I did an R7 260X CrossfireX analysis not too long ago, it wasn’t worth the setup.
The R9 270 on the other hand, does seem like it could be a setup that’s worthy of consideration.
Test Setup
Processor | Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.2ghz |
RAM | Avexir Core Series 8GB DDR3-1600 |
Motherboard | MSI Z77A-G45 |
Driver | AMD Catalyst 13.11 |
Benchmark
Here we go!
Metro 2033
Card | 1080p (avg) |
Sapphire R9 270 CFX | 66 |
ASUS Radeon R9 270 | 36 |
ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 76.5 |
Sapphire R7 260X | 39.0 |
CFX R7 260X | 43.5 |
MSI GTX 760 | 55.5 |
*Strange but it is lower than R7 260X. Looks like I’ll be testing it again to confirm.
Unigine Heaven 4.0
Card | 1080p (avg) |
Sapphire R9 270 CFX | 74.7 |
ASUS Radeon R9 270 | 38.9 |
ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 59.5 |
Sapphire R7 260X | 25.8 |
CFX R7 260X | 48.8 |
MSI GTX 760 | 45.2 |
Resident Evil 6
*Full HD at 1920×1080 – pardon me for the wrong screen resolution in the shot above.
Card | 1080p (score) |
Sapphire R9 270 CFX | 13072 |
ASUS Radeon R9 270 | 7954 |
ASUS Radeon R9 280X (13.11) | 11441 |
Sapphire R7 260X | 6138 |
CFX R7 260X | 10142 |
MSI GTX 760 | 9677 |
Just Cause 2
Scene | Card | 1080p (avg) |
Dark Tower | Sapphire R9 270 CFX | 160.68 |
ASUS Radeon R9 270 | 88.22 | |
ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 121.90 | |
Sapphire R7 260X | 56.8 | |
CFX R7 260X | 112.12 | |
MSI GTX 760 | 98.32 | |
Desert Sunrise | Sapphire R9 270 CFX | 180.95 |
ASUS Radeon R9 270 | 118.46 | |
ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 153.28 | |
Sapphire R7 260X | 78.33 | |
CFX R7 260X | 149.18 | |
MSI GTX 760 | 118.76 | |
Concrete Jungle | Sapphire R9 270 CFX | 88.41 |
ASUS Radeon R9 270 | 71.92 | |
ASUS Radeon R9 280X | 87.42 | |
Sapphire R7 260X | 47.64 | |
CFX R7 260X | 73.18 | |
MSI GTX 760 | 59.62 |
Sleeping Dogs
Card | Score |
Sapphire R9 270 CFX | 66.00 |
ASUS Radeon R9 270 | 36.6 |
Sapphire HD 7970 Ghz Edition | 45.5 |
CFX R7 260X | 43.5 |
MSI GTX 760 | 55.8 |
*I didn’t manage to test the R9 280X on this benchmark.
3DMark
Default settings
Card | Score |
Sapphire R9 270 CFX | 8291 |
ASUS Radeon R9 270 | 5119 |
ASUS Radeon R9 280X (13.11) | 7513 |
MSI GTX 760 | 5002 |
Analysis
At the time of this article, the price of the cards are as follows.
– SAPPHIRE R9 270 2GB D5 Dual-X is priced around RM 680
– SAPPHIRE R9 280X 3GB D5 Dual-X is priced around RM 1100
– SAPPHIRE R9 280X 3GB D5 VAPOR-X OC is priced around RM 1200
– SAPPHIRE R9 280X 3GB D5 TOXIC OC is priced around RM 1300
The R9 270 Crossfire does perform admirably, in some cases reaching 10% to 20% greater performance than the R9 280X.
2 units of R9 270 costs approximately RM 1400 that’s about 27% more than the RM 1100 R9 280X card, 7% more than the RM 1300 R9 280X.
In terms of power consumption, the R9 270X only requires a 6-pin PCI-E each but each card consumes some 175w (or more) which comes to around 350w+ TDP on full load, which is around 40% more than the R9 280X on load.
Overall, the card setup is a worthy consideration if you have the power supply to go. The cost is far reduced if you’re already an R9 270X user and your next card is a used unit. The last point to consider is heat – which I don’t think is an issue unless both cards are running full load all the time and the casing has poor ventilation.
Keep in mind that the performance depends greatly on how the game scales. As you can see from the benchmarks, games like Metro 2033 shows the CFX R9 270 setup trails the R9 280X while games like Sleeping Dogs show some 33% performance boost.
What are the chances of the R9 270 hitting 120 FPS in games like Borderlands 2, Assassin’s Creed (III, IV) and Sleeping Dogs, under medium settings, against single card solution, GTX 770?
As in R9 270 CFX vs single GTX 770