AMD's new Radeon R9 280X Series is based on the AMD HD 7970 GHz design, so there is really nothing new overall, yet the card will definitely end up being a good choice for gamers because of its competitive price. Gigabyte's R9 280X WindForce OC comes overclocked out of the box. With a 100 MHz GPU overclock that translates into a 5% real-life performance improvement over the reference design, it is slightly (2%) faster than NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 770. It would have been nice to at least see a small overclock on the memory chips, too, but Gigabyte chose not to do so.
GPU overclocking works well and reaches levels typical for the Tahiti silicon. Overclocking the Elpida-made memory chips doesn't work so well, though, and ends up much lower than what we're used to seeing on typical Radeon HD 7970s or its GHz Edition variants. Using chips from SK Hynix or Samsung, they generally overclocked much better.
Power consumption is surprisingly high, higher than the already high numbers we were expecting from the R9 280X. Clocks and voltage levels in non-gaming states are the same as with other cards, yet power draw is higher. So, my best guess is that the different voltage regulation circuitry somehow affects these results.
We've seen Gigabyte's WindForce 3X cooler on previous cards, and it generally works quite well. However, it has to work extra hard to cope with the R9 280X's massive heat output under load, which obviously results in lots of fan noise. Gigabyte has also chosen very aggressive fan settings that deliver load temperatures of just 70°C, but also massive noise levels. Keep in mind that these results are already with a "quieter" BIOS sent to me by Gigabyte. Their explanation is that Asian customers prefer low temperatures and don't care about noise levels, yet 75°C would still be low enough in my opinion, while providing much better acoustics for the rest of the world.
The Gigabyte R9 280X WindForce OC is available online for just $299. Matching reference design pricing, there is no price premium for the new cooler and overclock out of the box. Very nice! This makes the card an excellent choice for users who want to the best bang for their buck. This card has the potential to be a better buy than GeForce GTX 770 if you can live with the fan noise since it is a bit faster and significantly cheaper. If you have $300 and want better power/heat/noise, NVIDIA's GTX 670 is a good alternative, but it is 12% slower.