After a long time of waiting for the new GPU cards from both AMD and NVIDIA, the battle finally rages on with both camps unleashing new top-of-the-line cards to fuel the GPU wars. In AMD’s side, the new Radeon Rx series of graphics cards represent the latest from camp Ruby with the R9 290X cards waving the banner as the to of the line cards. With the new generation of AMD cards are packing the new Hawaii GPUs and all eyes are on those with the older generation HD7000 cards have been pushed down the stack. With over 2 years in service, these cards have seen better days but they still pack quite a punch and AMD is giving them a 2nd lease in life by rebadging the existing HD7000 series cards into the new R-series GPUs.
Today we have both the R9 280X and R9 270X, physically-altered HD7970 and HD7870 respectively from ASUS but not just any regular model, we have the DirectCUII TOP editions of both cards and we’re going to see how the company improves on the already impressive offerings of their past incarnations. For this review we’ll take a look at the ASUS Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII TOPรย (R9 270X review here). The former flagship steps down but still shows it can still swing with the new boys in town. Read on!
- DirectCU II achieves 20% lower temps with direct-contact copper heatpipes, plus 3X quieter and 6X more powerful twin 100mm fan operation.
- Exclusive CoolTech Fan drives wider airflow to keep critical components cool.
- TOP-selected 1070MHz cores run 70MHz higher than reference for smoother gameplay.
- DIGI+ VRM with 12-phase Super Alloy Power delivers precise digital power for superior efficiency, reliability, and performance.
- GPU Tweak helps you modify clock speeds, voltages, fan performance and more, all via an intuitive interface.
