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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Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Exactly. I helped get the GPU14 data in bench (we'll toss it live at anandtech.com/bench once the smoke cleans) and inserted graphs while Ryan was finishing up the conclusion.Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
er smoke clears.just4U - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
You guys have to use your noggin a little bit here and "THINK" This isn't about being told by AMD to get anything out.. Or special relationships. All the review sites (which are likely under restriction) are trying to get their articles out as soon as their allowed. There's a push of initial interest that they capitalize on and being late to the game disappoints the readers who are noticing a new product launch at their shops and etailers and wanting info about it.HisDivineOrder - Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - link
Plus, the free trip to Hawaii has made all the review sites a lot more forgiving lately. That's the best part of the free trip to Hawaii for AMD.They managed to make all the gaming review sites who went look fishy in their bias. In particular, AMD has targeted Anandtech to make them look especially fishy with their "AMD Center." Then when eventually these sites turn against them, they'll have by then had months of Intel and/or nVidia doing what AMD has always wanted: making the review sites look biased.
Then they cut funding in a few months and scream at the top of their lungs how biased review sites are. Shrugging, they'll say, "Just look how AMD, Intel, and nVidia all agree." And it'll all have started with a special advertising arrangement around an "AMD Center" and a free trip to Hawaii.
AMD may not have many resources, but they're savvy in how they're undermining review sites. Of course, they were testing the waters last year with the "review in parts" review of Piledriver. That was just the opening act.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
We prioritized getting performance data and pages of tech analysis out first before the tables and finishing touches. We have done this in the past with previous AMD/NV reviews, and we always show up in the comments mentioning what we're still working on. The complexity of the launch skyrocketed as we used it as an opportunity to switch to a new (IVB-E) testbed, which meant re-running everything.For whatever reason, in the second half of the year we've been given a ton of stuff to review in a very short period of time (two iPhones in a week, three Samsung devices in 5 days). There's no ad impact here, just our desire to have something up when the NDA lifts. It's an internal policy, nothing more or less.
just4U - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
and it's a good policy..They just listed these products at the computer shop I deal with (under new releases) a few hrs ago.. and my first thought was to come here and see if something was posted as nothing was up 8 hrs ago when I was looking at another article. Sure as hell.. You folks got something up for us to look at. It's timing really.. NDA lifts shops put up pre-orders sites try to get their articles out. Logical progression..
That being said, I don't see to many of these types of articles going up in real time like this.
haha.. I just want to get a look at the XFX card to see if they've made changes.
Da W - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
People just use the comment section or social medias to bitch and moan and cry and criticize at people, yet they don't do shit themselves. Web 2.0 is like a cancer and I'm growing sick of these crybabies.Don't listen to them Anand and keep up the good work.
dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Baseless accusation that doesn't even make any sense.Dug - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
You lead with 'no disrespect' and finish with unfounded accusations.Please worry about yourself and not Anandtech.
Jumangi - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
These aren't new cards. They are basically the same GPU's AMD has been shipping for almost 2 years now and it looks like they are going to try and pass them off again for another year. Why was this treated as some big new thing with a long article and a bunch of benchmarks? This whole thing could have been done in a little 2 paragraph news blurb.Man has PC hardware become so stagnant and boring lately...