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This week AMD launch their new R9 270 graphics card – set to replace the HD7850 at the lower end of the enthusiast gaming market. Thankfully today we haven’t been forced to review a reference AMD solution and instead we can focus on some higher grade partner cards. Our second launch review today focuses on the new ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II featuring high out of the box overclocks and a custom two fan cooler.
Both of our launch reviews feature cards with custom cooling solutions, and the ASUS R9 270 uses the very capable Direct CU II cooler which we have seen in various guises on other ASUS cards in recent months.
The new R9 270 is only $20 cheaper than the R9 270x. According to AMD documentation the pricing at time of launch is 270x $199 and 270 $179.
The official specifications for the R9 270 are shown above. AMD have given the card 1,280 Stream Processors – the same as the R9 270X version. The 270 core clock is significantly reduced, with AMD stating a maximum speed of 925mhz. Both partner cards we are reviewing today are overclocked and ignore the reference rating.
The R9 270 has 32 ROPS and 80 Texture Units with 2GB of GDDR5 connected via a 256 bit memory interface. Memory speeds are rated at 1,400mhz, or 5.6 Gbps effective. Typical board power is rated to 150W, which is the same as the HD7850 before it. The basic specifications are identical to the R9 270X, with lower core clock speeds differentiating the models.
The ASUS R9 270 ships in a slim line box. No pictures of the actual card, although ASUS do focus on the cooler in the middle of the box.
ASUS supply a Crossfire connector, along with a software disc, setup guide and a video converter.
The Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC houses two fans spanning the full length of the PCB underneath. The cooler slightly overhangs the end of the PCB as shown above. Both cooler and PCB are black, with some red accenting on the cooler.
The Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC is equipped with a single Crossfire connector for a 2 way configuration.
The card takes power from a single 6 pin power connector.
This card has two DVI connectors, alongside a full sized HDMI and DisplayPort connector. It is Eyefinity capable.
The Asus Direct CU II cooler comprises of two direct contact heatpipes – running into two separate racks of aluminum fins on either side of the core.
ASUS have overclocked this card to 975mhz, higher than the Sapphire Dual-X version which we also reviewed today (945mhz). Memory speeds are 1,400mhz (5.6Gbps effective). The core is built on the 28nm process. It has 32 ROPS, 80 Texture units and the 2GB of GDDR5 memory is connected via a 256 bit memory interface.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.
Today we are testing the R9 270 with the latest Beta 13.11 driver from AMD.
We are using one of our brand new test rigs supplied by PCSPECIALIST and built to our specifications. If you want to read more about this, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page.
Comparison cards:
AMD R9 270X Reference (1050mhz core / 1400mhz memory)
ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP (1,120mhz core / 1,400mhz memory)
VTX3D HD7870 Tahiti LE (975mhz core / 1500mhz memory)
VTX3D VChamp HD7850 (1000mhz core / 1225mhz memory)
ASUS HD7850 (860mhz core / 1,200mhz memory)
eVGA GTX760 SC (1072 mhz core / 1502mhz memory)
Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Valley Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
3DMark
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark
Games:
Sleeping Dogs
Total War: Rome 2
Dirt Showdown
Tomb Raider
Metro Last Light
GRID 2
Alien V Predator
Splinter Cell Blacklist
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.
Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset.
A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.
Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.
Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:
- Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
- Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
- Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
- Multicore CPU support
- Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
- Powerful C++ API
- Comprehensive performance profiling system
- Flexible XML-based data structures
We use the settings shown above at 1920×1080.
The Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC is less than 2 frames per second behind the HD7870 Tahiti LE, which is an impressive score.Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.
We test with the settings above both at 1920×1080.
Strong performance in this benchmark, averaging 57 frames per second, this is around 4 frames per second slower than the HD7870 Tahiti LE and around 7 frames per second faster than the VTX3D VChamp HD7850.Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.
The Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC scores around 1,500 less than the HD7870 Tahiti LE. It is around 3,000 points ahead of the VTX3D VChamp HD7850 however.
3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.
The score of 7,724 points actually places the Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC around only 100 points behind the HD7870 Tahiti LE.3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance.
Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good.
To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.”
A great score from the ASUS solution, just under 5,700 points, only 300 points behind the HD7870 Tahiti LE, and 700 points ahead of the VTX3D VChamp HD7850.
Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today. To test the cards we used a 1920×1080 resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on.
Strong performance again, averaging 71 frames per second, and holding the minimum frame rate above 40 at all times.Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series.As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights.
This game is still a system killer at these maximised settings. We test at 1920×1080.
The Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC almost manages to maintain 25 fps at all times, dropping once below what we would consider an acceptable frame rate. This is a particularly demanding Direct X 11 engine at these settings however.
Total War ROME 2 is the eighth stand alone game in the Total War series, it is the successor to the successful Rome: Total War title. The Warscape Engine powers the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time.
Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city.
This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles.
To test the cards today we use the ULTRA profile settings shown above at 1920×1080.
Another smooth experience, only 4 frames per second behind the higher clocked R9 270X. The ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC averages 10 frames per second more at the same settings.
Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007.
Today we test the hardware at 1920×1080 with the Ultra profile and 8 x MSAA.
An engine which always scores well on AMD hardware. We can see the ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC outperforming the eVGA GTX760 SuperClock, the only time that will happen today.
After a delayed release from late 2012 to March 2013, the game received much anticipation and hype. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far.
We use the ULTIMATE profile shown above and test at 1920×1080.
Solid frame rates, holding at 30 or above at all times.
Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools.
We test this game with the built in benchmark with very high quality settings at 1920×1080 – details shown in the image above.
This is a demanding benchmark, and the Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC scores around 3 frames per second higher than the VTX3D VChamp HD7850.
Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility.
We test at 1920×1080 with the Ultra image quality preset, as shown above. 8x MSAA was enabled to improve image quality.
The Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC averages 67 frames per second, 10 frames more than the HD7850.Splinter Cell Blacklist is the sixth installment in the series.
The game begins with Sam Fisher and his old friend Victor Coste who are about to depart from Andersen AFB in Guam when an unknown enemy force destroys the entire base.
Assisted by hacker specialist Charlie Cole, Sam and Vic manage to escape, although Vic is injured after protecting Sam from a grenade. Soon after, a terrorist group calling itself “The Engineers” assumes responsibility for the attack and announce that it was the first of a deadly countdown of escalating attacks (called “The Blacklist”) on United States assets, declaring that they will halt the attacks only after the U.S. government accomplish the demand of calling back all American troops deployed abroad.
We test with a series of high image quality settings as shown above and with 4x MSAA and 16 x Anisotropic filtering enabled.
The HD7850 struggles to maintain smooth frames in this game at this resolution, dropping to 22 frames per second. The Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC by comparison holds a stable 25+ frame rate at all times.The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes.Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.
The Direct CU II cooler performs exceptionally well – holding a 57c gaming load.
We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.
We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
This is an extremely quiet card, peaking at 33.3 dBa under gaming load. It is barely audible at all and will be drown out by one or two chassis fans. Very impressive results.
To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and the synthetic stress test Furmark and record both results.
The card demands around 121 watts when gaming and only 10 watts when idle.
To test today we initially tried Catalyst Control Center.
Catalyst Control Center limited the overclocking of this card as the slider maxes out at 1,050mhz. It was rock stable, so we tested with the Asus GPU TWEAK software, supplied on the software disc with the card.
The Asus GPU Tweak software was limited to 1,100mhz and yet again the card was completely stable at this speed. There is therefore a possibility that the hardware could overclock higher, but we had no means of going past 1,100mhz.
That said, it is worth pointing out again that the Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC is supplied overclocked out of the box. We managed to get another 13% out of the core before the software limited us.
This is an incredible result. The final score of 8,559 points is very close to the more expensive R9 270x DCUII TOP.
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.
Its a nice card and I love the DC II cooler, but I think the price is a little high, even with battlefield 4.
ERAN – asus are always more expensive, but they build their cards better
They dont really need the 270 and 270x, just drop the price of the 270x and they could clean up in the market. too many cards right now and its too complicated.
Good performance and at least the shaders are up to 1280 over 1024 on the 7850. Only thing I feel is that AMD partners will sell the 270x at very close to 270 pricing, so not much point in having both. $20 difference? who will buy a 270 – feels like the 6830 and 6850 all over again. the cheaper part never sold as retail prices were so close.