For those who has purchased R9 280x earlier including myself

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/amd_to_up...phics_card.html

AMDs R9 280X might still be using the oritinal 7970 GHZ edition XT2 Tahiti GPU and replace it with Tahiti XTL next month. Apparantly the Tahiti XTL GPU was not ready for the launch and all current Radeon R9 280X graphics cards ended up with the Tahiti XT2 GPU instead. Various sources confirm that AMD will do a, so called, "running change", where there will be no announcements and no name change for the new GPU and the only way you would be able to tell which GPU is behind the R9 280X is by its BIOS version.

Of course, nothing is carved in stone as AMD can simply decide to launch a different named graphics cards with Tahiti XTL chip but currently the plan is to do a running change.

Apparently, Tahiti XTL should have a lower power consumption and thus should be easier to cool. We will surely keep an eye out and our ear close to the ground in order to spot the new GPU in November.



If the source of news is true, then this would be unfair for those who purchased R9 280x and could be a misselling as some GPU manufacturer claimed that they are selling R9 280x with Tahiti XTL chipset.

I have actually contacted Sapphire to see what's their view on this and to be updated further.

Anyone can verify this and your views?

This post has been edited by RaePyng: Oct 29 2013, 04:06 PM

I have sent a support ticket to Sapphire to clarify this. they have responded but the answer is not satisfied, i have pushed for a more definitive / firm answer on the possible variation.

To be updated

What a lousy reply by Saphhire

"the power consumption of XT2 and XTL are similar and we cannot confirm if your card is using XT2 or XTL due to AMD shipped us in the same batch."

I'm surprised as well that Sapphire has no knowledge on what kind of chipset their newly launched GPU is based on. That means whatever AMD shipped them they will pass to normal consumers like us without checking / verifying.

Very disappointing for a Sapphire supporter like myself or they themselves are unwilling to disclose that.

Might want to stay away from this brand for the next upgrade

This post has been edited by RaePyng: Oct 31 2013, 10:14 AM