Edit: My link was to the wrong review, couldn't find one on specifically the asus R9 280 but Here's one for the AMD Radeon R9 280
There's benchmarks for that GPU in that review with crysis, battlefield etc
ASUS Radeon R9 280 3GB GDDR5 DirectCU II - Was $299 now $229 @ Centre Com till 7am
![](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/g/38.jpg)
Last edited 07/08/2014 - 23:49 by 1 other user
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i like bought a 270x for around this price last month D:<
Haha don't beat yourself up about it, technology is always getting better and cheaper, you can always wait a little longer for price drops and better tech, you gotta buy sometime though! ;)
you can always wait a little longer for price drops
depends what the $AUD does…
True! Either way, always able to wait, just a matter of how long..
*Excluding RAM over that last few years
The review is for 290 not the 280.
Thanks! Changed it, best I could find was an amd Radeon r9 280 review. Every review which I found would be the 280x and not the 280
The review you linked to is for R9 290 so don't expect that kind of performance from this card.
So is it a good deal or not?
$15 postage too.
Yes, it's a good deal.
Yes, still a really good deal! But look up benchmarks for GPUs you're considering so you know for yourself :)
Thanks! I've changed it now to just a AMD Radeon R9 280 review, so hard to find a review on the asus without getting a review for the 280x one :/
Darn, now I'm contemplating this over my build pick: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&c…
Arghhhh choices choices!!!
Haha, you should consider the Gigabyte R9 280x, it has another 50MHz in the boost clock over the 280x you're considering for just $10 more, yet they both have their pros and cons. You'll have to research that yourself though :/
Yeah, I did read around just then and the msi version and gig version are pretty much very similar in terms of performance. I'll just stick to what I've got but thanks for bringing the gigabyte one up (it looks pretty bad ass with 3 fans imo lol).
No worries! Ha yeah, that's what I thought too! it does look good.
yet they both have their pros and cons
Well no. The R9 280 is an entirely inferior card to the 280X.
This is a good price for that level of performance however, as you're getting a slightly faster GTX 760 for essentially $30 - 50 dollars less. That being said, I can foresee R9 280Xs dropping to $250 soon enough.
Ha noo, I know that.. I was talking about the 280x watty is considering and the gigabyte 280x. You're still right about the 280 being inferior though!
Mwave sold this card at $209 + $8.95 shipping in their Mwave&Paypal group deals few days back.
Really?! Wow, that's really good. Didn't see that one.
My system currently isn't working (possible faulty motherboard - will be confirmed tomorrow), but I have the R9 290…runs like a bloody dream on ultra settings.
I can't imagine the 280 is too far behind.
Nah, the 280 (non-X) is a looong way behind the 290 on performance. This is alright value but I'd grab a used 7970 or something personally.
^^ This is correct. I have tested 2x 280x in crossfire vs a single R9 290 and the performance of the xfire config is marginally better than the R9 290. While the R9 280x is a decent mid-range card, it is still significantly slower than the 290.
Well aren't I glad I went with the 290…well not really because I think that's the faulty part now, but when it worked, it was a ripper! lol
Oh crap… I thought it was the mobo. Weirdly, there are very few reviews of the 290. Most pertain to the 290x or the 280x.
I don't remember talking about this on OzB…weird
I had the Mobo checked, I do have my suspicions that it's not working properly, but they tested it in front of me and off their ghetto rig, it worked fine, so it has to be the GPU, otherwise…I don't have a single clue. MAYBE the PSU…idk it's kinda difficult to work out.
Not sure I'm seeing the huge deal here, it's only about $5 more on Umart..
Can I crossfire 3 of these and get performance close to a top tier gpu?
Mobo heat and psu will cost you. That said I'm waiting for the 290 deal to get another 2 cards
That 3rd card will be adding like 20-30% of its performance at best plus a world of problems. Game incompatibilities, stuttering, not compatible with cat frame pacing, heat/power. But yes it would. Crossfire for the same money = more raw power (depending on game).
3-4 xfire is for high scores on benchmarks.
is there a big difference between 2 card cf and 3card cf in terms of incompatibilities as you said?
i am currently running 2 card xf and i've not seen issues yet.
issues with running games on 3 displays (eyefinity), but not on cf.
I don't have experience with 3+ cards, basing it on reviews. Maybe because most of the reviewers get their measurements done early before updates are released. 2 cards is fine by most accounts now.
