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  • iTzSnypah - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    I'm not sure I like the R9 270. It should have been a cut card ~18CU's. I mean you can edit the BIOS to let up to +50% power limit so the only differentiation of the 270 and 270X (power) can be side stepped rather easily.

    The only hope is the 270X is binned much much higher than the 270 (to the point where the 270's are dogs), else there really isn't that much reason to buy one.

    Also I'm surprised that the ASUS R9 270 wasn't a single 8pin connector.
  • blanarahul - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    A single 8-pin connector would essentially make it a 270X.
  • Gnarr - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Are you really complaining that the card is not handicapped enough and that you can get a very powerful card for a low price? And you say that you don't like that you can get this card this cheap?
  • P39Airacobra - Saturday, May 31, 2014 - link

    WTH? Really? That is the dumbest thing I ever heard! That is like getting a million dollars and then saying you should have got less. What is wrong with you?
    I am glad the 270 is just the same as the 270X, I only paid $179 for it, And all I have to do is go into CCC and set my clock from 925mhz to 1050, And bam I got 270X , And with better power efficiency. However I leave it at 925mhz because it has more than enough power to max most games at stock. You can't get a better deal than this right now. Now if AMD can just get their drivers right and keep the artifact problem gone. So far 14.4 stable has no artifacts, But the new 14.6 beta has artifacts in games that require physx, (like Mafia 2) So I just keep 14.4 installed. It's sad that it has been over 2 years and AMD is still having artifact problems in their drivers. This has effected allot of 280/280X users. Some figure out that it is the drivers, And others just returned their cards, It's amazing how nobody wants to admit what the real problem is, It is like they want to worship and praise AMD instead of solving the artifact issue.
  • The Von Matrices - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    The 270X seems like a pointless card to anyone willing to adjust clock speeds since it is the same GPU as its cheaper sibling, much like the 7970 GHz edition was to the 7970. I remember most 7970s (including mine) easily clocked to 7970 GHz edition speeds with little or no voltage increase. Is the 270 the same in regards to reaching the clock speed of the 270X?
  • kyuu - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    I'm guessing the difference will be binning. So while you might end up with a 270 that can clock up to (or beyond) a 270X, there's a chance you may not if you were unlucky and ended up with lower quality silicon.
  • blanarahul - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    The difference will be TDP. I think the 270 is already operating near it's power limit. But the 270X has a lot of headroom.
  • yacoub35 - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    The right choice would be to get a 7950 Boost for under $200 and skip the 270-series generation which is rebranded lower-level hardware.
  • doggghouse - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Yeah, the 7950 Boost is a great bargain for now... until the supplies dry up. I managed to grab one for my nephew's new PC for $160 after rebate! It even came with the Never Settle Gold... going to be a great addition to his first PC :)
  • garadante - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    I'm not sure if I'm missing the section that points it out, but what does the asterisk behind the 280X in the graphs represent? Does it represent some sort of caveat or warning that we should be aware of?
  • Ryan Smith - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Non-reference. There isn't a reference 280X, so we're using an XFX card as a proxy.
  • garadante - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Ah, alright. And I also noticed that there's no overclocking section on this review, which is one of the most important aspects of any GPU review for me personally. Is there a specific reason for that?
  • Erenhardt - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    AMD cards cant be overclocked within "out of the box" policy. Contrary to nvidia cards, which overclocks nicely giving free performance for every CUDA user.
  • garadante - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    I don't know what you're smoking Erenhardt, because AMD cards overclock quite nicely. In fact, overclocking AMD cards is currently much more user open because they can be overvolted, whereas Nvidia has locked down on user overvolting. And I have no clue what "out of the box" policy you're trying to mention. Overclocking an AMD card won't void the warranty unless there's damage to the card itself. Please don't try to troll.
  • ddriver - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Too bad most nvidia gpus suck in compute...
  • Ryan Smith - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Solely a matter of timing. I have the data, but this launch happened opposite APU13. So it had to be written very quickly.

