ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP 2GB Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

AMD’s R9 270X has an MSRP of $199 which compares favourably against the GTX 660 ($179) and the GTX 760 ($249). ASUS’ Direct CU II TOP model is always slightly more expensive and in the UK we are seeing a price of £188 from two of our preferred retailers Scan and Overclockers UK. That makes it about 20% more expensive than AMD reference pricing so in the USA we should see it cost around $245~ when U.S retailers start listing it. In European pricing that means about €225~.

Final Thoughts

The ASUS R9 270X DC2 TOP has done nothing but impress me. Looking exclusively at what ASUS have done to the card, because we aren’t reviewing the AMD R9 270X GPU – we already did that here, we can see ASUS have ticked more or less every box. Firstly, the card runs really cool and you will never find yourself with any thermal problems even in really hot cases. This means no thermal limitations when overclocking because the Direct CU II cooler can handle anything you throw at it. Secondly, it’s super quiet even when pushed through Furmark at overclocked settings – if you want a quiet graphics card then the ASUS R9 270X duly delivers. Next it looks great and the red/black theme is going to be warmly embraced by most AMD graphics card buyers. Finally the out of the box overclock is very nice and the TOP speed binned GPUs mean more overclocking headroom than you’d find on most other R9 270X graphics cards. This all results in a graphics card that does come close to the reference GTX 760 models in pricing, but makes up for that because the overclocking allows you to get a lot of extra performance and it runs cooler and quieter than most other cards on the market. It is also worth mentioning power consumption was the same as a stock AMD R9 270X because despite the overclock the more efficient power componentry offsets that increased power demand from the GPU by cutting down on power wastage.

Pros

• Great overclocking headroom
• High overclock out of the box
• Effective cooling
• Low noise output
• Low power consumption from efficient upgraded ASUS power circuitry
• 3 year warranty

Cons

• A bit pricey
• Memory didn’t overclock as well as the reference R9 270X
• Slightly longer than the reference R9 270X (10.85 inches) due to cooler overhang

“The ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP is a fantastic graphics card for the money and really showcases what AMD’s R9 270X GPU can offer as well as how effective the ASUS Direct CU II cooling solution is. It runs cool & quiet and overclocks like a dream. If the R9 270X is the right GPU for you then the ASUS Direct CU II TOP version is an excellent choice. Of course it is a bit pricier than other solutions so users interested in the cooling and silence on offer but not so much the overclocking can grab the ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II graphics card for a little less.”

Thank you to ASUS for providing this review sample.