AMD Radeon R9 270X: specs and benchmarks

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Summary

AMD started Radeon R9 270X sales 8 October 2013 at a recommended price of $199 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a GCN architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 4 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at are supplied, and together with 256 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 179.2 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Two 6-pin power connectors are required, and power consumption is at 180 Watt.

It provides poor gaming and benchmark performance at 12.61% of a leader's which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

RTX 4090GeForce RTX4090
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General info

Some basic facts about Radeon R9 270X: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking362
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Value for money4.42
ArchitectureGCN (2011−2017)
GPU code nameCuracao XT
Market segmentDesktop
Designreference
Release date8 October 2013 (10 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$199
Current price$136 (0.7x MSRP)of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

Radeon R9 270X's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon R9 270X's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores1280of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
Boost clock speed1050 MHzof 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors2,800 millionof 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology28 nmof 4 (GeForce RTX 4080)
Power consumption (TDP)180 Wattof 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate84.00of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)
Floating-point performance2,688 gflopsof 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Size and compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of Radeon R9 270X and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Bus supportPCIe 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16
Width2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2 x 6-pin

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on Radeon R9 270X: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory typeGDDR5
Maximum RAM amount4 GBof 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Memory bus width256 Bitof 19000 (GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB)
Memory bandwidth179.2 GB/sof 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon R9 270X. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Eyefinity+
HDMI+
DisplayPort support+

Technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by Radeon R9 270X. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration+
CrossFire1
Enduro-
FreeSync1
HD3D+
LiquidVR1
PowerTune-
TressFX1
TrueAudio+
ZeroCore-
UVD+
DDMA audio+

API support

APIs supported by Radeon R9 270X, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectXDirectX® 12
Shader Model5.1
OpenGL4.6
OpenCL1.2
Vulkan+
Mantle-

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of Radeon R9 270X. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

R9 270X 12.61

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

R9 270X 4889

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

R9 270X 6560

Unigine Heaven 4.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.

Benchmark coverage: 1%

R9 270X 735

Gaming performance

Let's see how good Radeon R9 270X is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 20−22

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
Battlefield 5 40−45
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−35
Cyberpunk 2077 20−22
Far Cry 5 30−35
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
Hitman 3 30−35
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
Watch Dogs: Legion 21−24

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
Battlefield 5 40−45
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−35
Cyberpunk 2077 20−22
Far Cry 5 30−35
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
Hitman 3 30−35
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
Metro Exodus 18−20
Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 24−27
Watch Dogs: Legion 21−24

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27−30
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
Battlefield 5 40−45
Cyberpunk 2077 20−22
Far Cry 5 30−35
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35
Forza Horizon 4 45−50
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 24−27
Watch Dogs: Legion 21−24

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 18−20
Hitman 3 20−22
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
Metro Exodus 10−12
Red Dead Redemption 2 9−10
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 16−18

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 12−14
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 9−10
Battlefield 5 24−27
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7
Far Cry 5 20−22
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 12−14
Watch Dogs: Legion 7−8

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 9−10
Hitman 3 12−14
Horizon Zero Dawn 9−10
Metro Exodus 6−7
Red Dead Redemption 2 7−8
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−12

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 7−8
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 6−7
Battlefield 5 12−14
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
Far Cry 5 10−11
Far Cry New Dawn 12−14
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5

Relative perfomance

Radeon R9 270X's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.


NVIDIA equivalent

According to our data, the closest NVIDIA alternative to Radeon R9 270X is GeForce GTX 760, which is slower by 2% and lower by 2 positions in our ranking.

GTX 760GeForce GTX760
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Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon R9 270X:

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

GTX 760GeForce GTX760
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HD 7870Radeon HD7870
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GTX 580GeForce GTX580
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HD 7970Radeon HD7970
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R7 370Radeon R7370
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GTX 950GeForce GTX950
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Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with Radeon R9 270X according to our statistics.

User ratings: view and submit

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.


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Questions and comments

Here you can ask a question about Radeon R9 270X, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.