Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC Review

The AMD R9 270 is a tempting proposition. It offers excellent frame rate performance at 1080p and is clearly more powerful than the last generation HD7850 it replaces.

AMD didn't supply us with a reference card, so we have been fortunate enough to place our focus today on two excellent solutions – the Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 and the Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC. The Asus card is clocked higher out of the box (975mhz v 945mhz), and offers a little extra performance in some of the games we tested today.

Asus deserve a lot of credit for the design of the Direct CU II cooler on their R9 270. It is quieter than the competing Sapphire Dual-X part under load and also maintains a better thermal curve under all situations. This is actually one of the quietest gaming cards we have ever tested and would be an ideal partner for an HTPC build that doubles up a gaming system.

While all samples will overclock to different levels the headroom on our particular sample was remarkable. The Catalyst Control Center allowed a maximum clock of 1,050mhz and the sample was stable at this limit. Using the ASUS GPU Tweak software reaped another 50mhz, to 1,100mhz. Again the Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC was completely stable, so we ended up limited by the software. At this clock, the solution was performing at the same level as the more expensive Asus R9 270x Direct CU II TOP.

Pricing of the ASUS card will be £154.99 inc vat and there will be a Battlefield 4 bundle deal on offer at no extra cost, for a limited period. This card will be more expensive that the reference cards, but for the class leading cooler and high overclock it is certainly worth the money. More information on the Battlefield 4 bundle over here.

Pros:

• High overclock out of the box.
• extremely quiet at all times.
• massive core clock headroom.
• class leading cooler.

Cons:

• Has a price premium.

Kitguru says: The Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC is great value for money . The cooler is class leading.

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