ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC 2 GB

[W1zzard]

Last week, AMD released their R9 270 Non-X, which is built on the same Pitcairn GPU as the HD 7800 Series before. Unlike the HD 7850, it comes with all its shaders enabled, though. The ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC improves on that with a better cooler and overclock out of the box.

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[Casecutter]

Don't like that whole review has to print above.
Should of had a $170 MSRP, but with so many 7850/7870 in the channel it's understandable. This will be a great option for those with 6770-6850's that want an $150'ish upgrade sometime after Christmas.

Hey W1zzard when this card is in sleep with monitor off whats the power draw against say the GTX760?

I think Nvidia needs to respin/brand the waning GTX660 somehow. Could there be a 750Ti Boost?

 

[W1zzard]

Don't like that whole review has to print above.

fixed

 

[okidna]

Great review like always.

Good card and suit my budget and needs really well, going to get this card next month, but probably not ASUS (too expensive here ).

 

[newtekie1]

In the section that should contain the crossfire information you still have the information for the GTX780Ti SLI.

 

[TRWOV]

So is this the card to get for prebuilts? 150w seems to be the cutting point for many.

 

[W1zzard]

So is this the card to get for prebuilts? 150w seems to be the cutting point for many.

absolutely. every system can support a single 6-pin power connector, even if you have to steal it from one or two 5.25" power connectors via adapter

 

[tteksystems]

I did a search for "ASUS R9 Series" on one of the well known sites that sells alot of computer hardware.
The item was advertised with a title that said R9 270X and the price was marked down from $209 to $177 so I was immediately interested
There was no photo on the listing but I looked up the UPC, model, and the specs matched the Asus R9 270.

Your review gave me confidence to get this card. As I was buying, there was a pop-up that offered me another $30 discount. With 2 day Express Shipping for $6 the card cost me $143 USD shipped.
Based on your review, I felt what I just bought is more than 5 times better than what I ever hoped to get for this price within the last 12 months.

I expect the card by Tuesday and cannot wait to install it.

Anyway, your review gives me alot of insight and is very thorough. I want to thank you for such a good detailed breakdown of this card and the comparisons to some of the other cards I was considering is really awesome stuff.

What i wanted to know is if I were to connect 2 of these in crossfire, is there going to be a worthwhile increase in performance that would compare to a single 280x or lets say maybe even a single 290(x)???

And one more very important question if anyone here could help: You stated the memory is not as good as hynix or samsung. Could the onboard memory be removed and replaced with better GDDR5? Something with more bandwidth perhaps?

I do not even know how hard it would be to get a hold of better GDDR5. Maybe an oanother video card laying around with a slow GPU that is not being used. I could swap the memory with it if it had some good samsung in it. Just wondering.

Thanks

 

[TRWOV]

270 Crossfire would surely beat a 280X by about 30%.

GPU and VRAM isn't user replaceable; you can't, for example, take a Pictairn GPU (7870) and put it in a 7970 board. The Elpida chips are fine, is just that Hynx and Samsung chips overclock better.

The only thing you can do to improve a graphics card is installing an aftermarket cooler (only do it if you need to and know what you're doing as by doing that you lose the warranty). Tentatively that'll make the card run cooler and in turn, achieve a better overclock.

 

[tteksystems]

Now that is quite the deal if you think about it. If I go buy a second Asus R9 270, and run the both of them in Crossfire, I would be content if I was equal or slightly better than a 280x.

If I get 20%-30% better than the 280x, and the 2nd one cost me $153 USD delivered, this will be a total investment of $296 USD. Now I know ASUS has the 280X for $309 on a couple
sites but after tax and shipping, most times the cost for me would be about $340 or more. The Matrix versions uses 2 plugs with all 8 pins on both while the TOP version uses the 8 pin
and a 6 pin to run it. The 270 uses only one 6 pin plug. So that's works out well for my Seasonic 860 XP2.

All I can say is, wow! 30% better performance and if I setup the water cooler for CPU and GPU, maybe this will give me some real good graphics power.

Forgive my excitement. I am rather new to these high performance builds. I have built computers my whole life. But a business machine never taught me about these things. I can
see a revival in my life because I found something new that challenges me once again. I wonder how 3 of those 270s would rank!

 

[suraswami]

nice, since this has only one PCI-E power connector I can use the Molex convertor and CF with existing 7870 (spare one) to get greater fire power! only problem for me is the second slot is 4x only.

 

[tteksystems]

Here's a question Suraswami: I read the compatibility with the re-badged AMD GPUs with their former model names. For example the R9 280X can CF with the HD 7970

SO you are using an HD 7870. Does that have the same GPU as the R9 270?

I want to be sure because I was reading today. The R9 270 and 270X are both exactly the same GPU, and the review stated the 270 is really an HD 7850 that has been optimized
to outperform both the HD 7850 & the HD 7870.

Are the HD 7850 and HD 7870 the same GPU also? I will find out when I leave the thread here but I will ask anyway. I like to get all the facts straight and I know there are sometimes
inaccurate things mentioned in some cases.

I see the ASUS R9270-DC2OC-2GD5 for $179 with Battlefield 4 @ a well known online retailer as the regular price.
Today is 10% off site-wide. I enter the site using a cashback site to get an additional 2.5% cashback
Then pay with a credit card offering 5% cash back until the end of the year.
So 17.5% back from $179. It seems like it will be alot BUT...........
There is SHIPPING costs today for some reason... AND...........
I have to pay sales tax because of the state I live. Good-Bye 17.5%.
But $179 is still not bad. This card is inaudible even under load. I hope the second one will be the same.

 

[P-40E]

My first HIS R9 270 had Elpida, But I had to exchange it because of AMD's popular artifacts. Anyway long story short (too Late!) My current HIS R9 270 has Hynix and the memory overclocks very well.

 

[87mpi]

i have buyed an asus R9 270 DCII normal ,not OC version, for 70 Euro, and after i have flashed the OC's bios version!(925up to 975).
Now i overclocked and overvolted it a bit (stock is 1,215) at 1,245V it with asus gpu tweak tool at 1225Mhz core and 1500Mhz (6000Ghz effective) ram!
Amazing!

P.S. sorry for my horrible english, i'm italian