    The 270X topped out at 1150MHz Base (1200MHz boost) and 6.5GHz memory. The HIS 270 topped out at 1075MHz base (1100MHz boost) and 6GHz memory. The Asus topped out at 1125MHz (1150MHz boost) and 6GHz memory.
  • garadante - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Ah, alright. Thanks Ryan! So unless it's a fluke, the 270X might be slightly better binned than the 270. Are the default BIOS still not allowing for overvolting like most of the 290 series? Or because these are refreshes, is overvolting already possible with current tools without updates?
  • blanarahul - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    How can the GTX 760 beat the R9 280X in Hitman: Absolution?!
  • The Von Matrices - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    It was said in previous articles (but it should be included in all articles that have the 280X in the chart) that there is no reference 280X card or heat sink so the results they are using are from an XFX card with custom PCB and cooling (but stock clock speeds).
  • laskdfjoiewjfalsd - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    For the love of God post the Nexus 5 review already. I come here everyday and see random stuff like this while a flagship is being put off to the side!
  • Waveblade - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    It's like different people work on different products!
  • Roland00Address - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    A commandment of any cell phone reviews, thou shall not rush battery life tests.
  • Tetracycloide - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Be thou particularly careful testing battery life when thine available anecdotes vary wildly. Be thou definitive.
  • slayerxj - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    I may not read the article very carefully, and I keep wondering that why 280X has a star behind it.
  • Gigaplex - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    I'm getting a little tired of this TDP nonsense. Two cards with the same TDP from the same product family of the same manufacturer that clearly consume different amounts of power - the TDP numbers are now meaningless. And don't get me started on Intels SDP.
  • yannigr - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    If both are under 150W, then where is the problem? Maybe R9 270 consumes close to 130W-140W and not 150W, giving the necessary room to AMD's partners to oc the chip without passing the 150W limit.
  • dylan522p - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    OCed 270 is 270x
  • slapdashbr - Monday, November 18, 2013 - link

    Under 150W means it only needs one 6-pin power connector (like the 7850 or 660 which it replaces/competes with) and in general is much more power-efficient. The 270 (non-x) is aimed more at builders with power limits or old systems that can't support a dual-6-pin GPU, or perhaps computational tasks where performance per watt is more important than performance per card. The 270x is full-powered but less efficient and is better suited for gamers and tweakers. I wouldn't get a 270 to save $20 unless the lower power limit was important, in which case it's actually a good buy, as it should still edge out a gtx 660 while staying under 150W total power.
  • dylan522p - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    SDP at least makes sense.
  • maximumGPU - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    quick comment on the DCUII coolers from asus. I too have been very impressed with them. my goal was silent yet powerful computing, and the DCUII cooler on my GTX670 plays that part admirably.
  • Will Robinson - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    What!...no hatchet job on these new cards from Wreckage?
    The hurt just keeps on coming eh Wrecky?
  • just4U - Thursday, November 14, 2013 - link

    It's not beating the 760 so his stocks are safe... for now. Besides, you need to give him a break. Poor man must be tired after the release of the 780Ti and 290/X.
  • geniekid - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Would really have liked to see CFX numbers.
  • Da W - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Agreed, i need to compare 270X crossfire performance/heat/noise to a single 290X.
    Right now i'm hesitating, for my 3 monitor setup:
    1. Dual 270X for 400$. -Advantage of lower cost, lower heat, lower noise, turn off one GPU when not gaming. Don't know if it's strong enough for 3600X1920.
    2. Single 290 for 450$. -Best price/performance, noisy, hot.
    3. Single GTX 780 superclocked for 530$. - If only for Nvidia cooler and energy efficiency, else i'm an AMD guy.
    4. Single 290X for 550$. -I would pick this over vanilla 290 for chip binning, it should have higher quality GPU as far as energy concumption goes.
    Titan and 780ti are above my budget.
  • garadante - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    I'm strongly doubting two of these would game at 3600x1920 comfortable. That's almost 4k resolution. Remember that any AMD card below the 290 series still uses the Crossfire bridge and can't transfer 4k resolution frame buffers through it. Making the second card completely useless as the buffer is just dropped instead. And I haven't seen technical info yet, but I wonder if that's part of the reason why the 290 series outperforms the 780/780 Ti in 4k gaming so well. Perhaps the SLI bridge is also becoming a bottleneck, depending on how it handles frame buffers.

