AMD Releases Radeon R9 270, Updates Never Settle Forever Bundle

It hasn’t even been a full month-and-a-half since AMD began rolling-out its current-gen lineup, but here we have another model to help fill some void. Like the R9 270X, the R9 270 targets the GTX 760 head-on, but with its $179.99 pricing, AMD hopes to lure gamers over to the red side.

Here’s a look at Sapphire’s take on AMD’s latest:

Sapphire’s Radeon R9 270 Dual-X

Where does the R9 270 stand amongst AMD’s current lineup? This table helps clarify things:

Outside of the difference in clock speed, both the R9 270 and R9 270X are identical. As in, so identical, matching the clock speeds on the R9 270X to the 270 would deliver accurate benchmark results for the latter. Given this small difference, this is a rather unimaginative release by AMD, although it does give those looking for a slightly cheaper card an option to grab one. Best part? Since it’s based on the same silicon as the 270X, there’s little doubt that overclocking it to reach 270X speeds will be a possibility for some.

In other news, AMD has updated its Never Settle Forever bundle to support its latest GPUs, and once again, the mechanics behind this one are a little strange. For the purchase of the R9 270 ~ R9 290X, you score a free copy of Battlefield 4. For a purchase of the lowly R7 260X, you get to choose from a variety of games (covered here) that fall into the “Silver” category, which will include a new entrant, Thief. As Thief is an unreleased game, and will cost just as much as Battlefield 4 does, it’s a little strange that the purchase of the bigger cards don’t give you a choice between the two (I’d take Thief over BF4 any day).

For contrast, NVIDIA’s current bundle offers a couple of newer games, plus the advantage of shaving some $$$ off of the cost of a SHIELD (our review).

As always seems to be the case this time of year, it’s a great time to be a gamer that’s in need of a GPU update.