Performance R9-280X vs 7970 Ghz Edition.
#1
Is the R9 280X really a 7970 Ghz Edition?

I am solely looking into this after epixoip post here @ http://hashcat.net/forum/thread-2798.html regarding the R9 290X that we have all been waiting to get our hands on. After his review it may make sense from $$$/performance to stick with R9 280X or 7970Ghz E; just trying to decide which.

I know that various models exists for the R9 290X which are shipping with stock clokcs @ 1000 Mhz and some way below that 850Mhz.

Does anybody know if these cards suffer the same premature driver issues expeirienced by epixiop in his posting? (Any benchmark results?)

Does the following re-release of the updated 7970 model share use the latest version of PowerTune seen on the R9 290x?

Thanx
#2
A 280X worked fine for me and gave exactly the performance you'd expect based on it being a rebadged 7970 GHz Edition (see this thread).

Unfortunately, the specific card I used (the Asus Matrix Platinum) stopped working after five days, and I wasn't even using it for anything other than displaying the desktop at the time. I'd run a handful of short benchmarks on it - no "real world" cracking scenarios or anything, and it had never exceeded 70 degrees. I've been stuck in Asus RMA hell ever since, and reading reviews on New Egg, it sounds like a lot of people with this card are in the same situation.

If you avoid that specific card, though (or other lines that have higher than average failure rates), I think you'll be fine.