VTX3D Radeon R9 280X

jimhaumman · 8 Dec 2013 at 21:19

Hi guys.
Can't find info.Is this card voltage locked?
Are all R9 280X voltage locked or there are some exception?
Seem like a good deal,price on famous website for hd7970 are well over 200 quid(second hand).
This card is compatible with my waterblock XSPC(reference design)
cheers for help

Avenged7Fold · 8 Dec 2013 at 21:22

That card is about as cheap as they come by a fair margin currently, as people are buying these up for mining. If you want a voltage unlocked one, couldnt you just flash the bios?

jimhaumman · 8 Dec 2013 at 21:26

Avenged7Fold said:
That card is about as cheap as they come by a fair margin currently, as people are buying these up for mining. If you want a voltage unlocked one, couldnt you just flash the bios?

I don't know never done this,but it shouldn't be harder than building LC pc?
to which bios hd 7970?

Chrisoldinho · 8 Dec 2013 at 22:13

the cooler on the vtx3d is surprisingly pretty decent, having owned one myself. Also it's a reference board which is good as you usually get HYNIX RAM and you can fit aftermarket coolers down the line no issue.

You can also simlpy flash the BIOS using VBE7, very easy to do, just test some settings in MSI AB before you do anything though.

Avenged7Fold · 8 Dec 2013 at 22:36

I wonder how many is actually for sale, as i have seen it stuck on 38 for a day now and miners would have bought up hundreds by now.

jimhaumman · 9 Dec 2013 at 00:43

I've red a bit about bios flash,and people flash theirs hd 7970 to R9 280x.
With which bios I would need flash r9 280x ? hd 7970 ghz to open voltage control or just flash it with VBE7 ( using maybe r9 asus matrix 280x) and after that it's opening voltage control on this card?
Could someone clarified this for me,before I pull the trigger?
Is this similar method to LaMatt bios flash with hd7990?
ta

ubersonic · 9 Dec 2013 at 11:58

I ordered one of these last night, looks like a decent card, as far as I can tell its made from the PCB from the PowerColor TurboDuo card combined with the heat sink from the standard PowerColor card and a custom VTX3D fan/shroud.

The question that remains to be answered though is whither or not it's down clocked compared to the PowerColor TurboDuo or lower binned.

breadturbo · 9 Dec 2013 at 12:09

Just been scanning the pcb from one of the 280x's and I can't see a single component out of place from my vtx x-edition 7970's, the vrms are exactly the same, the lot as far as I can tell.

ubersonic · 9 Dec 2013 at 13:30

breadturbo said:
Just been scanning the pcb from one of the 280x's and I can't see a single component out of place from my vtx x-edition 7970's, the vrms are exactly the same, the lot as far as I can tell.

I'm inclined to agree there

VTX3D 7970:

VTX3D 280X:

*EDIT*

Actually the RAM chips appear to be different brands, Hynix on the 7970 VS Elpida on the R280X.

jimhaumman · 9 Dec 2013 at 15:34

ubersonic said:
I ordered one of these last night, looks like a decent card, as far as I can tell its made from the PCB from the PowerColor TurboDuo card combined with the heat sink from the standard PowerColor card and a custom VTX3D fan/shroud.

The question that remains to be answered though is whither or not it's down clocked compared to the PowerColor TurboDuo or lower binned.

Are you planing to flash bios?

Chrisoldinho · 9 Dec 2013 at 17:21

I bios flashed my Sapphire 7970 Dual X into a 280X Vapor-X, the 280X Dual X BIOS wouldn't work for some reason (blue PCB)...

Additionally I have made changes to the Vapor-X BIOS, namely:-

Changed power limit back to 20% as per the 280X Dual X BIOS
Set TDP & upper and lower to the same as 280X Dual X BIOS
Custom fan speed to reduce noise (46% at 75 degrees, basically inaudible below this, then quickly ramps up - but very rarely hits this)
Removed boost, no more vddc spikes (even though the 280X BIOS is apparently much better with "boost", I prefer manual control still

Set clock frequency to 1025 and RAM at 1550
Reduced vddc to what it would comfortably run at, 1.068v - card ASIC is only 70.9% but evidently I have a good card here given the low voltage requirement to run at a high clock frequency.

ubersonic · 16 Dec 2013 at 18:45

For those interested I finally got around to installing my VTX3D 280X, it is literally their HD7970 in a different box. GPUz, Afterburner, CCC and device manager all show it as a 7970 or a 7900 series, they didn't even change the name lol.

Pretty decent card however the cooler is a bit weaksauce, granted I am mining on it however even at full fan speed I had to lower the intensity to keep the thermals in check.

Chiz · 10 Jan 2014 at 10:35

Did you manage to unlock the voltage on the VTX3D at all? I'm quite interested in this card..

martinoheat · 9 Mar 2014 at 03:14

Bump - did you manage to unlock the voltage jimhuaman?

jimhaumman · 9 Mar 2014 at 08:08

martinoheat said:
Bump - did you manage to unlock the voltage jimhuaman?

Never bought one,in the end I got hd7970 and I put it under water.

martinoheat · 10 Mar 2014 at 19:17

thanks for the reply

i take it you bought it 2nd hand? - can i ask how much you paid?

jimhaumman · 11 Mar 2014 at 06:43

160 gpu + 35 for waterblock,not the best clocker tough (1150/1600)

EdButler · 11 Mar 2014 at 13:06

I don't know if it helps anyone, but I bought the standard Powercolor 280X which looks almost identical to the VTX apart from fan shroud colour scheme and is made by the same company (TUL).

It came with Hynix ram, and a voltage locked BIOS with a 800MHz (1000MHz Boost) Core @ ~1.16V and 1500Mhz RAM. It has a BIOS switch, so i flashed on an MSI unlocked BIOS and it is now running at 1200/1700 @ 1.2V (+30% Powertune) and doesn't really break a sweat. I'm a casual overclocker and not an 'enthusiast' so i'm sure it would go farther.

It paid itself off mining within a month or so (~725KH @ 78 DegC with standard-ish clocks), but now has some capacitor squeal on certain graphical scenes.

Hope this helps people out?

martinoheat · 11 Mar 2014 at 18:21

jimhaumman said:
160 gpu + 35 for waterblock,not the best clocker tough (1150/1600)

Not a bad price!

EdButler said:
I don't know if it helps anyone, but I bought the standard Powercolor 280X which looks almost identical to the VTX apart from fan shroud colour scheme and is made by the same company (TUL).

It came with Hynix ram, and a voltage locked BIOS with a 800MHz (1000MHz Boost) Core @ ~1.16V and 1500Mhz RAM. It has a BIOS switch, so i flashed on an MSI unlocked BIOS and it is now running at 1200/1700 @ 1.2V (+30% Powertune) and doesn't really break a sweat. I'm a casual overclocker and not an 'enthusiast' so i'm sure it would go farther.

It paid itself off mining within a month or so (~725KH @ 78 DegC with standard-ish clocks), but now has some capacitor squeal on certain graphical scenes.

Hope this helps people out?

That helps a lot, thankyou!
isn't capacitor squeal covered under warranty?

Also, could you post a link to the BIOS download, and the guide for BIOS flashing that (if) you used? Thanks!

pandem0nium · 12 Mar 2014 at 13:38

I have the 7970 x edition. Not great for mining compared to the 7990. (670kh/s max) and has elpida ram.