Question 1

current card is GTX460 and is PCI-E2.0. Will this video card work with my motherboard?

Accepted Answer

Yes it will. PCI-E versions are backwards compatible. This will stay true so long the next gen PCI-E is physically the same (same slot size). The only thing you are missing out on is the bandwidth that that card is capable of in a PCI-E 3.0. This in itself won't make much difference when playing video games. You will only notice a difference if you doing benchmarks that show you a numerical value difference.

Question 2

How much power does this GPU consume? and how large of a PSU do i need?

Accepted Answer

I actually spent a LOT of time figuring this out, as two of them were tripping my 750 power supply. In the end, it looked to be just a bad power supply though, as my other 750 watt can push two of them. Under load, with a single card, I measured 440 watts from the wall for the entire system. With two, the peak is at 660 watts. While it's hard to measure the power draw of just the card, the data I could find on benchmarking sites seems to indicate between 250 and 270 watts. If you have a really good 500 watt PSU, with enough Amperage on the +12v rails to push 500 watts by themselves, it could do it, but that would be pushing it. A 600 or 650 watt PSU is absolutely good enough for one of these cards, and although I'm managing two with a 750 watt, I'd recommend at least an 850 watt if you're planning on crossfire at any point. Running close to a PSU's maximum draw isn't good for it's longevity, and PSU output degrades over time as well, so it might not work indefinitely.

Question 3

Will I need to upgrade my 600W PSU for this card?

Accepted Answer

I'm running a litecoin rig with two of these on MB with only an AMD Sempron 45 chip (low watts).  No other components except a few fans and my Kill-a-watt shows about 55W with power on idle and about 610W for with both cards maxed on mining.  So, my experience would be to expect a gaming load of about 280-290W per card plus whatever else you have pulling power.

Question 4

Hello!  I'm trying to build my first computer to use as a Litecoin mining rig.  The AMD R9 280x and the AMD 7950 have been recommended to me.  I will need 4 of each.  I'd like to stick with Sapphire, MSI or Gigabyte cards.  My question is what are the differences between the Express 3.0 HDCP and the 16's?  I'm running a ASRock 990FX Extreme board.  Which ones will work the best and what's the difference in the last part of the description?  Thanks,  Pat

Accepted Answer

I'm using this card as a scrypt miner. at the time i bought it, it was just about the best 280x for the job, and it was topping the benchmark charts as far as 280x's go. it was also the best bang for the buck as it was priced at $400. (but i see it is now $420) My most recent checks show the R9 290's as the best performance-per-price ratio. I don't know about the express 3.0 hdcp versus "16's" you speak of, but this is a pcie 16x card. my understanding is that the # of pcie lanes is not so relevant for mining, as people use adapters to plug pcie x16 cards into pcie x1 slots for mining. If you're not heart-set on the absolute highest highest possible hashrate ever, this will absolutely be a good mining card, based on my experience with it over the last weeks. this card is getting me 560khs on scrypt, and i can overclock it to 580khs before it starts going wonky. i was hoping for somewhere in the 600-700 range, but due to hardware differnces and fluctuations, my hashrate is not bad at all. i've been completely pleased so far - this has also been my first mining experience.

Question 5

How do you receive the BF4?

Accepted Answer

I bought this on the 25th with the BF4 promotion still showing.  It did not show in my cart like you said, but people were saying it was suppose to be a voucher included.  When the order came in today, no voucher or any code which I could redeem was found.  Contacted support and they said they couldn't help me.

Question 6

Do the fans blow air onto the heatsink or away from it? Im mapping out a gaming rig and need to know for overall case airflow purposes. Thank you.

Accepted Answer

all of the fans push air into the cards heat-sink, but it exhausts all over the place, not in a specific direction that i could tell.

Question 7

Will this crossfire with the REV 1 model?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is still a R9 280x so it should work. Since crossfiring can be a headache to get just right I would recommend using identical cards (revisions and all) but they will still work in X-fire.

Question 8

How tall is this compared to rev1.0? On the web it says both are 126mm but it didn't appear to be so.. this cooler looks like the one from the 770.

Accepted Answer

I'm not sure I can accurately answer your question in regard to comparison to other cards.  I purchased this for my son who built a computer.  From what I recall (I helped with assembly), I pulled out a ruler and checked; a width of 126mm seems to be correct for this video card.  I cannot comment on other models.  Sorry to be vague.

Question 9

Does it have Dual-DVI output or regular DVI? I.e., will it support 2560x1600 (1440) resolution monitors?

Accepted Answer

Yes this will support 2560x1600 (1440) resolutions. Generally, cards that are capable of high resolutions will be equiped with DVIs to support those resolutions. Keep in mind HDMIs cannot support such high resolution.

Question 10

Is this card voltage locked? Is the Rev 1?

Accepted Answer

Yes it is voltage locked, and it is rev 2.0.

Questions & Answers