A Closer Look
The Asus Redeon R9 270X DirectCU II TOP comes with a familiar looking box. Asus has been using the same design for their entire non-ROG graphics card, except this one has red highlights since this is an AMD graphics card. Some of the graphics card’s features are highlighted at the front of the box, while more detailed features are outlined at the back of its box. Included in the box are driver and software CD, quick installation guide, a 6+6pin PCIE power connector and a CrossFire bridge.
Above we see the front and back view of the Asus Radeon R9 270X DC2T. If you noticed the cooler is somewhat positioned towards the rear of the PCB. As a result, we see an open space between the output ports and the shroud and the cooler is slightly extended towards the rear. Personally, I find this a little bit unpleasant in terms of aesthetics. I think Asus should have adjusted the cooler so that it would align better with the card’s PCB.
The Asus Radeon R9 270X DC2T has two DVI ports, a DisplayPort and an HDMI port. The HDMI port is 1.4a compatible and should be able to support HD audio. A triple display configuration is also very much supported with this card. The card draws and uses a reverse 6+6 power connector making it easier for users to connect and disconnect the PCIE power cables.
The shroud in the Asus Radeon R9 270X is made of plastic, unlike in high end graphics card like the Asus GTX 780 Ti or Asus Radeon R9 280X which is made of metal. That’s not really a problem at all since this is a mid-range graphics card in the first place.
The photos above show the large aluminum heatsink that is cooling the Pitcairn core processor in the middle of the card. As you can see from the second photo, the core directly contacts with the cooper heatpipes to dissipate heat better.
Above are photos of the Asus Radeon R9 270X’s PCB. The card has one CrossFire finger making it possible to do only a 2-way CrossFireX configuration. The card itself, including its cooler, isn’t that heavy at all. But there is a metal support located at the opposite side of the PCIE finger that supports the 10″ inch long PCB.
The Asus Radeon R9 270X draws its power from two 6pin PCIE power connector. A 500W power supply is enough to power with graphics card.
The card features DIGI+ VRM with 8-Phase Super Alloy Power delivering 30% less power noise and 2.5X greater durability. According to Asus, the acclaimed DIGI+ VRM has been applied via a 8-phase power design that uses digital voltage regulators to minimize power noise by 30%, enhance power efficiency by 15%, widen voltage modulation tolerance, and improve overall stability and longevity by 2.5 times over reference.
Asus is using a total of 8 ELPIDA GDDR5 memory chips, model W2302BBBG-6A-F, for a total of 2GB memory clocked at 1400MHz (5600MHz effective). Personally, I would opt for graphics cards using SKHynix memory, since they overclock better. The other photo shows a closer look at the AMD 28nm Pitcairn graphics processor.
