"Take all the specs you know about the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition and apply those here. The same 2,048 stream processors, 32 ROPs, and 128 TMUs at 28nm. The reference specification for the AMD Radeon R9 280X is 1000MHz core clock speed with a boost to 1050MHz. The reference specification also calls for 6GHz on the memory.
The ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP is factory overclocked at 1070MHz, so it does give us a boost to the core clock, but it isn't as much as one would hope for out of a "TOP" product.
The memory on the other hand has a hefty factory overclock running at 6.4GHz. Therefore, on the clock speed front this video card should be slightly faster than a Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, and reference R9 280X, but not by much.
What truly separates the ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II TOP from the competition is the attention to customization. ASUS has re-designed the printed circuit board (PCB) and installed high quality components to produce a more efficient, longer-lasting, and better overclocking video card."
