The AMD R9-270 graphics card should not be confused with the 270X. Models without X are inevitably cheaper because they are in fact disguised modifications of the Pitcairn GPU (Radeon HD7870). Despite the fact that the card is a bit slower than the older brother, it shows good work, providing a decent gaming experience at a maximum cost of $ 179.
New naming system
AMD stopped releasing Radeon HD7000 and 8000 cards in 2013. Logic dictates that the next should be the 9000 series. But AMD Radeon 9000 was already released in 2003. So, it's time to introduce a new naming scheme that is more appropriate for AMD products. According to the new classification, R9 denotes high-end graphics cards, R7 - the basic, and R5 - the entry level. Models are also marked with the designations 250, 260X, 270 / 270X, 280X, and the best - 290 and 290X. Most of them are based on the HD7000 series, but with a number of optimizations.
Updated cards received a new printed circuit board, cooling, clock speed and restrictions on power, voltage, fan speed and load. Ultimately, there are 3 products in the line that come with the new GPU. For example, the R7 260X and R9 290 / 290X are based on the Hawaii GPU. They are endowed with new features such as integrated DSP with TrueAudio technology. The remaining models (270 / 270X / 280X) retain the old specifications.
The AMD R9-270 is a bit slower than the 270X, but provides a very decent gaming experience at a good price. In the reference model, the GPU core clock frequency is at 925 MHz, and the memory runs at 5.6 Gb / s.
Repetition of the old?
AMD repeated what NVIDIA did with the 700 series. The R7 260X got a new GPU, but the AMD R9-270 / 270X and R9-280X became modifications to the Pitcairn and Tahiti processors, respectively. And the Oland specifications are very similar to the R7 250. There are a number of changes in the clock speeds and memory, therefore, in general, the characteristics of the AMD R9-270 have slightly improved.
Like NVIDIA, the manufacturing company implemented the Turbo function in all of its products. This means that video cards no longer have a fixed clock speed. There is a basic and maximum, between which the processor balances depending on power, performance and heating temperature. In turn, the video card adaptively controls the fan, clock speed and voltage. AMD has always been restrained in the difference between the base and maximum frequencies, so their values are not very different.
Feature Overview
The GPU architecture has remained old, although comparable to the latest generation products. The technology also remained the same - 28 nm. The cards are compatible with PCIe 3 and their power consumption has changed significantly. With the launch of the R7 and R9 series, Eyefinity technology has been upgraded to DDM version 2.0 with full sound support, 5x1 landscape mode and the ability to create custom resolutions for multiple monitors.
AMD has implemented next-generation digital multi-point audio with intelligent channel separation. Therefore, if you set Eyefinity to 3 screens, the 6 monitor speakers will now play the role of the front left, middle and right channels. Users find this solution very reasonable.
The Eyefinity update allowed us to mix and match the output of any monitor and create a custom setting. For example, if there are 3 identical displays, you can connect one to HDMI, the second to DVI and the third to DP. Users also welcome this flexibility.
Pitcairn r7870
Indeed, the AMD R9-270 is actually a Radeon HD7870 graphics card with 2.8 billion transistors and the same internal architecture besides memory and clock speed. GPU is equipped with 1280 shaders in 20 segments. Power consumption decreased from 175 to 150 watts.
The card is equipped with 32 ROP, 80 TMU and 2 GB of gDDR5 memory, perfectly suited for models of the main level. The bus is 256-bit, but in combination with graphic RAM, the user gets a large bandwidth that the processor can use. The gDDR5 frequency is 1400 MHz for both 270 and 270X products, which provides an effective speed of 5.6 GHz with 4x data transfer.
If y Radeon HD7870 reference clock frequency was 1 GHz, then y R9-270 it is equal to 925 MHz. However, partners can set higher values.
AMD R9-270: architecture description
The manufacturer has moved away from the VLIW5 and VLIW4 architecture used in the previous generation of video cards. Anyway, in the Radeon HD6900 series, VLIW4 showed some inefficiency, and although this design is great for graphics, it's not so good for computing.
The R9 series is based on the same GCN architecture as the 7900. However, its design has changed significantly to eliminate the inefficiency of VLIW. GCN is the basis of the GPU, which copes well with both graphic and computational tasks. For the computing side, a new GCN Compute model was introduced, designed for high throughput and multitasking.
Thus, the GCN computing unit has become the new base shader cluster. It consists of 4 SIMD-16s with 64 kB vector register in each of them.
4 SIMD blocks of 16 processors give a total of 64 shaders in each block. Pitcairn PRO has 16 processing units, which means 64 SIMD x 16 CU = 1024 shaders (for R7850). GPU Pitcairn XT has 20 units, i.e. 64 SIMD x 20 CU = 1280 shader processors (for AMD R9-270 / 270X / R7870). In this case, engines with dual geometry, 32 color ROP per cycle, L2 cache of 512 KB are used.
GCN performs approximately the same amount of floating point calculations per clock as Cayman. It has the same number of vector registers. In addition, each computing unit has its own registers (4 kB) and 64 kB of local LDS memory.
