Conclusion

Comparing the Radeon R9 270X with the Radeon HD 6870 shows us there is quite a big difference between these two cards. This is actually not a big surprise and since there are few years between these two cards or in other words significan architectural changes. 

Looking at performance differences a bit closer shows, that the R9 270X is about 78 percent faster on average than the Radeon HD 6870, when it comes to ingame performance, which is definitely a huge boost and lots of games get playable at high resolutions. The biggest performance differences can be found with Dirt Showdown, in this case, frame rates are about 115 percent higher on a Radeon R9 270X. On the other side there is the Call of Duty Black Ops 2, where the R9 270X is "only" 45 percent quicker.

At this point we also want to have a closer look at power consumption. If we equip our test system with a Radeon HD 6870 we see that it pulls 54 Watt from the plug, whereas the same setup with a R9 270X needs 48 Watt. This is actually a noticeable difference but nothing to really worry about. Under load conditions there is still a difference that is well measurable. Once we plugged the Radeon HD 6870 card into the test system power consumption goes up to 200 Watt and with the R9 270X in place power consumption is at 223 Watt. 

The new Radeon R9 270X is on average a massive 78 percent quicker than the Radeon HD 6870, which makes this conclusion a no-brainer. Upgrading from the HD 6870 to a Radeon R9 270X is an all reasonable descision. Lots of games will become playable again. If you consider that reference R9 270X cards are sold at about 160 Euro these days, and if you then keep in mind, that you'll easily get 50 Euro for your old Radeon HD 6870, when you have to invest about 110 Euro to buy a card, that let's you play most games at high resolutions.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 10 - Far Cry 3
Page 2 - Test Setup	Page 11 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 3 - 3DMark Fire Strike	Page 12 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Page 4 - Unigine Heaven 4.0	Page 13 - Metro: Last Light
Page 5 - BattleField 3	Page 14 - GTA V
Page 6 - Bioshock Infinite	Page 15 - Power Consumption
Page 7 - Crysis 3	Page 16 - Performance Index, price
Page 8 - Call of Duty Black Ops 2	Page 17 - Conclusion
Page 9 - DIRT Showdown