Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition OC Review

The Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition OC is an exceptionally high value for money graphics card, delivering superb frame rates with the latest Direct X 11 games at 1080p.

We have reviewed a handful of AMD R9 270X partner cards already, including the excellent Asus R9 270X Direct CU II TOP which gives the Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition OC a pretty close battle for top spot under £200. The Asus solution is a little quieter and closely matched to the new Sapphire Toxic Edition but it is more expensive and doesn't overclock quite as well either.

The reference R9 270X is quicker than the HD7870 and is also slightly faster than the HD7870 Tahiti LE, which was a big seller in the last year for AMD partners. The Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition OC is significantly quicker than the Tahiti LE and currently costs £179.99 inc vat right now. The HD7870 Tahiti LE was similarly priced around 6 months ago, so it is good to see the consumer is getting a sweeter deal as we head to the end of 2013.

The build quality of the Toxic Edition OC is fantastic. Sapphire are using their latest Tri-X cooler with 10mm heatpipes and have incorporated a 10 phase power system on this card to offer maximum stability under overclocked load situations. The use of high grade diamond black chokes is also reassuring to see, especially as this card is so highly overclocked out of the box.

While every card will overclock to a different level, the headroom on our particular review sample was substantial. We managed to push the core clock speed to 1,235mhz – which pushes performance well past the eVGA GTX760 super clocked card that we used in this review. Even with a recent price cut, the eVGA GTX760 SuperClocked retails for £206.99, which is £27 more expensive than the Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition OC.

At £179.99 inc vat, the Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition is not only one of the fastest cards under £200, but it is also built to the very highest standards.

Pros:

• immense build quality.
• high out of the box overclocks
• plenty of manual headroom on the core.
• super cooling solution.

Cons:

• A lot of competition under £200.

Kitguru says: A superb gaming card, built to the highest standards and able to power the latest Direct X 11 titles at 1080p.

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