I've since gone for a single since it didn't make sense chasing more fps when you're gonna get stuttering in return anyways. That and I needed custom drivers to get 100+fps on my IPS monitor :D
@krisspy: ah ok. I don't get the mentioned stuttering (maybe I cant tell) on my 2x290s.
besides. I'm setting up for 6x IPS monitors(currently have 3+2) So a single card even for a 290 is going to make it unplayable on many games.
I concur. I was running 2x 280x in xfire vs R9 290. Didn't seem at all worth it. Microstutter is still an absolute ballache. Also, 2GB of VRAM is horrendous on most modern games at higher resolutions.
Sold both my 280x and am sticking to my single card R9 290 for the moment.
Edit: Maybe xfire issues were more pronounced to me as I am typically used to single card configs and very sensitive to microstuttering.
Can I crossfire 3 of these and get performance close to a top tier gpu?
Dude forget about it. You do not have an IBM Blue Supercomputer in your room. There is very little of a practical, financial or performance benefit to multi-GPU setups, other than E-Peen bragging rights.
On the flip side, you have the heat, noise, power consumption, micro-stuttering, incredibly piss-poor SLI/CF support in games these days, incredibly bad driver issues and incredibly slow SLI/CF profile releases, to deal with.
Not to mention the bottle-necking on the PCI-E lanes with 3 GPUs unless you've spent $400 on a top-of-the-range motherboard with the high-end CPU, RAM and correct BIOS tweaking to match. (All of which costs more money and means more trouble to go through).If you're not exactly Steve Wozniak when it comes to IT with a spare 5 grand lying around; always go with one high-end card over two, mid-range cards. Otherwise you're just condemning yourself to a world of frustration, when all you want to do is game properly.
Dude forget about it. You do not have an IBM Blue Supercomputer in your room. There is very little of a practical, financial or performance benefit to multi-GPU setups, other than E-Peen bragging rights.
Some people want to mine coins for example. It's not all about bragging rights.
Wouldn't they be better off mining scrypt with ASICS? GPU based scrypt mining is almost dead as far as I can see. Considering the relatively large investment in terms of cost added to large running costs (power draw of GPUs is fairly high)…. ASICs would be the way to go.
@omgwtfbbq: with some alt-coins, you don't have asics for them yet and the algos are inherently resistant to asics so it really depends on what you want. I just brought up mining as an example that not everything is about bragging rights. ;)
for me, i set my cards to mine when i don't have games/time to play and when it's too darn cold in the room. (Why not get some heat doing useful things rather than spend $ on just pure heating instead. ;)
Sitting next to my cards mining at 80degs each keeps me warm and toasty in a 16deg room with just 1 layer of clothing. haha.
Some people want to mine coins for example. It's not all about bragging rights.
The guy is not bit-coin mining.
"Can I crossfire 3 of these and get performance close to a top tier gpu?"
He's obviously exclusively gaming-oriented.
Late to the party since the deal has already expired but Mwave had the 2G Palit GTX760 for $229 last weekend. Having not looked at hardware specs in about 3-4 years which do you guys think is better? I've read they're roughly at the same tier but apparently Radeon/AMD drivers can be a pain? nVidia used to be the bees knees.
Edit: Did some more reading and looks like the R9 280 will be better especially if you are going to overclock it but sheesh that power consumption…
depends on the games you want to play too… for example, watchdogs, (nvidia optimised game) the makers dragged on their heels for a few months before starting to fix the optimisation for AMD.
i would say, wait for the r9 290 to come down. at least it would be a significant upgrade for you.
i went from a single radeon 6850hd to 2x r9290 … so to me, it gave me that 'wow' feeling of really upgrading my graphics card.
Any word on the next gen of AMD GPU? Because of my case I need a GPU with a reference style cooler (blower fan at one end), wondering if it will be a long wait or I should search for 2nds?
be ready for a long wait / check back next year.
they are still spiurking dual gpu 290Xs as the next big thing.
When the deal was active at $229, I added it to my cart and its still in my cart at that price. Ive reached the page where I select payment method and click 'Place Order'. What if I do make an order, whats the chance they'll cancel the order and demand the current listed price of $279?
As someone who's done a tonne of research into prices and versions of both R9 280s and R9 280x and has just bought a Gigabyte R9 280x, this is a really good deal, even going to around the $300 range, this is one of the best GPUs you can get for your money