The AMD Radeon R9 270X & R9 270 Review: Feat. Asus & HIS
by Ryan Smith on November 13, 2013 12:01 AM ESTMetro: Last Light
As always, kicking off our look at performance is 4A Games’ latest entry in their Metro series of subterranean shooters, Metro: Last Light. The original Metro: 2033 was a graphically punishing game for its time and Metro: Last Light is in its own right too. On the other hand it scales well with resolution and quality settings, so it’s still playable on lower end hardware.
AMD likes to pitch the 270 series as their primary 1080p cards, and although they generally do a perfectly fine job at it, Metro is a reminder that there are scenarios where they will come up short, particularly if trying to do 1080p at the highest quality settings. For these cards if we want framerates better than the 30s, we have to look at moving down a quality level.
At 1080p high quality, we can get our 270 cards up to the mid-40fps range. 270X of course leads the pack, but the 270 cards are very close behind owing to the fact that the only difference between the cards is the GPU clockspeed.
For the 270X in particular we’re looking at performance just a few frames per second behind the more expensive GTX 760, for a deficit of 6%. Otherwise the only cards close to it are of course the 270, and the outgoing 7870.
As for our 270 cards, they are second only to the 270X in anything near their price. The Asus card with its factory overclock is as to be expected faster, essentially splitting the difference between the stock clocked HIS 270 and the 270X. Furthermore in this test both cards are faster than the 7870 – a Pitcairn card with higher clockspeeds – showing the potency of the memory clockspeed increase. Finally, both cards are 10%+ faster than the GTX 660, making this an easy win for AMD.
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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.