Gigabyte R9 280X OC 3 GB

[NeoXF]

Boo! to the crappy VRAMs they used... :\

Also, BOO! again for the stupid blue colored PCB... I mean, really? WHY!? R9 270X Windforce OC has a black PCB and the blocky-looking version of WF... and it looks PHENOMENAL... and is also a 50% cheaper card...

 

[Jaxinc]

This is again very bizarre... Again looking at the Gigabyte GTX770 it was 33dbA @ 76°C, here Gigabyte gives 45dbA @ 69°C? Something is just strange with the way AIB's are releasing these R9 280X, it seems like all of the AIB have futzed with the fan profiles or the cheapen the fans (although similar in appearance), and other going ons’.

Look at Windforce cooler on the GTX770 it has 6 H-P's, the R9 280X has only 3 H-P, but can run much cooler? Sure they run the fans are much faster (if they are the same specs) but why? Here's what's striking (again as was with the Asus twins) the Gigabyte GTX 770 is dissipating some 25% less watt's (peak) than the R9 280X, but runs hotter with 6 H-P's. It's all a little strange the these AIB's aren't able to give at least something comparable in these situations.

I think this Gigabyte cut to many corners to give use that price, would need to see the fan profile could be juggled to minimize noise while holding at 73-75°C which won't be an issue with a Tahiti.

Gonna have to agree with this post... something was cut to make the price. I have a 7970Ghz and the fans are barely audible over the case fans when gaming, and even at full load it's not that bad... I can't even push this card to 70C at all and the R9 is based off the 7970 Ghz??

I also noticed that in /some/ of the FPS tests the 7970 Ghz came nearly identical to the R9 in performance.

I seriously had to register to comment on this...

I tested the card like I have tested every other card before. It's simply a case of "we want to impress Asian customers with low temperatures". I even heard some people there think noisy=good, because it means powerful

This almost implies that Gigabyte swapped out the fans used on the 7970 Ghz for louder fans, at least this is how I take that remark...

I have a Gigabyte Windforce 7950 card running a 7970 Windforce bios (1000MHz core - 1475 memory) and it is utterly silent in any game I play. I fail to understand how it's possible that this R9 280X could be anything else

Same? Only thing that makes sense to me is they changed the fans, or the blade design to make more noise? For the 'Asian' market?

 

[Jaxinc]

Update to this.

After some digging I found that Gigabyte has been putting the Version 1 cooler from the 7950-7970 on the new R9 which is the reason for the louder fans and higher temperatures. If you took them off a 280 and compared them to an older 7950 they would be identical outside of the card itself, and since the 280 is a Tahiti chip still the cooler is compatible... So the 280s are not, or were not, using the newer generation cooler used on the 7970Ghz for whatever reason, again Asian market?

Anyway... for those wondering about the increased noise level and temperature differences....

 

[dj-electric]

Rev 2 owner here. Card did improve on acoustics.