14 DAY TRIAL // You'd think that it would take some time before the newest graphics cards from Advanced Micro Devices got replaced, but the Radeon R9 280X is turning out to be a rather special case.
AMD's Radeon R9 280X isn't a totally new video board. Instead, it is a sort of rebranded and refashioned Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.
This wasn't always supposed to be the case though. Instead of the Tahiti XT2 (the same chips as on the older card), the newcomer should have used the Tahiti XTL.
Sadly, the Tahiti XTL was not ready for the launch in early October, and AMD was unwilling to delay its entire schedule just because of that.
Besides, it's not hard to surmise that the Sunnyvale, California-based company appreciates the chance to digest inventories of the older chip.
Nevertheless, the Radeon R9 280X was supposed to be better than it is right now, so AMD intends to make it so.
The revision of the Radeon R9 280X is scheduled for availability this November, in the second half of the month.
Don't expect any world-shaking differences though. The Tahiti XTL will only have a lower power consumption and heat output.
That last bit, by extension, means a lower noise output, since coolers won't need to be so aggressive in their heat dissipation activities.
AMD won't make any announcement regarding the revision. It will be more of a progressive replacement for add-in board partners. The only way we'll know if a card is revised or not will be to check the BIOS, or disassemble the card.
For anyone who wants a rundown of the AMD R9 280X specs, the card has 1 GHz max clock, 3 GB GDDR5 VRAM, 2,048 stream processors, two power ports (1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin), quad-channel CrossFire support, and multiple video outputs (dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort).