Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon R9 280X OC Edition Review
Category : AMD
Published by Hiwa Pouri on 29.07.14
The Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon R9 280X OC Edition is a completely redesigned Radeon R9 280X graphics card, which has almost nothing in common with the reference design. In fact there is a new PCB as well as Sapphires powerful Vapor-X cooler. This combination, paired with a factory overclock sounds promising and we're hoping for a seriously quick R9 280X here.
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Presentation
These days we're having quite a good run reviewing a few Sapphire Radeon cards. The R9 280X
Vapor-X features a Triple fan custom cooler named Tri-X and in case
of the PCB there is also a custom design from Sapphire. With it's black and
blue color scheme this
card looks just about perfect and luckily
the manufacturer also decided to overclock the GPU to over 1100MHz.
Since it is the Vapor-X version of the Sapphire Radeon R9 280X series, the card features a decent factory overclock of 100 MHz on the GPU. While the reference Radeon R9 280X GPU is set to work at 1000 MHz in the case of the base clock, the Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X OC Edition works at 1000 MHz for the base clock and 1'100 MHz for the turbo clock.
Unfortunately, no factory overclocking was done on the 3GB of GDDR5 memory that remains at the recommended 1'500 MHz (6'000 MHz effective).
During our testing the Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X OC Edition held 1'100 MHz while being under typical gaming loads. We have only experienced downclocking under FurMark where the GPU clock was going up and down from 1'080 MHz to 1'100 MHz. We didn't notice any throttling while gaming. The Tri-X triple fan cooler, which makes use of a vapor chamber has been capable of keeping load temparatures below 76°C even after running Furmark for 30 minutes.
Specifications
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | R9 280X TurboDuo OC | R9 280X DC II Top | Radeon R9 280X | |
| Chip | Tahiti XT2/L | Tahiti XT2/L | Tahiti XT2/L | Tahiti XT2/L |
| Process | 28 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Transistors | 4.31 billion | 4.31 billion | 4.31 billion | 4.31 billion |
| GPU clock | 1'000 MHz | 880 MHz | 1'070 MHz | 850 MHz |
| GPU Boost clock | 1'100 MHz | 1'030 MHz | N/A | 1'000 MHz |
| Memory GDDR5 | 3'072 MB | 3'072 MB | 3'072 MB | 3'072 MB |
| Memory clock | 1'500 (6'000) MHz | 1'500 (6'000) MHz | 1'600 (6'400) MHz | 1'500 (6'000) MHz |
| Memory interface | 384 Bit | 384 Bit | 384 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 288.0 GB/s | 288.0 GB/s | 307.2 GB/s | 288 GB/s |
| Shader Cores | 2'048 | 2'048 | 2'048 | 2'048 |
| TMUs | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| ROPs | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 |
| PCB Type | Custom Design | Reference Design | Custom Design | Reference Design |
| Slots | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Cooler | TRI-X | TurboDuo | DirectCU II | AMD Reference |
The card
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As noted earlier, the Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X OC Edition graphics card features Sapphires quite famous Tri-X cooler with a total of five heatpipes, three 8mm and two 6mm ones. Vapor chamber is a technology Sapphire's using since 2009 on their high-end products and lately the company decided to combine it with a great number of heatpipes. This mix allows not only for low GPU but also for very low temperatures on the voltage regulation modules as well as on the memory. In order to move heat away from the large fin stack, there is the so called Tri-X fan array, which consists of three fans, each measuring 100 millimeter in diameter. The Tri-X cooler is definitely one of the most sophisticated models available and we would wish a similar cooler was available as an upgrade compatible with reference cards. As part of the Vapor-X series, the Tri-X R9 280X OC Edition uses black on blue color scheme and the overall build quality of the cooler is very good. Having a closer look at the top edge of the card we find the Vapor-X writing which acts as a load indicator. Depending on the load the backlight changes color.
The Sapphire Vapor-X 280X OC Edition graphics card, or to be precise our sample of it, allowed a maximum stable overclock of 1'180 MHz for the GPU and 1'750 MHz on the memory side. We used Furemark V1.11.0 Geeks3D benchmark with 15 minutes duration. With these clocks we had to feed the GPU with 1.20 Volts and the memory ran at stock voltages. Sapphire is locking the BIOS to 1.20 volts maximum. We would like some more headroom with this card, since the powerdesign could cope with higher loads easily and the card could also be overclocked quite a bit higher.
