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AMD Radeon R9 M280X

AMD Radeon R9 M280X

The AMD Radeon R9 M280X is a 28 nm DirectX 12 graphics card based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. Built primarily for large laptops, the card is positioned in the upper mid-range category as of 2014. It is based on the Saturn chip (Bonaire codename for Desktop R7 260(X)) and clocked at 900 to 1000 MHz (Boost). The R9 M280X offers 896 shader cores, 56 TMUs, 16 ROPs and a 128 Bit memory interface for up to 4 GB GDDR5 memory (1375 MHz / 5500 MHz effective, 88 GB/s).

The performance of the Radeon R9 M280X is on par with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 850M or GTX 950M. Games from 2015 therefore should run in middle to high settings in 1080p. Some more demanding games like Assassin's Creed Unity may only run fluently in reduced settings.

The 640 shader cores can be used with OpenCL 1.2 for general-purpose calculations (as 10 compute units).

Features of the R9 series include video decoding via UVD3 for decoding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and Flash directly from the AMD GPU. Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos are now compatible as well.

The Radeon R9 also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU, called Enduro. The technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Other features include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off .

The Power consumption of the R9 M280X is not specified but should be around 70 to 80 Watt and therefore, the GPU is only suited for larger laptops and DTRs.

Radeon R9 M200 Series

Radeon R9 M290X Crossfire compare 2560 @ 0.85 - 0.9 GHz2x 256 Bit @ 4800 MHz
Radeon R9 M295X compare 2048 @ 0.85 GHz256 Bit @ 5448 MHz
Radeon R9 M290X compare 1280 @ 0.85 - 0.9 GHz256 Bit @ 4800 MHz
Radeon R9 M280X 896 @ 0.9 - 1 GHz128 Bit @ 5500 MHz
Radeon R9 M275 compare 640 @ 0.93 GHz128 Bit @ 4500 MHz
Radeon R9 M270 compare 640 @ 0.73 GHz128 Bit @ 4500 MHz
Radeon R9 M265X compare 640 @ 0.63 GHz128 Bit @ 4000 MHz
CodenameSaturn XT
ArchitectureGCN
Pipelines896 - unified
Core Speed900 - 1000 (Boost) MHz
Memory Speed5500 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory4 GB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 12 (FL 12_0), Shader 5.0, OpenGL 4.4
Transistor Count2.1 Billion
technology28 nm
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement01.02.2015

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
1.5 pt (5%)
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15 OpenGL Ref. Match 64 Bit +
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
red legend - Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Fall Guys

Fall Guys

2020
low 1280x720
55.8  fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
med. 1920x1080
49.4  fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
high 1920x1080
28.5  fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
FIFA 20

FIFA 20

2019
low 1280x720
65.9 (!)  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1280x720
23.5  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
12.5  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
F1 2018

F1 2018

2018
low 1280x720
34.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
29.9  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
24.3  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
15.9  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
35.5  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
27.1  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
24.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5

2018
low 1280x720
32  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
12  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
10.3 30.7 ~ 21 fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
18.3  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
21.6  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
31.3  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Dirt 4

Dirt 4

2017
med. 1920x1080
48  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
31  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
high 1920x1080
60.7  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
19.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1280x720
25.2  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
For Honor

For Honor

2017
low 1280x720
67  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
28.6  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
25.9  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset 4xAF TAA 1366x768
45.8
med. 1920x1080
54.8  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
35  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
22.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1280x720
28.2  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
37.8  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
30.1  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
24.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
22.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1280x720
32.5  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
27.2  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Overwatch

Overwatch

2016
low 1280x720
81  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
78  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
55  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
27.6  fps    + Compare