Conclusion

Comparing the Radeon R9 270X with the Radeon HD 7870 shows us there is not really a big difference between these two cards. The reason for that is acutally quite simple, since the R9 270X is basically a rebranded HD 7870. Both chips come with the same number of stream processors, TMUs as well as ROPs and also the memory interface features the same bandwidth.

Looking at performance differences a bit closer shows, that the R9 270X is about 6 percent faster on average than the Radeon HD 7870, when it comes to ingame performance, which can be attributed to a higher core as well as higher memory clocks. The biggest performance differences can be found with Bioshock: Infinite, in this case, frame rates are about 8 percent higher on a Radeon HD 7870. On the other side there is the Dirt Showdown, where the R9 270X is only 3 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 7870 we see that it pulls 48 Watt from the plug, whereas the same setup with a R9 270X also needs exactly 48 Watt. Also under load conditions there is almost no difference between the two cards at all. Once we plugged the Radeon HD 7870 card into the test system power consumption goes up to 220 Watt and with the R9 270X power consumption is at 223 Watt. 

The new Radeon R9 270X is on average just a mere 6 percent quicker than the Radeon HD 7870, which makes this conclusion a no-brainer. Upgrading from the HD 7870 to a R9 270X really doesn't make sense at all. As we already mentioned the R9 270X is basically the same card like the HD 7870 with slightly higher clocks. If you own an HD 7870 all you have to do to dethrone the R9 270X is up the clocks and have fun saving a few bucks.

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