AMD Announces the R9 280 Graphics Card
AMD has filled up yet another gap in its Rx-2xx series graphics cards with the R9 280.
AMD has announced a new graphics card, the Radeon R9 280, based on the same Tahiti GPU as the older Radeon HD 7950. It operates a little faster, though, filling in the high-end R9 line-up.
The board features a total of 1792 stream processors, along with 112 TMUs and 32 ROPs. The GPU is now clocked at a frequency of up to 933 MHz.
Memory aboard the card remains set at 3 GB, and still runs over a 384-bit memory interface at an effective speed of 5.0 GT/s.
The R9 280's power needs are satisfied through a PCI Express x16 slot, along with eight- and six-pin auxiliary connectors. Despite the trimmed-back performance, this board bears the same 250 W TDP as the higher-end R9 280X. Cooling is taken care of by the same reference cooler as found on reference R9 280X cards, though we'll probably be seeing more cards with custom cooling solutions since AMD's solution is derided for being noisy.
Support is present for AMD's Mantle API, as well as DirectX 11.2 and OpenGL 4.3.
The card is set to come to shelves over the coming weeks with an MSRP price of $279. It remains to be seen whether AMD will be able to satisfy demand or hit its estimated price target. Both have been a problem for the company in recent months, and Radeon R9 270X cards are selling in the same range already.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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houldendub Fantastic, a two year old card getting released again. What an exciting and amazing developme...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzReply -
brandonjclark Eff you, miners! They're going to screw this one up, too. Honestly, AMD has a serious issue here as people like me (a longtime supporter) are forced to go Nvidia in order to get the best performance per dollar. They risk losing the base that kept them afloat all these years.Reply -
airplanegeek even nvidia cards will be doomed. the. miners are going to be buying the maxwells out of stockReply -
blubbey Fantastic, a two year old card getting released again. What an exciting and amazing developme...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Because rebranding old stuff is.....new? -
InvalidError Since it is fundamentally the same card as over a year ago just with a new model number, miners are not going to "mess this one up" any more than they already have. From AMD's side of things, a sale is a sale... they aren't going to complain that their GPUs are flying off the shelves at 30-60% higher prices than expected.Reply -
jasonpwns Why is it that when nvidia does this and someone points it out their comment gets voted up. AMD does it and someone points it out and their comment is voted into oblivion. Little bias are we toms?Reply -
firefoxx04 and more bitching about miners. News flash, you get to use the card for WHATEVER YOU WANT.Reply -
fpga123 I don't get AMD's doctrine anymore, aside from the current generation, all other cards sold at the expected price points in my country, Pakistan. This generation they have stacked them above the 7000 series which is really a rip off. Seeing 7950 at $300 and R9-280X at $450 -_- I think there is a significant inventory still left of 7000 series.Reply