280 - How does it hold up

[Drake5]

Was thinking about getting a cheap graphics card for around £100 and saw a 280 3gb come up for £70

Would it be able to run games at decent settings

 

[teenwolf]

yup nothing wrong with the 280 at 1080p

 

[Drake5]

Is a gtx 670 faster than a 280

 

[Doogles]

Is a gtx 670 faster than a 280

Slower because Nvidia doesn't optimize the drivers for older cards whereas AMD do. GTX 670 still isn't bad by any means if you are happy with Medium 1080p.

 

[chroniclard]

My old 280X struggled at 1080p on modern games. Will run with reduced settings but dont expect too much.

 

[AlamoX]

if it's for an upgrade, wait untill june, new line from polaris should have something for you at £100, and if it doesnt, 2nd hand GPU prices will drop further, it's really not a good idea to buy now unless you dont have a gpu at all.

 

[Lokken86]

My old 280X struggled at 1080p on modern games. Will run with reduced settings but dont expect too much.

What games was it struggling with on 1080p?

My 7970 was playing far cry 4 at 50/60fps on ultra settings. It was overclocked mind you.

 

[Warbie]

My 390x struggles with modern games at 1080p / 60fps with everything turned up. I reckon a 280 will be decent for 1080p on medium to high depending on the title.

 

[Drojman]

The 390X struggles? Seems odd that it does. I gave my 7970 to a friend (same as a 280 right?) and he's pretty happy with it. Not eating all games @60fps, but still a good card, it was good value even back when I bought it.

 

[rtho782]

It's a 7950 really, pre AMD renaming project. 280x is 7970.

They are OK cards, I hated 7970/7990 trifire, I would not recommend crossfire with it.

But it's GCN 1.0 so won't support Freesync. To me, this would be a deal breaker as Freesync/GSync are amazing.

 

[Drojman]

Ah forgot about the difference between a 280 and 280x. 7970's were my first experience with Crossfire - aside from the 5970 which was kinda forced on whoever bought it. Good performance gains on some things, others weren't so hot.

 

[twinsenx]

What games was it struggling with on 1080p?

My 7970 was playing far cry 4 at 50/60fps on ultra settings. It was overclocked mind you.

Keep dreaming. Unless you play on 800x600 resolution.

 

[Mtom]

If you don't mind turning down a few settings, its is quite capable.
I have a 7950 as backup card, and it ran games like GTA 5 fine on medium high.

 

[Aretak]

Keep dreaming. Unless you play on 800x600 resolution.

What he said seems completely accurate.

Of course, there are more demanding games than Far Cry 4, but still.

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

Keep dreaming. Unless you play on 800x600 resolution.

You underestimate the 7970. Its still very capable at 1080p