Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 Review

The AMD R9 270 is set to replace the long standing HD7850 at the lower end of the enthusiast gaming market. As our results show today, the new R9 270 is markedly faster than the older solution.

We didn't get a reference card to review, focusing today on several partner cards, products you can actually buy. The Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 is an excellent card, supplied in a modestly overclocked state, with a custom cooling solution.

As always, the Sapphire cooler is very impressive, holding a low level of noise while maintaining temperatures in the low 60's under gaming load. It isn't quite as quiet as some of the Sapphire coolers we have tested in the last year, but noise levels are still low enough to be barely audible in a chassis with several fans installed.

The power consumption of the new R9 270 is similar to the previous HD7850, so AMD have managed to create a more powerful model while holding a similar power envelope – this is certainly a point worth making.

Overclocking potential of the R9 270 core seems strong. We managed to increase the speed by around 10% (100mhz), to 1,045mhz. This will help increase the average frame rate a little in the latest Direct X 11 titles and performance at 1080p is already generally very impressive. Most of the games we tested today held above 25 frames per second at 1920×1080 with image quality settings maxed.

Pricing of this Sapphire model has yet to be confirmed although AMD have confirmed that the reference model will cost $179 or 134 euros. UK pricing is likely to be around £130 inc vat, similar to the prices of the HD7850. At this price it is a very welcome addition to the new AMD R9 range. We would expect this Sapphire Dual-X version to ship with a small premium.

Pros:

• Excellent custom cooler.
• low noise levels.
• good performance for the price.
• will power many Direct X 11 titles at 1080p with high image quality settings.

Cons:

• Not the quietest Sapphire cooler we have tested.

Kitguru says: An excellent card from Sapphire and an ideal graphics card for gamers on a tighter budget who own a 1080p panel.

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