R9280: AMD Radeon R9 280 Specs

Radeon R9 280 [in 2 benchmarks]

Radeon R9 280

Buy

Interface PCIe 3.0 x16

Core clock speed 0

Max video memory 3072 MB

Memory type GDDR5

Memory clock speed 1250

Maximum resolution

Summary

AMD started Radeon R9 280 sales 4 March 2014 at a recommended price of $279. This is a GCN 1.0 architecture desktop card based on 28 nm manufacturing process and primarily aimed at gamers. 3 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1.25 GHz are supplied, and together with 384 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 240 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 200 Watt.

It provides poor gaming and benchmark performance at

14.22%

of a leader’s which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

GeForce RTX
4090

Compare

General info

Some basic facts about Radeon R9 280: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance rating	274
Value for money	4.49
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2012−2020)
GPU code name	Tahiti
Market segment	Desktop
Design	reference
Release date	4 March 2014 (8 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)	$279
Current price	$269 (1x MSRP)	of 49999 (A100 SXM4)

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

Radeon R9 280’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 280’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1792	of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
Boost clock speed	933 MHz	of 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors	4,313 million	of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	of 4 (GeForce RTX 4080 Ti)
Thermal design power (TDP)	200 Watt	of 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate	104. 5	of 969.9 (h200 SXM5 96 GB)
Floating-point performance	3,344 gflops	of 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Dimensions and compatibility

Information on Radeon R9 280’s compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it’s interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus support	PCIe 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	275 mm
Width	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on Radeon R9 280: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory type	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	3 GB	of 128 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory bus width	384 Bit	of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	of 22400 (GeForce RTX 4080)
Memory bandwidth	240 GB/s	of 14400 (Radeon R7 M260)

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon R9 280. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity	1
HDMI	+
DisplayPort support	—

Technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by Radeon R9 280. You’ll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration	—
CrossFire	1
Enduro	—
FreeSync	1
HD3D	+
LiquidVR	1
PowerTune	—
TressFX	1
TrueAudio	+
ZeroCore	—
UVD	+
DDMA audio	+

API support

APIs supported by Radeon R9 280, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	DirectX® 12
Shader Model	5.1
OpenGL	4.6
OpenCL	1.2
Vulkan	+
Mantle	—

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of Radeon R9 280. Overall 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.

R9 280
14.22

Passmark

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

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.

Benchmark coverage: 24%

R9 280
5609

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 1920×1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic enough graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 13%

R9 280
8020

Mining hashrates

Cryptocurrency mining performance of Radeon R9 280. Usually measured in megahashes per second.

Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256)	408 Mh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto)	21. 5 Mh/s

Gaming performance

Let’s see how good Radeon R9 280 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.

Relative perfomance

Radeon R9 280’s performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
107.45

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
104.57

AMD Radeon R9 280X
104.01

AMD Radeon R9 280
100

AMD Radeon HD 7990
99.16

AMD Tonga
99.16

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
99. 09

NVIDIA equivalent

According to our data, the closest equivalent to Radeon R9 280 by NVIDIA is GeForce GTX 690, which is slower by 1% and lower by 4 positions in our rating.

GeForce GTX
690

Compare

Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon R9 280:

NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A
107.59

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
107.45

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
104.57

AMD Radeon R9 280
100

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
99.09

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
98.66

NVIDIA P106-100
97. 54

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

Radeon HD
7990

Compare

GeForce GTX
690

Compare

GeForce GTX
760 Ti OEM

Compare

GeForce GTX
770

Compare

GeForce GTX
670

Compare

Radeon R9
M295X Mac Edition

Compare

Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with Radeon R9 280 according to our statistics.

FX
6300

3.2%

Core i5
4460

FX
8350

2.8%

Core i5
3470

2.6%

FX
8320

2.3%

Core i7
3770

1.7%

Xeon E5
2640

1.5%

Ryzen 3
1200

1. 4%

Ryzen 5
3600

1.4%

Ryzen 5
2600

1.2%

User rating

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.

