# Gigabyte R9 280X OC 3 GB



## W1zzard (Oct 22, 2013)

Gigabyte's R9 280X OC comes at no price premium, yet features an overclock out of the box and uses the company's famous triple-fan WindForce 3X cooling solution. With a 100 MHz GPU overclock, it manages to beat the much more expensive GTX 770 in real-life performance.

*Show full review*


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## dj-electric (Oct 22, 2013)

Have it on hand. Gigabyte - i expect nothing less than a BIOS update that does justice with this card.


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## buildzoid (Oct 22, 2013)

In the first paragraph of the closer look page you have a typo it says 5 heatpipes but there's on 3 visible in the picture
Also the vrm design is really cheap looks worse than a reference 7970.
Also 1.26v is stupid high for default voltage. Even at 1100mhz.


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## dj-electric (Oct 22, 2013)

It does have only 3 pipes, a rather weird but cost-effective choice for GB.
Power delivery system isn't half bad actually...


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## Pumper (Oct 22, 2013)

45 dB load? Does not sound right.


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## dj-electric (Oct 22, 2013)

IDK if u pun but even under 63-64C this card is LOUD, fan reach 75%. Unreasonable.


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## Casecutter (Oct 22, 2013)

This is again very bizarre... Again looking at the Gigabyte GTX770 it was 33dbA @ 76°C, here Gigabyte gives 45dbA @ 69°C?  Something is just strange with the way AIB's are releasing these R9 280X, it seems like all of the AIB have futzed with the fan profiles or the cheapen the fans (although similar in appearance), and other going ons’.   

Look at Windforce cooler on the GTX770 it has 6 H-P's, the R9 280X has only 3 H-P, but can run much cooler?  Sure they run the fans are much faster (if they are the same specs) but why?  Here's what's striking (again as was with the Asus twins) the Gigabyte GTX 770 is dissipating some 25% less watt's (peak) than the R9 280X, but runs hotter with 6 H-P's.  It's all a little strange the these AIB's aren't able to give at least something comparable in these situations. 

I think this Gigabyte cut to many corners to give use that price, would need to see the fan profile could be juggled to minimize noise while holding at 73-75°C which won't be an issue with a Tahiti.


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## W1zzard (Oct 22, 2013)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> Have it on hand. Gigabyte - i expect nothing less than a BIOS update that does justice with this card.



I went through 3 BIOSes from Gigabyte and the one I used seems to be the final one they are willing to release.



Casecutter said:


> I think this Gigabyte cut to many corners to give use that price, would need to see the fan profile could be juggled to minimize noise while holding at 73-75°C which won't be an issue with a Tahiti.



completely agree


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## Ahhzz (Oct 22, 2013)

Thx wiz


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## AlderaaN (Oct 22, 2013)

*Thank you very much, W1zzard for the review!*

Also, your time spent back and forth with GIGABYTE,
in order to try and get them to realize the importance of not only performance - but comfort (i.e: less operating noise when gaming) - is appreciated.

Alas, this time around GIGABYTE chose to stand on their back legs and keep the card's fan profile at a way too aggressive setting.



Spoiler



I used to own this GIGABYTE card and was very happy with both its performance and quietness.
I sold it less than a couple of weeks ago when I bought my new gaming rig (listed in my profile), in preparation for Battlefield 4.

When GIGABYTE first announced their R9 280X OC card, featuring the WINDFORCE 3X cooling solution I was super excited, since I've already seen benchmarks of other brands carrying the R9 280X. More so when its street price cropped.

Then, after seeing the first review that took note of what I think is a terrible fan aggression profile choice - doubt crept in.

I've also posted about this issue over at GIGABYTE's technical support forums (via TweakTown), but haven't received any satisfactory reply as of yet.

And though I currently have no reservations in using MSI Afterburner to control its fans if needed, I don't think my new gaming rig will hone the power of this card in CrossFire.


*TL DR*:
If it was quieter out-of-the-box it'll be a simple case of "Here GIGABYTE, take my money. I'll buy two of these right now".

Now instead of gaming, I'm just back to playing the waiting game either for a GTX 780, GTX 780 Ti, a Custom Cooled R9 290 or maybe even a different R9 280X brand that's been proven to be much, _much_ quieter in comparison to the GIGABYTE -- like the ASUS R9 280X DC II TOP.


Regards,


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## dj-electric (Oct 22, 2013)

Did some thermals.

at game load, the fan goes up to 74%, noise levels are horrible. 66C
Manually set to 45% fan we cut the noise to about a half, core peaks at 77C


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## mascotzel (Oct 22, 2013)

from the conclusion


> Native full-size HDMI and *DisplayPort*


I don't see it in the pictures.


