HD 7970 GHz/R9 280/R9 280X - failure rate.

[BambOOs]

Hello!

I'm looking for one of these cards: HD 7970 GHz/R9 280/R9 280X.

I saw so many reports on forums, that these cards, especially R9 280/280X has really serious problems with artifacts etc.

How this looks nowadays? Many manufacturers released new revisions of it's cards.
These problems seems to be related to high GPU/memory clock rate - R9 280X is rebranded 7970, so could not be designed to work with so high frequency etc.

What do you think about this?

Is it safe to buy some of these AMD cards, or should I go to GTX 770?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings.

 

[Black Flag]

From my experience, because I flashed my 7970 DC2T, with a 280x DC2T compatible bios, I noticed that the RAM voltage of 280x was lower than the voltage of 7970 bios. So the problem is the higher memory frequency and the lower voltage of 280x bioses from various companies...

 

[MustSeeMelons]

I had an Asus 280X, didn't have any issues with it If buying a used one - just test the card.

 

[BambOOs]

So, do you think it should be fine to buy it, right? I'm looking for used card, but with manufacturer warranty. GTX 770 costs more...
Actually I have HD 7850 1gb.

Is it better to buy some R9 280X/7970 GHz, or wait to R9 3xx - R9 2xx will cost less. What's your opinion?

 

[st2000]

i got same question at september 2014, so as i looked over internet only asus 280x got realy huge problems with artefacts relating to memory(cloks, voltage, insane temps)
some people just downclocked their cards, some just RMA them, but as i said before only asus 280x was realy everywhere and on each forum
just test before buying
i'm living in Russia, so 1st of all we had r9 290/290x same price as gtx770, you could buy 2 r9 290/290x instead of 1 gtx 970
and then our money became trash(about 3x loss at beginning and 1.9x now)
so i took aftermarket 280x with high clocks just for 120$ with 2 year guarantee(i could take gtx 770/r9 290 for about 220-250$ and gtx 970 for about 420$)
so whats the price where you living and what is your budget?
PS: and whats the resolution/setting you wanna play?what kind of games do you prefer/want to play?

 

[Countryside]

I recommend MSI or ASUS 280x or go with GTX960

 

[BambOOs]

Resolution: Full HD 1920x1080. What games? WoT, Far Cry 4, Crysis 1-3 etc. And my brother plays some more, like Dying Light etc.

For used 7970 I have to pay ~ 162$ (~600 PLN - I'm from Poland)
For used R9 280X I have to pay ~205$ (~750 PLN)

EDIT: GTX 960? Nope... 128 bit is for me too small. It will be botlleneck for some games.

 

[st2000]

and rest?
760 is a bit less performance
770 is kinda equal/depending on game
960 a bit less performance
for example, with my r9 280x(1080-1550) i got no problems with games you've described at 1080p
far cry 4 : at least 45 fps, 55 is average
crysis 3 at least 42 fps, 52 is average
dying light was 25-50 fps when i had 4 gigs of ram, now it it never goes beyond 43
all settings ultra(DL without nvidia effects)

when i was buying r9 280x i thought i'll buy it for a week or so, cause prices are cheap and i dont know even 1 person with AMD card, so..)
now i just can say you 1 thing: if 770 and 280x will have equal prices, i'd took 770
memory bandswitch in gpuz is THEORETICAL, so whats you have - 300Gbits(280x) or 220Gbit(970) is not the main reason to decide what card to take, look for bences and you'll see that 280x is best option ONLY for price(my friend got 760 and got no problems with it, it's a bit less performance as 280x but still ok at 1080p)
as i said 960 a bit less performance(at stock), but you can OC it very close to 280x/even outperform

and if you want 7970/280/280x, better look at 280x cause of waranty(i think 7970 got 6-8 montths now as they were sold 2-3 years ago)
also be careful with length(my card is not the longest, but is ~5mm close to not fit in case)

 

[BambOOs]

GTX 960 is to expensive for my budget - I have to pay ~250$ (brand new).

Used GTX 770 - even ~230$.
Used GTX 760 - same as R9 280X - maybe litlle less.

So, in Poland, best used card in performance/price ratio seems to be R9 280X - or even 7970 GHz edition.

and... I can buy used Sapphire 7950 with Boost on 11 months manufacturer warranty for ~ 140$.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1841&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

 

[st2000]

better take 7950/7970 but NON-Asus)

also be careful with length(my card is not the longest, but is ~5mm close to not fit in case)

my choice was done due to prices - even 760 was more expensive than 280x
also, fill specs)
now i'm not fully satisfied with my 280x(want a bit more performance, but it's ok for it's price)
also, i've made a huge work before going from 550TI: replaced PSU, replaced case, replaced all fans, replaced CPU cooler(even now i got a bit more temps when i had 550ti cause 280x is realy hot)

 

[Tatty_Two]

My sapphire VaporX 280X has been trouble free since day 1.

