The Card

Sapphire's card uses a large plastic cooler with purple highlights and an edgy design. The cooler seems to be identical to those on previous Sapphire R9 280X models, just with a different color highlight. Dimensions of the card are 26.5 cm x 12.0 cm.


Installation requires two slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include two DVI ports, one HDMI port, and one DisplayPort. You may use all outputs at the same time, so triple-monitor-surround gaming is possible with one card. Unlike previous generation cards, the Tonga GPU now has three TMDS outputs for a triple-monitor EyeFinity setup with HDMI/DVI monitors without an active DisplayPort adapter.

The GPU also includes an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible, which includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support.


A physical CrossFire connector is not present as all Tonga-based GPUs send their CrossFire data via the PCI-Express bus.


Pictured above are the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back).