Overview
Radeon R9 280X is a high-end Graphics Card based on the first revision of the Graphics Core Next architecture. Read below to know more.

Architecture
The GCN Architecture succeeds the 40nm Terascale Architecture. In addition to being produced with a 28nm Technology, the GCN Architecture adds other Technologies that allow for energy efficiency. For example, ZeroCore Power, a long idle power saving technology, allows the Graphics Cards to shut down by itself when the Monitor is turned off.
GCN also adds Improved Anisotropic Filtering, DirectX 11 Tessellation and the Partially Resident Textures (PRT) Technology, which enables future games to utilize ultra-high resolution textures with the same performance as today's small and often repetitive textures.

GPU
It equips a GPU codenamed Tahiti XTL Core, which is an energy optimized version of the Tahiti XT2 Core previously used on Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and offers 2048 Shader Processing Units, 128 TMUs and 32 ROPs, on a 384-bit memory interface. While the central unit runs at 850MHz and goes up to 1000MHz, in Turbo Mode, the memory clock operates at 1500MHz.

Features
DirectX 11.2 Support (11.0 Hardware Default) and support for Crossfire, Mantle, PowerTune, TrueAudio, Eyefinity, ZeroCore, HD3D, App Acceleration and other technologies.

Cooling Solution
The Cooling Solution consists of a Single-Fan. The Card is known to run relatively cool.

Power Consumption
With a rated board TDP of 250W, it requires at least a 750W PSU with one 6-pin and one 8-pin available connectors.

Release Price
The release price of $290 is much lower than of its predecessor - Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition which was launched for $499.

Performance
Gaming benchmarks prove that at 1080p (1920x1080) Radeon R9 280X is actually 3% slower than its predecessor and so GeForce GTX 770 is still slightly faster.

System Suggestions
We recommend a decent Quad Core Processor (Intel Core i5 Quad Core/AMD FX Six Core) and 8GB of RAM for a system with Radeon R9 280X