Test Setup
In testing the Asus Radeon R9 270X, I am using a Sandy Bridge based system. Below is a list of the specification of the system.
Operating System: Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit
Motherboard: Asus P8H67-M Evo
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro H105
Memory: 2x 4GB G.Skill RipJaws X
Graphics card: Asus Radeon R9 270X DirectCU II TOP 2GB
Hard Drive: Samsung 830 128GB for the OS and WD RE 4TB for game files
Power Supply: Corsair HX650 80 Plus Gold
Case: Cooler Master HAF XM
Case Fans Installed: 2x Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm for intake and a Noctua NF-S12A PWM for exhaust
Aside from the components mentioned above, I used the AMD VGA Driver version 13.251.0.0 for Windows 8.1 64bit. I used TechPowerUp’s GPU-Z 0.7.7 to monitor the graphics card’s information, and I used Asus GPU-Tweak 2.4.7.0 to monitor its temperature and the status of the card. In monitoring the frame rates while gaming, I used FRAPS to get the minimum, maximum and average frames per seconds.
For the synthetic benchmarks, I used 3DMark Firestrike and Firestrike Extreme, Unigine Engine Heaven and Final Fantasy XIV: A Real Reborn Character Creation Benchmark tool. Whereas for the game benchmarks, I used several games, a combination of not-so-demanding games to graphics extensive games like Crysis 3.
All benchmarking tools and games are configured to their highest possible settings at 1920×1080 display resolution. I didn’t have the chance to test it at a higher resolution or in multiple display settings since I was limited with the monitor I currently have.
Overclocking the Asus Radeon R9 270X DirectCU II TOP 2GB
I was able to overclock the Asus Radeon R9 270X further using the Asus GPU Tweak. I was able to reach a GPU clock speed of 1220 MHz and memory clock of 1545 MHz. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice any significant improvement in the card’s performance during my test, while it was overclock. The memory didn’t overclock well also, and pushing the clock higher would result in game crashes already. So I decided to settle with the stock speeds of the graphics card during the entire test and benchmarking.
Temperature and Fan Noise
The Asus Radeon R9 270X runs very quiet on idle and medium load. Even at full load it is still generally silent at 30% to 40% rotational speed. However, going beyond 50% rotational speed would make the fans become noisy, specially at max rotational speed (very noisy and not recommended).
On idle I get around 37° degrees Celsius, and on light to medium load the temperature is around 50°-ish degrees Celsius. While on full load, I get around 69° degrees Celsius, that’s still a very much acceptable temperature.
Benchmarks and Results
Below are the benchmarks results for the synthetic tests. I have compared the Asus Radeon R9 270X with the Asus GTX 770, GTX 760 and Radeon R9 280X.
As you can see from the graph above, the Asus Radeon R9 270X performs very closely with the Asus GTX 760. Fortunately for AMD, the R9 270X is priced much lower compared to the GTX 760, making it the better option between the two.
The Asus Radeon R9 270X can run most of the games at max settings, well not very smoothly, but at least in an acceptable frame rates. However, if you are planning to play resource intensive and demanding games like Crysis 3, you might want to consider a higher-end graphics card. You can run Crysis 3 but definitely not in max settings for you to enjoy the game.
