The Radeon R9 280X Review: Feat. Asus & XFX - Meet The Radeon 200 Series
by Ryan Smith on October 8, 2013 12:01 AM ESTCrysis 3
Still one of our most punishing benchmarks, Crysis 3 needs no introduction. With Crysis 3, Crytek has gone back to trying to kill computers and still holds “most punishing shooter” title in our benchmark suite. Only in a handful of setups can we even run Crysis 3 at its highest (Very High) settings, and that’s still without AA. Crysis 1 was an excellent template for the kind of performance required to drive games for the next few years, and Crysis 3 looks to be much the same for 2013.
Crysis 3 is another game that somewhat favors NVIDIA, though not to the extent of other games. At 2560 we’re looking at performance that’s closer to the GTX 760 than it is the GTX 770, which is rather befitting of the 280X’s $300 status, putting it almost exactly where we’d expect it given the price.
Meanwhile checking in again on our factory overclocked Asus 280X, we have another case where the performance improvement is outpacing the boost and memory clock overclocks, this time coming in at 9%. It’s scenarios like these that make Asus’s $10 premium such a bargain for the performance.
Once again, FCAT tells us that our delta percentages are well within tolerance.
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AmdInside - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
I still say its rebadge. The NVIDIA G92 went from 65nm to 55nm and lost analog TV out so by your definition G92 is not rebadged.Jumangi - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Yea that makes these totally different...ninjaquick - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
What core difference exists between the 290X and the 280X? None really. The next gen's 370 is going to be a die-shrunk 280, and the 460 of the gen after that will be the same 7970 again. AMD is not going to bother releasing a new core design until the GCN is no longer apt for the task, which will only occur if HLSL/GLSL are retired completely.Gigaplex - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
TrueAudio, some GPGPU instructions from GCN 1.1 plus whatever the 290X introduces on top of that is basically the core difference between 290X and 280X.Cellar Door - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
I was looking forward to the R9 280X - simply because I hoped it would offer new features, revised silicon, maybe even new iteration of GCN. A REAL step forward - this is a let down. Because this hits my price point as I won't be able to afford their R9 290X, AMD was supposed to be a true champion of price - like always. It seems like I have no choice but to go with the green camp.silverblue - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Wait a minute... it trails the 770 on average by only a small amount and retails for $100 less. Sure, there's no game bundle, but how is this fleecing anybody?just4U - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
One would think (since it's still pre-order status) that it's done in co-operation with their partners to help get rid of excess stock on the 7x line.. so Never settle bundles won't be offered until after all that is nearly gone. I suspect that such bundles will start being offered on the new line just as the holiday season starts.ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/386899206..."9x draw calls is credible over stock D3D, but Nvidia OpenGL extensions can give similar I mprocements."
In regards to Mantle, do you have any comment about John Carmack's report that AMD's claim of Mantle providing 9x more draw calls is already achievable by nVidia using their OpenGL extensions? Console porting is still an unique feature of Mantle, but on the draw call issue, if DirectX is slow to improve on this, then maybe AMD, Intel, and nVidia coming up with cross-vendor OpenGL extensions to address the issue may be a better solution than Mantle, especially given it converges with increased interest in OpenGL with SteamOS.
Pantsu - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
AMD has made a similar statement. The new OpenGL extensions will bring similar improvements to what they advertise with Mantle, and that in the end the API will not be the bottleneck. As long as it's not Direct3D it seems. :D Perhaps even MS will eventually improve their game sooner or later.ananduser - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
Have you not read Ryan's hunches on Mantle? Mantle is, or derived from, MS' low level Xbox API.