14 DAY TRIAL // The Radeon R9 280X graphics card hasn't been detailed by AMD, exactly, despite the Hawaii-based lineup having supposedly been revealed. Fortunately, leaks abound.
Or rather, there is one leak that caught our eye, from VideoCardz. Said report holds a couple of photos of the XFX Radeon R9 280X Double Dissipation graphics card.
Unlike the Radeon R9 290X, which AMD will restrict to the reference design for a while, the R9 280X will only be shipped as custom models from OEMs. Probably because it's little more than a rebrand of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.
We're not totally sure that XFX is using the same PCB design as on that board, but at least the cooler looks new.
The Radeon R9 280X is powered by the Tahiti XTL GPU (graphics processing unit) and features 2,048 GCN stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM (6.4 GHz), and a memory interface of 384 bits.
Presumably, the GPU will run at above 1 GHz, but we don't know the exact clock. Alas.
That said, the box of the video controller mentioned an “unlocked voltage” which, we suppose, means that owners will be able to overclock the adapter, either manually or via software, or both.
As for the cooler, it pulls heat out of the GPU via some copper heatpipes and dissipates it into the rather chunky aluminum fin heatsink. The heat is dispersed by the two 100 mm fans.
We can't see the power ports, but we imagine that there are two 6-pin PCI Express connectors at the back, or at least one 8-pin port if XFX considers overclocking potential essential. What we do make out is the CrossFireX connector at the top.
Sales of the XFX Radeon R9 280X Double Dissipation should begin on October 3 for the price of $299 / €221 to $329 / €243.
