VGA Reviews by stefan @ 2013-11-28
Gigabyte has made an adaptation of their award-winning Windforce 3X cooling system with the release of the R9 270X card, which features a 50MHz GPU clock increase from the factory for providing playable framerates up to Full HD resolutions while being fairly priced.
At first we would like to thank Gigabyte Taiwan for offering a sample of their Radeon R9 270X (GV-R927XOC-2GD) video card for testing and reviewing.
“GIGABYTE was founded in 1986, establishing our uncontested position in continuous technological innovation. By focusing on key technologies and achieving strict quality standards, GIGABYTE has been regarded as an innovative and trusted motherboard leader in the globe. To keep pace in a rapidly changing world, we have offered a comprehensive product line covering Motherboards, Graphics Cards, PC Components, PC Peripherals, Laptops, Slate Devices, Desktop PCs, Network Communications, Servers and Mobile Phones. We are dedicated to building up a full-range digital life, responding promptly and sonorously to consumer needs and desires.”
In this article we will take care of another R9 270X variant, this time from Gigabyte. While the AMD GPU comes with the Curacao code name, it is practically identical to the previously launched Pitcairn architecture, along with a few improvements while keeping the card in the same price range.
The stock Radeon HD 7870 was operating at 1GHz core frequency and the memory clock was running at 1200MHz. It had 1280 Stream Processors, 80 Texture Units, 32 ROPs and 2GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit memory bus. With the R9 270X AMD has raised the GPU frequency to 1050MHz while the memory is clocked at 1400MHz. As the variant we have reviewed from HIS, the Gigabyte R9 270X has higher clocks from the factory, but this time lower at 1100MHz while keeping the memory frequency at the same speed as the stock model from AMD.
The PowerTune function is now available on the full range so the GPU clock gets modified depending on power draw, heat and performance factors. Eyefinity has been also updated to V2 DDM, with the ability of 5x1 landscape and custom multi-monitor resolutions. Also, with the new series we are permitted to use the Eyefinity feature without the need of a DisplayPort adapter.
If the card provides for example two DVI ports and one HDMI, we can use all three to set up Eyefinity.
At the latest presentation, AMD has also introduced the TrueAudio DSP, which is unfortunately not included with the 280X and 270X, but it is present in the 260X and also top of the line 290/290X.
Mantle is a new API introduced with the latest seriers, which gives the game developers direct access to the GPUs by using the Graphics Core Next architecture. AMD has recently clarified that Mantle creates for PC a development platform which is similar to the one for the consoles, which already offer low-level APIs, close-to-metal programming, easier development and more. By creating a more console-like developer environment, Mantle improves time to market, reduces development costs and allows more efficient rendering and ultimately improves performance for gamers.
DirectX 11.2, which is coming with Windows 8.1 is compatible with the new series.
The main attraction of the latest DirectX seems to be Tiled Resources, which exposes AMD’s partially-resident textures via DirectX and we are also dealing with hardware-managed virtual memory for GPU.
Ultra Durable VGA™
Lower GPU Temperature
Ultra Durable VGA board provides dramatic cooling effect on lowering both GPU and memory temperature by doubling the copper inner layer of PCB.
Better Overclocking Capability
Ultra Durable VGA board reduces voltage ripples in normal and transient state, thus effectively lowers noises and ensures higher overclocking capability.
Decrease Power Switching Loss
Ultra Durable VGA board allows more bandwidth for electron passage and reduces circuit impedance. The less circuit impedance, the more stable flow of current and can effectively improve power efficiency.
OC GURU ll
Brand-new instinctive user interface, easier to monitoring and adjusting all important settings. Users can set up MONITORING, GPU CLOCK, MEMORY CLOCK, FAN, GPU VOLTAGE, Memory VOLTAGE, OSD, ONLINE SUPPORT and update driver, BIOS directly.
