Reddit reviews RADEON R9 280 3GB GDDR5 UEFI

R9 280 currently £130... So it's a pretty sweet deal ATM.

I've done a lot of research into this price range over the last few days, and I just bought an R9 280X for the equivalent of 230€ in the UK.

People will say R9 290 without realising the price. The cheapest I could find for you is this Sapphire R9 290, at 285€.

The prices and quality of the other graphics card around 250€ is not great in EU. I'd say the next best value for money is the Sapphire R 280 for 190€.

What price are you finding them at? You can get a new Sapphire r9 280 from Amazon for only £139.98 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IRTXPBM?ie=UTF8&tag=pric097-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=1634&creativeASIN=B00IRTXPBM and a used (like new) one from £125 if you're not confident about the club3d one.

Get a cheaper PSU (this), and the r9 280 here.

Also, are you reusing RAM? If not, don't buy any RAM over £60.

Scan are selling xfx r9 280s for 150 quid.

And there's this 280 on Amazon going for 140 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00IRTXPBM/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/277-8774426-9103543?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&redirect=true&ref_=nosim&tag=geizhals07-21

Frankly, unless you have a monitor higher res than 1080p the 280 will be fine, especially for 140-150 quid. My 290 is a bit overkill for my monitor and in hindsight I probably could have gone for a cheaper card.

Oh and the 285 might be worth it if you plan to upgrade your monitor soon to one with Adaptive Sync, but otherwise I wouldn't bother looking at the price difference.

Same Graphics card cheaper.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IRTXPBM/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d2_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_r=1BQAVR2DGTWV20RZ4FTE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=455345507&pf_rd_i=468294

and unless you plan to Crossfire then you could safely drop the PSU down to a 500w one.
and try building using http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ will sort all compatibility issues and shoparound for the cheapest price for you.

In that case, don't go for the 7850 the prices you're looking at for a new card make it very bad value. You can get the radeon r9 280 for £130 and that will destroy the 7850.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IRTXPBM/

For £350 I have to recommend:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
Motherboard | MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | £30.97 @ Scan.co.uk
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £35.94 @ Aria PC
Case | Zalman ZM-T3 MicroATX Mini Tower Case | £19.94 @ CCL Computers
Power Supply | EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | £35.40 @ Amazon UK
Other| Sapphire AMD R9 280 Graphics Card (3GB, DDR5) | £129.90 @ Amazon
Other| Crucial 8GB DDR3 1600 MT/s CL11 SODIMM 204 Pin 1.35V/1.5V Memory Module | £51.09 @ Amazon
Other| Intel Pentium Dual Core G3258 | £47.98 @ Dabs
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £351.22
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-13 17:46 BST+0100 |

The G3258 + H81 is such good value. Out of the box it'll do well but what makes this amazing is when you overclock it. https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=182658.0 . Also the 280 will run every game at 1080p on Ultra settings. Fantastic card for the price.

For £450,
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor | £133.14 @ Aria PC
Motherboard | Asus H81M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | £40.57 @ Scan.co.uk
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £35.94 @ Aria PC
Case | Xigmatek Recon ATX Mid Tower Case | £27.94 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply | EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | £35.93 @ CCL Computers
Other| Sapphire AMD R9 280 Graphics Card (3GB, DDR5) | £129.90 @ Amazon
Other| Crucial 8GB DDR3 1600 MT/s CL11 SODIMM 204 Pin 1.35V/1.5V Memory Module | £51.09 @ Amazon
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £454.51
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-16 12:02 BST+0100 |

The extra £100 has gone into getting an i5. This will perform better in intensive CPU tasks but in gaming there will only be a few fps difference. I can't really recommend it over the £350 build because you already have your laptop for work.

All in all I have to recommend the £350 build and saving some money for an SSD

The sapphire r9 280 is actually on sale at amazon for £139.99 right now:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00IRTXPBM/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Not commenting on the build, just letting you know as an option.

The Sapphire R9 280 fits the budget: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/

I would recommend the 280 over the 4gb 270x. The 4GB on the 270x is not worth the extra money in my opinion.

I also personally bought a second hand hd7870 (r9 270x) recently and it works a charm. It could be worth it and could save you some money. 'could'.

It is good to get an ssd (mx100, 850evo are the go to ones). 128-256gb size will suffice, mainly for the OS and programs and regular games.

Also can someone correct me if I'm wrong but there aren't too many games on Ubuntu yet and windows is still the most viable gaming OS? Although with steam machines etc.... ramble ramble any one else know some about it?

If you're okay with warehouse deals:

The R9 280 for $127 - you save around $24

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor | £137.99 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard | MSI H97M-E35 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | £61.14 @ Amazon UK
Memory | Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | £51.44 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £43.92 @ Amazon UK
Case | Fractal Design Core 1500 MicroATX Mini Tower Case | £39.50 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply | EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | £38.52 @ Amazon UK
Other| Amazon Warehouse R9 280 | £127.00
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £499.51
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-22 14:45 GMT+0000 |


Changed the case and the motherboard, check the case out see if you like it!

