XFX R9 280 Double Dissipation Black Edition OC 3GB Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

AMD’s reference R9 280 graphics card has an MSRP of $280 or £200. In the UK we are seeing XFX’s R9 280 Double Dissipation Black Edition OC graphics card with a £219.99 MSRP, for Europeans that is about a €270 MSRP. In the USA it is selling for $300 MSRP. That means XFX are roughly charging a 10% premium over reference pricing for their custom cooler, cherry picked GPUs and factory overclocks – not too bad at all. For those of you who’d rather not pay extra for a speed binned chip and factory overclock then you can get a cheaper version that still packs the same cooler, current pricing details & links for both XFX R9 280 SKUs are below.

XFX R9 280 Double Dissipation (Black Edition OC) – $299.99 | £215.14

XFX R9 280 Double Dissipation (Standard Edition)  – $279.99 | £203.14

In the UK and Europe the XFX R9 DD 280s have a 2 year limited warranty. In North America they have a 2 year limited warranty too, but that can be extended to a lifetime warranty if you register it within 30 days as far as I am aware. You can read XFX’s warranty policy here.

Overview 

XFX’s R9 280 Double Dissipation Black Edition OC graphics card is certainly a solid graphics card. Whether you’re looking to game or looking to mine you’re going to get a great graphics card that has bags of performance and overclocking potential. Under gaming loads it runs cool and quiet while under mining loads the cooler is easily capable of taming 24/7 operation and with hefty overclocks. XFX have really done AMD’s R9 280 justice  – they haven’t put a foot wrong. We can see that XFX have really upped their game since the HD 7000 series because we’ve got a more effective cooling solution, better looking design, quieter operation and more adventurous clock speeds. Now please don’t mind me while I go and buy six of these for my newest mining rig….honestly I’m just kidding!…..but I know other people who won’t be. If you’re a gamer then I’d say grab these before the miners ruin your fun again!

Pros

• Has massive overclocking headroom
• Runs cool and quiet
• Excellent mining potential
• One of the best looking R9 280s on the market
• Flexible display output configuration

Cons

• Black Edition is priced dangerously close to the R9 280X
• Availability and pricing is susceptible to significant fluctuation from mining demand
• Mini DP to full size DP adapters would be welcome

“To mine or to game? Who cares! The XFX R9 280 Double Dissipation Black Edition OC graphics card is going to excel at whatever you’re doing. With bags of overclocking headroom, competitive pricing, quiet operation and an efficient cooling solution there really isn’t much more you could ask for. “

Thank you to XFX for providing this review sample.