10 Aug 2021 - Graphics card reviewed

The Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition is a very low performing piece of gaming hardware and can probably only run indie system requirements.

DirectX 11 gaming system requirements will be met by this gpu.

Here is a quick game performance synopsis for the AAA games played in 2023. In particular we focus on how well the Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition runs at Ultra graphics settings and what frames per second it is getting at 1080p, 1440p and 4K monitor resolutions. In comparison to the game recommended requirements of the 1000 most demanding games played today this PC hardware can run 235.

With 1080p being the most common gaming resolution at the moment we explored how well the Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition can run Forza Horizon 5 at 1080p and saw it return weak frame rates at the following graphics settings - Low: 57 FPS, Medium: 45 FPS, High: 30 FPS and Ultra: 22 FPS. For performance contrast we can see that Star Citizen is predicted to return a playable 31 FPS at Ultra 1080p.

Next up we increase screen res tests to accommodate the growing in popularity 1440p screen size. So we booted up Forza Horizon 5 to see how the Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition dealt with it. It scored up a weak series of FPS results across these graphics presets - Low: 43 FPS, Medium: 34 FPS, High: 23 FPS and Ultra: 16 FPS. Next we looked at Star Citizen which we predict will be weak with a 24 FPS at Ultra 1440p. And finally looked at Grand Theft Auto VI that we predict will get an Ultra 1440p FPS of 0. Looking at a few of these 1440p results for the Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition we get the impression that it is not the best choice to run modern games.

How many years will the Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition graphics card play newly released games and how long until you should consider upgrading the Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition in your PC? 12-18 months of top end gaming is still left in this graphics card

Whats a good PC graphics upgrade for the Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition? A great upgrade graphics card would be a RX 5000 Series Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB, which has 50% better performance and can run 716 of the top 1000 demanding game requirements today. Alternatively a suitable upgrade choice for the Radeon R9 280X Sapphire Toxic 3GB OC Edition is the RX 5000 Series Radeon RX 5300, which is 20% more powerful and can run 300 of the 1000 most demanding PC games beating their recommended requirements.