Power, Temperature, Noise
Gigabyte's card is more power frugal than other R9 280X. This suggests it runs off a lower voltage plane than the Asus. But this isn't the case as both cards chew through around 1.2V under load. Perhaps the higher memory frequency of the Asus is the energy culprit here.
Temperatures are pretty good, as well.
Gigabyte's fan-control system remains rather too aggressive on these retail cards. Examining our logs shows the fans spin at up to 83 per cent of maximum after 10 minutes of gameplay. This translates to 3,500rpm, or much, much higher than we'd like.
We'd suggest that Gigabyte sacrifices up to 10°C in temperature for a much lower noise output. The trio of fans are immediately noticeable, especially after benchmarking the near-silent Asus R9 280X card.
