1. Introduction2. ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP3. ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP (Super High Res Gallery)4. Testing Methodology5. Unigine Heaven Benchmark6. Unigine Valley Benchmark7. 3DMark Vantage8. 3DMark 119. 3DMark10. Alien V Predator11. Sleeping Dogs12. Total War: ROME 213. Dirt ShowDown14. Tomb Raider15. Metro Last Light16. GRID 217. Splinter Cell: BlackList18. Thermal Dynamics19. Acoustics Performance20. Power Consumption21. Overclocking22. Closing Thoughts23. View All Pages

As we said a couple of days ago there is no doubt the AMD R9 270X is a very capable solution. The ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP is a noticeable improvement on the reference AMD design which ships with a very basic single fan cooler. We don't often recommend reference cooling solutions and we know the vast majority of our readership don't want them either.

As testing indicated this card is significantly quicker than a standard HD7870 and is slightly faster than the HD7870 Tahiti LE which proved immensely popular with the enthusiast gamer in 2013. The preoverclocked speed helps generate an extra couple of frames per second when compared directly to the reference AMD card however it is slightly outperformed by the eVGA GTX760 SC in most of our tests.

Even though the Asus solution is supplied in a preoverclocked state there is still some headroom available. We managed to increase the core clock speed of our review sample to just over 1,200mhz which places it close in performance against the eVGA GTX760 SC.

AMD initially said the R9 270X would be shipping for $199 in America. Unsurprisingly UK enthusiast users have to pay a little more than this and we have seen prices between £160-£190 at launch. The ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP will sell for £187.99 inc vat according to documentation we received from ASUS this week.

At this price it does face some challenges from overclocked HD7870 Tahiti LE solutions and even low cost Nvidia GTX760's which have hit a sub £200 price point in recent weeks. The ASUS card is definitely worth shortlisting, especially due to the low noise levels, excellent cooling performance and overclocked ‘out of the box' parameters.

Pros:

• Excellent cooling solution.
• Preoverclocked.
• very quiet.
• 15C+ cooler than the AMD reference design.

Cons:

• Faces stiff competition from some GTX760 solutions priced under £200.

Kitguru says: The Asus R9 270X Direct CU II TOP is much improved on the reference card.

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