For its Vapor-X R9 280X OC Edition, Sapphire makes use of an entire custom design PCB. The PCB color is black and features an improved power design. There is a total of 7+2+1 (GPU, Memory and PLL, PCIe) phases for the Vapor-X card versus 5+2+1 for the reference 280X card. GPU, memory and VRM are all cooled using the vapor chamber.
Checking the voltage regulation chip we find a digital multi-phase controller IORL 3567B from International Rectifier that is taking care of both GPU and memory paired with IOR 3553M mosfets.
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The memory chips used are made by SKhynix and carry the model number H5GQ2H24AFR. They are specified to run at 1'500 MHz (6'000 MHz effective).
Photo Gallery
Delivery
Bundled with the graphics card there is a software CD, an installation manual, a soft CrossFire bridge, a mini DP to DP adapter, 1m HDMI cable, a power adapter 6-pin to 8-pin as well as a another power adaptor from 2 x Molex to 8-pin. The bundle is well furnished compared to what we are used to see.
Test Setup
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3DMark - Fire Strike Performance
| Graphics Cards | Score | Graphics Score |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 11'024 | 13'020 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 10'455 | 12'225 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 9'690 | 11'452 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 9'400 | 10'988 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 9'115 | 10'399 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 8'970 | 10'185 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 8'948 | 10'133 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 8'639 | 10'883 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 8'396 | 9'420 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 7'877 | 8'734 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 7'640 | 8'689 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 7'294 | 8'146 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 7'091 | 7'922 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 7'093 | 7'837 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 6'679 | 7'408 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 6'578 | 7'215 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 6'350 | 7'207 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 6'402 | 7'102 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 5'915 | 6'473 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 5'801 | 6'338 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 5'624 | 6'099 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 5'318 | 5'784 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 5'243 | 5'645 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 5'059 | 5'483 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 5'009 | 5'436 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 4'885 | 5'270 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 4'545 | 4'975 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 4'415 | 4'707 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 4'319 | 4'648 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 4'176 | 4'460 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 3'762 | 3'962 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 3'742 | 3'880 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 3'546 | 3'823 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 3'338 | 3'446 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 3'232 | 3'299 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 3'031 | 3'182 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 2'991 | 3'096 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 2'710 | 2'751 |
| More is better | ||
3DMark - Fire Strike Extreme
| Graphics Cards | Score | Graphics Score |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 5'668 | 6'028 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 5'340 | 5'641 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 5'011 | 5'336 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 4'823 | 5'101 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 4'658 | 4'854 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 4'550 | 4'747 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 4'462 | 4'734 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 4'406 | 4'562 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 4'271 | 4'420 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 4'007 | 4'121 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 3'785 | 3'928 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 3'634 | 3'757 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 3'568 | 3'720 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 3'564 | 3'668 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 3'319 | 3'448 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 3'185 | 3'274 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 3'291 | 3'383 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 2'961 | 3'037 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 3'176 | 3'286 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 2'904 | 2'970 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 2'805 | 2'872 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 2'657 | 2'739 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 2'610 | 2'655 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 2'503 | 2'562 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 2'484 | 2'560 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 2'378 | 2'440 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 2'213 | 2'350 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 2'180 | 2'204 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 2'178 | 2'202 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 2'044 | 2'073 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 1'842 | 1'848 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 1'784 | 1'760 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 1'585 | 1'555 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 1'456 | 1'437 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 1'101 | 1'025 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 1'005 | 1'005 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 942 | 983 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 959 | 878 |
| More is better | ||
Unigine Heaven 4.0 Extreme Preset
| Graphics Cards | Score | fps |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 2'181 | 86.6 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 2'040 | 81.0 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 2'046 | 81.2 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 1'805 | 71.6 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 1'756 | 69.7 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 1'754 | 68.9 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 1'744 | 69.2 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 1'603 | 63.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 1'594 | 63.3 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 1'537 | 61.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 1'261 | 50.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 1'204 | 47.8 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 1'204 | 47.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 1'156 | 45.9 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 1'137 | 45.1 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 1'135 | 45.0 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 1'113 | 44.2 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 1'058 | 42.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 1'034 | 41.1 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 1'028 | 40.8 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 1'004 | 39.9 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 951 | 37.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 915 | 36.3 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 886 | 35.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 866 | 34.4 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 832 | 33.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 826 | 32.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 801 | 31.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 705 | 28.0 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 702 | 27.9 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 684 | 27.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 620 | 24.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 568 | 22.5 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 556 | 22.1 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 510 | 20.3 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 498 | 19.8 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 478 | 19.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 403 | 16.0 |
| More is better | ||
BattleField 3
| High Preset, 1920x1080, 4xMSAA, Ultra, SSAO | Average FPS |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 120.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 118.9 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 101.0 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 100.9 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 99.4 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 99.0 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 96.9 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 96.4 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 94.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 90.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 78.4 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 78.0 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 77.0 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 76.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 76.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 72.8 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 71.2 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 70.0 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 67.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 66.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 65.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 62.0 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 58.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 55.8 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 55.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 54.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 50.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 48.6 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 44.7 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 44.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 44.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 36.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 35.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 33.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 32.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 32.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 29.8 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 26.6 |
