AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB Graphics Card Review

Introduction As you may already know AMD's new series of graphics cards are officially launched today and we have here for you the AMD Radeon R9 270X review, but we've also checked out the R9 280X and R7 260X of which you can see reviews of both on our site's main homepage, or by searching in the search bar if you're reading this some time after publication. We have managed to get our hands on a reference AMD R9 270X, a card which is essentially an overclocked HD 7870 brought to market at a lower price point than the HD 7870 originally was. The specifications can be seen below and a clock speed of 1050MHz on the core and 5600MHz on the memory is a fair bit higher than the 1000MHz and 4800MHz the AMD HD 7870 offered. The higher clock speeds mean the R9 270X is capable of 2.69 TFLOPS over the 2.56 TFLOPS offered by the HD 7870. Like with all new AMD RX-2XX series graphics cards there is Direct X 11.2 support, OpenGL 4.3 support and support for AMD's new API mantle. AMD have opted for a price point of $199 MSRP for the R9 270X meaning it is actually priced roughly the same as the HD 7870 currently is (the HD 7870 is currently priced to clear so stocks won't last long) but when the HD 7870 originally came to market it retailed for $349 - so this is $149 cheaper. The R9 270X we received from AMD was a stock card. As such it comes with the stock clocks of 1050MHz core and 1400MHz (5600MHz effective) memory. There is 2GB of GDDR5 across a 256 bit interface but 4GB versions will be made available by some select AMD partners. Since our R9 270X was a retail OEM unit it came with nothing other than the graphics card in an anti-static bag so we have no accessories or packaging to show you. The AMD Radeon R9 270X is designed to compete with Nvidia's $200~ offerings which currently consists of the GTX 760 ($249) and the GTX 660 ($180-200) but Nvidia are expected to add a few new models later on this year to combat AMD's new launches. Without any further ado let us proceed in taking a look at the AMD Radeon R9 270X. A Closer Look The AMD Radeon R9 270X uses a new cooling solution design. It is a mix of the old and the new. You've got an old blower style fan but that comes encased in an all-new shroud design. That new shroud design uses a vibrant "volcanic" red to enhance the red features of the R9 270X card. The rear of the R9 270X uses a black PCB and the usual AMD cooler mounting backplate. The end is enclosed with the exception of small inlet that intakes air. The card is bang on the money for a dual slot thickness design. The R9 270X uses two 6 pin PCI connectors. Some AMD partner designs may come with an 8 pin and a 6 pin if they've got beefy overclocks. There's an additional vented area by the CrossFire connector, the R9 270X only supports two way CrossFire like the HD 7870 did. The bottom is fully enclosed to ensure the blower style fan can exhaust at the rear of the card. Dual DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI top off connectivity. AMD has revised the Eyefinity on the RX 2XX series so you can run six displays off the below configuration. A DP connector is no longer needed for each trio of screens. In fact the below configuration runs six displays if you use an MST hub for the DisplayPort output. Testing Procedure Methods To test the performance of video cards at eTeknix we run a variety of tests at four different resolutions, where supported and appropriate, across a suite of games and benchmarks. We run each of these benchmarks three times to take an average and use the latest WHQL-certified video card drivers from AMD and Nvidia to test with - namely Catalyst 13.4 and Nvidia Forceware 320.49. For newer RX 2XX series graphics cards we have had to test with the 13.11 Beta to avoid compatibility issues. To attain noise levels we hold a decibel meter approximately 3 inches away from the card after running Furmark for five minutes. To achieve idle noise we allow the system to stay idle at the desktop for 5 minutes before taking a noise reading. To achieve temperatures we take the maximum temperature of the GPU core during Furmark load as recorded by CPUID HW Monitor. To achieve idle temperatures we take the minimum recorded GPU core temperature in CPUID HW Monitor after desktop-idling for 5 minutes. To measure power consumption we take the maximum stable power consumption at idle on the desktop over a 5 minute period, and for load we take the maximum stable power consumption during Furmark load. Like with acoustic measurements we do not read off the maximum stable power consumption value until after 5 minutes to give the system enough time to stabilise at its power envelope. Test System: Motherboard - Asus Rampage IV Extreme X79 LGA 2011 (chipset fan disabled) Processor - Intel Core i7 3960X at stock clock speeds of 3.3GHz with Turbo Mode disabled. RAM - 16GB (2 X 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 1866MHz at 9-10-9-27 CPU Cooler - Corsair H100i with Quiet Fan Profile Power Supply - Corsair HX1050W Main Storage Drive - Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD over SATA III interface Chassis - Lian Li T60 Test Bench Displays - Dell U2711 Ultra Sharp for 2560 by 1440 and we use the LG IPS 234 & LG IPS 224 with the Dell U2711 Ultra Sharp to run 5760 by 1080. Operating System - Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit We would like to thank Asus, Corsair, Kingston, Lian Li and all our other partners who supplied us with test equipment and hardware. Their generosity makes our testing possible and without them we wouldn't be able to produce the reviews we do, so thank you! Games Used Aliens Vs Predator Dirt Showdown Hitman: Absolution Metro Last Light Sleeping Dogs Bioshock Infinite Tomb Raider Resolutions Used (where possible) 1680 x 1050 1920 x 1080 2560 x 1440 5760 x 1080 Hardware Used Plug "killawatt" style electricty usage meter Benetech GM1351 decibel meter Software Used 3DMark 11 3DMark 2013 CPUID HWMonitor Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Furmark 1.10.5 3DMark 11 "3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads." From 3DMark.com 3DMark 2013 "The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it's not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It's the most powerful and flexible 3DMark we've ever created." From Futuremark.com Unigine Heaven 4.0 "Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system's potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X." From Unigine.com. Aliens Vs. Predator "Aliens vs. Predator, also known by fans as Aliens vs. Predator 3 or AVP3 to distinguish it from earlier titles, is a 2010 video game developed by Rebellion Developments and published by Sega for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is a sequel to Aliens versus Predator 2, although it does not have any connection with that game's plot. Instead it charts events on the planet BG-386, where a Weyland-Yutaniresearch team led by Karl Bishop Weyland has discovered aYautja Pyramid, and is simultaneously studying the Xenomorphs found there and hoping to unlock the advanced technology contained within. The Aliens soon escape, prompting a response from the United States Colonial Marine Corps, while the Predators also send three of their member to investigate." From Avp.wikia.com Bioshock Infinite "BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter like you’ve never seen. Just ask the judges from E3 2011, where the Irrational Games title won over 85 editorial awards, including the Game Critics Awards’ Best of Show. Set in 1912, players assume the role of former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, sent to the flying city of Columbia on a rescue mission. His target? Elizabeth, imprisoned since childhood. During their daring escape, Booker and Elizabeth form a powerful bond -- one that lets Booker augment his own abilities with her world-altering control over the environment. Together, they fight from high-speed Sky-Lines, in the streets and houses of Columbia, on giant zeppelins, and in the clouds, all while learning to harness an expanding arsenal of weapons and abilities, and immersing players in a story that is not only steeped in profound thrills and surprises, but also invests its characters with what Game Informer called “An amazing experience from beginning to end." From Bioshockinfinite.com Dirt Showdown "DiRT Showdown is the new arcade racing game from the team that brought you the award-winning DiRT series, uncaged in 2012. Pick up and play controls combine with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills from event one." From Codemasters.com Hitman Absolution "Hitman: Absolution is the fifth title in the Hitman series by producer, IO Interactive, published by Square Enix and co-published by Eidos. The game was released for thePlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on November 20, 2012. Hitman: Absolution runs on IO Interactive's proprietary Glacier 2 game engine, combining classic Hitman game mechanics with new mechanics." From hitman.wikia.com Metro Last Light "Metro: Last Light (formerly Metro 2034) is a first-person shooter and horror video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released in May 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features a mixture of action-oriented and stealth gameplay. The game exists in the universe of the novel, Metro 2033, and its sequels, written by Russian author, Dmitry Glukhovsky, but does not follow any direct storylines from the books. Metro:Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the canonical ending