Gold plated HDMI
Gold plated, durable large contact area connectors have been used for optimum signal transfer between connections
The last VGA we have received from Gigabyte has arrived in full retail packaging and not as a bare card like the previous two. On the top side of the box we will get to see some of the product highlights along with the card name and total memory quantity:
More technical details can be discovered on the side:
Gigabyte explains with the details WindForce 3x Cooling Technology on the back side of the box:
After removing the top packaging layer, we will reveal the usual black box with the Gigabyte logo in the middle:
By lifting the top cover we will take a look at the card which sits in the middle and is surrounded by a sponge-like protective material:
Under the card we will find an extra layer which holds the bundle:
Talking of the bundle, we will get one disk with drivers and software utility, one Quick Installation Guide, a CrossFire bridge but also two MOLEX-to-PCI-Express power adapters:
The card is carefully built with a compact but efficient cooling system, which has a similar design with the one we have found on the GTX 780 WF OC and also on the GTX 770 WF OC; since we did say similar, there are some differences like a plastic shroud instead of aluminum, a different number of heatpipes and a redesigned layout for the card in question. Even if the shroud is made of plastic, it looks really good and some of us will have to look closely in order to spot the difference:
The triple fan solution comes with patented anti-turbulence inclined fans and combined with the three 8mm pure copper heatpipes helps reducing excessive heat and minimizes the turbulence flow between fans. The technology combines fin with clip module in a special triangle shape:
On top of the middle fan we will get to see a WindForce logo:
Compared with the previous samples, the retail model comes with plastic protection for the PCI-Express connector:
While looking on the card sides we will get to see a portion of the large heatsink, but in order to find out more we will have to disassemble the card. A metallic rib is also preinstalled here in order to prevent bending:
The card is powered by dual 6-pin PCI-E connectors:
On the back side of the PCB we will get to see the mounting screws for both GPU and also the VRM heatsink:
The cooling system expands beyond the length of the PCB:
One CrossFire finger is available, which is also protected with a blue plastic cap:
The same goes with the I/O connectors:
The card is equipped with one DisplayPort port, one HDMI and two DVIs:
Next we will go ahead with the removal of the four spring-loaded screws around the GPU:
Gigabyte has covered the VRM on the left side with a separate aluminum heatsink, which is secured with two small screws:
The six phases on the left are in charge of the GPU:
Nearby we will get to see the International Rectifier IR3567A 6+2 phase PWM controller:
The memory chips are from ELPIDA, with the W2032BBBG-6A-F code name; these are rated for 1500MHz:
Two additional power phases can be found on the right, in charge of the memory:
In the middle we have the graphics processor featuring GCN shader architecture on 28nm, built at TSMC:
As we have mentioned at the beginning of the article, the WF 3x cooling system has been redesigned, this time we are dealing with only two 8mm copper heatpipes which travel from one side to another:
The copper plate does not have irregularities but Gigabyte has decided not to lap it in order to getting a mirror-finish:
CPU: Intel I5 3570K Retail @ 4.7GHz
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 OC
RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 2x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)
Video: Currently reviewed card
Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 240GB
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
With the help of the GPU-Z 0.7.4 utility, we could extract lots of information regarding the video card clocks,memory type, pixel and texture fill rate and so on:
To extract even more information, we have used the AIDA64 utility:
The latest version of the OC GURU II overclocking utility can be downloaded from the manufacturers’ website and from the main interface we can fine-tune the clocks for both GPU and memory, increase the voltages, set custom fan curves and more:
The Monitoring section can be opened in a more advanced way, which shows live graphs of the current GPU Clock, Memory Clock, GPU Voltage, Memory Voltage, current Fan Speed or GPU Temperature:
In order to create new fan profiles, we will have to access the respective section and draw a graph:
The location of the OSD can be modified, along with the hot key, the Screenshot hot key and some screen settings:
For finding out the temperatures in both IDLE and Full Load with the fan set on Auto, we left the computer IDLE for about 25 minutes and then started monitoring with HWINFO64 and logged the values obtained while running Heaven 4.0 at 2560x1440 resolution for an additional 40 to 50 minutes, with details at Maximum and Tesselation set to Extreme. During this time, the ambient temperature was held steady at 19.4 degrees Celsius:
Before measuring out the noise the video card was producing, we have first measured the noise inside the room the tests took place and we found out it was 28.7dBA (with everything turned off).
At all times, the sound meter was placed 20cm near the video card.
The GPU fan was controlled by the latest version of Catalyst Control Center:
The Radeon R9 270X Windforce OC video card from Gigabyte is the second one we are reviewing with the same GPU and the manufacturer has decided to include only a 50MHz overclock over the stock model, while we have seen with the HIS R9 270X IceQ 2 Turbo Boost Clock a larger increase of about 90MHz; the memory clock is the same for all variants but overall we will see a small advantage of the HIS board in the performed tests.
What seems very interesting is the fact that we have obtained overclocking stability at the exact same frequency as with the HIS model, which resulted in a similar score when tested with 3DMark 2011 (Performance Mode):
While looking at the 270X Windforce OC we have met again with Gigabytes’ overclocking utility, the OC GURU II, which allows monitoring and altering card parameters with ease. At the same time we are able to set up the OSD or access Online Support.
The Windforce OC cards have cooling systems which are tuned for efficiency while keeping the lowest possible noise levels; during the stress test, we were unable to bring the part past 49 degrees Celsius, while the Heaven 4.0 test did run for about 37 minutes.
The card can be found online for about 163 Euros, this way being cheaper than the HIS R9 270X IceQ 2 Turbo Boost, which makes it a winner in our cards.
We would like to thank again to Gigabyte Taiwan for making this review possible!