| More is better |
Bioshock Infinite - Benchmark
| Ultra Preset, 1920x1080, AA, no DDOF | Average FPS |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 122.41 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 122.16 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 103.53 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 103.24 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 102.86 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 102.00 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 102.20 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 100.03 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 95.55 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 90.78 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 79.25 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 78.98 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 78.01 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 76.80 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 75.68 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 75.44 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 73.88 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 73.48 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 71.54 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 70.13 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 67.87 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 62.41 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 60.36 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 54.79 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 52.91 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 52.89 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 51.11 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 51.04 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 50.55 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 45.77 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 43.20 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 43.13 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 39.28 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 38.13 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 34.89 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 34.65 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 33.69 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 32.42 |
| More is better |
Crysis 3
| High Preset, 1920x1080, 8xMSAA, Very High | Average FPS |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 41.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 41.2 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 34.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 33.9 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 33.8 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 33.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 31.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 30.2 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 28.0 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 27.3 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 26.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 25.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 24.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 24.0 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 23.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 22.2 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 21.6 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 20.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 20.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 19.8 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 19.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 18.8 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 18.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 17.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 16.8 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 16.7 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 15.0 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 15.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 14.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 14.2 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 14.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 12.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 11.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 10.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 8.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 8.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 8.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 7.6 |
| More is better |
Call of Duty Black Ops 2
| High Preset, 1920x1080, 8xMSAA, High | Average FPS |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 176.2 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 172.1 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 146.3 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 146.0 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 141.8 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 138.7 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 137.2 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 134.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 130.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 127.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 121.0 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 116.1 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 109.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 105.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 103.6 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 103.0 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 102.8 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 101.0 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 99.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 95.8 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 93.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 86.0 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 84.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 81.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 81.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 79.2 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 79.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 72.0 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 69.9 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 69.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 68.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 64.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 62.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 62.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 58.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 54.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 48.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 46.4 |
| More is better |
DIRT Showdown - Benchmark
| High Preset, 1920x1080, 8xMSAA, Ultra | Average FPS |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 119.36 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 119.29 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 108.86 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 107.93 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 98.04 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 94.90 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 94.74 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 89.13 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 87.97 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 87.64 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 82.36 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 81.65 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 80.30 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 79.22 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 76.46 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 71.63 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 68.79 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 67.04 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 64.63 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 62.99 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 62.53 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 60.25 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 58.98 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 58.50 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 54.27 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 52.48 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 50.61 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 48.92 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 45.35 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 44.20 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 44.19 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 43.28 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 38.94 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 38.02 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 36.48 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 30.35 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 30.05 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 29.13 |
| More is better |
Far Cry 3