Here is a suggestion of a good build. You could get a 280x if you want, but the 280 will be good enough for now.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor | £109.99 @ Ebuyer
Motherboard | MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard | £45.95 @ Amazon UK
Memory | Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | £62.97 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £35.94 @ Aria PC
Video Card | MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card | £149.99 @ Amazon UK
Case | Fractal Design Core 2300 ATX Mid Tower Case | £36.95 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply | EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | £46.09 @ Aria PC
Optical Drive | Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer | £10.46 @ Aria PC
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) | £72.35 @ Aria PC
Monitor | BenQ RL2455HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor | £131.09 @ Scan.co.uk
Wireless Network Adapter | TP-Link TL-WN727N 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter | £7.38 @ Misco UK
Keyboard | Corsair Raptor K30 Wired Gaming Keyboard | £37.79 @ Aria PC
Mouse | Logitech G402 Wired Optical Mouse | £35.65 @ Amazon UK
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £782.60
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-29 20:02 GMT+0000 |

Edit: By the way I found a Gigabyte 280 for £139.99 on Amazon if you want to save a tenner.

I would buy this and save up a bit more money afterwards for a decent i5

You don't have to pay import costs when buying from countries that are part of the EU. I don't know if amazon.co.uk still does free shipping to the Netherlands, but amazon.de definitely does. This could be a nice build from Amazon. Windows 8.1. is cheaper on azerty, so just buy it there.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor | £135.59 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-B85M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | £48.51 @ Amazon UK
Memory | Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | £62.32 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | £79.00 @ Amazon UK
Case | Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case | £36.82 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply | Corsair Builder 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | £51.10 @ Amazon UK
Optical Drive | Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer | £13.15 @ Amazon UK
Other| Sapphire AMD R9 280 Dual-X| £135.00
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £561.49
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-20 15:23 GMT+0000 |

Link for the R9 280: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419088898&sr=8-1&keywords=R9+280

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418853028&sr=8-2&keywords=R9+280X

There's a deal for a 280 at £135 on amazon right now! So get that! This. http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1418830623&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=R9+280x

I would suggest changing your 760 to this R9 280:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418573144&sr=8-1&keywords=r9+280

Its actually £15 cheaper and here are some benchmarks

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1038?vs=1332

Its slightly better in almost every game.

It doesn't appear on PCPP for some reason, but it's here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414491410&sr=8-1&keywords=r9+280

When you upgrade your CPU, I strongly suggest you upgrade the motherboard as well. An i3-4150 is nothing fancy, but it is a noticeable upgrade from your current FX-4100.

Here's a full list of suggested upgrades. Everything marked with £0.00 is just a placeholder for parts you already own.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor | £84.87 @ Amazon UK
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo 43.1 CFM CPU Cooler * | £16.81 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | £54.84 @ Amazon UK
Memory | Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory | £0.00
Storage | Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | £74.90 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Toshiba 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive | £0.00
Storage | Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £0.00
Video Card | Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card | £129.90 @ Amazon UK
Case | Zalman Z5 ATX Mid Tower Case | £0.00
Power Supply | EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | £35.38 @ Amazon UK
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £396.70
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-09 00:21 BST+0100 |

*Note: the CM cooler is unnecessary if you plan on getting the i3 very soon, as it would only be necessary for continued use of the FX-4100

Get another one and sell the R7 250. What's your budget? The R9 280 is incredibly cheap at the moment: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/

Use Anandtech Bench to compare graphics cards: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU14/815

Also, if you're upgrading I would STRONGLY recommend getting a new power supply. The one you've got could break at any time, and break the rest of your components too. Find one that's at least 80+ Bronze certified. This is a good one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ALYP208/. You won't need any more wattage for your build.

PCPartPicker is what everyone uses in this subreddit for formatting their builds: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/ - it might be easier than copying it all out!

Cheaper one here

http://www.amazon.fr/gp/aw/d/B00IRTXPBM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1427720895&sr=8-1&keywords=r9+%22280%22&dpPl=1&dpID=41gEov8KcPL&ref=plSrch&pi=SX200_QL40

Open your case in your personal computer and tell me what name your psu have (u can't check this with cpu-z sorry).There are really big chances that you have to change your psu too.

i recommend this parts(but u propably need cash for new psu):
i5 2500k
motherboard
card

It really is a rabbit hole :D


Hm, didn't know that. However, doesn't Kodi support pretty much all the common formats? Could I not use one of those cheap servers for a theoretical double 4K stream? All possible end devices should be able to keep up (My gaming monster, and two macbooks, both more recent than 2017).


I've just remembered I might have some old hardware lying around in Spain: i3-4160, a R9 280, a 500W PSU, and a MSI Motherboard - Not sure how well they are doing, haven't been down there in 15 months, and I wouldn't know how to get them up here...

Was that the fairly cheap one on amazon? I'm planning to get it soon, how is it?

This one, that's quite actually pretty nice deal.

Was going to say, there's an offer at the moment for an Sapphire R9 280 for just £140 on Amazon, apparently dispatch is quicker than they quote.