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## Casecutter (Oct 22, 2013)

If they gave a stock bios 76°C (peak) gaming and 35dba it would be fine.  Then the second Bios setting 65% speed/noise wise, while 1215Mhz clock/1620Mhz memory to run in the more demanding titles even it it ment 78°C.  

The only wish I had was they could've used Hynix chips and not Elpida, we might have got a little more memory OC which might have been slightly helpful to just the 8.6% bump the high clock delivered.


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## SGOMEZTSWIFTYEAH (Oct 22, 2013)

Had this in my rig for like 5 days, the noise is horrible even with the test-bios. Card also overheats in sc2 without a manually set fps-limit (meaning it goes ape-shit and the fan goes crazy). I never even heard my gigabyte 670 gtx before in sc2. Same for every other game. And then I got this strange screen flashing in 2d (e.g. browsing etc) from time to time. I've read it's about changing clock speeds for power management. This is really a no-go, this card is going back tomorrow. This was my first and last journey into the AMD realm. =(


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## dj-electric (Oct 22, 2013)

Dude, you swapped a GTX 670 for a 280X? why?


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## buildzoid (Oct 23, 2013)

SGOMEZTSWIFTYEAH said:


> Had this in my rig for like 5 days, the noise is horrible even with the test-bios. Card also overheats in sc2 without a manually set fps-limit (meaning it goes ape-shit and the fan goes crazy). I never even heard my gigabyte 670 gtx before in sc2. Same for every other game. And then I got this strange screen flashing in 2d (e.g. browsing etc) from time to time. I've read it's about changing clock speeds for power management. This is really a no-go, this card is going back tomorrow. This was my first and last journey into the AMD realm. =(



Dude don't blame AMD for what is entirely gigabyte's fault. The only thing that isn't designed by gigabyte on the card is the core. Go sapphire for AMD because you're guaranteed a better than reference cooler and an AMD reference pcb(some of the best gpu pcb designs you can find) on atleast one model.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Oct 23, 2013)

buildzoid said:


> Dude don't blame AMD for what is entirely gigabyte's fault. The only thing that isn't designed by gigabyte on the card is the core. Go sapphire for AMD because you're guaranteed a better than reference cooler and an AMD reference pcb(some of the best gpu pcb designs you can find) on atleast one model.



If I buy Amd, I always buy reference cards if I can.


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## Steevo (Oct 23, 2013)

SGOMEZTSWIFTYEAH said:


> Had this in my rig for like 5 days, the noise is horrible even with the test-bios. Card also overheats in sc2 without a manually set fps-limit (meaning it goes ape-shit and the fan goes crazy). I never even heard my gigabyte 670 gtx before in sc2. Same for every other game. And then I got this strange screen flashing in 2d (e.g. browsing etc) from time to time. I've read it's about changing clock speeds for power management. This is really a no-go, this card is going back tomorrow. This was my first and last journey into the AMD realm. =(



Spam. One post wonder, and a horrible name indicating either a manboy or an attempt at trolling.





W1zz why still showing PCIe @ X16 1.1 on AMD cards?

All your new AMD reviews are showing this.


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## SGOMEZTSWIFTYEAH (Oct 23, 2013)

Steevo said:


> Spam. One post wonder, and a horrible name indicating either a manboy or an attempt at trolling.



Yeah, sure. LOL. But then: neither.


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## anubis44 (Oct 23, 2013)

I must say I'm rather mystified by the supposed noisiness of this card. 

I have a Gigabyte Windforce 7950 card running a 7970 Windforce bios (1000MHz core - 1475 memory) and it is utterly silent in any game I play. I fail to understand how it's possible that this R9 280X could be anything else, unless it is being tested inside a toaster-sized enclosure with no air circulation. Of course, I'm running with a CoolerMaster Storm Trooper with pretty decent case cooling, but if I didn't know and trust W1zzard's reviews, I'd think their was some kind of anti-AMD nonsense going on here. 

As for how someone could go with an R9 280X over a GTX670, well, I went with a 7950 over a GTX670 because, after a month of wrestling with a driver flaw in several nVidia drivers on my 3 monitor setup, I couldn't take the crap anymore and got a 7950 instead and saved almost $100. It was marginally slower in a couple of games, but then again, it beats the GTX670 quite handily in my favourite game right now, COH2, and with the extra 1GB of video memory (3GB vs. 2GB) on the 7950, the GTX670 is already obsolete, so I'm even more glad I did the swap.


