VTX3D R9 270X X Edition Review

Today we review the new VTX3D R9 270X X Edition, the second 270X we have reviewed since the launch in November. Should you be shortlisting this card for a new system build early in the New Year? The card we are reviewing today is a new dual fan version of VTX3D's previous single fan 270X X-Edition with red cooler. To confuse the issue, VTX3D have not changed the name at all, or the box artwork. If you are going to buy this card online, we do recommend you check the version you are getting. The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition isn't as highly overclocked as the Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition OC that we reviewed several weeks ago. The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition has the core clocked at 1080mhz, the Sapphire Toxic version is 1,150mhz. Memory on the VTX3D R9 270X X Edition is clocked at 1,400mhz (5.6gbps effective). The Sapphire Toxic Edition was overclocked higher to 1,500mhz (6Gbps effective). The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition ships in a black and white box and features an image of the old ATI mascot - Ruby. As we said on the first page - be careful if you are buying this card online, because the box and name is identical to the previous single fan version of this card. Scan have it marked End Of Life, but it is still available on Amazon for £140. Not much of a bundle, just some literature on installing the card, alongside a software disc and a video adapter. We do always recommend you get the latest Catalyst drivers from AMD's website. These software discs can be often 3 or 4 revisions behind and won't have the latest performance enhancements and bug fixes. Gone are the single fan and red plastic cooler of the previous R9 270X X Edition. This update version ships with two fans and incorporates a PCB matching black shroud. The card takes power from two 6 pin PCI e connectors. It is Crossfire capable in a 2 way configuration. The I/O plate has a DVI-I and DVI-D connector, alongside a full sized HDMI and DisplayPort. It is widely known that AMD Radeon HD 7xxx parts (and earlier) currently can support a maximum of 2 HDMI/DVI displays, and the rest must be DisplayPort connections (or active DisplayPort adapters). AMD Radeon R9 Series can now support up to three HDMI/DVI displays for use with AMD Eyefinity technology. A set of displays which support identical timings is required to enable this feature. The display clocks and timing for this feature are configured at boot time. As such, display hot‐plugging is not supported for the third HDMI/DVI connection. A reboot is required to enable three HDMI/DVI displays.DisplayPort outputs are supported in addition to the three HDMI/DVI displays (up to 6 in total). The cooler is formed around two thick copper heatpipes which run into the base and two separate rack of aluminum fins. AMD’s R270X is built on the 28nm process. The core on this VTX3D board is clocked 80mhz higher than the reference design at 1,080mhz and it has 32 ROPs, 80 TMU’s and 1,280 Stream Processors. The 2GB of GDDR5 is connected via a 256 bit memory interface. The memory is clocked at 1,400mhz (5.6Gbps effective) which is identical to the reference board. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later. For our review today we are using the latest Catalyst 13.11 beta driver and Forceware 331.82 drivers. These drivers have the latest performance enhancements and bug fixes – all other cards used in previous reviews have been retested for the review today. We are using one of our brand new test rigs supplied by PCSPECIALIST and built to our specifications. If you want to read more about this, or are interested in buying the same Kitguru Test Rig, check out our article with links on this page. We are using an Apple 30 inch Cinema HD monitor for this review today. Comparison cards: Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition (1150mhz core / 1500mhz memory) AMD R9 270 Reference (1050mhz core / 1400mhz memory) ASUS R9 270X Direct CU II TOP (1,120mhz core / 1,400mhz memory) ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II OC (975mhz core / 1,400mhz memory) VTX3D HD7870 Tahiti LE (975mhz core / 1500mhz memory) VTX3D VChamp HD7850 (1000mhz core / 1225mhz memory) ASUS HD7850 (860mhz core / 1,200mhz memory) eVGA GTX760 SC (1072 mhz core / 1502mhz memory) Software: Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit Unigine Heaven Benchmark Unigine Valley Benchmark 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 11 3DMark Fraps Professional Steam Client FurMark Games: Sleeping Dogs Total War: Rome 2 Dirt Showdown Tomb Raider Metro Last Light GRID 2 Alien V Predator Splinter Cell Blacklist All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable: Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems Multicore CPU support Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles) Powerful C++ API Comprehensive performance profiling system Flexible XML-based data structures We use the settings shown above at 1920×1080. Good results in this benchmark, averaging just over 55 frames per second. Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user. We test with the settings above both at 1920×1080. Good performance, averaging almost 62 frames per second.Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings. A good result in this older Direct X 10 benchmark, scoring 30,351 points.3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page. The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition scores 8,398 points, placing it ahead of the AMD R9 270X. 3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance. Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good. To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.” A score over 6,000 points indicates strong performance with the latest Direct X 11 games. Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today. To test the cards we used a 1920×1080 resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. Still a demanding Direct X 11 game, but the VTX3D R9 270X X Edition has no problems powering it at 1080p.Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series.As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights. where to buy cigars This game is still a system killer at these maximised settings. We test at 1920×1080. Good performance at these incredibly demanding settings. The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition manages to maintain a 25+ frame rate at all times.Total War ROME 2 is the eighth stand alone game in the Total War series, it is the successor to the successful Rome: Total War title. The Warscape Engine powers the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time. Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles. To test the cards today we use the ULTRA profile settings shown above at 1920×1080. Good performance in this Direct X 11 engine, averaging 60 frames per second.Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007. Today we test the hardware at 1920×1080 with the Ultra profile and 8 x MSAA. Strong performance with this Direct X 11 engine, averaging 67 frames per second.After a delayed release from late 2012 to March 2013, the game received much anticipation and hype. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. We use the ULTIMATE profile shown above and test at 1920×1080. Excellent performance with this demanding Direct X 11 engine, averaging 46 frames per second. Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One survived the missile strike. 4A Games’ proprietary 4A Engine is capable of rendering breathtaking vistas, such as those showing the ruined remnants of Moscow, as well as immersive indoor areas that play with light and shadow, creating hauntingly beautiful scenes akin to those from modern-day photos of Pripyat’s abandoned factories and schools. We test this game with the built in benchmark with very high quality settings at 1920×1080 – details shown in the image above. The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition performs well in Metro Last Light, averaging 42 frames per second. Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility. We test at 1920×1080 with the Ultra image quality preset, as shown above. 8x MSAA was enabled to improve image quality. Excellent results, averaging almost 70 frames per second at these ultra high image quality settings at 1080p. Splinter Cell Blacklist is the sixth installment in the series. The game begins with Sam Fisher and his old friend Victor Coste who are about to depart from Andersen AFB in Guam when an unknown enemy force destroys the entire base. Assisted by hacker specialist Charlie Cole, Sam and Vic manage to escape, although Vic is injured after protecting Sam from a grenade. Soon after, a terrorist group calling itself “The Engineers” assumes responsibility for the attack and announce that it was the first of a deadly countdown of escalating attacks (called “The Blacklist”) on United States assets, declaring that they will halt the attacks only after the U.S. government accomplish the demand of calling back all American troops deployed abroad. We test with a series of high image quality settings as shown above and with 4x MSAA and 16 x Anisotropic filtering enabled. Smooth gameplay throughout, averaging 36 frames per second. The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic. The cooler on the VTX3D R9 270X X Edition performs very well, hitting around 58c under gaming load in our specific environment. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA – Threshold of Pain 140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum The two fans on the card spin at around 2,800 rpm under Furmark load. This drops to around 2,500 rpm when gaming. It isn't the quietest card we have tested, but the pitch of the fans is quite low so the noise levels never seem too intrusive. To test power consumption today we are using a Keithley Integra unit and we measure power consumption from the VGA card inputs, not the system wide drain. We measure results while gaming in Crysis Warhead and the synthetic stress test Furmark and record both results. This card is efficient, demanding similar power levels to the reference AMD board. For our overclocking tests today we used Catalyst Control Center. A decent overclock on the card, from 1080mhz to 1,155mhz. Any higher and we encountered artifacting, then hard locks. The memory could be overclocked to 1,490mhz, which is 6.5 percent. The manual overclock translates in a rather healthy score increase, to 8,950 points. The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition has performed well in our tests although we feel it does fall a little short when compared against the market leading Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition which we reviewed back in November. VTX3D have thankfully ditched the single fan cooler of their previous version and have adopted two large fans which cover the full length of the PCB. The cooling proficiency is undoubtedly excellent, although the fans are set to spin quite fast under load which means the card emits a modest level of noise. The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition is supplied with a modest core overclock speed to 1080mhz, although the GDDR5 memory is at reference speeds of 1,400mhz (5.6Gbps effective). The Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition is clocked much higher - at 1,150mhz and the memory has also received a boost to 1,500mhz (6Gbps effective). In real world terms, there is a noticeable drop in frame rate at 1080p with many of the latest Direct X 11 titles. While every card will overclock to a different level there was some headroom available via the X Edition and we managed to overclock the core to 1,155mhz before artifacting and hardlocking would occur. The VTX3D R9 270X X Edition is one of the least expensive overclocked R9 270X cards available, on retail for £144,99 inc vat. At £40 less than the market leading Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Edition it is certainly worth looking at. Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE. Pros: Good performance. overclocking headroom available. great cooling performance. Cons: Not the quietest sample we have tested. availability seems an issue. Kitguru says: A very capable board from VTX3D and the low price ensures it will get attention from the budget oriented gaming audience.