MSI Radeon R9 280X video card review: AMD teaches an old GPU some new tricks
on PCWorld by Alex Cocilova
Điểm mạnh: Very fast performance with AAA games, EyeFinity can now use HDMI and DVI, as well as DisplayPort
Điểm yếu: Not new architecture: This is a tweaked Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, Memory runs at reference-design spec
Kết luận: The MSI Radeon R9 280X OC Edition is a faster, smarter, cheaper Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, and it’s much faster than Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 760. AMD has scored big with the gaming-console builders, earning design wins with Microsoft (the Xbox One), Sony (the PlayStation 4), and Nintendo (the Wii U). Now the company is turning its attention back to PC gaming with the launch of its R7 and R9 graphics processor families. But AMD has a funny definition of “family,” because some of the new GPUs it recently announced, including the Radeon R9 280X reviewed here, aren’t entirely new: They’re tweaked versions of earlier products. AMD objects to my classifying them as “rebadged” because that term describes an old product that’s merely dressed up with a new name. In this case, AMD’s engineers took last year’s Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, tweaked its specs, and added some new features before slapping a new label on it. But a company spokesperson has confirmed that the Radeon R9 280X “share [s] the same ASIC,” or application-specific integrated circuit, as the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. The R9 280X lets you turn up the details in ‘BioShock Infinite’—on a 30-inch display, no less. AMD’s marketing shenanigans put boutique PC builder Origin Computer’s very public breakup in a whole new light, but don’t let that dissuade you from considering a video card based on this—ahem— new GPU. Judging from MSI’s implementation, the Radeon R9 280X OC Edition, I’d say AMD is bringing high-resolution gaming to the masses—or at least the moderately well-heeled masses. A Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition card cost $500 when we reviewed it in June 2012, and other cards based on that GPU were selling for around $385 the day before this launch. MSI’s card is faster, it delivers several features that aren’t possible with the old GPU, and it’s priced at just $299. Similar to the older GPU, the Radeon R9 280X processor consists of 2048 graphics cores paired with 3GB of GDDR5 memory linked by an interface that’s 384 bits wide. MSI departs from AMD’s reference design by mounting its Twin Frozr IV dual fan and heat sink over the GPU and memory, and it gooses the GPU’s clock by a modest 50MHz, running it at 1050MHz instead of the reference design’s 1000MHz. MSI didn’t push the memory’s clock speed at all: It runs at a stock 1500MHz. Fancy some Lara Croft action?