| High Preset, 1920x1080, 8xMSAA, Ultra | Average FPS |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 65.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 62.8 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 54.9 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 53.3 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 53.2 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 52.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 52.1 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 50.2 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 49.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 47.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 39.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 38.2 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 37.5 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 35.6 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 34.8 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 33.3 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 32.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 31.0 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 30.9 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 30.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 29.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 27.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 27.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 24.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 24.6 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 23.8 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 22.4 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 22.0 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 21.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 21.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 20.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 18.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 17.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 15.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 15.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 13.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 13.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 10.6 |
| More is better |
Sleeping Dogs - Benchmark
| High Preset, 1920x1080, Extreme, High-Res Textures | Average FPS |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 80.9 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 76.0 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 72.4 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 69.9 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 69.8 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 66.3 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 63.8 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 61.5 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 62.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 58.7 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 56.6 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 56.4 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 52.1 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 51.7 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 51.7 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 50.7 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 48.7 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 47.0 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 44.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 42.7 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 42.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 38.7 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 38.7 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 36.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 35.1 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 34.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 33.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 32.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 30.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 27.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 27.3 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 26.3 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 26.2 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 25.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 22.9 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 22.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 22.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 19.9 |
| More is better |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
| High Preset, 1920x1080, 8xAA, Ultra | Average FPS |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 136.5 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 136.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 135.0 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 134.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 135.0 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 133.3 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 133.2 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 132.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 127.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 126.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 110.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 109.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 109.0 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 107.0 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 106.9 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 106.4 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 106.0 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 99.5 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 98.6 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 96.7 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 96.4 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 90.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 87.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 85.2 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 84.8 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 82.8 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 81.4 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 73.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 71.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 64.0 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 63.2 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 59.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 58.4 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 56.6 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 56.2 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 52.0 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 48.6 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 47.2 |
| More is better |
Metro: Last Light - Benchmark
| Very High, 1920x1080, SSAA, DX11 | Average FPS |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 55.19 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 54.83 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 48.14 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 46.58 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 45.19 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 44.49 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 43.39 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 42.94 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 39.94 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 38.18 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 36.15 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 33.97 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 33.78 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 33.41 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 32.53 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 30.98 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 30.56 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 28.30 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 27.65 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 27.30 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 27.28 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 25.09 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 23.97 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 23.46 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 23.25 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 21.93 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 21.58 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 20.84 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 19.76 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 18.09 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 17.83 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 17.05 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 15.22 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 14.94 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 13.83 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 13.33 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 12.37 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 11.11 |
| More is better |
Grand Theft Auto V
Power Consumption
