[section_title title=Conclusion]
Conclusion
Once again, it’s time to wrap up another review and conclude our thoughts. How well did the HIS IceQ X2 270X perform and is it something that is worthy of your £160? Or is it a card to avoid? Let’s start off with the performance aspect of this card.
I cannot fault the card for its performance, especially when you consider its price tag and that it comes with BF4 included as well! Okay, my sample didn’t as it is most likely a promotional offer, but it is available if you browse your typical retailer websites. The card is capable of providing smooth game play in our tests that we ran but it may struggle a little bit when you are beginning to get the next-gen games installed and you begin to play them. The card is ultimately as powerful as that found in a PlayStation 4, but we all know that the same power never really translates from a console to a PC.
The HIS cooler has once again done me proud. It stays inaudible under idle conditions and it is only just about audible when the card is placed under heavy loading. It cannot be heard over my Enermax MaxRevo 1350W power supply and I will admit that it isn’t the quietest thing in the world but it definitely isn’t the worst I’ve heard either. As with previous cards that I have tested such as the HIS IceQ X2 280X, the cooler is exceptionally quiet until you start increasing the fan speed yourself to above 50%.
As the voltage is locked and it did limit the overclocking potential, it isn’t all that bad. I still managed to get a very respectable 100MHz overclock out of the GPU but sadly only 75MHz out of the VRAM before it started to show up with errors. The good thing is that the power draw doesn’t increase dramatically as you cannot increase the voltages.
HIS always use blue PCB, it doesn’t matter what model or range of cards you come by, it will be blue. Some will love it and some will hate it but don’t let that put you off of a very well built card. There’s a reason certain manufacturers stick to their colours and roots, and that is because they let their image sell the component for itself. Just like a Noctua fan, a lot of people dislike its colour, but it is a brilliant fan and that is what keeps people coming back for more.
All in all, I would definitely advise you to take a look at this card if you are on a budget of around £150 for a graphics card. It’s one of the cheapest out there for the 270X range of cards but it is brilliant value for money. While it doesn’t claim any performance crowns today, I feel that yet again it will get five stars for both value and for the design of it too.
I’d like to thank HIS for sending me the IceQ X2 270X sample for today’s review.
-
Performance
-
Design
-
Value
Summary
The HIS R9 270X is a great value for money graphics card. It is able to play a lot of the latest and current games on the market at 1080P with most of the eye candy turned on and as it only costs £160, it is a very well built card for the money.
