After a long time of waiting for the new GPU cards from both AMD and NVIDIA, the battle finally rages on with both camps unleashing new top-of-the-line cards to fuel the GPU wars. In AMD’s side, the new Radeon Rx series of graphics cards represent the latest from camp Ruby with the R9 290X cards waving the banner as the to of the line cards. With the new generation of AMD cards are packing the new Hawaii GPUs and all eyes are on those with the older generation HD7000 cards have been pushed down the stack. With over 2 years in service, these cards have seen better days but they still pack quite a punch and AMD is giving them a 2nd lease in life by rebadging the existing HD7000 series cards into the new R-series GPUs.
Today we have both the R9 280X and R9 270X, physically-altered HD7970 and HD7870 respectively from ASUS but not just any regular model, we have the DirectCUII TOP editions of both cards and we’re going to see how the company improves on the already impressive offerings of their past incarnations. For this review we’ll take a look at the ASUS Radeon R9 270X DirectCUII TOP (R9 280X review here). Cherry-picked Pitcairn served hot and we got it right here for you. Read on!
- DirectCU II with precision-shaped SSU heatpipes utilizes highly-conductive copper and directly-centered GPU placement to double cooling efficiency in the same space.
- TOP-selected 1120MHz cores run 70MHz higher than reference for smoother gameplay.
- DIGI+ VRM with 8-phase Super Alloy Power delivers precise digital power for superior efficiency, reliability, and performance.
- GPU Tweak helps you modify clock speeds, voltages, fan performance and more, all via an intuitive interface.