    For that resolution, personally I'd say waiting for aftermarket 290s and 290Xs would be a good choice. Get either much better binned chips in a high end aftermarket 290 or 290X, better thermals, and acoustics for both (and thus better overclocking headroom). With the performance those cards were getting at 4K gaming, they could probably handle single card 3600x1920 at decent settings, though probably not highest without dropping significantly below 60 FPS. But it leaves room for adding a 2nd card, whereas starting with 270X doesn't. Looks like it only has 1 Crossfire bridge which means you can't add a third card.
  • Da W - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Good advice. I'll discard option number 1 then, and yes i'm waiting until we see custom coolers on the 290 series before i make a move, probably an MSI one to match my MB. Although that Nvidia cooler is cool looking as hell.....

    At "3.5K", i find that disabling AA or adjusting just a step below "ultra freaking high details" makes all games playable. By playable i mean above 30FPS.
  • krumme - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Where is the noise equalization test?
    It looks like the asus card is around 853% faster than the nearest competitor.
  • Streetwind - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Ryan, will you be adding the results from the various R7/R9 models tested in the last month or two to Bench eventually? The entire new series is absent so far, as is the GTX 780 Ti. I often use Bench for comparing my current card to potential upgrades, so it would be great to have.
  • Ryan Smith - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    Yes. GPU14 Bench will be up next week; I need to clean up the DB a bit first.
  • yacoub35 - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    So how come no mention of the 7950 in the conclusion? It's clearly the right choice, as you get 3GB of VRAM in addition to superior performance, and all for a price well under $200.
  • Quidam67 - Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - link

    you make a valid point in some respects, but keep in mind for some people (including me) that is a different class of card, in terms of it's power requirements and the physical form factor. At this level of card, I'm looking for a small card and preferably a single 6 pin power adapter. I'm working with a small sized rig here that can still offer solid 1080p gaming.
  • jnad32 - Thursday, November 14, 2013 - link

    What he said, and there are going to be hard as hell to find here very soon.
  • dwade123 - Thursday, November 14, 2013 - link

    It's struggling with current-gen games, and will become obsolete with next-gen console ports.
  • creed3020 - Thursday, November 14, 2013 - link

    "Finally for our look at noise, the results are fairly typical for every card except the Asus. Asus’s 270 by comparison to everything else now holds the new record for quietest card on our current testbed, coming in at just 36C"

    @ Ryan: I believe you meant to say 36 dB
  • Ryan Smith - Thursday, November 14, 2013 - link

    Indeed I did. Thank you.
  • Hrel - Thursday, November 14, 2013 - link

    I don't under the 270X. Isn't that just an overclocked 270? Overclocking your GPU isn't hard, at all. Why would anyone pay extra for an overclock? Also, since when do GPU manufacturers release overclocked cards as if they're different cards?

    I'd like to see an overclocking comparison between the GTX660 and the 270. Find the highest stable OC on both then compare them.

    I just really don't see the point of the 270X.
  • Da W - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link

    It got an extra 6 pin connector.
  • Tujan - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link

    Is there going to be any advantages to using 8.1 Windows over Windows 7 where the newer cards advances are concerned ? That is will any of the advatages implemented to the new AMD cards 'not' be an advatage to Windows 7 users ?
  • hapkiman - Monday, November 18, 2013 - link

    "it shipped at lower clockspeeds then 7870," "Then" should be written as "than," and a "the" is necessary. e.g.:

    "it shipped at lower clockspeeds than the 7870,"
  • P39Airacobra - Sunday, May 11, 2014 - link

    I bought a HIS Radeon R9 270 IceQ X2, I originally was going to get the MSI gaming model, But right before I got the money Newegg raised it from $179 to $189, So I instead got the HIS for $179. (10 bucks is 10 bucks man!) And I am very happy with the HIS 270 it performs very very well. Best fastest GPU I ever owned. And it will match the 270x just by simply going into AMD overdrive and moving the clock from 925 to 1050. It is a amazing card, I highly recommend it.
  • P39Airacobra - Saturday, July 26, 2014 - link

    The 660 is great card but compared to the R9 270 non X it looses by a good margin (but the 660 has much better drivers). The GTX 760 wins against the 270. So the 270 fits in a very good spot especially for $179, And newegg even has a saphire R9 270 for $154. Nvidia can't come close to that price/performance.
  • P39Airacobra - Thursday, August 14, 2014 - link