| Power Consumption Idle* | Watts |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 92 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 (Ref) | 80 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 (Ref) | 69 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 68 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 67 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 65 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (ASUS P.) | 60 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 59 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 (Ref) | 57 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 (Ref) | 57 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 57 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 (Ref) | 56 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 (Ref) | 54 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 (ASUS DC2OC) | 54 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti (ASUS DC2T) | 54 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 (Ref) | 53 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 (ASUS DC2OC) | 53 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 (ASUS DC2OC) | 53 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 52 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (ASUS DC2T) | 52 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 (Ref) | 51 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 (ASUS DC2T) | 50 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 49 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 48 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 48 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti (GBT GHz) | 48 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 (ASUS DC2T V2) | 48 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X (ASUS DC2T) | 48 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X (ASUS DC2T) | 48 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 (XFX DD - Ref PCB) | 47 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN (Ref) | 47 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti (ASUS DC2T) | 45 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 (ASUS DC2T) | 45 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 (ASUS DC2OC - Ref PCB) | 45 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 (ASUS DC2OC) | 45 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost (Ref) | 43 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 39 |
| *Entire system | Less is better |
| Power Consumption Load (FurMark)* | Watts |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 (Ref) | 481 |
| PowerColor LCS R9 290X | 425 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 401 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 383 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 380 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 361 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (ASUS P.) | 360 |
| MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 358 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti (GBT GHz) | 333 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 (XFX DD - Ref PCB) | 323 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 OC Edition | 321 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X (ASUS DC2T) | 320 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN (Ref) | 306 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 (ASUS DC2OC) | 297 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 294 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 (Ref) | 258 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 (ASUS DC2OC) | 257 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 255 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 (Ref) | 254 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 (Ref) | 244 |
| MSI GTX 760 Gaming MINI-ITX | 241 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 (Ref) | 232 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (ASUS DC2T) | 227 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X (ASUS DC2T) | 223 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 (ASUS DC2T V2) | 220 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 (ASUS DC2OC) | 218 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 (Ref) | 208 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 (Ref) | 200 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 (ASUS DC2T) | 195 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 (ASUS DC2OC) | 194 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 (Ref) | 193 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti (ASUS DC2T) | 178 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 (ASUS DC2T) | 177 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost (Ref) | 169 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 (ASUS DC2OC - Ref PCB) | 152 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti (ASUS DC2T) | 151 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 130 |
| *Entire system | Less is better |
Temperatures / Noise levels
Fan Speed
| Auto | Auto | 50% | 70% | 100% |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 1'050 | 1'500 | 2'100 | 2'970 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 1'129 | 1'493 | 2'078 | 3'023 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 1'040 | 1'910 | 2'650 | 3'770 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 0 | 1'450 | 2'350 | 3'150 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 980 | 1'490 | 2'080 | 3'000 |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Platinum | 1'100 | 2'180 | 2'780 | 3'000 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 1'020 | 1'860 | 2'620 | 3'000 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Platinum | 1'050 | 2'090 | 2'900 | 3'200 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II | 1'050 | 1'930 | 2'680 | 3'040 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 1'035 | 1'875 | 2'630 | 3'000 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 1'566 | 2'290 | 3'000 | 3'550 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 780 | 2'180 | 3'100 | 4'380 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 780 | 2'180 | 3'100 | 4'380 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 1'040 | 1'450 | 2'000 | 2'900 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 1'035 | 2'045 | 2'470 | 3'040 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 280X TurboDuo OC | 995 | 2'000 | 2'740 | 3'520 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS |
Watercooled |
|||
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 1'388 | 2'510 | 3'390 | 3'960 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 1'250 | 2'060 | n/A | 4'240 |
| More is better | ||||
Noise Level
| Auto | Auto | 50% | 70% | 100% |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 32.7 | 37.0 | 42.8 | 53.2 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 33.2 | 37.1 | 43.0 | 51.4 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 32.0 | 36.6 | 42.7 | 51.2 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 0.0 (2D) | 37.6 | 46.6 | 53.5 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 32.8 | 37.2 | 43.0 | 53.4 |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Platinum | 34.1 | 40.7 | 49.4 | 51.9 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 33.4 | 36.3 | 50.5 | 54.0 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Platinum | 33.5 | 37.1 | 43.3 | 49.5 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II | 33.0 | 41.8 | 49.5 | 52.5 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 33.0 | 41.2 | 49.6 | 52.7 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 32.0 | |||
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 32.0 | 37.1 | 44.4 | 52.3 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 32.0 | 37.1 | 44.4 | 52.3 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 32.0 | 34.3 | 40.2 | 50.0 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 32.0 | 36.6 | 44.0 | 49.0 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 280X TurboDuo OC | 32.3 | 34.0 | 43.3 | 49.5 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS |
Watercooled |
|||
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 33.5 | 41.5 | 44.8 | 49.9 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 33.2 | 39.8 | n/A | 56.2 |
| More is better | ||||
For the noise level results, we measured the noise level using a decibel meter (Voltcraft SL-200) located at 1 meter away from the graphics card.
Idle Temperature
| Temperature | Auto | 50% | 70% | 100% |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 34 | 34 | 33 | 29 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 30 | 29 | 28 | 28 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 32 | 31 | 30 | 29 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 53 | 40 | 38 | 32 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 37 | 37 | 36 | 34 |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Platinum | 28 | 28 | 28 | 27 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 30 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Platinum | 30 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II | 36 | 35 | 34 | 34 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 37 | 36 | 35 | 34 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 25 | 25 | 24 | 24 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 29 | 27 | 26 | 26 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 28 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 27 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 32 | 31 | 30 | 29 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 280X TurboDuo OC | 32 | 32 | 31 | 30 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS |
29 |
|||
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 36 | 32 | 33 | 31 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 32 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
| More is better | ||||
Idle, temperature is taken after 15 minutes @ lowest, 40 %, 50 %, 70 % and 100 % fan speed.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature under Furmark
| Temperature | Auto | 50% | 70% | 100% |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 73 | 73 | 73 | 72 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 83 | 71 | 63 | 56 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 77 | 77 | 72 | 68 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 90 | 81 | 72 | 62 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 70 | 66 | 59 | 54 |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Platinum | 76 | 70 | 69 | 69 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 90 | 71 | 64 | 63 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Platinum | 77 | 73 | 71 | 70 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II | 89 | 90 | 85 | 81 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 88 | 85 | 82 | 78 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 52 | 49 | 47 | 44 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 90 | 80 | 73 | 58 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 90 | 83 | 75 | 63 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 73 | 71 | 63 | 56 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 80 | 77 | 72 | 69 |
| PowerColor R9 290X LCS |
46 |
|||
| PowerColor R9 280X TurboDuo OC | n/A | n/A | 74 | 68 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 76 | 75 | 69 | 66 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 90 | 83 | 76 | 68 |
| More is better | ||||
For FurMark, temperature is taken after 15 minutes of GPU Burn test at lowest, 40 %, 50 %, 70 % and 100 % fan speed.
