ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC 2GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

AMD’s R9 270 has been given an MSRP of $179. Other AMD cards in a similar price range include R7 260X, which costs $139, and the R9 270X, which costs from $199. On the Nvidia side the main competition is provided by the GTX 760 ($249), the GTX 660 ($179) and GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB/2GB ($129/$149).

In terms of UK and European pricing AMD have quoted £135 or €161 when you include a 20% VAT rate. By the time these GPUs hit the shops I am expecting to see starting prices from about £140/€165. ASUS have quoted us a price of £154.99 for their Direct CU II OC variant which is about 11% more – reasonable enough considering the excellent cooling solution, upgraded power circuitry and decent overclock that you get.

Overview – The AMD R9 270

AMD’s R9 270 is about 10% slower than the R9 270X, and in return for 10% less performance you pay 10% less (the R9 270 costs $20 less than the R9 270X). Of course our results show that a very modestly overclocked R9 270 can significantly close down the gap between a stock R9 270 and an R9 270X to less than 5%.  However, as we demonstrated the overclocking potential is huge and the gap between the R9 270 and R9 270X is even less when you bring overclocking into the equation. The R9 270 is a great performer, essentially offering HD 7870 levels of performance with lower power consumption and less heat. That’s not to say the HD 7870 was a bad card because in my opinion it was probably the best graphics card of AMD’s HD 7000 series. AMD have been very clever with the R9 270 because they are able to take a much “higher end” GPU than is needed for this price point, readjust clock speeds, power delivery and pricing to give consumers what is a very efficient card for their money. However, the R9 270 does essentially put the R7 260X on an early death bed (especially OC versions) because what was already a highly unattractive card is now even less attractive as for just $40 more you can get an R9 270 which is a great graphics card.

Some other things to consider are that AMD has just announced the R9 270 is going to be part of the new AMD Battlefield 4 promotion which is valid on the R9 290X, R9 290, R9 280X, R9 270X and R9 270. That is a great value adding strategy from AMD because in relation to the GTX 660 (which it hands down beats by a significant margin) it also offers a very valuable and highly desirable game. There is little to criticise the AMD R9 270 for as a GPU. It packs more than enough performance for an extreme 1080p gamer, has a reasonable price tag, overclocks great, is power efficient, doesn’t run too hot and comes with Battlefield 4. My only gripe would be that the decision to only provide one PCIe 6 pin on the PCB (which AMD presumably set as a restriction to its partners too) could limit overclocking. A typical HD 7870 would normally be capable of 1200-1300MHz but our R9 270 (which is essentially an underclocked HD 7870) stopped short of that at 1150MHz – presumably from a lack of power/current. Either that or we just had a bad overclocker, it is difficult to say until I get a chance to test a few more R9 270s.

Overview – The ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC

What ASUS have done with the R9 270 is top notch as usual. As we’ve come to expect from ASUS the graphics card runs cool and super quiet, has ample overclocking headroom and looks like a really high quality piece of kit. The cooling solution is highly effective at taming the R9 270 and doing so without making your ears hurt in the process which is ultimately what most consumers want when buying a graphics card. Sure the overclock of only 50MHz is a bit on the stingy side, but you can easily rectify that by using ASUS’ GPU Tweak software because the ASUS R9 270 DC2 OC has bags of overclocking headroom.

Pros

• Efficient power consumption, even with the factory overclock
• Runs very cool thanks to ASUS’ Direct CU II cooling solution
• Overclocks very well, by as much as 20% on the core
• Comes bundled with Battlefield 4!
• Has an ASUS 3 year warranty which is very nice for a relatively budget card

Cons

• Memory doesn’t overclock too well
• Price is a bit too close to the R9 270X for comfort, $10 less would of been nice
• AMD places CCC restrictions on the core/memory clocks

“The R9 270 is another well priced and competitive performing GPU for AMD’s mid-range. It has bags of overclocking potential that will make the budget conscious buyer smell a bargain and the inclusion of Battlefield 4 on such an affordable GPU is likely to impress many. If you’re looking to buy an R9 270 then the ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC is certainly a top contender. It runs very cool, immensely quiet and is a very well rounded overall package. ASUS have done a great job, as always, to balance noise, performance, power efficiency and price to bring consumers a very polished product.”

Thank you to AMD and ASUS for providing this review sample.