HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost is a very nice gpu that is based on AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series graphics line. The card delivers you ultimate performance due to its extreme hardware capability. Radeon HD 7000 series is a bit old now. We have choice going for the high end GPUs termed under R5, R7 and R9 series. HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost brings back the performance of Radeon HD 7970 gpu. Based on that this card is equipped with more additional feature that not only makes it powerful but a beast with unmatched performance. And also there is a difference in price. It becomes one of the competitive models in the market against other sellers. The card cost around Rs.28,500 as marked on the box. The price differs in local market. It can be cheaper. From a gamers point of view, choosing HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost can be complicated because you already have the HD 7000 series in the market at a bit reasonable rate. You can still opt for a more budget gpu less than 3GB DDR5 based on the same graphics card line.
You can find the entire list of all high end gpu based on AMD Radeon R7 and R9 series on AMD’s official site. Different manufactures like MSI, Asus, Sapphire, Gigabyte, Club 3D, etc; are having similar models but with different price tag. We will checkout a short comparison of prime feature. Based on AMD’s Tahiti Architecture, HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost can be an ultimate choice for your gaming pc. One of the biggest benefits of this card is that it remains cooler due to its design. HIS Digital provides three cards in the same product line. They are HIS R7 260X iPower IceQ X² 2GB GDDR5, HIS R9 270X IceQ X² Turbo Boost Clock 2GB GDDR5 and the one which we are going to test today is HIS R9 280X iPower IceQ X² Turbo Boost Clock 3GB. AMD sells the same model as Radeon R9 280X on which it is built. It is one of the fastest cards in the market. Above that there is a single R9 290 series and there is no other high end card. So you can expect this as one of the extreme edition gpu. Most of the gpu model in the series are based on similar AMD HD 7000 series but with a bit of addition, the card are designed to give extreme output. Like HIS R9 280X iPower IceQ X² Turbo Boost Clock 3GB is designed to stay cooler at extreme usage. Other difference lies in the clock rate. But not much. Before moving ahead let’s take a look on the detail features of HIS R9 280X iPower IceQ X² Turbo Boost Clock 3GB gpu.
Features:
- Cooler: Additional cooler fans and heat pipes keep the card cool in extreme condition.
- Quieter: Designed to work quietly under extreme usage. No vibration with low sound. The card features IceQ X² design that makes the card cooler and quietest. The card produces less then 28dB of sound when you are playing games.
- Dual Fan: HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 holds dual super large 2x89mm axial fans that draws out massive amount of cool air. This allows the gpu to remain cooler on extreme usage. The fan is extremely durable with a life span of up to 50,000 hours. The 2x8mm and 3x6mm wide heat pipes optimize cooling performance by removing heat from the core area. The extra large 40×47.5mm copper heat sink provides a large area to dissipate heat efficiently. The card also features fan control and monitoring, you are able to read fan speed & temperature from iTurbo or from other softwares.
- Long Lasting Design: Dual bios support makes the card work better and offer good output. You can switch to second bios anytime.
- GCN – With AMD 2nd generation GCN technology, the card optimizes DirectX 11.2 gaming performance automatically up to 2.5 times faster! It also offers up to 4.5x compute performance and up to 95% lower GPU Idle Power Consumption!
- Apps Faster & Smoother! – The card enables a “quality graphics” experience on everyday applications, giving huge performance boosts on image processing, file compression, media converter apps, and a lot more!
- PCI-e 3.0 Support – Armed with the latest PCI-e 3.0 bus design maximizes performance by delivering double bandwidth per lane of PCI-e 2.x., pairing the card with the latest platforms and get the ultimate performance!
- More Graphics, Less Power – The new architecture of the card gets more usable processing power for your money, enabling better frame rates in the latest games at high resolutions. In addition, with AMD ZeroCore Power & AMD PowerTune technologies, you can optimize the balance between performance and power consumption of your system by adjusting the engine clock during runtime of the card.
- See More, Enjoy More – The card supports 30” LCD monitor and any large size TV up to 80" feature with 16:9 ratio in amazing 4096 by 2160 resolution. Up-scale your computer into a multimedia center with the biggest display!
