ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC 2GB Graphics Card Review

A Closer Look

The ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC graphics card uses a pair of 80mm fans with a pair of direct contact 8mm copper heat pipes to cool down the R9 270 GPU.

There is a fully black PCB and an easy to remove cooling solution if for whatever reason you want to conduct maintenance of your graphics card.

The top of the card reveals its dual slot profile and two chunky 8mm nickel plated copper heat pipes.

The card draws power from a single 6 pin thanks to its modest 150W TDP.

There is a CrossFire X connector for up to 2-way CFX.

The end of the card is open to allow for the free flow of air in and out of the heatsink.

The bottom of the card is also open and you can see that all the VRM and memory components have no individual heatsinks. They rely on the downward-firing air from the two 80mm fans to provide their cooling.

The rear I/O supports two DVI displays, one HDMI and one DisplayPort. With an MST hub connected to the DisplayPort you can support Eyefinity 6 from this graphics card. This layout is the standard R9 2XX series I/O layout AMD has prescribed.

For the more “technically-intrigued” of you out there we’ve been provided with some information about ASUS’ modifications to the reference R9 270. They’ve increased the phase count on the GPU from 4+2 to 6+2 phases.

Not only have they increased the phase count but they’ve also gone to town in offering higher quality power components with their Super Alloy Power VRM package. These components offer more reliable power, no buzzing or whining and 2.5X the lifespan of reference components.

ASUS’ thermal design, as we’ve already talked about, has a pair of 8mm direct contact copper heat pipes and a pair of 80mm fans for 20% cooler temperatures with 3X less noise.