Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Overview
In typical Gigabyte style the GV-R928XOC-3GD is a pretty sleek and compact card. Remember this card comes with a factory overclock so core is set at 1000 MHz with a boost up to 1100 MHz. That should get you a little bit more performance over a reference R9 280X.
Covering most of the card is Gigabyte’s own custom cooling solution, the WindForce 3X cooler. As the same suggests the cooler is made up of 3 cooling fans mounted in a reflective black shroud. The rest of the cooling solution is made up of large compact aluminum heatsinks teamed with thick copper heatpipes. This should keep your GPU nice and cool.
Looking at the side of the card you can see the different heatsinks connected with heatpipes. On the opposite side of the card is the PCI-Express power connections and CrossFire connections. This card get power from a combination of 8pin and 6pin PCI-Express connectors. There is also a metal retention bracket that will help the card from not drooping after time. It has a Gigabyte logo on it that will show if you have a case window.
Moving around to the back of the card display outputs include DVI, HDMI and dual mini DisplayPort. There is also a ventilation section on the back of the card to help out with cooling. Gigabyte is using a blue PCB on this card, which some people love and others hate.
Taking the WindForce 3X cooler off of the card we can see that the three copper heatpipes come into a main GPU block. There is a central heatsink and two smaller heatsinks on each side. With the card bare we can see all of the memory chips and metal chokes.
