The AMD Radeon R9 270X & R9 270 Review: Feat. Asus & HIS
by Ryan Smith on November 13, 2013 12:01 AM ESTBattlefield 3
Our major multiplayer action game of our benchmark suite is Battlefield 3, DICE’s 2011 multiplayer military shooter. Its ability to pose a significant challenge to GPUs has been dulled some by time and drivers, but it’s still a challenge if you want to hit the highest settings at the highest resolutions at the highest anti-aliasing levels. Furthermore while we can crack 60fps in single player mode, our rule of thumb here is that multiplayer framerates will dip to half our single player framerates, so hitting high framerates here may not be high enough.
When it comes to Battlefield 3, NVIDIA has the slight edge in general, so this is one of the 270 series weaker games. The 270X can hold GTX 660 to a draw, but in the more directly competitive 270 vs. GTX 660 matchup, GTX 660 is going to be 10% faster. In any case our highest setting will be marginally playable; the averages are more than fine, but the minimum framerates will in our experience drop below 30fps here, so a drop down to 2X MSAA or no MSAA may be necessary to get a consistent experience out of the 270 series.
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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!