AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

AMD’s R9 270X will have an MSRP of $199 which puts it at a similar price to Nvidia’s GTX 660 ($180+), and just below Nvidia’s GTX 760 ($249+). That said AMD are really putting price pressure on Nvidia as the R9 270X is capable of keeping up with the GTX 760 (and sometimes even overtaking it) despite being $50 cheaper. We haven’t been told any UK pricing yet but $199 roughly translates into £124~ then add your VAT and retailer/distribution charges and the price is about £155+. In both the UK and the USA you will currently find the HD 7870 for cheaper, as AMD are clearing inventories at knock-down prices, but these stocks won’t last for long. You’ll probably be able to grab a HD 7870 for around £135~$165 if you shop around – that would definitely be a better deal – but bare in mind these deals will evaporate in a few weeks. Overclockers UK inform us they will be selling the R9 270X from £155 and they will have HIS, Sapphire, Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI cards available ASAP.

Final Thoughts

AMD’s R9 270X is a worthy graphics card at the $200 price point which was previously occupied by the HD 7850 which came in with introductory pricing of around $249. Of course the results show that the R9 270X is somewhere between a HD 7870 GHz Edition and a HD 7950 Non-Boost graphics card. It is much closer to the HD 7950 Non-Boost thanks to the higher clock speeds. What AMD are trying to do is simple – produce the best value for money graphics card available at the given price point and in short they have achieved that. Our results show the R9 270X is pretty close to being on par with the GTX 760 but of course our graphed results show the GTX 760s ahead but we have only reviewed overclocked GTX 760s and this is a stock card – the overclocked versions will be faster and more comparable to a GTX 760 but still a little behind. As we mentioned with the previous R9 280X review the R9 270X brings some of the new benefits of the RX 2XX series such as DX11.2 support, OpenGL 4.3 support and Mantle API support. There’s also improved Eyefinity to support to allow for Eyefinity 6 on the R9 270X with a single MST Hub. All in all the R9 270X will no doubt be the graphics card of choice for enthusiasts and gamers who don’t want to break the bank. Sure the R9 280X will be a faster option but it comes with a higher price tag and the majority of graphics cards are bought at this $200 or less market price point.

Pros

• Decent overclocking headroom
• Capable of 2560 x 1440 “Max Settings” Gaming
• Eyefinity 6 capable with 1 MST Hub
• Excellent value for money
• Very power frugal

Cons

• Is a rebranded HD 7870 GPU and no one really likes rebrands (unless they are cheaper which this is by quite a margin)
• Stock cooling solution is still quite mediocre (but that will be fixed by AMD partner versions)

“AMD’s R9 270X is the most feature and performance packed GPU of its price point. No other graphics card on the market can currently challenge it and once AMD partners get there custom versions of the R9 270X to market we could easily see this become the most popular $200/£150 gaming GPU on the market. AMD have always been known for stealing the show with the entry to mid range GPU market and they’ve done it once again with the R9 270X. “

Thank you to AMD for providing this review sample.