AMD Radeon R9 270 review - Final words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

The gaming edition R9-270 from ASUS definitely is an interesting product for gamers on a budget. The card really is a Radeon HD 7870 though, but much like the 270X models I start to like them (price/perf wise). Honestly at 1920x1080/1200 monitor resolutions these cards do make a lot of sense as all modern games produce average framerates in the 40 to FPS with pretty heavy image quality settings. That combined with a sub 179 USD / 135 EUR price tag (ex VAT) does make the cards really attractive. But admittedly, fact remains that this card is a Pitcairn based product (R7870). It's interesting to see what AMD can do with this card performance wise in the long run. Realistically when you enable good image quality settings and restrict yourself to 2x Anti-aliasing then gaming at 1920x1080P that would be a sweet-spot for this card. That brings in good value for money. So within a few weeks shave off another 10% maybe 20% and yeah, that's just a really good deal. 

So, fact remains though that the AMD R9-270 is a very capable card with its 2GB graphics memory partition. You can play games quite easily at FullHD and that does make the a sweet-spot product. 

Aesthetics

Armed with the latest revision of the DirectCU II cooler the card is fairly cool at roughly 60 Degrees C, whist remaining silent. This revision is a dual-slot solution with two fans, which I think just looks great. The PCB is customized and I can spot merely quality components ensuring a longer lifespan of this product, lovely. The looks, well the cooler in its all black design, the two subtle and silent fans combined with a hint of red makes this a good looking package alright. Great looking and very sturdy I must state as well. The VRMs don't seem to get any kind of cooling though, but they max out at 70 degrees C, so it's not a relevant enough issue either.

Overall

When you look at the Radeon R9-270 overall, performance, some new Eyefinity features, PCIe gen 3 compatibility and all other stuff then we can only conclude that we like these cards belong in the mainstream to lower segment of the high-end graphics card arena. This product is cooling fairly well, expect roughly 60 Degrees C under heavy GPU load in a proper ventilated PC. Top notch however are the noise levels as really, there aren't any. The card is VERY silent. 

Power Consumption 

The board is rated with a 150 Watt TDP, that means when you completely stress it, that's the power consumption. Our measurements indeed show a board TDP at roughly 145~150 Watt, its reasonable for this kind of performance especially when you take into account that the product is factory overclocked for you. Just as impressive is the board's IDLE power state, in desktop mode when not in use it can throttle down and disable huge segments of the GPU allowing it to draw 10 Watt only. Once your monitor jumps into energy saving / sleep mode then the power draw drops towards 2.7 Watt. Since you do not game all day ling, that's where the most power saving can be found.

Overclocking

Overclocking then, we see average results as there is a locked BIOS. We could set the card at 1050 MHz with 6 Gbps on the memory maximum, which the card ran easily and brings it to 270X performance levels.
 

Final Words

The ASUS DirectCU II OC edition is nice product. It is a sturdy build with good component quality, it's fairly fast in performance for the money. It does so while hardly making any noise and with very low stress temperatures. The R9-270 cards certainly are growing on me. I can not deny that for less than 135 EUR ex VAT you can game quite well at Full HD monitor resolutions and that is value for money. Especially when AMD throws in a download coupon of Battelfield 4 for free **

ASUS wise the DirectCU II model cooler does its job very nicely as well, the card runs steady at just over 60 Degrees C under full load. Overall it offers good performance and has all variables right + leaves some room for overclocking, albeit only a little due to the BIOS clock lock.  The noise levels are a complete non-issue thanks to the cooler. And remember, this OC edition card comes pre-overclocked for you at 975 MHz. The overall build quality of the product is just fine, the looks are good and it is a silent product with very respectable thermals. If you are seeking a product in this class, well the DirectCU II OC edition of the R9 270 definitely delivers on all fronts and comes recommended by Guru3D.com

** Any AMD Radeon R9 Seeries product starting 11/13, they will get a copy of Battlefield 4 with that purchase. As with any game bundle, buyers must first check availability.

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