Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce OC Review

1. Introduction2. Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce OC3. Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce OC (Super High Res Gallery)4. Testing Methodology5. Unigine Heaven Benchmark6. Unigine Valley Benchmark7. 3DMark Vantage8. 3DMark 119. 3DMark10. Alien V Predator11. Sleeping Dogs12. Total War: ROME 213. Dirt ShowDown14. Tomb Raider15. Metro Last Light16. GRID 217. Splinter Cell Blacklist18. Thermal Dynamics19. Acoustics Performance20. Power Consumption21. Overclocking22. Closing Thoughts23. View All Pages

If you are working with a budget of £180 or less there has never been a better time to buy a graphics card. The Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce OC that we are looking at today for instance is supplied in a preoverclocked state, with a custom cooler and has a retail price of only £164.99 inc vat. Is this the graphics card you need for a new cost effective system build in 2014?

AMD's R9 270X has proven popular so far, targeting the mass enthusiast audience who want a new graphics card to handle the latest Direct X 11 games at 1080p. What does the Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce OC bring to the table?

The Gigabyte card introduces the companies exclusive ‘Triangle Cool' Technology. This patent pending technology combines fin with clip module in a special triangle shape. This is meant to reduce turbulence between fans, lowering noise and increasing cooling efficiency.

The Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce OC ships in an overclocked state, with the core at 1,100mhz and the 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1,400mhz (5.6Gbps effective). Regular readers will be aware that this isn't as quick as the Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition OC which we reviewed some weeks ago – clocked to 1,150mhz core and 1,500mhz memory (6Gbps effective).

Specification:-
– PCI-E 3.0 Ready: Delivers double the bandwidth per lane of PCIe GEN2 for faster GPU- CPU
– Hugely overclockable
– Core Clock Speed: 1000MHz
– Boost Clock Speed: 1050MHz
– Shader Architecture: GCN
– Stream Processors: 1280
– Frame Buffer / Memory: 2GB GDDR5
– Memory Width / Speed: 256 bit / 5600MHz
– Power Connectors: 6-pin + 6-pin
– Display Outputs: 2x DVI + 1x DP + 1x HDMI
– Power: 180W TDP
– 3yr Warranty


Gigabyte have been using this ‘mythical eye' artwork now on many of their recent boxes. It is dramatic (and no pun intended) eye catching, if a little nondescript.

The bundle includes a software disc, a quick start guide, Crossfire cable and several power converter cables.

The design comprises three fans, spanning the full length of the black PCB. If you look from the other side you can see that the cooler actually extends past the length of the PCB.

The card takes power from two 6 pin PCI e connectors.

The card is Crossfire capable in a 2 way configuration.

The I/O plate has a DVI-I and DVI-D connector, alongside a full sized HDMI and DisplayPort.

It is widely known that AMD Radeon HD 7xxx parts (and earlier) currently can support a maximum of 2 HDMI/DVI displays, and the rest must be DisplayPort connections (or active DisplayPort adapters).

AMD Radeon R9 Series can now support up to three HDMI/DVI displays for use with AMD Eyefinity technology. A set of displays which support identical timings is required to enable this feature. The display clocks and timing for this feature are configured at boot time. As such, display hot‐plugging is not supported for the third HDMI/DVI connection.

A reboot is required to enable three HDMI/DVI displays.DisplayPort outputs are supported in addition to the three HDMI/DVI displays (up to 6 in total).

Gigabyte are using their ‘Ultra Durable board' which has double the copper on the inner layer. They say this lowers the running temperature of both GPU and memory by between 5% and 10%. The design is said to reduce voltage ripples in normal and transient states.

The cooler uses a direct touch principle. Two thick copper heatpipes run the full length of the PCB, straight through the core block and racks of aluminum fins on either side.

An overview of the hardware. AMD’s R270X is built on the 28nm process. The core on this Gigabyte board is clocked 100mhz higher than the reference design at 1,100mhz and it has 32 ROPs, 80 TMU’s and 1,280 Stream Processors. The 2GB of GDDR5 is connected via a 256 bit memory interface. The memory is clocked at 1,400mhz (5.6Gbps effective) which is identical to the reference board.