from the novel, ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones.Metro: Last Light features technology which boasts of lighting effects and improved physics claimed to set a new graphical benchmark on the PC and consoles." From Wikipedia.org Sleeping Dogs "Welcome to Hong Kong, a vibrant neon city teeming with life, whose exotic locations and busy streets hide one of the most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations in the world: the Triads. In this open world game, you play the role of Wei Shen, an undercover cop trying to take down the Triads from the inside out. You'll have to prove yourself worthy as you fight your way up the organization, taking part in brutal criminal activities without blowing your cover. Torn between your loyalty to the badge and a criminal code of honor, you will risk everything as the lines between truth, loyalty and justice become permanently blurred." From Sleepingdogs.net Tomb Raider "On 5 March 2013, Square Enix released Tomb Raider, billed as a reboot of the franchise. In Tomb Raider, the player is confronted with a much younger Lara Croft who is shipwrecked and finds herself stranded on a mysterious island rife with danger, both natural and human. In contrast to the earlier games Croft is portrayed as vulnerable, acting out of necessity, desperation and sheer survival rather than for a greater cause or personal gain." From Wikipedia.org Acoustics The acoustic performance of a graphics card is an increasingly important consideration for PC users and Gamers these days. While fan noise is unlikely to ruin the gaming experience, no one likes a noisy graphics card and no one will argue with the fact that quieter is better. Many users are willing to sacrifice temperatures to gain a noise advantage, but with better cooling solutions being developed it is increasingly common to be able to get both better cooling and better acoustic performance than a reference solution on most custom cooled graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD partners. That said both AMD and Nvidia have stepped up their game too with regards to acoustics on their reference coolers. Ultimately, acoustics will always be a big deciding factor when there is often very little differentiation between graphics cards using the same GPUs. Find details of our acoustic methodology on page 3. Power Consumption With electricity becoming increasingly expensive across most parts of the world the need for computer components to become power efficient has never been more relevant. Graphics cards are often the most power hungry components inside a system so having an efficient graphics card is very important to keeping power bills under control. Power is often correlated to heat and so lower power consumption means a graphics card is likely to run slightly cooler and put out less heat into your system meaning your other components will run cooler with improved longevity. AMD and Nvidia have also both made power consumption an integral part of the way graphics cards dynamically overclock so the need for graphics card vendors to use efficient VRM and PCB designs is becoming important to maximise performance. Find details of our power consumption methodology on page 3. Temperatures The cooling solution which graphics card vendors use is one of the main differences that consumers have to contend with. Apart from their acoustic properties, the thermal properties of graphics card coolers are extremely important. Lower temperatures are always better and with AMD and Nvidia opting to use dynamic overclocking algorithms that take temperature into account it is important that graphics card vendors use high performance cooling solutions in order to maximise performance. The era of graphics cards reaching dangerous temperatures are now in the past but the importance of lower temperatures still remains. Lower temperatures mean better stability, longer component longevity and lower fan speeds. That said temperatures are one of the most important non-performance related properties on a graphics card. Find details of our temperature methodology on page 3. Overclocking Overclocking the R9 270X was actually surprisingly fruitful. We managed to bump an additional 105MHz onto the core, which isn't as high as I'd like but for a reference model was a good result. The additional 225MHz on the memory was also impressive - allowing us to get to 6.5GHz effective. In total our overclocks were 10% on the core and 16% on the memory. Overall performance jumped from 8332 to 9008 in 3DMark 11's performance test - that's about an 8.2% boost in real 3D performance. An overclocked R9 270X was capable of taking on overclocked GTX 760s - an impressive feat given the R9 270X costs $199 and most GTX 760s cost $250 upwards. 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.