7970 and 280X

[costabunny]

so forgive my stupids here, but if I just stick with the planned upgrade from 5770 to a 7970 (January) there is no benefit in waiting for a 280X?

am I missing something (sorry not so hot on the AMD lineup).

for a mere mortal who does light video edits, light photoshop and likes to play games in OSX and Windows; what does the 280X bring to the party that the 7970 is missing?

is it better on power/heat or something?

 

[gpzjock]

The R9 280X is better on 2 things, clock speed and price:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/R9_280X_OC/
You get GHz edition clocks for standard speed 7970 price.

AMD have pitched it to upset Nvidia's previous price structure and this has caused a mark down on the GTX 780, 770 & 760 models. Competition is healthy for the customer.

 

[MacVidCards]

I think that they will work OOTB in newer OSX revisions.

I think they didn't even change the device id.

If that is the case, they will work in any OS revision that 7970 worked in.

Something to watch out for, many of the new 280 cards have switched to 1 @ DP vs the 7970 which came with 2 @ MDP. It is much cheaper to go from DP/MDP to SL DVI than the other way.

Also, the 7970 could run 1 VGA display from it's lone DVI port, looks like most 280s with DUal DVI have no VGA in either.

So, just check the ports on the card you want. Better off to get the original layout. It's also possible that flashing ones WITHOUT matching ports will lead to less than satisfactory port behavior.

BTW, someone in Europe has already flashed a 280 with EFI, was announced on Netkas a week or two ago. Always neat when someone puts their mind to something and figures it out themselves.