AMD’s Radeon R9 270X will be based on a higher-clocked Tahiti LE HD 7870 GPU according to sources on the Overclockers UK forums, via TechPowerUp. The author of the comments has since redacted all information on the forums (probably due to getting a telling off by AMD) but the details of what was said made for interesting reading and have been republished by various sources.
The R9 270X will use the Tahiti LE GPU but with either higher clock speeds or more stream processors. The original HD 7870 was of course based on Pitcairn but a later version based on Tahiti LE (a cut down HD 7950) was released. It features a narrowed 256 bit GDDR5 memory bus in a more compact package.
The OCUK source (which has now been redacted) states clearly that the R9 270X is based on “a crippled HD 7950” which could indicate a GCN core count of 1792 with the relevant tweaks to ensure it performs well enough (but not too well) within its price segment of $199. More details are expected to emerge when the card is launched.
Image courtesy of AMD
