AMD Radeon R9 270 Review: Replacing The Radeon HD 7800s

Power And Temperature Benchmarks

Our German team received a factory-overclocked card from Asus, so while our reference-clocked card reflects baseline performance, Igor's measurements are going to look a little bit higher.

There's a lot to like about AMD's single-monitor idle power result. However, AMD's cards are penalized with higher power readings when you plug in multiple screens.


The GeForce cards excel when it comes to low-power Blu-ray playback, but AMD claws back some ground in our gaming and compute-based power tests.

Specifically, the new Radeon H9 270 does well in these disciplines, particularly when remember that the benchmarks are taken from a factory-overclocked board.

This tells us nothing about AMD's reference Radeon R9 270 cooler, but Asus' Direct CU II does a great job of keeping the GPU at low temperatures during a prolonged gaming run. It never exceeds 70 degrees Celsius under load.

  • 16bit
    Seems like a pretty solid card, but I would like to see benchmarks that include some of the higher end cards. Curious how big the gap between the 280x and the 270 is.
    Reply
  • CaptainTom
    I actually like this card... Make an overclocking review!
    Reply
  • esrever
    I feel like they don't need a 270x now since board partners could just have released OCed versions of this to fill the slot. Strange that they don't have a 7850 replacement.
    Reply
  • m32
    11925880 said:
    I actually like this card... Make an overclocking review!

    I doubt this card has too much headroom in that department. The 6-pin is a gift and a curse.
    Reply
  • wdmfiber
    The chart need a typo fixed. The 7870 is I incorrectly labeled as 40nm, but it's built on the 28nm fab process; just like everything else. .

    Frig... we've been stuck at 28nm for so long it's just "understood". You could get-away with leaving that whole column out.
    Reply
  • Sakkura
    Wonder if there'll be any versions with two 6-pin power connectors. They could be great value for overclocking.
    Reply
  • bustapr
    I wonder, how exactly does overclocking work with these cards? Wouldnt it just be varying its fan speeds whenever it hits a certain temperature and sends clockspeeds all over the place?
    Reply
  • AMD Radeon
    i am waiting for a price cut for R9 series

    the previous version, 7870 GHz edition and 7870 XT is now so cheap
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    I will not be surprise they gonna release a R9-260X (R9 version of 260X) that is a rebrand of 7850. A curacao chip with a broken CU has to go somewhere.....
    Reply
  • witcherx
    why not radeon 7850 2gb?
    Reply