
If your PC upgrade budget sits somewhere south of where AMD’s top-of-the-line offerings are priced (their Radeon R9 290X card is commonly sold for around $700), then the company’s latest GPU announcement may make your ears perk up.
AMD just announced the Radeon R9 280 graphics card, which slots in right behind their R9 280X on the company’s graphics card food chain. While 280X cards are going for around $470 on Froogle, however, AMD’s new R9 280 will open with a base price of just $279.
As for specs, the R9 280 is clocked at up to 933MHz, includes 384-bit 3GB of GDDR5 RAM, supports Mantle, Direct X 11.2 and OpenGL 4.3 as well as CrossFire. Like the R9 280X, the R9 280 requires 6/8-pin power connectors to run it.
Despite the $279 price tag set by AMD, the R9 280’s price could fluctuate depending on what companies like Sapphire, Asus, XFX to do tweak the card once they get their hands on it. Buyers should also note that the 280 will compete directly with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 760, which can be had for anywhere between $250 and $300 as of this writing.
The AMD Radeon R9 280 should be available starting this week, with “wider availability” beginning next week.
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