Questions and comments

Here you can ask a question about Radeon R9 280, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.

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Asus Radeon R9 280 Direct CU II Review

The Asus Radeon R9 280 Direct CU II ($259.99) is a midrange graphics card based on AMD’s Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. It combines AMD’s Tahiti Pro graphics core with Asus’s custom cooler design and bundled overclocking software. The R9 280 Direct CU II($238.05 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) is yet another addition to AMD’s rebranding efforts, which kicked off last fall with the debut of the Mantle API and the launch of its high-end AMD Radeon R9 290( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and AMD Radeon R9 290X( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). This card is essentially a rebadged AMD Radeon HD 7950, albeit with a higher boost clock speed. Like the AMD HD 7950, it carries 3GB of GDDR5 video memory. The R9 280 Direct CU II is a solid choice if you use a 1080p monitor, and its near-silence when under load is definitely a boon. But its cooler exhausts hot air directly in the PC case, which could be a problem in warm rooms or when using your PC on hot days without air conditioning, and it doesn’t perform quite as well as the MSI R9 280X Gaming 3G, our Editors’ Choice for midrange GPUs.

Asus has taken that clock speed differential and pushed it a bit higher; the card ships with a base clock of 874MHz and a maximum clock speed of 980MHz. The memory clock also gets the R9 280 Direct CU II a slight boost, from 1,250MHz to 1,300MHz, for an effective data rate bump from 5GBps to 5.2GBps. As an added bonus, you get a Gold-Level coupon for AMD’s Never Settle Forever game bundle program(Opens in a new window). From now until August, you can choose three AAA titles (or three indie game bundles with two titles each) to go along with the card.

The Direct CU II cooler that Asus includes with this card is one of its primary selling points, and it’s extremely capable with markedly better thermal performance than some of AMD’s higher-end reference designs. If you want a high-end air-cooled card that runs quietly, even under heavy load, then the R9 280 Direct CU II is an easy recommendation. The only caveat to the cooling solution is that the card exhausts hot air directly into the case. If you don’t have air conditioning in the summer months, or your chassis is already hot, you may not want the additional thermal load.

The primary competitor to the R9 280 Direct CU II is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 760( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), which debuted nearly a year ago. Like the R9 280 Direct CU II, the Nvidia GTX 760 is based on an earlier architecture—in this case, the Kepler GPU family that launched in 2012. Nvidia hasn’t built an equivalent program to match AMD’s Never Settle Forever offer, but you get a free copy of the game Watch Dogs with the purchase of most Nvidia GTX 760 cards. Prices on this GPU range from $229 to $289, depending on the model you choose and how much video memory you want (the Nvidia GTX 760 is available in both 2GB and 4GB configurations, the reference design we’ve tested is a 2GB model).

Similar Products

3.5

Good

Nvidia GeForce GTX 760

4.0

Excellent

MSI R9 280X Gaming 3G

On the AMD front, we compare the R9 280 Direct CU II against the AMD Radeon R9 270X and the MSI R9 280X Gaming 3G. The AMD R9 270X currently ships with a Never Settle Forever two-game bundle, while the MSI R9 280X shares the R9 280’s three-game offer. The R9 280X is our Editors’ Choice for this segment, but the performance gap between it and the Asus R9 280 should be fairly small; the divide between the AMD 7950 and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 (upon which the MSI R9 280X is based) was never very large, and we don’t have any reason to expect that to change this time around. The difference between the R9 280 Direct CU II and the AMD R9 270X is more interesting, as is the question of whether Nvidia or AMD offers better value in this price band.

Performance
All of our cards were tested in Windows 8.1 Update 1, with all patches and software installed. We used a Gigabyte Z87X-D3H motherboard, an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU($199.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), and 8GB of DDR3-2133 memory for our testing. All of our gaming trials were run at 1,920 by 1,080, with maximum details enabled and antialiasing set to 8x multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA), save where indicated otherwise.

