,msi & gigabyte. powercolor & HIS are good too
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December 26, 2013 10:48:06 AM

Thanks for the responses everyone. I limited the search down to those three cards because of size restrictions mainly. My other issue was as I outlined in my original post that I had bought a EVGA GTX 770 4gb and installed it, yet it would never go past post. I called evga and they told me with my current motherboard I cannot support it because the 770 line or something would not work with some HP or Dell motherboards, for no reason. Asked around, found little help or evidence except one other person with my build had same problem. He bought a sapphire r9 280x and it worked which is why I decided on buying a 280x because is have way more confidence it will work having seen someone else with my specs buy one an use it.
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