PC Game Hardware

PC Game Hardware - Budget Tipp Award

TweakTown

“It's below the shroud where all the magic happens, and it is magic that happens indeed.

The cooling numbers the card puts out are fantastic; especially when you consider the extra voltage that is being run through the card with the higher core clock.

You can see that core overclocking was very successful.”

TweakTown – Best Overclocking Award, Rating 92% out of 100%

WCCFtech

“The card has over its GeForce competitors is the fact that it makes use of 3 GB VRAM and a 384-bit bus interface which does impact performance when moving onto higher resolution displays. IceQ X² is one of the quietest coolers, making the card quieter than the reference cooler. The card is below 28dB when watching movies, surfing Facebook, working. The card remains quiet whether you are gaming, online socializing, entertaining or working.

It should be noted that the non-reference design allows for more stability and much improved overclocking support than the reference variant. For cooling, the HIS Radeon R9 280 IceQ x2 uses two 89mm dual axil fans that tend to get loud under load but are specifically designed to push lots of air into the heatsink so that the card stays cool even under massive loads and overclocked conditions. The Q&C fan blade increases air velocity make cooling more efficiently while keeping noise level at minimum.

HIS cards are engineered with the highest standard of safety, preventing them any potential damages. Solid State Choke stabilizes the card and Full Solid State Capacitors ensures the best power quality and enhances the card’s stability in critical gaming situations! The HIS special metal rib provides extra strength to the PCBs to avoid warpage, making the cards extra stable and durable. You can count on HIS cards to game hard for 24/7/365 for years!”

WCCFtech - Scored 8 out of 10

Overclockers

"The cooler is incredibly quiet and keeps the GPU in the extremely safe temperature range, even when overclocking. Saying this cooler leaves the reference cooler in the dust would be a serious understatement. The GPU comes packaged to perfection. If someone was going to hurt this GPU in transit, they would have to be playing hacky sack with the box!

Moving on to pricing, the R9 280 has an MSRP of $249 from AMD, and HIS brought this card in at $259 MSRP. Very nice pricing to get such a great cooler. Currently on Newegg it’s on sale for $249, which gets you upgraded cooling for AMD’s MSRP.

Don’t forget that this GPU also can take advantage of Mantle, AMD’s technology that was implemented into Battlefield 4. If extra performance in Mantle-enabled titles is something that suits your usage, then perhaps this could sway your decision toward this GPU. Mantle or not, the HIS R9 280 IceQ X2 performs admirably, runs cool and quiet, and does so at a great price point. "

Overclockers - "Approved"

GameStar

HIS Radeon R9 280 IceQ  X² OC GameStar  Award – Scored 81 out of 100

Madshrimps.be

HIS has succeeded to transform it into a great deal for the second time, by including the proven two-slot cooling system which is equipped with two 89mm silent fans. Through the heatsink fins we will find no less than five heatpipes, which keep the GPU plate nice and cool during heavy load.

Talking about the overclocking capabilities, we would like to remind again that the product features a mild overclock, but with the help of the iTurbo utility we have succeeded to surpass the performance of the 7970 GHz Edition. The total of 3GB graphics memory allow the card to perform admirably even at resolutions over Full-HD but be careful when setting the detail levels since we will often drop under 60FPS while using resolutions of 2560x1440 or 2560x1600.

Madshrimps.be - Recommended Value Product

Overclockers

“HIS R9 280 IceQ X2 Turbo is very good and quality product, super quite, and low temperatures”

Overclockers - Editors Choice Best Quality Award

EasyCom

“Pros:

 - Excellent performance
 - Preoverclocked
 - Quality components
 - Digital power system
 - Good performance and quite cooling system IceQ X2
 - Very good overclocking potential”

EasyCom - The Choice of Overclockers

Pureoverclock

Pros
-Unique styling
-Excellent temperatures
-Low noise
-Strong gaming value
-Well priced

"It’s got strong performance and got all of AMD’s new features here, including support for OpenGL, DirectX11.2 and the Mantle API. You also get 1080p gaming at high settings and of course the 4K UltraHD gaming and movie capabilities. This card runs wonderfully cool and quiet, and for $260, you really can’t go wrong."

Overclock - Great Hardware Award

Guru3D

"The Radeon R9 280 is the Tahiti Pro aka Radeon HD 7950 being re-spun. HIS did a terrific job though, nice clocks frequencies, custom PCB and cooler and a little extra tweaking room makes this one of the better 280 cards currently available. Anyone with a monitor up-to 1920x1080/1200 will see good performance with the latest games available whilst applying harsh image quality settings as well and at 2560x1440 you are still good to go albeit you will have to forfeit on AA or image quality settings with the latest titles. If you can spot this product for roughly 200 EUR then we feel it's a really nice deal that we can recommend very much. The HIS Radeon HDR9-280 IceQ X² OC is a little big in size though, but the cooling performance is great, the noise levels very low, in fact silent

Summed up - Any game will play at a resolution of 1080P perfectly fine with proper image quality settings. Even 2560x1440 is in reach. Aside from cooler and its great performance added benefits are the factory overclock, the four display outputs and overall just a really nice product that will guarantee you a pleasant gaming experience as these cards have plenty of performance to work with.

You can pick up the product for 279 USD, and you'll receive 150 USD worth of free games from the Never Settle Forever bundle to choose as well. Good deal.

Definitely recommended by Guru3D.com"

Guru3D - Guru3D Recommended Award