The results show, in aggregate, that the benefits of moving from the AMD R9 270X to the R9 280 Direct CU II are somewhat game-dependent. Games like Civilization V showed no real boost, while the gap in games like Metro Last Light and BioShock Infinite was significantly larger. Results compared with the slightly cheaper Nvidia GTX 760 were a toss up. The Nvidia GTX 760 was much faster in Civilization V, essentially tied on Shogun 2, Metro Last Light, and BioShock Infinite, but was significantly slower in Hitman Absolution.

With high-resolution desktop display prices falling, and 4K technology moving toward the mainstream, the best way to think about the AMD Radeon R9 280 Direct CU II’s value proposition is in relation to your own monitor. If your display runs below 1080p, you don’t need a video card this powerful to run modern titles at high frame rates. If it runs at 1080p, the most common desktop monitor resolution right now, the R9 280 Direct CU II gives you most of the performance of the MSI R9 280X Gaming 3G, but at a slightly lower price. If you think you want to move to a 2,560-by-1,440 or higher display or higher, you’re better off with the MSI R9 280X Gaming 3G, our Editors’ Choice for midrange graphics cards. You’ll get better future-proofing and more performance under the hood. The the R9 280 Direct CU II is a match for the Nvidia GTX 760 in terms of price and features. Your choice will depend on the manufacturer you favor, whether or not you want to play some of the titles in AMD’s Never Settle Forever bundle, or if you’re itching to give Watch Dogs a try. The R9 280 Direct CU II easily pulls its own weight for 1080p gaming—if you plan on sticking at with resolution for the next few years, this card is a good deal.

Asus Radeon R9 280 Direct CU II

Pros

Near-silent operation under load.
Faster core and memory clock speeds than the previous version.
Good 1080p performance.

The Bottom Line

The Asus Radeon R9 280 Direct CU II midrange graphics card packs enough horsepower for strong 1080p gaming, plus it’s nearly silent.

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Radeon R9 280 [in 2 benchmarks]

Radeon R9 280

PCIe 3.0 x16 interface
Core frequency 0
Video memory size 3072 MB
Memory type GDDR5
Memory frequency 1250
Maximum resolution

Description

AMD Starts Radeon R9 Sales280 March 4, 2014 at a suggested price of $279. This is a desktop video card based on the GCN 1.0 architecture and 28 nm manufacturing process, primarily aimed at gamers. It has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory at 1.25 GHz, and coupled with a 384-bit interface, this creates a bandwidth of 240 Gb / s.

In terms of compatibility, this is a dual-slot PCIe 3.0 x16 card. The length of the reference version is 275 mm. An additional 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin power cable is required for connection, and the power consumption is 200W.

It provides poor performance in tests and games at the level of

14. 22%

from the leader, which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

GeForce RTX
4090

Compare

General information

Information about the type (desktop or laptop) and architecture of the Radeon R9 280, as well as when sales started and cost at the time. Value for money

To obtain an index, we compare the characteristics of video cards and their cost, taking into account the cost of other cards.

Features

Radeon R9 280’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. They indirectly talk about Radeon R9 performance0040 of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI (Mobile))

9005 of 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem) Textory speed

104. 5

from 969.9 (H200 SXM5 96 GB)

054 Floating point performance 3.344 gflops of 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Compatibility and dimensions

Information on Radeon R9 280 compatibility with other computer components. Useful for example when choosing the configuration of a future computer or to upgrade an existing one. For desktop video cards, these are the interface and connection bus (compatibility with the motherboard), the physical dimensions of the video card (compatibility with the motherboard and case), additional power connectors (compatibility with the power supply).

RAM

Parameters of the memory installed on Radeon R9 280 — type, size, bus, frequency and bandwidth. For video cards built into the processor that do not have their own memory, a shared part of the RAM is used.

Memorial type	GDDR5
Memory	3 GB	of 128 (Radeon Instinction Mi250x)0053	DisplayPort Ready	—