Ideal for small form factor PCs and 1080p screens
To cut a long story short, the [highlight] PowerColor Radeon R9 270 OC [/highlight] uses the same GPU as the [highlight] Radeon HD 7870 [/highlight] , and the R9 270X for that matter, but it runs at a lower clock speed,which enables it to be powered with just one 6-pin PCI-E connection. It’s designed to trade blows with Nvidia’s GTX 660, and offer a cost-effective card to gamers using 1080p screens, while remaining within the same power envelope as the lowlier HD 7850.
If you need reminding, AMD’s 28nm Graphics Core Next GPU, first seen in the Radeon HD 7870, consists of 20 compute units, and therefore 1,280 stream processors and 80 texture units. You’ll also find 32 ROPs and four 64-bit memory controllers, which communicate with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.
By default, the GPU clock runs at 925MHz, 125MHz below the R9 270X’s frequency. This is the only performance difference between the two GPUs, though, as the memory frequency is the same 1.4GHz (5.6GHz effective).
The Radeon R9 270 graphics cards on the market tend to ship with factory overclocks, and this PowerColor card is no exception, increasing the core boost clock by a measly 30MHz, or 3 per cent, to 955MHz. Our results are based on testing at this frequency, but at stock speeds, you’ll only see the frame rates fall by 1 or 2fps, if anything.
THESE OVERCLOCKS HAD A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT, WITH THE MINIMUM FRAME RATE IN CRYSIS 3 INCREASING TO A HEALTHY 32FPS
Oddly, PowerColor has opted to omit the second DVI port found on the reference card. This may help to lower costs, and is unlikely to affect the target audience, but it does prevent you from running three identical monitors without using DisplayPort – a feature that’s supported by other R9-series cards.
Taking the card apart reveals a basic but well-made cooler, with a single S-shaped heatpipe feeding
the aluminium fins, which are cooled by a 90mm fan. Neither the memory chips nor the power circuitry are actively cooled, though, and hot air is exhausted into your case.
PERFORMANCE
The R9 270 OC offers great performance Battlefield 4, keeping the game not only playable at the demanding 1080p Ultra test, but also 5fps quicker than the GTX 660 in terms of both average and minimum frame rates. It’s 3fps quicker at 2,560 x 1,600 too, although neither card is playable at this resolution.
In BioShock Infinite, the PowerColor card also beat the GTX 660’s minimum frame rate by 3fps at
1080p, and by 1fps at the higher resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 providing a borderline playable frame rate at the latter resolution. The R9 270 is around 30 per cent faster than the HD 7850 in this game
as well.
In Crysis 3, even the 1080p test is enough to push cards in this price bracket close to their limits.
Nevertheless, the R9 270 and GTX 660 are closely matched in this test, with the former having a slightly higher average frame rate and the latter seizing victory on the all-important minimum frame rate one by just 1fps. Moving to the higher resolution of 2,560 x 1,600, both cards can only offer unplayable frame rates, but again, the R9 270 and GTX 660 were neck and neck.
However, in our total system power draw test, the PowerColor card consumed more power than both
the [highlight] GTX 660 and HD 7850 [/highlight] , even though all three are powered by one 6-pin PCI-E connection. Thankfully, the PowerColor cooler kept the card running cool and quiet though.
Through overclocking, we were able to reach a GPU core frequency of 1,080MHz, a 13 per cent increase over the PowerColor card’s stock speed (or 17 per cent over the stock AMD R9 270 speed), and we also reached a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1.525GHz (6.1GHz effective).
These overclocks had a significant impact on performance, with the minimum frame rate in Crysis
3 increasing to a healthy 32fps at 1,920 x 1,080, so it’s well worth tweaking this card and seeing what extra performance you can eke out of it.
Specification:
Graphics processor : AMD Radeon R9 270, 955MHz
Pipeline : 1,280 stream processors, 32 ROPs
Memory :2GB GDDR5, 5.6GHz effective
Bandwidth : 179.2GB/sec
Compatibility : DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, AMD Mantle
Outputs/inputs : 1 x DVI-I, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
Power connections : 1 x 6-pin, side-mounted
Size : 200mm long, dual-slot
CONCLUSION
The Radeon R9 270 gives AMD a much more competitive GPU in the circa-£130 budget category, as well as in this power envelope. In terms of performance, the R9 270 walks all over the previous HD 7850 and, at just £126 inc VAT, it’s also cheaper and generally quicker than its competition, [highlight] Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 660 [/highlight] .
If you’re limited by budget, case size or your number of PCI-E power connections, which could be true for many owners of small form factor cases, HTPCs or bare bone systems, the Radeon R9 270 is a solid choice.
[highlight] PowerColor’s R9 270 OC [/highlight] card is a great deal too, being the cheapest graphics card we’ve seen so far with this particular GPU setup. We’re not sure why it only has a single DVI connection, or why the factory overclock is just a miniscule 30MHz, but the card doesn’t have the processing power for triple-monitor gaming anyway, and the cooler is very effective for the price.
