MSI Gaming R9 280X OC Edition Review

In the past few days we’ve published no less than three MSI Gaming Series graphics card reviews. Today we’re having a closer look at MSI’s R9 280X Gaming OC Edition graphics card and what it has to offer in details. A quick look reveals, there is a Twin Frozr IV cooler mounted on a reference PCB, which sounds like a combination that offers a very solid price/performance ratio.

 

 

These days we are re having quite a good run reviewing a few MSI Gaming Series graphics cards. Today, we have a chance to check out the R9 280X which features a Twin Frozr IV custom cooler but with a reference PCB. With its black and red color scheme this card looks just about perfect on any MSI Gaming Series motherboard and luckily the manufacturer also decided to slightly overclock the GPU.

Since this is a Twin Frozr Gaming version of the MSI Radeon R9 280X series, the graphics card features a slight factory overclock of 50 MHz for the core. While a standard reference Radeon R9 280X GPU is set to work at 850 MHz for the base GPU clock and 1’000 MHz for the Boost GPU clock, the MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition works at 1000 MHz for the base clock and 1’050 MHz for the Boost GPU clock.

Unfortunately, no factory overclocking was done on the 3GB of GDDR5 memory which remains at the recommended 1’500 MHz (6’000 MHz effective).

During our testing the MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition held 1’050 MHz most of the load time. We have only experienced downclocking under FurMark where the GPU clock was going up and down from 1’020 MHz to 1’000 MHz. We did not notice any throttling while gaming.

 

Specifications

 

MSI Twin Frozr Gaming R9 280X OC Edition R9 280X TurboDuo OC R9 280X DC II Top Radeon R9 280X
Chip Tahiti XT2/L Tahiti XT2/L Tahiti XT2/L Tahiti XT2/L
Process 28 nm 28 nm 28 nm 28 nm
Transistors 4.31 billion 4.31 billion 4.31 billion 4.31 billion
GPU clock 1’000 MHz 880ย MHz 1’070ย MHz 850 MHz
GPU Boost clock 1’050 MHz 1’030 MHz N/A 1’000 MHz
Memory GDDR5 3’072 MB 3’072 MB 3’072 MB 3’072 MB
Memory clock 1’500 (6’000) MHz 1’500 (6’000) MHz 1’600 (6’400) MHz 1’500 (6’000) MHz
Memory interface 384 Bit 384 Bit 384 Bit 384 Bit
Memory bandwidth 288.0 GB/s 288.0 GB/s 307.2 GB/s 288 GB/s
Shader Cores 2’048 2’048 2’048 2’048
TMUs 128 128 128 128
ROPs 32 32 32 32
PCB Type Custom Design Reference Design Custom Design Reference Design
Lenght (PCB – Total) 26.8 26.8 cm 28.7 cm xx.x – xx.x cm
Height (PCB – Total) 11.8 cm 13.0 cm 14.8 cm xx.x – xx.x cm
Slots 2 2 2 2
Cooler Twin Frozr IV TurboDuo DirectCU II AMD Reference