As the "new" AMD Radeon R9 280X cards are based on the Radeon HD 7970 manufacturers were able to release their own models into the market straight off the mark. We received several models of the 280X cards over the last few months, so it is time to compare models from ASUS, MSI, Sapphire and XFX in an extensive test.

AMD released new graphics cards in October and November at a very high pace. The new high end models Radeon R9 290X and 290 took their time to come to the market in custom versions, but as the 280X is basically a rebranded Radeon HD 7970 most manufacturers already had custom versions on the market. This meant that custom 280X cards came out almost at the same time as the cards were introduced. The cards we review in this test therefore have been on the market for quite some time already.