- Enjoy HD Beauty – With Full HD 1080p support, the card delivers high quality 1920X1080 graphics, enabling seamless full-screen video playback. See HD, hear HD and feel HD – Enjoy the beautiful graphics with the card!
- Enjoy Copy Protected Movies – The card is HDCP complaint, enabling users to play copy-protected content, such as commercial DVD movies.
- Enjoy True to Life Graphics – ULTRA HD videos have resolution four times that of current HD videos, meaning images also clear that may deceive your eyes! With the card, you are set for getting the movie theater experience to your home. You may be able to watch a video shooting from the Eiffel tower and zoom it in to see your friend’s face clearly from the top! Get your eyes impressed and enjoy mind-blowing graphics with extreme clarity, depth and texture!
- See More, Win More – The card is capable to turn your computer into a super gaming machine. Enjoy the latest 3D games with stunning graphics and effects that your enemies cannot match! Get an immersive experience with AMD Eyefinity. Expand your game across up to 4 displays while your opponents have one monitor. Along with all-new support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation and brand new display configurations, take the unfair advantage over your opponent and win more with the surround sight.
- View More, Work Better – Having one dedicated screen just for twitter or Facebook and a second for outlook is not a dream anymore. The card features 2 Mini-display Ports for enhanced workspace flexibility. You can easily connect to two displays, including the 27” Apple LED Cinema Displays with the two Mini DisplayPorts. The dual-link DVI port allows you connect to a 30” DVI display up to 2560×1600. Resolution can even reach 4096×2160 with HDMI , good for TV up to 80"!
- Hear Better in Video Conference – Most GPUs today support only one audio stream at a time. The card, however, has Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio that can simultaneously output multiple, independent audio streams. Audio seamlessly follows the video, providing affordable multi-display, multi-audio conferencing for consumers.
Specification:
- Cooler: IceQ X²
- GPU: AMD Radeon R9 280X
- Core Clock: Up to 1000 (Boost Clock Up to 1050) MHz
- Memory Clock: Up to 6000 MHz
- Memory Size: 3072 MB
- Memory Type: GDDR5
- Memory Interface: 384 bit
- Memory Clock: 6000 Gbps
- Interface: PCI Express x16 (PCI Express 3.0)
- Card Dimension: 29.7 x 14.1 x 4.2 cm
- Box Dimension: 39.5 x 23.8 x 8.2 cm
- Power Supply Requirement: 750Watt (or greater) power supply with two 150W 8-pin PCIe power connectors recommended. 1000Watt (or greater) power supply with four 150W 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
- Max. Resolution: DisplayPort 1.2 – 4096×2160. HDMI – 4096×2160. Dual-link DVI with HDCP – 2560×1600.
- Interface: PCI Express 3.0 x16
- Outputs: DLDVI-I + HDMI + 2xMini DP
Packaging:
- HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 3GB DDR5 GPU
- Dvi to VGA Adapter
- SLi and CrossFire Bridge
- Software CD
- Manual
Design:
HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost is ideal for high end gaming pc. It can work in any pc with a 1000w psu and a liquid cooler in it. Or else it can still work fine on 650W or 750W. But the highest is the best here. This graphics card features a gold color design where at the front side you can see the fans. This big size fans are placed over a heat sink with heat pipes. The fan pushes more cool air inside cooling down the memory chips instantly. The card’s pcb consist of hynix memory chip. It is a thick and heavy card and it fits well but you need a full Tower case. Like the one which we are using is Corsair Graphite 600T. The card fits really fine on that. Being a full size case, there is still ample of space left for the air to flow properly.
Front/Back: At front you can see dual size fan placed that add more to the cooling stuff. This card really needs a big space to fit inside a computer case.
Connectors: For connectivity the gpu offers one DVI, one HDMI and dual mini display ports. It runs on two 8 pin power connectors.
Heat pipes & Fans: Heat sink and Heat pipe surround the entire card. They are visible at the top side.
