Review Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 OC
This model is the successor to the popular enough graphics card AMD Radeon HD 7950. The version about which will be discussed in this article, has already received a factory overclock. The manufacturer positions it as a mid-range solution for the games at a resolution of Full HD.
Equipment
Graphics Card comes with a set of documentation, CD with software and two power adapters. Notably, the user will find in the box and the cable HDMI.
Design
All front panel takes the cooling system, which is dominated by the black color with small gray accents.
Dual-slot video card is made in the design, and its length is 26.2 cm. The cooling system does not go beyond the printed circuit board, which is made of the way the PCB is blue. The interface set can be called classic – DisplayPort, HDMI and two DVI ports and D specifications I.
Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 OC is based on the GPU AMD Tahiti PRO. It is made of 28-nm process with a nominal frequency of 850 MHz (dynamic frequency is 940 MHz). 3 GB GDDR5-memory implemented using twelve chips SK Hynix, which are connected by 384-bit bus with an effective frequency of 5000 MHz. Power graphics cards sold on the system 5 + 1 + 1.
Cooling and Overclocking
The cooling unit, which is used in the Sapphire Dual-X R9 OC 280 is an aluminum radiator with a system of copper tubes, and a special processor platform. To cool the metal structure has two 86-mm fans.
During operation, at maximum load and automatic overclocking cooler GPU temperature rose to 62 ° C.
In this mode, the cooler working only 43% of the maximum power (2073 rev / min). The noise level remained normal. After the dissolution of the cooler to the maximum, to 3935m / min, the temperature of the chip dropped to 54 ° C, but cooler was “making noise” is already above average. Perhaps some users have the feeling of discomfort, but in this case it is necessary to use a PC case with advanced noise isolation.
For overclocking you need a special tool – at Sapphire for these needs there is an application TriXX. During acceleration, we increased the voltage on the graphics core, thereby increasing the frequency from 940 to 1202 MHz. The increase amounted to almost 28% compared with the original data. Also within the OC was increased frequency memory 250 to 1696 MHz. At the time of acceleration, the fan runs at 100% and the temperature of the video card reached 63 ° C. The average efficiency of acceleration Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 OC was about 20%.
Impressions
Tested video cards can be attributed to the midrange, although it has a great overclocking potential, which adds to the overall assessment of the scale of a few balls and outputs it to the level of more premium solutions.
FEATURES:
• Workmanship •
• Reliability •
• Intelligent cooling system •
• Excellent overclocking potential •
• Firmware •