    I really like my HIS R9 270 iPower IceQ X² card, When I buy a GPU I always try to get one with reference clocks especially if it's a AMD GPU. This can save some trouble with drivers issues. My 650 Ti was also based on reference clocks. And if you need the extra FPS you can always overclock. But honestly it is always best to leave the clocks alone. The performance gain from overclocking at the most will be 5fps average, That really is not worth fooling with. If your card won't get enough FPS in a certain game with certain settings it makes much more sense just to turn down the settings a little bit instead of stressing your expensive GPU. However at 1080 any 7870/270/270X should be fine a High-Ultra settings anyway.
  • P39Airacobra - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link

    Well I edited a copy of my bios on a HIS R9 270 ICE QX2 with Hynix, I set it to boot at stock AMD X model Voltage and I upped the fan profile a little bit to compensate, And I set the CCC oc limit to stock X model also. So it will boost to 1050mhz and 1.2v. But of'course I am too chicked too try and flash it. LOL, I am too afraid to ruin a good card that cost over $150 bucks. That's allot of money down the drain over simple flash risk.
  • P39Airacobra - Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - link

    It would be nice if somone would do a crossfire review for the 270 nonX. Since it is the best bang for buck card with performance close to high end you would think they would. This card is also very popular because of it's performance and price. So WTH reviewers?
  • P39Airacobra - Saturday, October 18, 2014 - link

    I have to say again! I love the 270 series from AMD! AMD has finally corrected the artifact issues with the latest 14.9 and 14.91 Beta drivers! That is outstanding! I am so glad to finally see AMD with drivers as good as Nvidia's. The R9 270 is the perfect GPU! It can run anything at 1080p with absolutely beautiful settings! And you can now buy a R9 270 for $139 at newegg. This is a card that can do anything! And it is only $139. That is outstanding! It is the HIS model like mine too! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... I am a little mad since I paid $179 for mine LOL. But if it helps other people to game. Anyway I can vouch that this card runs very cool too. It has a excellent cooler with copper pipes, The only drawback is it does not have heatsinks on the V-Ram, So do not overclock the V-Ram ever! But it runs 24c-28c idle, And never gets to 60c under heavy load clocked at 1050mhz. At stock 925mhz it never gets past 54c. That is outstanding temps for a Pitcairn chip. If you need a upgrade or are deciding on a GPU for a new build, This card for $139 is a fantastic choice.
  • P39Airacobra - Saturday, October 25, 2014 - link

    I noticed a really neat thing running CPU-Z log during game play. (Hitman Absolution) I was just curious of the boost clock speed. I wanted to see what clock speed it ran at. But it actually just runs at the labeled boost clock speed. The log showed It staying at 925mhz from the start of the game. So I was glad to see it at that speed. Here is the interesting part. When I looked at the voltage section of the log the card mostly ran at it's labeled voltage, But it also spiked at 1.250 which is the actual peak voltage for most 7870's. So it is nice to know my HIS R9 270 has same potential as the 7870 and R9 270X. The auto voltage is kinda neat. I also noticed my highest temp was 52c. I thought everyone said AMD cards run hot. I never seen this one go to 60c. I think I will just stick with my R9 270 for another 2 years. And hopefully ny then AMD will have another great bang for buck GPU like the R9 270. I was sold on Nvidia but now that AMD finally improved their drivers and removed the artifacts from Mafia 2, they seem to be finally caring about their drivers. I also noticed that textures on AMD GPU's look sharper, clearer and much cleaner than Nvidia. Also AMD's colors are much nicer, Nvidia's colors seem stale and dull now after using my R9 270.
  • shredder962 - Thursday, November 27, 2014 - link

    Late comment, but to those saying the 270 is a nerfed 270x are full of it.

    https://i.imgur.com/wU3qUII.png

    This is my Asus Radeon R9 270 CUII OC overclocked to match the boost clock of the Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X Windforce Edition
  • Boo Yoon - Friday, December 11, 2015 - link

    Hi,
    I am ignorant of a graphic card thing as a college female student and i was wondering if AMD Radeon R9 290 can support a monitor that I am going to buy. The monitor model name is 'QX2710 LED Evolution ll DP Multi TRUE10 TRUE 10 Matte 27" 2560x1440 Monitor' and it has a DVI-D, HDMI, VGI, and DP inputs. Somebody help me to know if the monitor is okay to buy for my graphic card. Thank you.
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