Rehashing a product line might get enthusiasts blood pressure boiling as some feel it stunts the introduction of new technology which invariably, is reserved for top-of-the-line products however, while the R9-280 is invariably a prime example of a re-hashed product, it has shone through and shown that there is life in the old dog yet. You don't have to look close to see that the R9-280's bigger brother, the R9-280X is also a re-brand of an existing product (HD7970 GHz Edition). This isn't an AMD only trait, NVIDIA or GPU producer either. Car manufacturers to fashion designers will use existing items left over from previous designs and tout them as a new product.

The XFX R9-280 Black Edition OC is, despite its ageing underpinnings, a fantastic card. It can still churn out the FPS at an astonishing rate and despite being surpassed by the latest and greatest efforts of both AMD and NVIDIA; it is still a very capable performer. It is hard to believe we first reviewed the HD7950 some two and a half years ago and while this version is very heavily tweaked from the original HD7950, the technology that made the HD7950 a peoples champ still remains and performs extremely well when compared to today's competition. This leads me to the comparative efforts of the green team and their GTX760.



Throughout our testing, the R9-280 was faster, cooler and quieter than the GTX760 which no mean feat as the GTX760 is a former Silver award winner. The jewel in the crown for the R9-280 though is the value for money it offers. So not only is it faster it also represents better value for money because the two cards will cost around the same (the GTX760 will cost more if you want and after market cooler like the R9-280). For this reason we have no qualms in awarding the XFX R9-280 Black Edition our value for money and silver awards as it offers better value for money than the competition and despite its ageing tech, this old dog still has plenty of bite left in it.

To summarise:
If you don't mind the jibes of 'last year’s tech', you will be pleasantly surprised because this card is still very much a high performing graphics card.