ASUS Radeon R9 280X Review
Up Close
ASUS were the last company still holding on to the ‘fantasy’ art that used to be everywhere in the 90s, and we’re extremely pleased to see it’s finally disappeared. The box for the R9 280X is extremely nice thanks to this redesign. Everything is clearly laid out. Welcome to the 21st century.
The DirectCU II cooler has proven itself over many variants and is one of our favourite add-on coolers. We understand that you can’t redesign things every time a new product comes out, but it’s strange to see it hanging a few millimetres off the back and and being a few mm short of flush at the output end of the PCB. Every time we look at it you’re aware it wasn’t designed for this card.
An all new PCB supports the Tahiti GPU core of the R9 280X and has some spaces that could hint at what we can expect from the 290X. Otherwise with the 8+6pin PCIe power and two Crossfire fingers, it is business as usual.
The fin density of the DirectCU II cooler is impressive and should help keep the R9 280X cool. Outputs are handled by the regular Radeon selection of DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI connectors.
