The Radeon R9 280X Review: Feat. Asus & XFX - Meet The Radeon 200 Series
by Ryan Smith on October 8, 2013 12:01 AM ESTHitman: Absolution
The second-to-last game in our lineup is Hitman: Absolution. The latest game in Square Enix’s stealth-action series, Hitman: Absolution is a DirectX 11 based title that though a bit heavy on the CPU, can give most GPUs a run for their money. Furthermore it has a built-in benchmark, which gives it a level of standardization that fewer and fewer benchmarks possess.
Hitman is another title AMD’s GPUs do rather well in, leading to the 280X surpassing the GTX 770 by just shy of 9%. It seems silly to be comparing a $300 video card to what’s currently a $400 video card – and in the process not a battle AMD is explicitly setting out to fight – but it just goes to show just how competitive these two cards really are.
Meanwhile if you throw in a factory overclocked card like the Asus, then we can just crack 60fps at 2560. Though on a percentage basis the performance lead over the stock clocked 280X is trending close to the average at 7%.
Moving on to minimum framerates quickly, the picture does not significantly change. Hitman bottoms out in the high 40s for the stock 280X, a bit more than 10fps below the average.
The FCAT delta percentages remain unremarkable.
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Galidou - Saturday, October 12, 2013 - link
If he really has to whine about high end video card prices, he's new to this because many generations before, the top of the line was often sold for 800$. Anyway, if you simply run 1080p(which most of us does) you can be totally satisfied with a 150-300$ video card and two or three graphical options not maxed(you won't notice it unless you stop playing to just look at the graphics) which is quite different from older generations where you had to pay big bucks to run at higher resolution/graphical settings.I bought a 660ti for 300$ when it came out a year ago and I still run everything at very high/max settings in 1080p PERFECTLY. No reason to whine at all nowadays unless you're a kiddo that is new to the gaming industry and pc gaming gear.
Etern205 - Monday, October 14, 2013 - link
Many generations before top of the end graphic cards like ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, the best card of its time cost $300, and the 2nd best, ATi Radeon 9500 Pro cost just $200.High-end card is the past don't cost a arm and a leg, you can get one and still have enough to feed yourself for a week. Now they cost a arm and a leg, where you have to starve yourself for a month just to have enough to buy one.
hansmuff - Tuesday, July 14, 2015 - link
The Matrox MGA Millennium 4MB was $549 at launch and became a somewhat legendary performer in DOS VESA modes. That's 1995.bwat47 - Monday, December 9, 2013 - link
Yeah, a 280x was a steal for 299, excellent card.Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
We're working on it :) AMD gave Ryan very little time to go through four new cards, it's being added in real time here.Sunrise089 - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
No disrespect Anand, but 'special relationship' with AMD notwithstanding, if they're asking you to have your article up at midnight for a launch but you can't even have product specs available by then I worry the advertising side of things is encroaching a bit into the editorial side.zanon - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Have to agree. I've always appreciated in the past that Anandtech would take the time to do reviews right, even if it very, very often meant that they'd come in days or more after the early rush. We've already got plenty of early rush stuff on the net that is of poor quality, please do not go that route. Just do a pipeline piece with early conclusions as you have before. You've got this going up across all twitter/rss/whatever feeds, everyone sees it and comes in, and it's a really poor showing.If AMD tells you to hit a certain launch window please kindly tell them to get stuffed or get your hardware earlier next time. If you're letting them rush you to their own schedule that feels like a really bad sign.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
See the above response, but I'd add: you don't have to worry about us going down the path of lowest common denominator. I hardly think that what was posted here at midnight was even close to fitting that description.Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
er below response :)chizow - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Easy guys, it's happened with other non-AMD reviews too in the past, I know other staff writers will often chip in and help with some aspects of the reviews, like tables and graphs, and sometimes the entire piece comes together online in real-time. It's like a big group project or presentation, sometimes it just doesn't go off perfectly on such short deadlines.