Sapphire R9 280x

adocholiday

Hi all,

Just wondering where would be the best place to buy the Sapphire R9 280x GPU? The best price I've seen currently is on Hardwareversand through Geizhals @ €275. I've checked the sites on the sticky and they're all listed around the same price.

Does this card come up in offers on the likes of Amazon for example? I'm not in any rush to get it so don't mind waiting for a while.

Alternatively can anyone recommend a similar card in terms of performance for less money? I've seen the gtx 770 mentioned on other sites but that seems to be much more expensive. I know there are cheaper 280x's out there but the Sapphire ones are consistently the highest rated ones and are the most reliable.

Digital Solitude

XFX 280X Double Dissaption Edition is €250 from HWVS delivered. Can be found second hand on adverts for about €200 either, lots of MSI cards.

Is there a reason you want the Sapphire card specifically? Any 280X will Crossfire with any other if thats the interest.

*edit* Didn't read the second half of your post. XFX and MSI are good manufacturers, along with ASUS, you shouldn't find an issue with any of them. The Shappgire card heats like a bitch, which is why I recommend the XFX.

adocholiday

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Didn't read the second half of your post. XFX and MSI are good manufacturers, along with ASUS, you shouldn't find an issue with any of them. The Shappgire card heats like a bitch, which is why I recommend the XFX.

Funny because I read numerous reviews on the Msi card saying that the fans were very poor quality. I have a Sapphire vapor-x 5870 at the minute and it's a super card, just a bit dated now. Thought I'd stick with what I know.

I don't know enough about the other brands to comment really but Msi and XFX are always the cheapest and there has to be some reason for a 40-50 quid price difference I think.

Venom

adocholiday wrote: »

Funny because I read numerous reviews on the Msi card saying that the fans were very poor quality. I have a Sapphire vapor-x 5870 at the minute and it's a super card, just a bit dated now. Thought I'd stick with what I know.

I don't know enough about the other brands to comment really but Msi and XFX are always the cheapest and there has to be some reason for a 40-50 quid price difference I think.

While Asus and Gigabyte make awesome bits of kit, you really do pay extra for those brandname's.

My current GPU is a MSI gaming 280 and the the fans are rock solid for temps and completely silient. Dunno where you read about dodgy fans but every MSI mobo and GPU review I'v seen, have all praised the build quality of the products.

XFX offer lifetime guarantees on there stuff and also have an fantastic reputation. The one company who products I will never use again tho is Sapphire, as I'v had problems with two different models of graphics cards from them.

adocholiday

Interesting to hear about the Sapphire issues and good to know. They are the most expensive cards by a way, at least in respect of the 280x. I've included a list of the options that I have on Hardwareversand for the R9 280x. What would you recommend from that list? I'll be using it with an ASRock Mobo and a Core i5 4460 with no overclocking if that makes a difference?

Sapphire VAPOR-X R9 280X Tri-X STD with Boost (UEFI) - €285
Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X Tri-X OC with MANTLE - €284

XFX Radeon R9 280X Black Edition with MANTLE - €263
XFX Radeon R9 280X Double Dissipation Edition with MANTLE - €255

Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Revision 2.0 with MANTLE - €257
Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X WindForce 3X Revision 3.0 with MANTLE - €253

MSI R9 280X GAMING 3G with MANTLE - €246

Venom

First of all whats your max budget? Can you hold on till later in the year when AMD's 3xx series is released which are rumored to be absolute monsters.

Does it have to be a AMD card or would you consider an Nvidia GTX 970? The reason I'm asking is the 970 offers much better gaming features such as g-sync and phys-x support along with better and faster driver rollouts. The R9 280/280X does NOT support AMD's freesync and Mantle while better than DX 10/11 is supported by very few games.

I can recommend the MSI Gaming R9 280 as its a damm sweet card, silent fans and has easy to use 1 click overclocking software. Regardless of going team red or green for my next GPU, MSI gaming will have to serious screw the pooch for me not to seriously consider going with them again. I only went R9 280 due to getting is during a sale and it being much better than the GTX 960.

Digital Solitude

I'd XFX Double Dissapation for the cooling, as I said. I have a Sapphire card, overclocked and it doesn't run any hotter than it did stock so I don't know what that's about, it was always loud too. No point to the 20-30 over for the slight differences between cards once they're well reviewed IMO

adocholiday

Venom wrote: »

First of all whats your max budget? Can you hold on till later in the year when AMD's 3xx series is released which are rumored to be absolute monsters.

Does it have to be a AMD card or would you consider an Nvidia GTX 970? The reason I'm asking is the 970 offers much better gaming features such as g-sync and phys-x support along with better and faster driver rollouts. The R9 280/280X does NOT support AMD's freesync and Mantle while better than DX 10/11 is supported by very few games.

My max budget really is around €280. Also I'm not what you would call a serious gamer (my current machine is a Core 2 Duo e8400 with 4GB DDR2 RAM and the Sapphire Vapor-X 5870 ) so I don't need a top end card. I want something that will be good for 2-3 years that will play most current games on high settings. The main use for my machine otherwise will be for Java/Python web programming with a small bit of Game dev using the Unreal Engine but that's more for fun than anything else nothing serious. That's why I think I'll get the most bang for my buck from the 280x.

I have no problem moving to an Nvida card either, I've never had one but I've no allegiance either way! If there is a similar or better Nvidia card at the €280 range then I'd have no problem buying it

Venom

adocholiday wrote: »

My max budget really is around €280. Also I'm not what you would call a serious gamer (my current machine is a Core 2 Duo e8400 with 4GB DDR2 RAM and the Sapphire Vapor-X 5870 ) so I don't need a top end card. I want something that will be good for 2-3 years that will play most current games on high settings. The main use for my machine otherwise will be for Java/Python web programming with a small bit of Game dev using the Unreal Engine but that's more for fun than anything else nothing serious. That's why I think I'll get the most bang for my buck from the 280x.

I have no problem moving to an Nvida card either, I've never had one but I've no allegiance either way! If there is a similar or better Nvidia card at the €280 range then I'd have no problem buying it

Well the 280x will be a huge difference over the 5870 ( my previous card as well). Nvidia are set to release the 980 TI next month so a price reduction of there current cards could be in the works so an affordable 970 might be an option.

Redfox25

An Asus 290 will set you back 298 without the geizels discount. So 285 ish off the top of my head. Might be better to wait for the 3 series from amd as these will change prices a bit too.

Digital Solitude

Price of a nVidia doesn't justify it over AMD in that build, unless you went for a 960

adocholiday

Well realistically how much could I hope to save by waiting for the third gen AMDs? The only info we have about them at the moment is that they're due for 2015 Q2 release. Just wondering if the saving would justify the wait. The Nvidia 970 is still around the €350 mark so it's unlikely it will come down by €70 that quickly.

Thanks to all for the info by the way