Sapphire Launches Radeon R9 270X Dual-X 4GB Card
By - Source: TechPowerUp
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21 comments
Sapphire has announced a custom R9 270X graphics card with 4 GB of GDDR5 graphics memory.
Sapphire has announced a new R 270X graphics card, though rather than an ordinary reference model it has a custom card that carries 4 GB of GDDR5 memory.
The graphics card, which will be known as the R9-270X Dual-X 4 GB, features Sapphire's Dual-X cooler. This cooler carries two fans that blow air through an aluminum fin stack, to which heat is fed through a number of copper heat pipes. Additionally, the card has a custom PCB.
The memory on the card is clocked at an effective speed of 5.6 GHz, which when run over a 256-bit wide memory interface allows a bandwidth of 179 GB/s.
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what? should be more like under $300. $500 is delving into r290 territory.
No, you're absolutely right. You'd never use a midrange card like the 270X in a situation where you'd really need more than 2 GB of RAM and its probably not a very smart purchase for an informed customer.
I think Battlefield 4 can actually use a little more than 2 GB at mainstream resolutions, but I don't think how big of a deal it is.
"No, you're absolutely right. You'd never use a midrange card like the 270X in a situation where you'd really need more than 2 GB of RAM and its probably not a very smart purchase for an informed customer."
Actually, an "informed customer" would indeed know a situation where more than 2GB would be needed. In a single card setup, yes, 4GB would not be utilized as the GPU just isn't fast enough to fill it. The purpose of cards such as this is for a cross fire setups and in that case would definitely benefit. In a dual card setup, the amount of memory from both cards do not add to each other - Even though 2x4GB video cards would have 8GB physically, effectively you still only have 4GB of VRAM total. This is because all graphic information is "mirrored" between the VRAM on the first and second video cards, and then each GPU renders alternate frames. So in a cross fire set up, really you would need to think of this more as a 2GB per GPU card since the other half of its 4GB VRAM also contains the information being rendered on the 2nd crossfire card.
When you see cards like this, or in the past the Asus Ares series with a ton of VRAM, they are niche cards for people looking to run dual/triple/quad SLI or Crossfire.
Actually, an "informed customer" would indeed know a situation where more than 2GB would be needed. In a single card setup, yes, 4GB would not be utilized as the GPU just isn't fast enough to fill it. The purpose of cards such as this is for a cross fire setups and in that case would definitely benefit. In a dual card setup, the amount of memory from both cards do not add to each other - Even though 2x4GB video cards would have 8GB physically, effectively you still only have 4GB of VRAM total. This is because all graphic information is "mirrored" between the VRAM on the first and second video cards, and then each GPU renders alternate frames. So in a cross fire set up, really you would need to think of this more as a 2GB per GPU card since the other half of its 4GB VRAM also contains the information being rendered on the 2nd crossfire card.
When you see cards like this, or in the past the Asus Ares series with a ton of VRAM, they are niche cards for people looking to run dual/triple/quad SLI or Crossfire.
In my original comment I questioned if you would get a good enough fps with 3 or 4 of these cards in crossfire. It seems if you need the vram and want the power that would require more then 1 card you might as well get the 290 or 290X.
"In my original comment I questioned if you would get a good enough fps with 3 or 4 of these cards in crossfire. It seems if you need the vram and want the power that would require more then 1 card you might as well get the 290 or 290X"
As I use single cards only I would agree with your statement that getting a more powerful card seems like a better solution than running more than 2 midrange cards. However, I was replying to the quotes from users AMD Radeon and Oxiide who were questioning if there was any purpose at all for having 4GB on a midrange card.
I am getting avg 60 frames/sec on BF4 at 1080p with everything set at ultra, HBOA and 2xAf, this is on the Golmundb railway map which is not so intensive. On Parcel storm I am getting avg 40 frames/sec, this is probably one of the most intensive maps.
I dont know why some reviews say this card will only play BF4 on high settings to get decent frame rates as this is clearly not the case.
Also before anyone says it, i got the 4gb version of the card as it leaves me with the opportunity to crossfire at a later date when i have more cash to spend and will give me a decent amount of Vram which the 2gb version would not, for future games.
At the end of the day it all comes down to how much you can afford to spend at the time. When I purchase another one in 6 months or so, they will probably only be around the £100 mark.
Well if it helps with rendering time, I guess I could see the point of this card then. Does having more then one of these cards speed up rendering time even more? If it does then I can definitely see getting several of these over a 290.