Final Thoughts
Sapphire took an already good product in their R9 280X Vapor-X OC graphics card and “refreshed” it to an even better product. The biggest thing that stands out is the cooling solution on the card. Sapphire has added their Tri-X cooling, which is made up three cooling fans compared to the two that are on the original Vapor-X OC card. Even with the added fan the card is very quiet. The card also makes use of Sapphire’s Vapor-X (vapor chamber) cooling technology.
The card comes factory overclocked with speeds of 1100 MHz for the GPU boost, compared to the reference R9 280X’s speeds of 1000 MHz GPU boost. This allows you to get even more performance out of the card. After taking the cooler off of the card we found Hynix memory chips which are said to be 15-20% more efficient than ELPIDA chips found on most R9 280X’s. The card is built with Black Diamond chokes and full Solid Cap’s which should help with stability and overclocking. I was able to get the card to easily perform at 1150 MHz GPU boost and 6400 MHz memory, which is the same speed as Sapphire’s own R9 280X Toxic card.
With the Tri-X cooling design Sapphire has also added a large shroud that has a black and metallic blue design. This looks really sleek and there is a Vapor-X logo on the side of the card that actually lights up when the card is powered on. If you have a case with a side panel window this is going to look great.
Right now you can pick up this card for around $400 at my favorite online retailer, which is a great price for an overclocked R9 280X with a custom cooling solution. If you are in the market for an R9 280X this is definitely one that should be at the top of your list. Overall ThinkComputers give the Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X TRI-X OC Video Card a 10 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award.
Pros:
– Factory overclocked
– Tri-X cooling solution
– Hynix memory chips used
– Great cooling
– Sleek design and light-up Vapor-X logo
Cons:
– None
