Product Photos - ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP
So the ASUS R9 280X is a 3GB version with that popular DCU-II dual-fan cooler. It has a 6 and 8-pin PCI-E PEG power connector. But let's quickly look at the packaging first, shall we ?
The 280X is armed with 3GB to to get you a little more leash with resolutions and image quality settings. As such the card has been designed to be a nice match for QHD gaming, up-to 2560x1440. The reality though is that the Radeon R9 280X honestly is nothing more than a Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition with the same GPU, a few BIOS tweaks and a new cooler slapped on top of it.
Sleek and stealthy is what comes to mind when we look at the product. Okay fair enough, that is a brilliant camera angle as well ;) Being Radeon HD 7970 GHz (Tahiti XT2) based also means that the specs are fairly similar, 2048 shader processor running up-to a core frequency of 1 GHz. The 3GB GDDR5 graphics memory runs on a 384-bit wide bus. Honestly I can't report anything new or surprising here, other than that it might throttle a little higher on the clock frequency and that it has a slightly higher memory bandwith.