Placement: The card needs to place properly on PCI 3.0 port. On older one it can bottleneck. If you have cable issue, then try to tie them together properly.
iTurbo:
HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost comes packed with iTurbo software. This tool offers you few functions through which you can boost the gaming output. First of all the tool gives you detailed information on the graphics card. Like how much is the total ram, the interface, shaders, etc. Also it reflects the temperature of graphics card. This tool also offers you option to boost the gpu clock rate. It is recommended for advance users only. It has three parts. The first screen appears when you click on I. The window gives you details about your graphics card as mentioned above. The other two options are Quieter and Cooler. Depending on the need the gpu automatically manages it settings. If you think while playing game it is making too much sound you can click on Quieter. And if you find the gpu is heating up then click on Cooler. The fan rpm will be boosted.
There is an advance button at the bottom which opens up an advance menu from where you can overclock the graphics card. This is not automated. You have to manually boost the Clock MHz here. Quiet is not recommended for beginners. You can apply different settings here and save around 4 profiles, which you can load anytime. You can also click on Reset to restore the graphic cards factory settings. To turn on just click on the Turbo button in center. It will turn to blue.
GPU Technology:
HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost is powered by 2nd Generation AMD GCN Architecture. This one is designed to offer great graphic output and is ideal for future gaming. That means it will not fade out fast from the market. Through this the gpu is able to take maximum benefit from the internal hardware to deliver great performance. Games work very well on this. Also the architecture lets the gpu to work with various hardware combinations. There is a less chance of bottleneck if you are having a good custom build. The card runs all high-end games smoothly. You won’t face any lagging or freezing issue on the same. It is right to say that HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost has power more than a console graphic. You can hook up to 3 big size monitor via dvi or hdmi cable. You don’t really need to use any Display Port here which is a must in other gpu. To use multiple displays it is very important that you are applying identical monitors. It will not work with different size or resolution.
Performance Test:
HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost falls in the high-end model. Here the Radeon R9 280X based graphics chip codenamed Tahiti is used. Engraved 28nm HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 boards 2048 computer units designed to deliver you great graphics and stunning 3D visuals. To meet the memory requirements of future PC games such as Battlefield 4, the gpu is equipped with 3GB of high speed GDDR5 memory. With performances displayed above the 7970, this Radeon 280X R9 is very interesting due to its very content and price range. The new generation Radeon R9 & R7 are now compatible with DirectX 11.2. Due to which you can integrate them directly into Windows 8.1. The power consumption was also slightly down on this new range. AMD HD3D technology allows you to have stunning 3D visual on your 3D-compatible monitor. HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost is capable of giving you max 4096 by 2160 pixels resolution. I had used a few benchmarking tools below which can provide you optimum output on the gpu performance.
Test Machine Configuration:
- CPU Cabinet – Corsair Graphite 600T Cabinet
- Processor – Intel Core i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (LGA 1155)
- RAM – 4GB Kingston HyperX Blu RAM (2×2) 667Mhz
- Motherboard – Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH-CF
- GPU – HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 3GB DDR5
- Hard Drive 1 – Western Digital 2TB Internal Hard Drive
- Hard Drive 2 – WD 160GB Internal Hard Drive
- PSU – Antec NeoEco 620C PSU
Conclusion:
Due to advanced hardware, HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost meets the requirements of professional gamer. It comes with all types of connectivity option that is requires to hook multiple monitors and get max HD resolution. 3GB of GDDR5 memory is more than enough for any high end game to run flawlessly. You have to take care about the psu requirement. Because that matters a lot here. Without appropriate power you can’t take maximum benefit. HIS Radeon R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost has a very efficient cooling system. And above all it is very quiet when you are using it. The impressive cooling design is able to keep the gpu at low temperature even when you are playing game for hours. Being a high end gpu it fulfills the entire requirement for an extreme gaming pc and also justifies the cost. Auto-overclocking feature add more benefit for those who need extended output.
Pros:
- Good performance
- Quiet
- Good Cooling
- Good Overclocking
Cons
- Costly upgrade
