AMD Radeon R9 280X: specs and benchmarks
Summary
AMD started Radeon R9 280X sales 8 October 2013 at a recommended price of $299. This is GCN architecture desktop card based on 28 nm manufacturing process and primarily aimed at gamers. 3 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at are supplied, and together with 384 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 288 GB/s.
Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 275 mm. 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 250 Watt.
It provides poor gaming and benchmark performance at 22.36 percent of a leader's which is AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT.
General info
Of Radeon R9 280X's architecture, market type and release date.
Technical specs
Radeon R9 280X's general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon R9 280X's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Information on Radeon R9 280X's compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).
Memory
Parameters of memory installed on Radeon R9 280X: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors don't have dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM.
Video outputs and ports
Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon R9 280X. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference video cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model.
Technologies
Technological solutions and APIs supported by Radeon R9 280X. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
API support
APIs supported by Radeon R9 280X, sometimes including their particular versions.
Benchmark performance
Non-gaming benchmark performance of Radeon R9 280X. Note that overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range.
Overall score
This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.
3DMark Cloud Gate GPU
Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.
3DMark Fire Strike Score
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics
Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature seemingly made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic enough graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.
3DMark 11 Performance GPU
3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.
3DMark Vantage Performance
3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.
Unigine Heaven 3.0
This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.
3DMark Ice Storm GPU
Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.
Unigine Heaven 4.0
This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.
Passmark
This is probably the most ubiquitous benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.
Mining hashrates
Cryptocurrency mining performance of Radeon R9 280X. Usually measured in megahashes per second.
Game benchmarks
Let's see how good Radeon R9 280X is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.
This video card matches 96% minimum and 83% recommended requirements of all games known to us.
Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:
Relative perfomance
Overall Radeon R9 280X performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.
NVIDIA equivalent
We believe that the nearest equivalent to Radeon R9 280X from NVIDIA is GeForce GTX 770, which is nearly equal in speed and higher by 1 position in our rating.
Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon R9 280X:
Similar GPUs
Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.
