The Radeon R9 280X Review: Feat. Asus & XFX - Meet The Radeon 200 Series
by Ryan Smith on October 8, 2013 12:01 AM ESTCompany of Heroes 2
Our second benchmark in our benchmark suite is Relic Games’ Company of Heroes 2, the developer’s World War II Eastern Front themed RTS. For Company of Heroes 2 Relic was kind enough to put together a very strenuous built-in benchmark that was captured from one of the most demanding, snow-bound maps in the game, giving us a great look at CoH2’s performance at its worst. Consequently if a card can do well here then it should have no trouble throughout the rest of the game.
Like Metro this is the first time we’ve deployed this benchmark in a review. The results as it turns out are extremely good for AMD, with the reference clocked 280X surpassing the GTX 770 by over 16%. Given the price disparity between the cards simply tying the GTX 770 would be a good outcome, so surpassing it is even better. Of course this is basically a best case scenario, so not every game will see a lead like this.
On a side note, it’s mildly amusing to see that the 280X delivered 30fps on the dot. For an RTS game that’s a perfectly reasonable average framerate, so the 280X ends up being just fast enough to deliver the necessary performance for 2560 in this game.
Finally, on a lark we threw in the GTX 780 results, primarily to visualize the gap between the GTX 780 and its half-priced competition in preparation for the launch of the 290X. Never did we expect to see a 280X card top the GTX 780, but sure enough that’s what happens here, with the Asus factory overclocked 280X passing the GTX 780 by 0.1fps. This isn’t really a fair comparison due to the factory overclock, but it’s interesting none the less to see a Tahiti card keep up with GTX 780.
CoH2 also gives us a reliable look at minimum framerates, which like the average framerate over the whole benchmark appears to be entirely GPU bound. The 30fps average for the 280X at 2560 may be playable, but players sensitive to dips in the framerate will not appreciate these minimums. To get the minimum framerate about 30fps we have to go all the way down to 1080p at high quality.
Finally, while we didn’t have time to collect FCAT results for every card we were able to collect limited FCAT results for the most important cards. With our delta percentages method we’re looking for sub-3% frame time deltas for single-GPU cards, which is actually something that everyone has trouble with in CoH2. What the minimum frametimes hint at is that this game has a periodic frame time spike to It, that although it won’t be a problem for RTS gameplay, will similarly set off players sensitive to changes in frame times. This appears to be the work of the game and benchmark itself, as all of our cards struggle here in a similar manner.
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Wreckage - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
I did not see these on Newegg yet. Did AMD actually rebrand a card twice and paper launch it twice???Will Robinson - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
That "rebrand" just kicked the crap out of NVDA's GTX770 for $100 less.Read it and weep.
Wreckage - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
At least you can buy a 770 right now. I suppose you could print out a 280 and tape it to the side of your computer. Wake me when they can beat the GK110.rtsurfer - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
If you had bothered to read the article you would have known that these cards are launching this week.Also,your beloved GK110 will be dealt with by R9 290X. I think you'll have to wait till October 15th for that news,as that is when the NDA expires.
colonelclaw - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Blimey, some people here are never happy. This card is basically a 770 but $100 cheaper. You know what that means? Nvidia will soon be dropping the price of the 770 and hopefully the 780 too - great news all round.Stop whining about 'rebadging' etc, the only thing that matters to 95% of gamers is the relationship between price and framerates.
Da W - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Precisely. I don't get fanboïsm. I'm gonna run 3600X1920 with full detail at an afordable price before christmas, be it with a 780 or a 290X. Of course 3 screens works better on AMD, i might be willing to pay a premium.gobaers - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Add a Z axis for power consumption / noise (two sides of the same coin). I'd take a small hit in framerate for a cooler or quieter card.stefstef - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
looks like the 260 is going to replace the 7790 cards. now you get for the price the 7790 cards were introduced the 260. the 7790 prices dropped. now i wonder if i replace my 6670 for my 720p monitor with the rather cheap 7790 or get the new 260.Will Robinson - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
R9 280X looks very good at $300....the improvements in noise and heat output are commendable.I'll be interested to see how it performs in BF4 after the Mantle API update.
It looks very strong in BF4 beta already.
http://techreport.com/review/25466/amd-radeon-r9-2...
nathanddrews - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Hmm, I think I'll wait for the next rebadge (re-rebadge) at 20nm. Maybe by summer they'll shrink and add the audio enhancements to the whole lineup. I'm happy for the MSRP price being $299, it should force the 7970GE to under that.If anything, I'm hoping that AMD's new lineup forces NVIDIA to stop overcharging for their products. I know that the market drives pricing, but if price scaled with performance, that means that the GTX700 should be $300 and the GTX780 should be about $350? Not that it will happen like that... but the 780 should not be over $400.