The GCN architecture does not require concurrency at the instruction level. As a result, compilation is much simpler, which means more efficiency and therefore better performance. Thus, GCN provides high processor performance for both graphical tasks and mining.
AMD R9-270: performance
The game version from ASUS is definitely an interesting product for gamers who prefer low-cost solutions. The card is a repetition of the Radeon HD7870, but very similar to the 270X. According to the owners, at a resolution of 1920x1080 / 1200, the use of this model really makes sense, since all modern games come with an average frame rate of 40 fps with fairly high image quality settings. This, combined with the price of AMD R9-270, not exceeding $ 179, makes the video card an attractive offer. But the fact remains: this modification is made on the basis of Pitcairn (R7870). If you enable high image quality settings and limit yourself to 2x anti-aliasing, playing at 1080p is pretty nice.
Aesthetics
Equipped with the latest version of the DirectCU II cooler, the ASUS AMD R9-270 card is pretty cool and barely heats up to 60 ° C, remaining almost inaudible. This modification is a 2-slot solution with two fans, which, according to user reviews, looks great. The printed circuit board is made at the highest level, and it uses quality components that guarantee a long service life of the device. The black design of the cooler with two thin and quiet fans in combination with red color looks great. The magnificent view is supported by reliable assembly. The voltage regulator modules, however, are devoid of any cooling, but they heat up to a maximum of 70 ° C, so this is not a problem.
PCIe 3
The entire R7-R9 line is compatible with the PCI Express 3 standard, which provides twice the data transfer speed compared to the 2nd generation, which opens up great opportunities for extreme gaming. Compared with the 2nd generation, Gen 3 has doubled the bandwidth of 32 Gb / s, improved efficiency and compatibility, and also improves the performance of existing and future cards. The transition to the 3rd generation doubles the bandwidth from 500 to 1 Gb / s per line. Thus, the Gen 3 PCI Express x16 slot is capable of providing 16 Gb / s (or 128 Gb / s) bandwidth in each direction. This results in bi-directional 32 Gb / s transfer. However, this requires a PCIe 3 compatible motherboard and processor.
Eyefinity
One of the biggest successes in the Radeon series was the introduction of Eyefinity. This technology allows you to use multiple monitors in the desktop and game modes. Usually you need to have the same monitors and resolutions, but with Eyefinity 2.0, everything has changed. Now you can create custom settings.
Radeon HD7000 / R7 / R9 cards provide a large signal bandwidth, allowing 16k x 16k resolutions. This makes it possible to install 5 displays in landscape mode 5.1 with a resolution of 1920x1200, 2560x1600 and even UHD.
3D stereo
3D Stereo can be expanded to Eyefinity. Thus, after updating the driver, it becomes possible to play 3D games on multiple monitors. But there is much more interesting news. AMD has expanded the specifications for HDMI 1.4a and now supports frame packaging for Stereo 3D. This allows you to increase the frame rate. 7900 Series GPUs were the first 3 GHz HDMI compatible with frame packaging support for Stereo 3D.
Usually the user is limited to HDMI 1.4a. For example, the highest resolutions for 3D games are 720p60 or 1080p24, but not 1080p60. The new specification allows you to adjust the screen to 1080p and get a good frequency for the eyes of 60 Hz for each eye, which is 120 Hz. This was not possible in the past, since HDMI can provide 24/30 Hz (and the corresponding frame rate) per eye at 1080p. However, for HD3D games, the user is forced to rely on external partners such as DDD.
General conclusion
If we evaluate the AMD Radeon R9-270 as a whole (performance, some new Eyefinity features, compatibility with PCIe 3, etc.), we can conclude that users like the positioning of the card in the main and lower high-end segments. This product cools well enough, no higher than 60 ° C at high loads in a case with proper ventilation. But most importantly, the noise is practically absent. The card cooling system is extremely quiet.
Power consumption
The board is designed for 150 watts - this is the power at maximum load specified in the specification. User measurements confirm this value in the range of 145-150 W, which is reasonable for such a performance, taking into account that the processor is already overclocked at the factory. Equally impressive is the idle consumption of the card - when not in use, a significant part of the GPU segments are disabled, which allows you to limit yourself to 10 watts. As soon as the monitor goes into power saving mode, the power consumption drops to 2.7 watts. Since no one plays all day, the savings are impressive.
Clock Boost
Overclocking gives average results because the BIOS is locked. You can increase the frequency to 1050 MHz with a maximum memory bandwidth of 6 Gb / s. The video card can easily cope with this and allows you to achieve performance at the level of 270X.
Conclusion
R9-270 is an excellent product, characterized by a robust construction with high-quality components, which works pretty quickly for its price. At the same time, the device is almost noisy and heats up a little. Reviews are praised for the AMD R9-270 card for its low cost, the ability to play FullHD, as well as for the free bundled game Battelfield 4. In general, it provides good performance and leaves room for overclocking, albeit small due to the clock frequency locking in the BIOS. At the same time, this version is released overclocked to 975 MHz.