Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition 3GB Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Sapphire’s Toxic R9 280X is hitting the market at 20% above the MSRP of the AMD R9 280X which is $300/£240. This means in the USA we are seeing pricing of $359.99 at Amazon while in the UK we’re seeing pricing of £267.94 and £269.99 from Scan Computers and Overclockers UK respectively.

Overview

As a feat of GPU engineering the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic is a brilliant graphics card. For an AMD R9 280X it is stupendously fast thanks to Sapphire’s really high overclock. It also runs very cool considering the hefty overclock, though noise does suffer a little as a result – but considering how cool it runs you could easily tweak the fan profiles (using something like Sapphire’s TriXX utility) to reduce noise at the expense of a few extra degrees. What’s even more impressive is that the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic was able to overclock further, than its already high overclock of 1150MHz, to 1230MHz. Though sadly our sample wasn’t good enough for the unlocked voltage to make any further progress above the 1230MHz that could be achieved using factory voltage settings. I think the aesthetics and the build quality also speak volumes about how much work Sapphire have put into this card and we can clearly see the use of high quality materials, both on the PCB and with the cooling solution.

Sapphire’s Radeon R9 280X Toxic Edition graphics card certainly isn’t going to be for everyone though. I will highlight a few of the negatives with it that are worth considering. The first is that being an R9 280X pushed very close to its limits, the card does use a lot of power. We were seeing about 17.5% more than an R9 290 at peak load. So clearly the “price you pay” for getting a cheaper card than more expensive GPUs (like the R9 290 or GTX 780), is increased power consumption. However, for the enthusiastic overclocker high power consumption is part of the overall experience. Second is that it is a very long graphics card. At just over 12 inches you’re going to need lots of space for it, and a well ventilated case because this graphics card produces a lot of heat thanks to the efficiency of the Tri-X cooler in moving heat away from the GPU. The last point worth mentioning is that you’re paying a significant 20% premium for a speed-binned pre-overclocked GPU. If you’re on a tight budget then buying something like the Sapphire Vapor-X OC graphics card and overclocking it to the same level as the Toxic Edition is something worth considering to save money. Though you wouldn’t be able to access the same level of cooling offered by the Toxic edition and there is no guarantee the GPU would be capable of overclocking as far as the Toxic Edition (the silicon lottery is always a gamble).

Pros

• Close to GTX 780/R9 290 levels of performance for much less money
• Looks like a beast!
• Efficient cooling solution
• Overclocks well thanks to strong VRM and cooling

Cons

• Consumes a lot of power
• Is a very long graphics card
• Produces a lot of heat
• Only a 2 year warranty

“If you’re looking for the best AMD Radeon R9 280X money can buy, in terms of prestige and performance, then the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition is the graphics card to consider. For a modest premium over the price of a normal R9 280X you can be snapping at the heels of a GTX 780 or R9 290. Furthermore, Sapphire’s innovative Tri-X cooling solution does a solid job of regulating the large amount of heat produced by the power hungry overclocked R9 280X GPU. It’s Toxic, but in a good way!”

Thank you to Sapphire for providing this review sample.