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.





For our review today we are using the latest Catalyst 13.11 beta driver and Forceware 331.82 drivers. These drivers have the latest performance enhancements and bug fixes – all other cards used in previous reviews have been retested for the review today.

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.

We are using an Apple 30 inch Cinema HD monitor for this review today.

Comparison cards:
VTX3D R9 270X X Edition (1,080mhz core / 1400mhz memory)
Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition (1150mhz core / 1500mhz memory)
AMD R9 270 Reference (1050mhz core / 1400mhz memory)
ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP (1,120mhz core / 1,400mhz memory)
ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC (975mhz 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 card scores as we would expect, averaging 55.9 frames per second.
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.

Performance falls into the position we would expect, averaging 62.7 frames per second.
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.

A score of 30,648 points in this older Direct X 10 benchmark is excellent, falling into the top half of the performance chart.
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 final score of 8,531 points is strong, falling in just ahead of the VTX3D R9 270X X Edition.
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.”

Another strong score from the Gigabyte R9 270X WindForce OC Edition, just behind the Asus R9 270x DCUII TOP.
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.

The Gigabyte R9 270X WindForce OC averages 80 frames per second.

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.

Fully playable at all times, maintaining a +25 frame rate at all times.
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.

A strong performer on AMD hardware, and the Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce OC averages 60 frames per second.
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.

A strong engine for AMD hardware, averaging 68 frames per second.
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.

This is a demanding Direct X 11 engine, however the Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce maintains a 35+ frame rate at all times throughout our testing.

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.

Good performance figures, averaging 42 frames per second.
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.

A strong engine for AMD hardware, and the Gigabyte R9 270X WindForce scores well, averaging 70 frames per second.
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 Gigabyte R9 270X Windforce OC is able to maintain an average of 36 frames per second, dropping only once below 30fps during an intensive section of the environment.
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 three cooler fan delivers a fantastic experience – only 51c under gaming load. A new record in this mid range sector.
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

The benefits of using three quality fans, instead of two. Not only is cooling performance class leading, but the noise levels are also close to the best in this sector. Exceptional results for the WindForce cooling system.
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.

Power consumption falls into the same zone as the other R9 270X cards we have tested in recent months.
For our overclocking tests today we used Catalyst Control Center.

We managed to push the core to 1,205mhz, translating into around a 10% overclock on the core.

The increase in clock speed helped to push the Gigabyte R9 270X WindForce to the top of the chart, scoring 9,294 in the graphics test. Excellent results.
Gigabyte's R9 270X WindForce OC is assuredly one of the best mid range AMD boards available today and ships fitted with one, if not the best coolers available on the market.

The talking point of this card is undoubtedly the WindForce cooling solution. We know there is no point adding in more fans if they are low grade units, but the three quality fans adopted by Gigabyte ensure that the GPU core runs at close to 50c when under gaming load.

The added cherry on the cake are the low noise emissions. This WindForce cooler has actually toppled results from market leaders Sapphire and ASUS, which we tested in recent months.

Out of the box, the 1,100mhz R9 270X WindForce is one of the fastest on the market, surpassed only by the Asus R9 270X DCUII TOP clocked at 1,120mhz and the Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition which is clocked at 1,150mhz. There is plenty of overclocking headroom however, and we managed to overclock the Gigabyte card to 1,205mhz. Obviously all samples will exhibit different results, but there is clearly potential to get a little extra frame rate performance from each board.

When we factor in the price it is difficult to ignore the Gigabyte R9 270X WindForce, as you can pick one up from Overclockers UK for only £164.99 inc vat. If you have a 1080p monitor and want to keep your finances in check then this is surely one of the best options on the market in December.

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Pros:

• superb cooling performance.
• low noise levels.
• overclocking headroom to 1,200mhz+
• good out of box overclock.

Cons:

• A lot of competition between £160 and £180.

Kitguru says: A superb graphics card, combining low noise, class leading cooling performance with a competitive price point.

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