Can These Cards Hold Their Rated Clock Rates?
All of these boards employ the same Curaçao GPU manufactured at 28 nm, which is basically the Pitcairn processor, re-branded. It comes equipped with 1280 shaders and exposes an aggregate 256-bit memory interface. Only the core and memory clock rates differ (even compared to the older Pitcairn-based Radeon HD 7870).
Model | GPU Boost Clock (MHz) | Memory Clock (MHz) | Memory Bandwidth (GB/s) | Fillrate (GPixel/s) | Fillrate (GTexel/s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Asus DirectCU II R9270X-DC2T-4GD5 R9 270X 4 GB | 1120 | 1400 | 179.2 | 35.8 | 89.6 |
Club 3D royalQueen CGAX-R927X6 R9 270X 2 GB | 1080 | 1400 | 179.2 | 34.6 | 86.4 |
Gigabyte GV-R927XOC-4GD R9 270X 4 GB | 1100 | 1400 | 179.2 | 35.2 | 88.0 |
HIS IceQ X² Turbo Boost Clock H270XQMT2G2 R9 270X 2 GB | 1140 | 1400 | 179.2 | 36.5 | 91.2 |
HIS iPower IceQ X² Turbo H270QMT2G2M R9 270 2 GB | 975 | 100 | 179.2 | 31.2 | 78.0 |
MSI Radeon R9 270X Gaming 4 GB | 1120 | 1400 | 179.2 | 35.8 | 89.6 |
PowerColor PCS+ AXR9 270X 2GBD5-PPDHE R9 270X 2 GB | 1100 | 1425 | 182.4 | 35.2 | 88.0 |
Sapphire Dual-X 100365L R9 270 2 GB | 945 | 1400 | 179.2 | 30.2 | 75.6 |
Sapphire Toxic Radeon R9 270X 2 GB | 1150 | 1500 | 192.0 | 36.8 | 92.0 |
Sapphire Vapor-X 100364VXL Radeon R9 270X 2 GB | 1100 | 1450 | 185.6 | 35.2 | 88.0 |
To boost, or not to boost, that is the question. Does a high specified clock rate mean anything if a card can't maintain it under load, and is forced to throttle back? We took all ten cards, warmed them up through a real-world graphics load, and then started recording their clock rates during an exhaustive gaming loop.