Review: Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card

Conclusion

The introduction of the AMD Radeon R9 270 is a wholly expected move designed to fill a small gap in the mainstream graphics card market.

This GPU is a slower-clocked version of the R9 270X - to the tune of 10 per cent in our benchmarks - and can quite legitimately be thought of as a Radeon HD 7870 imbued with another name. Benchmark results are decent at the target resolution of 1080p, and the reviewed Sapphire card, slightly overclocked, does well against a price-comparable GeForce GTX 660 OC from EVGA.

And Sapphire's card continues the good performance work by also being energy efficient and very quiet when under load. Looking at the wider landscape, one problem we can foresee is with the deliberately close proximity of R9 270 and 270X pricing, segregrated by just $20 and therefore not offering partners much financial wiggle room to work with.

Fully appreciating that the R9 270X and GTX 660 OC can be purchased from £145, pricing for this new GPU will be key. We believe the Sapphire R9 270 Dual-X is a good buy at £130 - any more and it encroaches on territory occupied by innately better cards.

The Good

Oh so quiet
Runs very cool
Solid 1080p performance
Now bundled with Battlefield 4

The Bad

Pricing may be a concern

HEXUS.awards

Sapphire Radeon R9 270 Dual-X

HEXUS.where2buy

TBC.

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.