Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition 3GB Review
Ryan Martin / 9 years ago
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1. Introduction2. A Closer Look3. Testing Procedure4. 3DMark 115. 3DMark 20136. Unigine Heaven 4.07. Alien Vs. Predator8. Bioshock Infinite9. Dirt Showdown10. Hitman Absolution11. Metro Last Light12. Sleeping Dogs13. Tomb Raider14. Acoustics15. Power Consumption16. Temperatures17. Overclocking18. Final Thoughts19. View All Pages |
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Introduction
When it comes to overclocked graphics card with ridiculous speed Sapphire’s Toxic series is one of the most renowned in the “AMD world”. Today we have Sapphire’s Toxic R9 280X which comes with a massive out of the box overclock of 15% – taking it from 1GHz core to 1.15GHz core, on the memory we see a more modest increase of 100MHz (6.67%). The Sapphire Toxic R9 280X features the respected Tri-X triple fan cooler with a huge 10mm heat pipe and a dense aluminium heatsink. From what I’ve heard and read about this graphics card already the main selling point of this GPU is its ability to offer near-GTX 780 levels of performance for a substantially lower price.
This graphics card from Sapphire showcases the versatility of AMD’s Tahiti family of GPUs which have formed the basis of the HD 7950, HD 7970, HD 7970 GHz Edition and now the R9 280X. This isn’t the first R9 280X we’ve taken for a spin: you can check our review of the Sapphire Vapor-X OC R9 280X here and our review of the XFX Double Dissipation R9 280X here. That said the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition really is in a whole different class to your average R9 280X which has a 50-100MHz overclock, or runs at stock speeds.
Sapphire’s packaging points out most of the key features we have already mentioned such as the Tri-X cooling and Toxic design. There’s also 3GB of GDDR5 capable of Eyefinity and 4K gaming that’s worth pointing out. Sapphire also have dual BIOSes on this card for UEFI and conventional BIOS motherboards.
The back details some more of those key features along with Sapphire’s tagline for the Toxic R9 280X which is “Mad and Dangerous”.
Included in the box is some documentation, a driver CD and a Sapphire sticker.
In terms of physical accessories we have a mini DisplayPort to full size DisplayPort adapter, a HDMI cable, a Crossfire bridge and two dual molex to single 8 pin power supply adapters.
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1. Introduction2. A Closer Look3. Testing Procedure4. 3DMark 115. 3DMark 20136. Unigine Heaven 4.07. Alien Vs. Predator8. Bioshock Infinite9. Dirt Showdown10. Hitman Absolution11. Metro Last Light12. Sleeping Dogs13. Tomb Raider14. Acoustics15. Power Consumption16. Temperatures17. Overclocking18. Final Thoughts19. View All Pages |
Next Page » |
Topics: 28nm, AMD, graphics, graphics card, HD 7970, HD 7970 GHz Edition, R9-280X, review, sapphire, Toxic
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Review: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X TOXIC — Graphics
Just recently, we asked whether graphics-card rebrands were acceptable to you. The consensus was that if the ‘new’ version was faster and cheaper than the one it ostensibly replaced, then that was just about acceptable.
AMD’s recent transition from Radeon HD 7000 to R9/R7 cards — a rebrand in the main — straddles the fine line between what we believe to be acceptable, then.
AMD’s largest board partner is Sapphire. A new launch isn’t complete without Sapphire rolling out a number of graphics cards, usually overclocked to the hilt. The R9 280X is no different in this regard, with two overclocked versions — Vapor-X and TOXIC — already on retailers’ shelves.
The TOXIC variant appears to be the more interesting of the two. Featuring a new cooler, heavily overclocked frequencies, and a competitive street price of £260, let’s put it through the review wringer.
This here card is built for performance above all else. The off-centre cooler stretches out overall length to 308mm (12.1in), so do be aware of any spatial restrictions before purchase. Bolted on to the PCB by four screws and the orange-coloured holding section on the top-left, the TOXIC is almost as substantial as the Asus TOP.
The heatsink, dubbed Tri-X, sits a little higher than the dual-slot backplane, making the cooling about 2.2-slots high. What this really means is that you’d probably need to sacrifice the next slot along.