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## W1zzard (Oct 23, 2013)

I tested the card like I have tested every other card before. It's simply a case of "we want to impress Asian customers with low temperatures". I even heard some people there think noisy=good, because it means powerful


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## AlderaaN (Oct 23, 2013)

W1zzard said:


> I even heard some people there think noisy=good, because it means powerful








It was a loosing battle straight out of the gate then.


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## buildzoid (Oct 23, 2013)

I'm for really cool running cards(the Vapor-x isn't very quite when on a test bench) but when it sounds like a jet it's a problem even for me.


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## anubis44 (Oct 24, 2013)

W1zzard said:


> I tested the card like I have tested every other card before. It's simply a case of "we want to impress Asian customers with low temperatures". I even heard some people there think noisy=good, because it means powerful



Wow. OK, I see what you're up against, W1zzard!

One humble suggestion, however, just so an otherwise great product isn't unfairly knocked down. Could you possibly consider, as like an epilogue section, your view on the best bios to use (at the person's own risk, of course!) on any cards with a dual bios switch? That would really do your readers a great service, turning them on to cards that are hidden gems, and would set your reviews event more apart from other hardware review sites.


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## AlderaaN (Oct 24, 2013)

*A question please, W1zzard*:

Could you take a look into this reply and share from your experience if that's a BIOS file you've also tried?

If so, any ideas why that person isn't able to update his BIOS (maybe the BIOS switch is in the wrong position) ?


Regards,


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## NeoXF (Oct 24, 2013)

Boo! to the crappy VRAMs they used... :\

Also, BOO! again for the stupid blue colored PCB... I mean, really? WHY!? R9 270X Windforce OC has a black PCB and the blocky-looking version of WF... and it looks PHENOMENAL... and is also a 50% cheaper card...


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## Jaxinc (Nov 26, 2013)

Casecutter said:


> This is again very bizarre... Again looking at the Gigabyte GTX770 it was 33dbA @ 76°C, here Gigabyte gives 45dbA @ 69°C?  Something is just strange with the way AIB's are releasing these R9 280X, it seems like all of the AIB have futzed with the fan profiles or the cheapen the fans (although similar in appearance), and other going ons’.
> 
> Look at Windforce cooler on the GTX770 it has 6 H-P's, the R9 280X has only 3 H-P, but can run much cooler?  Sure they run the fans are much faster (if they are the same specs) but why?  Here's what's striking (again as was with the Asus twins) the Gigabyte GTX 770 is dissipating some 25% less watt's (peak) than the R9 280X, but runs hotter with 6 H-P's.  It's all a little strange the these AIB's aren't able to give at least something comparable in these situations.
> 
> I think this Gigabyte cut to many corners to give use that price, would need to see the fan profile could be juggled to minimize noise while holding at 73-75°C which won't be an issue with a Tahiti.


Gonna have to agree with this post... something was cut to make the price. I have a 7970Ghz and the fans are barely audible over the case fans when gaming, and even at full load it's not that bad... I can't even push this card to 70C at all and the R9 is based off the 7970 Ghz??

I also noticed that in /some/ of the FPS tests the 7970 Ghz came nearly identical to the R9 in performance.

I seriously had to register to comment on this...



> I tested the card like I have tested every other card before. It's simply a case of "we want to impress Asian customers with low temperatures". I even heard some people there think noisy=good, because it means powerful


This almost implies that Gigabyte swapped out the fans used on the 7970 Ghz for *louder* fans, at least this is how I take that remark...


> I have a Gigabyte Windforce 7950 card running a 7970 Windforce bios (1000MHz core - 1475 memory) and it is utterly silent in any game I play. I fail to understand how it's possible that this R9 280X could be anything else


Same? Only thing that makes sense to me is they changed the fans, or the blade design to make more noise? For the 'Asian' market?


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## Jaxinc (Dec 31, 2013)

Update to this.

After some digging I found that Gigabyte has been putting the Version 1 cooler from the 7950-7970 on the new R9 which is the reason for the louder fans and higher temperatures. If you took them off a 280 and compared them to an older 7950 they would be identical outside of the card itself, and since the 280 is a Tahiti chip still the cooler is compatible... So the 280s are not, or were not, using the newer generation cooler used on the 7970Ghz for whatever reason, again Asian market?

Anyway... for those wondering about the increased noise level and temperature differences....


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## dj-electric (Dec 31, 2013)

Rev 2 owner here. Card did improve on acoustics.


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