Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X OC and R9 290 Vapor-X OC review

Sapphire recently ditched their hot 3D rendered ladies, focusing now on futuristic robots. Silicon injected babes or man eating robots? We like both.

The bundle includes a quality HDMI cable, some literature, power converter cables and a software disc. We do always recommend you check AMD's website for the latest drivers.

Sapphire have built the R9 280X Vapor-X OC around an eye catching black PCB. The triple fan cooler is encased in a metal surround with lovely blue accenting along the middle, like a sports car stripe. The three 90mm fans use aerofoil blades to increase airflow while reducing noise. Each of these fans ship with two sets of dust repelling ball bearings.

Eagle eyed readers will notice that the hefty cooler actually overhangs the PCB at little, exposing thick heatpipes.

Some hardware is very dull to look at, but we consider a good graphics card the supermodel of the technology world – and the Sapphire card certainly is a looker. The ‘Vapor X' on the side of the cooler glows when the card is active.

The Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X OC takes power from two eight pin power connectors, as shown above.

Not enough power? then the R9 280X is Crossfire capable, with two connectors available. There is a BIOS switch here to offer UEFI support.

A single link, and dual link DVI connector are present, alongside a full sized HDMI (1.4a) and DisplayPort (1.2) connector. Eyefinity is fully supported and no active adapter is required.

With the cooler removed, we can see the configuration a little better. The VaporX cards use the latest revision of a vapor chamber cooler. This chamber is mounted between the GPU and the base of the heatsink and cooler assembly.

The Tri-X cooler is mounted on top and incorporates multiple copper heatpipes to move heat through the aluminum fins.

Become a Patron!