Radeon RX 7900 XT vs R9 270X

Place in performance ranking	367	13
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	4.54	25.06
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	RDNA 3
GPU code name	Curacao XT	Navi 31 XT
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	8 October 2013 (10 years ago)	3 November 2022 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$199	$899
Current price	$136 (0.7x MSRP)	$884 (1x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 7900 XT has 452% better value for money than R9 270X.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1280	5376
Boost clock speed	1050 MHz	2000 MHz
Number of transistors	2,800 million	57,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	180 Watt	315 Watt
Texture fill rate	84.00	804.4
Floating-point performance	2,688 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus support	PCIe 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	276 mm
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2 x 6-pin	2x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	20 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	320 Bit
Memory clock speed	no data	20000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	179.2 GB/s	800.0 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	1x HDMI 2.1a, 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-C
Eyefinity	+	no data
HDMI	+	+
DisplayPort support	+	no data

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration	+	no data
CrossFire	1	no data
Enduro	-	no data
FreeSync	1	no data
HD3D	+	no data
LiquidVR	1	no data
PowerTune	-	no data
TressFX	1	no data
TrueAudio	+	no data
ZeroCore	-	no data
UVD	+	no data
DDMA audio	+	no data

API compatibility

List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	DirectX® 12	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.7
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.1
Vulkan	+	1.3
Mantle	-	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. 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 12.64

RX 7900 XT 74.42
+489%

RX 7900 XT outperforms R9 270X by 489% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

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 4888

RX 7900 XT 28789
+489%

RX 7900 XT outperforms R9 270X by 489% in Passmark.

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

RX 7900 XT 63712
+871%

RX 7900 XT outperforms R9 270X by 871% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	35−40 −491%	207 +491%
1440p	24−27 −504%	145 +504%
4K	16−18 −494%	95 +494%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

20−22

−1085%

237
+1085%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 −335%	110−120 +335%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 −560%	130−140 +560%
Battlefield 5	40−45 −485%	240−250 +485%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 −456%	150−160 +456%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −960%	212 +960%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −223%	110−120 +223%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 −317%	140−150 +317%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −414%	220−230 +414%
Hitman 3	27−30 −417%	150−160 +417%
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45 −1080%	484 +1080%
Metro Exodus	35−40 −255%	130−140 +255%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 −254%	120−130 +254%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40 −1557%	580 +1557%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 −448%	120−130 +448%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 −335%	110−120 +335%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 −560%	130−140 +560%
Battlefield 5	40−45 −485%	240−250 +485%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 −456%	150−160 +456%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −850%	190 +850%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −214%	110 +214%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 −126%	79 +126%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −414%	220−230 +414%
Hitman 3	27−30 −417%	150−160 +417%
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45 −1037%	466 +1037%
Metro Exodus	35−40 −313%	157 +313%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 −254%	120−130 +254%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	35−40 −1006%	387 +1006%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27 −1758%	483 +1758%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 −448%	120−130 +448%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27 −335%	110−120 +335%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	20−22 −560%	130−140 +560%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 −456%	150−160 +456%
Cyberpunk 2077	20−22 −795%	179 +795%
Far Cry 5	35−40 −223%	110−120 +223%
Forza Horizon 4	40−45 −414%	220−230 +414%
Horizon Zero Dawn	40−45 −754%	350 +754%
Metro Exodus	35−40 −274%	142 +274%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27 −919%	265 +919%
Watch Dogs: Legion	21−24 −448%	120−130 +448%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

35−40

−254%

120−130
+254%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27 −564%	160−170 +564%
Far Cry New Dawn	21−24 −555%	140−150 +555%
Hitman 3	18−20 −417%	90−95 +417%
Red Dead Redemption 2	9−10 −722%	70−75 +722%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14 −546%	80−85 +546%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	9−10 −956%	95−100 +956%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16 −633%	110−120 +633%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −1933%	122 +1933%
Far Cry 5	20−22 −765%	173 +765%
Forza Horizon 4	24−27 −671%	180−190 +671%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −965%	277 +965%
Metro Exodus	21−24 −571%	141 +571%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24 −1448%	325 +1448%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −962%	130−140 +962%
Watch Dogs: Legion	7−8 −1114%	85−90 +1114%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry 5	27−30 −189%	81 +189%
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14 −917%	120−130 +917%
Hitman 3	9−10 −633%	65−70 +633%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −808%	110−120 +808%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 −1471%	110 +1471%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 −1345%	159 +1345%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −757%	60−65 +757%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6−7 −900%	60−65 +900%
Battlefield 5	12−14 −725%	95−100 +725%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −925%	80−85 +925%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −2900%	60 +2900%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 −700%	130−140 +700%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −1177%	166 +1177%
Metro Exodus	12−14 −975%	129 +975%
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6 −900%	50−55 +900%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

12−14

−600%

80−85
+600%

This is how R9 270X and RX 7900 XT compete in popular games:

RX 7900 XT is 491% faster in 1080p
RX 7900 XT is 504% faster in 1440p
RX 7900 XT is 494% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Cyberpunk 2077, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX 7900 XT is 2900% faster than the R9 270X.

All in all, in popular games:

Without exception, RX 7900 XT surpassed R9 270X in all 72 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	12.64	74.42
Recency	8 October 2013	3 November 2022
Cost	$199	$899
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	20 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	180 Watt	315 Watt