HIS R9 270X IceQ X² Turbo Boost 2 GB Review

Name: HIS R9 270X IceQ X² Turbo Boost 2 GB
Brand: HIS

W1zzard

on Nov 26th, 2013,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: HIS

(2 Comments) »

Introduction

AMD's new Radeon R9 270X draws its lineage more from the Radeon HD 7800 series than any other. The R9 270X is, for all intents and purposes, identical to the Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition which launched at $350, but settled down to around $250, holding on to that price-point quite well, and for quite long. At 1050 MHz, its GPU core clock speed is 5 percent higher, and at 1400 MHz (5.60 GT/s effective), its memory clock speed is a significant 16 percent higher than the HD 7870.

The 28 nm "Pitcairn" silicon on which the Radeon R9 270X is based features 1,280 stream processors based on the Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture, 80 texture memory units (TMUs), 32 raster operations units (ROPs), and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 2 GB of memory.

The R9 270X reviewed today comes from HIS. They have increased clock speeds significantly on their R9 270X IceQ X² Turbo Boost, making this one of the highest-clocked R9 270Xs on the market at this time. We also find the HIS signature IceQ X cooler with its two fans on the card.

The card is very competitive in terms of pricing as it is available online for $200, which means there is no price increase at all for higher clocks and the cooler.

Radeon R9 270X Market Segment Analysis
	GeForce GTX 660	ASUS R9 270 DC II OC	Radeon HD 7870	GeForce GTX 580	Radeon R9 270X	HIS R9 270X IceQ X²	GeForce GTX 660 Ti	GeForce GTX 760	Radeon HD 7950	GeForce GTX 670	Radeon HD 7970	GeForce GTX 770
Shader Units	960	1280	1280	512	1280	1280	1344	1152	1792	1344	2048	1536
ROPs	24	32	32	48	32	32	24	32	32	32	32	32
Graphics Processor	GK106	Pitcairn	Pitcairn	GF110	Pitcairn	Pitcairn	GK104	GK104	Tahiti	GK104	Tahiti	GK104
Transistors	2540M	2800M	2800M	3000M	2800M	2800M	3500M	3500M	4310M	3500M	4310M	3500M
Memory Size	2048 MB	2048 MB	2048 MB	1536 MB	2048 MB	2048 MB	2048 MB	2048 MB	3072 MB	2048 MB	3072 MB	2048 MB
Memory Bus Width	192 bit	256 bit	256 bit	384 bit	256 bit	256 bit	192 bit	256 bit	384 bit	256 bit	384 bit	256 bit
Core Clock	980 MHz+	925 MHz	1000 MHz	772 MHz	1050 MHz	1140 MHz	915 MHz+	980 MHz+	800 MHz	915 MHz+	925 MHz	1046 MHz+
Memory Clock	1502 MHz	1400 MHz	1200 MHz	1002 MHz	1400 MHz	1400 MHz	1502 MHz	1502 MHz	1250 MHz	1502 MHz	1375 MHz	1753 MHz
Price	$180	$185	$175	$310	$200	$200	$260	$235	$245	$270	$290	$330

Packaging

We received the card without packaging or accessories from AMD. Rest assured that the final product will come with the usual documentation, driver CD, and adapters.

The Card

HIS has been using this cooler on other models before, so there shouldn't be any surprises. Dimensions of the card are 26.5 x 12.5 cm.

Installation requires two slots in your system.

Display connectivity options include one DVI port, one HDMI port, and two Mini-DisplayPorts. You may use all outputs at the same time, so triple-monitor surround gaming is possible with one card.

The GPU also includes an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible, which includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support.

One CrossFire connector allows you to combine up to two R9 270X cards in a CrossFire configuration.

Pictured above are the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods, etc., please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

Five heatpipes on the heatsink and a copper base move heat quickly from the GPU surface to the fins, where it is dissipated in the fans' airflow.

A small metal plate sits below the cooler and cools secondary components like memory chips and voltage regulation circuitry.

The card requires two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors. This configuration is good for up to 225 W of power draw.

HIS uses a CHiL CHL8225G, a very common and popular voltage controller that offers software voltage control and monitoring. It is also well-supported by most software.

The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Elpida and carry the model number W2032BBBG-6A-F. They are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).