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Partner Cards: 10 Radeon R9 270 And 270X Boards, Reviewed

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We're not particularly fond of AMD's reference Radeon R9 270-series cooling solution. Fortunately, most of the company's board partners have their own heat sinks and fans. We take 10 cards and measure their clock rates, thermals, and acoustics.

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).

ModelGPU 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 GB11201400179.235.889.6
Club 3D royalQueen CGAX-R927X6 R9 270X 2 GB10801400179.234.686.4
Gigabyte GV-R927XOC-4GD R9 270X 4 GB11001400179.235.288.0
HIS IceQ X² Turbo Boost Clock H270XQMT2G2 R9 270X 2 GB11401400179.236.591.2
HIS iPower IceQ X² Turbo H270QMT2G2M R9 270 2 GB975100179.231.278.0
MSI Radeon R9 270X Gaming 4 GB11201400179.235.889.6
PowerColor PCS+ AXR9 270X 2GBD5-PPDHE R9 270X 2 GB11001425182.435.288.0
Sapphire Dual-X 100365L R9 270 2 GB9451400179.230.275.6
Sapphire Toxic Radeon R9 270X 2 GB11501500192.036.892.0
Sapphire Vapor-X 100364VXL Radeon R9 270X 2 GB11001450185.635.288.0

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.

Asus DirectCU II R9270X-DC2T-4GD5 R9 270X 4 GB

Club 3D royalQueen CGAX-R927X6 R9 270X 2 GB

Gigabyte GV-R927XOC-4GD R9 270X 4 GB

HIS IceQ X² Turbo Boost Clock H270XQMT2G2 R9 270X 2 GB

HIS iPower IceQ X² Turbo H270QMT2G2M R9 270 2 GB

MSI Radeon R9 270X Gaming 4 GB

PowerColor PCS+ AXR9 270X 2GBD5-PPDHE R9 270X 2 GB

Sapphire Dual-X 100365L R9 270 2 GB

Sapphire Toxic Radeon R9 270X 2 GB

Sapphire Vapor-X 100364VXL Radeon R9 270X 2 GB

24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • blackmagnum
    Boost clocks are the luck of the draw; maybe it's time for mainstream liquid-cooled graphics cards, since we are reaching the limits of air cooling. Do you agree?
    Reply
  • logang
    Wow the ASUS card stays cooler at load when you are measuring it in F than when you are measuring it in C
    Reply
  • emad_ramlawi
    Conclusion by me, cause Tom hardware missed it :MSI Twin Frozer cooler is a beast that covers all the major points, it keeps cool and quiet, and not that large, it would fit in normal cases.Any card using that cooler is great, i am highly interested in full benchmark between :MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti VS MSI Radeon R9 270
    Reply
  • wtfxxxgp
    No concluding remarks or did I miss something? O.o
    Reply
  • mpdugas
    GPU cooling designs that exhaust waste heat into the PC case simply rob Peter to pay Paul.
    Reply
  • Aggelos Moody
    I had the asus r9 270x and RMA'd it twice for random framedrops without even getting hot or anything, just random gpu load to 100% for 2 secs and back to normal, of course the annoyance of that could break every game's experience and so I'm waiting for my 3rd one if the store won't agree to refund. So sad for getting my first asus product. It could be nice to have benchmarks for consistency as well like we used to for the older articles like this one
    Reply
  • envy14tpe
    I'd love to see a roundup comparing models across the board and see if there is a general trend. Ex. compare all Sapphire Dual-X, Toxic, and Vapor-X that are 270, 270x, 280x, 290, 290x....that way we could say "this technology in the design has the tendency to be..."
    Reply
  • vertexx
    Thanks for the roundup - real useful info here - and no conclusion or awards necessary - you're simply giving us some good information to make a buying decision, and I like that.

    I can personally attest to the MSI Gaming R9 270X. While MSI stretches this year's Twin Frozer a little too far all the way up to the R9 290X, the R9 270X thru 280X are right in the sweet spot of this cooler's capabilities.

    I have the MSI 270X in a Silverstone SG05 for one of the family gaming PCs. I picked it up in December for $200 on Newegg. When it's not used for gaming, it is scrypt mining for a little extra cash for the boys. Overclocked and with a slightly tweaked fan profile, it pulls in 400-425KH/s and stays at 70C at 50% fan RPM, and the tonal quality is also very good with the larger fan blades.

    Currently at $250 on Newegg, it's a little steep unless you want to mine on the side for a little ongoing cash rebate on the card. The $200 that I paid was definitely a bargain, but I think the card is worth $220-230 based on gaming, cooling performance and overall quality.
    Reply
  • KelvinTy
    Wow! Those noise comparison videos! I am very surprised at the Gigabyte Tricool thing, they were extremely quiet in a demo rig (@ full load) in a shop near me.
    Reply
  • Embra
    Tom's is quoting the Newegg price of a Sapphire Vapor-X at $300??I find it to be $230. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202059
    Reply