We stopped the test when the GPU temperature hit 90°C.
Room Temperature: 25°C
Temperature and fan speed under BattleField 3
| Auto | Temperature |
| PowerColor R9 290X LCS (watercooled) | 39 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750Ti Black Edition | 40 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition | 60 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 62 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 62 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 62 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 66 |
| ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Platinum | 66 |
| MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 780 | 66 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 GHz Edition | 67 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X Platinum | 68 |
| ASUS GeForceGTX 780 DirectCU II OC | 69 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II Top | 69 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 OC V2 | 70 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Poseidon Platinum | 71 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 72 |
| PowerColor R9 280X TurboDuo OC | 73 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II | 79 |
| NVIDIA Reference | 79 |
| More is better |
For BattleField 3, temperature and fan speed values taken are the highest achieved after 1 hour gaming @ auto fan speed.
Performance/Watt
| Graphics Cards | Performance Index | Power C. (Watts)* | Performance/Watt*10 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti (ASUS DC2T) | 53.55 | 178 | 3.01 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 38.37 | 130 | 2.97 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 84.22 | 294 | 2.86 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN (Ref) | 85.05 | 306 | 2.78 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 (ASUS DC2OC) | 70.92 | 257 | 2.76 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 104.63 | 383 | 2.73 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (ASUS DC2T) | 62.00 | 227 | 2.73 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti (GBT GHz) | 90.53 | 333 | 2.72 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 (ASUS DC2OC) | 81.66 | 302 | 2.70 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 (ASUS DC2T) | 47.37 | 177 | 2.68 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 (Ref) | 68.36 | 258 | 2.65 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 (ASUS DC2OC) | 56.63 | 218 | 2.60 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 (ASUS DC2OC) | 50.00 | 195 | 2.56 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | 100.42 | 380 | 2.51 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 59.92 | 255 | 2.49 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost (Ref) | 40.87 | 169 | 2.42 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X (ASUS DC2T) | 53.85 | 230 | 2.34 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 (ASUS DC2T V2) | 50.53 | 219 | 2.31 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 (ASUS DC2T) | 42.39 | 190 | 2.23 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 (ASUS DC2OC - Ref PCB) | 33.44 | 151 | 2.21 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | 88.15 | 401 | 2.20 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS | 91.19 | 420 | 2.17 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (ASUS P.) | 70.75 | 325 | 2.18 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X (ASUS DC2T) | 68.85 | 321 | 2.14 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti (ASUS DC2T) | 30.80 | 151 | 2.04 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 (Ref) | 50.49 | 254 | 1.99 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 (XFX DD - Ref PCB) | 64.27 | 329 | 1.95 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 68.26 | 361 | 1.89 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 (Ref) | 36.83 | 208 | 1.77 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 (Ref) | 41.19 | 252 | 1.63 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 (Ref) | 31.88 | 200 | 1.59 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 (Ref) | 30.05 | 193 | 1.56 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 (Ref) | 35.98 | 232 | 1.55 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 (Ref) | 73.44 | 500 | 1.47 |
| *Entire system | More is better | Less is better | More is better |
The "Performance Index" value is calculated as the sum of all benchmarks results divided by the amount of games (3DMark and Unigine are not included into the calculation).