 

[KingPing]

I have a ASUS R9 280X direct CUII TOP. Once in a while (sometimes once or twice a month, although it didn't artifacted recently) some games (not all) start artifacting, solution is to exit and restart the game. IMO it's a hardware/bios issue, because no driver update since i bought the card fixed this. I can't complain about performance which IMO is very good as well as the 3GB vram.

 

[st2000]

also, you should know that not every card can OC very good and 850 mhz stock cant go 10000-1100mhz (it's about 25%)
also, we got lots of 7970 ghz edition "refurbished", guess it's due to reject/defect, so thats why i took 280x

 

[BambOOs]

So, best way will be HD 7970 GHz with manufacturer warranty, right?

 

[st2000]

yeap)

 

[Outback Bronze]

GTX 960 is to expensive for my budget - I have to pay ~250$ (brand new).

Used GTX 770 - even ~230$.
Used GTX 760 - same as R9 280X - maybe litlle less.

So, in Poland, best used card in performance/price ratio seems to be R9 280X - or even 7970 GHz edition.

and... I can buy used Sapphire 7950 with Boost on 11 months manufacturer warranty for ~ 140$.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1841&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

Yeah, this is why I bought a HD7950. They overclock nicely as well: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/34761-amd-hd-7950-vs-hd-7970-clocks/

Just watch the Boost clocks on the new 7950s. I wasn't keen on them so I flashed mine with a non boost edition. I didn't like the fluctuation in fps.

Don't think you'll go wrong with a 7970GHZ edition tho.

 

[THE_EGG]

I'll just add my 2 cents here.

I've had a 7950 and 3 280Xs. The 7950 was a Gigabyte Windforce X3 and was just fine (I actually got that one second hand). The 280xs were 2 Asus DirectCU II TOP models and 1 Gigabyte Windforce X3. The Gigabyte one lasted just fine but the 2 Asus cards artifacted in the windows desktop environment. In games the Asus cards were ok but I would get black squares on the taskbar and around the top of the window if I had one open. I returned them and received them back with a new BIOS. They seemed fine after that, no problems whatsoever and they were quieter and cooler than the Gigabyte one. They've all since been sold though.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Or op you can pick up another 7850 and crossfire. 2x 7850 = just about 1x 7970. Unless you do need the bigger frame buffer.

 

[INSTG8R]

My Sapphire Dual-X 7970 OC has given me nothing but gaming goodness.

 

[BambOOs]

Or op you can pick up another 7850 and crossfire. 2x 7850 = just about 1x 7970. Unless you do need the bigger frame buffer.

My motherboard is AsRock p67 pro 3 with only one PCI Express x16

I will buy 7970 GHz edition, or R9 280x. Will wait for good offer.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Make sure you have a good psu also. Something in the 600 or so watt range to make sure you have enough wiggle room.

 

[BambOOs]

Before I buy GPU, I will change my Chieftec APS-450S to XFX TS 550W (528W on single 12 V rail).

 

[GhostRyder]

Hello!

I'm looking for one of these cards: HD 7970 GHz/R9 280/R9 280X.

I saw so many reports on forums, that these cards, especially R9 280/280X has really serious problems with artifacts etc.

How this looks nowadays? Many manufacturers released new revisions of it's cards.
These problems seems to be related to high GPU/memory clock rate - R9 280X is rebranded 7970, so could not be designed to work with so high frequency etc.

What do you think about this?

Is it safe to buy some of these AMD cards, or should I go to GTX 770?

Thanks in advance.

Greetings.

The failure rate is not bad, generally you see a bunch of posts about problems but less about how many are good because the actual amounts are not very high and more of a specific model/manufacturer putting in poor quality control. Stick with cards like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, or Sapphire and you should be fine as most of the problems came from poor binning of memory and high overclocking on bad chips (That's where artifacting many times comes from).

 

[64K]

One thing I wish Newegg and Amazon would do to help customers out is list the number of cards sold. If you look at customer reviews and see 20 good reviews and 20 bad reviews then it looks like half of the cards had problems but that wouldn't be factual if for instance they had sold 400 of that card. Then the percentage of bad cards wouldn't be 50% it would be 5%. The way it is now isn't helpful and it would be a simple thing to list the total number of a cards sold also I suspect more people are going to post a negative review if they have a problem than the number of satisfied customers will post a positive review.

 

[erocker]

I've had my 7970 since the day they released. Still works.

It's safe to buy whatever card you want to buy.