I'm from Spain.
http://www.amazon.es/Sapphire-Dual-X-280-3GB-GDDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427730189&sr=8-1&keywords=r9+280

You think this power is good?
http://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B00CVUW5PK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1AT7YVPFBWXBL

This?

What is the difference between:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=cm_cd_ql_qh_dp_t

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IYD0HYO/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2UN3NAZJYU382&coliid=I1FJML7LLA2TRV

I'm not overly concerned about rendering speed, since it isn't too important to me, but I'll have a look at the 860k. Was this the GPU that you were referring to?

Storage wise, I have only used up 118GB in 3 years on my laptop (then again, I only installed a few games on it). I was thinking that I should get an SSD first and add a HDD later if I needed additional storage space. I suppose that due to this I could drop down to a 128GB SSD, such as the Crucial MX100 128GB and also get a Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_7?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1422435794&sr=1-7&keywords=r9+290

£140 new.

Considering that Maxwell is still on 28nm and yields are fantastic at this point, nVidia's price per mm^2 of die is really just gouging at this point

this is most likely the best GPU you can get in that budget.

Its only an extra £10 to get a R9 280 instead, and its still in the £150 budget

Is there any reason for this R9 280 being about £10 cheaper than any other 280 on pcpartpicker? That one also doesn't show up on pcpartpicker, and I thought that Sapphire was one of the better brands for AMD cards? Forgive me if that's wrong though!

Also, what kind of performance can I expect from a 280, and how long is it going to be able to keep up with newer games at high settings?

An r9 280 is faster and cheape than a 760

http://www.amazon.fr/Sapphire-11230-00-20G-Graphique-Radeon-PCI-Express/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417877585&sr=8-1&keywords=r9+280

Hey, I have one more question :P, is there a difference other than the manufacturer with the card you suggested and this Sapphire model and if so, which one should i get? thanks again :P

Hah, every time I think I'm getting close to finalising my build someone piques my interest with something cool sounding.

Here's the motherboard I was originally looking at. This guy

And here's one that'd let me eventually add another graphics card in crossfire. That guy

But it's twice as much and I probably wouldn't be able to afford the other card for the foreseeable future...

D'you reckon it's worth it if i start with one R9 280 and the better motherboard and upgrade it later down the line?

Will this future proof it to an extent or would I just be wasting my money?

Cheers!

I've never heard of them but Sapphire have the R9 280 for just a few quid more than that.

The only thing is is that my PSU is only 430w (Corsair CX 430) and the minimum PSU wattage for that card is 500 :/

I would say the GPU for sure. I'm from the US, so I am going to use Amazon UK for prices. I would recommend a 280 for GPU, which is 140 pounds and would be a HUGE upgrade. Not sure if your CPU will bottleneck it though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417512081&sr=8-1&keywords=r9+280

Yeah it is this model http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1417467050&sr=1-3&keywords=Radeon+R9+280X#productDetails

Thank you so much for your help you have just been great by the way in every helpful aspect!

The XFX cards come with a lifetime warranty, and a black PCB, but it's hard to beat this price.

I'm just an amateur trying to put together a first build myself just now, so by no means do I know what I'm talking about, but the R9 280 is currently only £10 more on amazon...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413125892&sr=8-1&keywords=radeon+280

there is two good priced high end card.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1414324271&sr=1-1&keywords=SAPPHIRE
or
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-Dual-X-Radeon-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B00FL8H49Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1414422111&sr=1-4&keywords=SAPPHIRE

Would my MoBo's 2nd Gen PCI Express bottleneck these two?

You might want to wait for stock of the 280: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor | £84.42 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard | ASRock H87M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | £58.00 @ Amazon UK
Memory | Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | £57.99 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £39.99 @ Amazon UK
Video Card | Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card | £119.00 @ Amazon UK
Case | Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case | £36.81 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply | Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | £35.99 @ Amazon UK
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £432.20
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-21 19:20 BST+0100 |

Really sorry for contualliy bugging you but if you don't mind I was looking around and basically everyone has said that the r9 280 is better gtx760. So I looked on amazon and these three One Two & Three

Would you mind explaining the differences to me?

at that price point, I reckon AMD has it wrapped up at the moment - an R9 280 would be a solid bet (http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416520562&sr=8-1&keywords=r9+280)

If you want to stay on the green team, look at a GTX 760 :)

hey man, thank you AGAIN! now, last question (im preparing to order all the parts today): I found this GPU on amazon for 190€: http://www.amazon.de/SAPPHIRE-Radeon-3072MB-GDDR5-PCI-E/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1406906434&sr=8-6&keywords=Sapphire+Radeon+R9+280X+3GB+Dual-X+Video+Card#productDetails

but i cant figure out if it is the same one you recommended or not. Can you advise?

R9 280 for £136 on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/

I think this is the one he mentioned: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-AMD-Graphics-Card-DDR5/dp/B00IRTXPBM/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1412019180&sr=8-9&keywords=280x

And this is the adjusted build then w/ GPU & PSU change :)

This 280 could be put in the £400 build.