Performance/Price
| Graphics Cards | Performance Index | Price (€)* | Performance/€*10 |
| ASUS Radeon R9 290X Matrix Platinum | n/A | n/A | n/A |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 Ti Matrix Platinum | n/A | n/A | n/A |
| AMD Radeon HD 7790 | 33.44 | 91 | 3.67 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7870 | 50.53 | 143 | 3.53 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270 | 50.00 | 144 | 3.47 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7850 | 42.39 | 124 | 3.42 |
| AMD Radeon R9 270X | 53.85 | 159 | 3.39 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost | 40.87 | 121 | 3.38 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 | 47.37 | 144 | 3.29 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti | 30.80 | 100 | 3.08 |
| AMD Radeon R9 280X | 68.85 | 241 | 2.86 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 | 56.63 | 199 | 2.85 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti | 53.55 | 193 | 2.77 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti Black Edition | 38.37 | 140 | 2.74 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 | 64.27 | 232 | 2.77 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 670 | 62.00 | 228 | 2.72 |
| AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition | 70.75 | 260 | 2.72 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 770 | 70.92 | 266 | 2.67 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 580 | 50.49 | 190 | 2.66 |
| Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X TRI-X OC Boost | 68.26 | 266 | 2.56 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6870 | 31.88 | 126 | 2.53 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 680 | 68.36 | 291 | 2.35 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 760 Striker Platinum | 59.92 | 288 | 2.08 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 | 81.66 | 415 | 1.97 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6950 | 36.83 | 205 | 1.80 |
| PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS | 91.19 | 577 | 1.58 |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition | 84.22 | 532 | 1.58 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti | 90.53 | 582 | 1.56 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6970 | 41.19 | 310 | 1.33 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5850 | 30.05 | 260 | 1.16 |
| AMD Radeon HD 5870 | 35.98 | 335 | 1.07 |
| AMD Radeon HD 6990 | 73.44 | 708 | 1.04 |
| nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN | 85.05 | 832 | 1.02 |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti GHz | 104.63 | 613 | N/A |
| * 06/01/2014 | More is better | Less is better | More is better |
For the price we took the lowest price available on geizhals.eu.
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| With the Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X OC Edition,
Sapphire is offering a R9 280X based on a custom PCB paired up
with their own new cooling solution Tri-X with Vapor-X technology. Overall, the
Sapphire Vapor-X R9
280X OC Edition did very good
in our testing, performance is the way we expected it to be, cooling performance
is
great, since thanks to the Tri-X cooler the card is silent and we like
the design. In the case of the Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X OC version the GPU is overclocked by 100MHz compared to the reference design from AMD and it's pity there is no memory overclocking. This card we could easily have plus 50 or even 100MHz on Hynix chips used in combination with the powerful Vapor-X cooler. |
- Performance
- Cooling performance - Design - Bundle |
||
| Cooling / Noise Level | + | - | |
| The Vapor-X is one of the most sophisticated coolers we've come across. Sapphire is using a vapor chamber to establish contact with GPU, memory as well as power design. On top of the vapor chamber there are five heatpipes conducting heat from the GPU towards the fin stack and the from there, heat is dissipated by three 100 millimeter fans. This approach makes for excellent temperatures in idle as well as under load conditions. There is only one thing we would like to see improved/changed: the fan profile. Unfortunately this card is not as silent as it could be. We would love to see Sapphire providing another fan profile, which makes the card inaudible under idle conditions. Since there is plenty of headroom available in terms of cooling capacity, this should definitely be possible. | - Cooling performance | ||
| Performance | + | - | |
| Overall the 3D performance is good but as said
previously, we would like Sapphire to push the factory clocks on the
memory side further
in order to improve performance of this card by even more. Nevertheless
this is complaining on a very high level since on the GPU there already
is a factor OC of 100 MHz compared to the reference design. Overall this
card is capable of competing with a reference NVIDIA GTX 770. Idle power consumption of the Vapor-X R9 280X OC Edition card is rather high, since we measured 65 Watts on the wall, which is a whopping 21 Watts more than what we've seen on other Radeon R9 280X cards lately. Also load power consumption is high with 361 Watts. This is between 41 Watts more than other models. |
- Performance | - Power consumption | |
| Recommendation / Price | + | - | |
| If we look-up prices on Geizhals.at we find that the Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X OC Edition goes for 268 Euro. These days the cheapest R9 280X graphics cards are available for roughly 227 Euro, which means that the Vapor-X cooler and custom PCB account for an additional 41 Euro, which, in our opinion, is fair, especially since the Vapor-X is a highly capable cooler. Apart from that we would have loved to see lower power consumption, but still, if you're looking for on of the fastest Radeon R9 280X graphics cards available then you won't do anything wrong going for this particular card. |
- Enthusiast - Gaming |
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| We give the Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon R9 280X OC Edition very good 4.5 out of 5 stars. | |||
