AMD has been filling the gaps between its new Radeon R9 and R7 lineup for quite a while and has now officially announced the new R9 280 which will fit snuggly between the R9 280X and the R9 270X.


By taking a look at the specification of the R9 280, it is clear that this is a rebranded Radeon HD 7950 Boost which has been on the market for quite a while. Based on the same Tahiti Pro GPU, the R9 280 packs 1792 Stream Processors, 112 TMUs and 32 ROPs as well as comes with 3GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 384-bit memory interface. It also needs 8+6-pin PCI-Express power connectors and does not support AMD TrueAudio.

While AMD has not released any official details regarding the clocks of the new R9 280, which is understandable considering that most partners already have their own custom versions, since it is a rebranded HD 7950 Boost graphics card. Most standard, non-factory overclocked R9 280 graphics card will be clocked at around 850MHz base and 940MHz Boost GPU clocks.

AMD has decided to launch the R9 280 with a US $279 price tag, which is just a mere US $20 lower than the R9 280X, which is also a completely different beast. The problem with AMD Radeon graphics card is currently in high popularity for coin mining which puts the R9 280X at US $450 on Newegg.com, rather than US $300, which it should be sold at. The same deal will probably happen with the R9 280 as well.

On the other hand, US $279 price tag for the R9 280 hits the sweet spot as it goes head to head with the Geforce GTX 760, and is generally a bit faster for the same amount of money. Unfortunately, it appears that the R9 280 will not be a part of any AMD gaming bundles.



Source: AMD.com.