AMD Radeon R9 280X (ASUS DirectCU II TOP) benchmarked and reviewed

Testing Methodology

Before starting with our benchmarks, which require a lot of work and time investment, I told myself that there was no tangible point of comparing the R9s and R7s to the previous generation of HD 7000 Radeons, since the difference will only show you what you already know: some mere percentage performance increases. So I thought, why not just compare the R9 280X with its direct competitors from Nvidia a segment above and below.

The numbers you’ll see in this benchmark come from recording the rendering time for every single frame of animation during each test run. This means the time it takes to render a frame, the latency. Average frames per second is calculated using Fraps. Average FPS does give a basic idea on the GPU’s performance, but it doesn’t translate to smooth gameplay. Which is the reason why we use 99th percentile frame latency numbers, as the give us a deeper understanding on how a GPU can smoothly run a game.

Test Bed
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570k @ 4.5 Ghz
Motherboard: ASrock Z77 Pro4
RAM: 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SD RAM at 1600Mhz
PSU: Seasonic X850W
Chipset Drivers: INF update 9.2.3.1023
OS: Windows 8.1 x64
Nvidia WHQL Drivers: 331.40 beta
Catalyst Drivers: 13.12 beta

We use Fraps as our sole FPS calculator. The version of our Fraps is 3.5.99.

Thanks to Corsair for providing us the Obsidian 750D cabinet, which allowed us to fit in everything with highest degree of convenience.

Unless otherwise specified, image quality settings for the graphics cards were left at the control panel defaults. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.

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Crysis 3

Crysis 3 is a popular first-person shooter game, while not living up to its expectations, is still used in benchmarks extensively due to the amount of stress it levies, especially on the graphics card.

Our Crysis 3 Review: Link

All the graphical settings were set to the highest possible, with Anti-aliasing set to Low (1X). Texture resolution was set to Very High and Anisotropic Filtering to 16x.

Our average FPS and latency-focused 99th percentile frame time benchmarks seem to be in tandem with each other. The ASUS DC2T R9 280X sits itself exactly where it should i.e. almost at par with the GeForce GTX 770 (in this case, exactly at the same level of performance) and slightly lower than the GTX 780.

Analysing intricately, there is a considerable bump from the performance level of the R9 270X, with the 280X slotting a massive 13 average frames higher than the former. In terms of 99th percentile latency, the 280X’s numbers are just a millisecond higher than the GTX 770, while just kissing the GTX 780’s score. That’s impressive, for a start. Moving on..

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Far Cry 3

Everybody at iLLGaming loves Far Cry 3. With a compelling story, beautiful lush island and tight mechanics, Far Cry 3 is the pinnacle of FPS gaming. Almost 2 years since it has been released, it is still the defining modern-day shooter to go for.

Our Far Cry 3 Review: Link

Our Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Review: Link

The R9 280X does great on the Far Cry 3 benchmark. Not only does it surpass the GTX 770 in average frames by a good margin, its numbers almost touch those achieved by the GTX 780. The value being offered here is commendable. And we have to say, ASUS has done a neat job with R9 280X.

The 280X also managed to keep it’s average frame latency below 30 milliseconds, which puts it right in the class of the GTX 780 and the GTX Titan. The latency is a good 3 milliseconds faster than the GTX 770. So it is evident that unlike before, where AMD cards were prone to frequent spikes in frame render time, AMD has worked on optimising drivers to assure the smoothest of gaming.

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