A trio of fans — 90mm on the sides and 80mm in the middle — force air over the card-wide heatsink and then back into the chassis. Sapphire’s logo lights up when the card is switched on. Two 8-pin power connectors add to the enthusiast look and feel for this TOXIC.
Sapphire continues to use a BIOS-switching button mounted next to the two CrossFireX fingers. It has no effect on clockspeeds and performance, as far as we can discern, though it’s entirely possible that alternative BIOSes will be made available at some point. Sapphire says that retail cards will have both Uefi and non-Uefi BIOSes — the former providing a fast method of booting into compatible operating systems.
With all this focus on cooling, frequencies should be, and are, very good, easily beating the peak 1,000/6,000MHz clocks of the reference card.
This R9 280X GPU is programmed for a default core speed of 1,100MHz, rising to 1,150MHz under the auspice of a GPU Boost-like feature. We noted that our TOXIC sample ran at 1,150MHz for every game we tested. Memory is overclocked, to 6,400MHz, which is good to see, so the TOXIC is the fastest production card we’ve come across thus far.
A PCB-wide backplate offers more cooling opportunity, and Sapphire sensibly adds individual heatsinks to the various chokes on the card. Though more of a gimmick than practical aid, six LEDs, near the CrossFire section, provide visual feedback for the GPU temperature.
High speeds are usually allied to higher-than-reference voltages. Keeping all that power in check is an interesting heatsink design that has three heatpipes on one end and a further two (non-connected) on the other. The three pipes on this side are 10mm thick, and we don’t know of anyone using thicker cooling.
The heatpipes all converge around the copper insert that makes contact with the GPU.
This is a tried-and-trusted design that has historically worked well.
What you’re looking at is a custom Radeon HD 7000/R9 280X board particular to Sapphire. It’s good to see a heatsink adorn the Mosfets — something we believe should be standard on high-end cards.
And why go with reference video outputs when the entire card is custom? Single- and dual-link DVI sit next to full-size HDMI. Sapphire replaces the usual DisplayPort output with two miniDisplayPort, paving the way for a five-monitor setup, and the company does the right thing by bundling a miniDP-to-DP connector in the package.
Well-built, overclocked to the highest frequencies we’ve thus far seen on a Radeon R9 280X, the Sapphire TOXIC, backed by a two-year warranty, is available for £260, or about the same price as other firms’ best cards.
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Review and testing of the cooler Arctic Accelero Xtreme 7970 
News. GECID.com.
All sectionsDigital industryProcessorsRAMMotherboardsVideo cardsCooling systemsDrivesCasesPower suppliesMultimediaDigital photo and videoMonitorsLaptops and TabletsSmartphonesCommunicationsPeripheralsAutoelectronicsSoftwareGames
Edifier introduced the new Edifier C6XD 5.
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Satellite and subwoofer connectors are located at the bottom of the case, there is also a main power switch and a power cable connector. A universal power supply for power voltages of 100-240 V at a mains frequency of 50-60 Hz is built into the amplifying module and equipped with a high-quality stabilizer with multi-level filtering to ensure high stability and quality of the output signal.
A feature of the Edifier C6XD 5.1-channel multimedia system, like most modern Edifier developments, is a fully digital Hi-Fi class path based on TI TAS5342A chips in class D amplifying mode. high efficiency. An additional analog path is implemented on three PCM1808 ADCs. Adjustments of parameters are made by the most exact reliable electronic regulators. There is also a function to achieve greater surround sound at low volume levels.
The 2-way satellites feature a 3/4″ wide-beam horn tweeter and a 3″ magnetically shielded full-range silk dome tweeter. The subwoofer is equipped with a large 6.
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Total system output power is 80W (RMS) with signal to noise ratio greater than 85dB. The dimensions of the satellites are 130 x 90 x 180 mm, the subwoofer is 288 x 232 x 242 mm, the amplifier module is 250 x 78 x 255 mm, and the total system weight is 12.6 kg.
The C6XD multimedia system, like all the latest Edifier systems, comes with a set of branded solid shielded audio cables. The kit comes with a convenient and functional wireless remote control.