Sapphire R9 280X Vapor X Review

Unlike the other launch reviews today, AMD never sent us a reference sample of the R9 280X so we have been unable to offer any direct head to head comparisons with the custom Sapphire Vapor X model. There is no doubt that the Vapor X cooler is one of the main selling points to our readers, especially as AMD reference coolers usually offer very little of note for the enthusiast gamer.

As we mentioned earlier in the review, the R9 280X Vapor X is basically a reflashed HD7970 GHZ Edition brought into 2013. The shader configuration, Pixel, Texture filrate and bandwidth specifications are identical, including the release date of Dec 22, 2011 and Device ID of 1002-6798. Check out our GPUZ screenshots on the second page of this review for verification.

Many enthusiast users will be asking why AMD didn't release a brand new board to take on Nvidia in the high end. Right now the GTX780 has no competition, unless you include the recent price cuts on the dual GPU HD7990 flagship. We will have to wait on the AMD R9 290X to see what they have up their sleeves in the coming weeks.

As far as the R9 280X is concerned, it offers identical performance to the HD7970 GHZ Edition – which we reviewed way back in July 2012. I have to admit I find it unusual that AMD didn't launch the R9 290X first, as it seems to the model that should be leading the way.

Thankfully this review can be taken from a slightly different viewpoint. Sapphire have replaced the reference R9 280X cooler with a Vapor X model which performs exceptionally well. There is also a dual BIOS switch which increases the core clock speed from 1,050mhz to 1,070mhz and the memory speeds from 1,500mhz (6.0Gbps effective) to 1,550mhz (6.2Gbps). Not a huge clock improvement, but every little counts.

For our review today we decided to include the Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition, one of the fastest HD7970's ever released. This card unsurprisingly outperforms the Sapphire R9 280X Vapor X, but it does generate a lot more noise and heat due to the fact that the board received a voltage increase at the time.

No one argued that the HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition wasn't a stunning card however the noise levels did cause concern at the time. In this regard, the new board has the edge … although even with manual overclocking the R9 280X can't quite reach the same clock figures.

Overclocking the Sapphire R9 280X Vapor X didn't prove to be incredibly successful. We already knew from past experiences that the HD7970 was often limited to between 1,100mhz and 1,150mhz and our review sample hit a hardlock clock speed just below 1,150mhz. The GDDR5 memory is also almost clocked to the limit, we managed to only squeeze another 30 mhz before minor artifacting would occur.

Pricing of the R9 280X will be instrumental in regards to sales success. AMD have told the press that the R9 280X will be sold for $299.

This directly translates into £190 UK pre VAT. With £38 UK VAT added we have a final price of around £230. We spoke with several retailers just before launch and we were told prices would be between £249 and £289 inc vat, so again UK punters have to pay extra. With overclocked, custom HD7970's already available for £230 inc vat, it might be a difficult sell for AMD partners. Again, pricing tends to shift a lot in the coming weeks after launch, so it is best to keep watching leading online retailers.

In closing, this Sapphire R9 280X Vapor X is undoubtedly a powerful graphics card but in reality it won't offer anything new to gamers who were already contemplating the purchase of a custom, overclocked HD7970. No matter what way you look at this, it is a disappointing scenario for AMD to end 2013.

We hope the R9 290/X brings something fresh, new and exciting to the table.

Pros:

• Vapor X cooler is fantastic.
• Dual bios.
• relatively quiet under load.
• fantastic performance at 2560×1600.

Cons:

• Not much headroom on our sample.
• HD7970 anyone?

Kitguru says: A high performance, supremely cooled custom card from Sapphire, but no matter what way you look at it, AMD releasing a HD7970 GHZ rehash in 2013 is disappointing.

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