As you can see from the specifications above, the R9 270X features 1280 shaders. It also has 32 ROPs which results in a pixel and texture fillrate of around 33.6GPixel/s and 84 GTexels/s respectively.




While the 290x heralds the dawn of a new age with a huge 512bit memory controller, the R9 270X retains the 256-bit memory bus found on older cards. We were hoping AMD would see fit to increase this to at least a 384bit controller but alas, the more we look at the specifications of this card, the more we see it as a re-hash of the HD7870. After all, why would it be different? Both cards are based on the Pitcairn core, the 270X has simply been overclocked from the 1GHz HD7870 edition we saw last year to 1050MHz on the core. The memory has also received a healthy 200MHz boost to 1400MHz (5600 effective). The typical board power of 180W is also in line with the HD7870 as this had a typical draw of 175W so it isn't any more power efficent either.

None of this is bad of course, it's just we were expecting a little more from AMD. We already know how good the HD7870/50 cards are for the money and after two years we would think AMD would have introduced something a little more innovative for it's mid range cards. Re-badging cards is not a bad thing if it means the end users is getting last years flagship performance at a cut-down cost but as you can see above, the specifications show us that the 270X is, on the face of it at least, a re-hash of the HD7870, itself a mid-range GPU that is now nearing end of life.

Hopefully the benchmarks will show us some magic because thus far, we are less than impressed.