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AMD Radeon R7 M270

AMD Radeon R7 M270

The AMD Radeon R7 M270 is a (lower) mid-range DirectX 12 graphics card for laptops. Just like the older Radeon HD 8750M and Radeon R7 M265, it is based on the Mars chip (28nm GCN architecture) with 384 shader cores, 24 TMUs and 8 ROPs. The core is clocked at up to 825 MHz and can access up to 4 GB of DDR3 memory (900 - 1000 MHz, 128 bit).

Performance

The performance of the Radeon R7 M270 is similar to the Nvidia GeForce 830M and GeForce GT 740M. Current and demanding games of 2014/2015 will run fluently only in low resolutions and detail settings. In older games, however, higher quality settings will be possible.

The 384 shaders can be used with OpenCL 1.2 for general-purpose calculations (as 6 compute units). Compared to old TeraScale 2 chips, the GCN-based Mars architecture offers improved performance in this framework.

Features

Features of the R7 M270 include video decoding for MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and Flash directly by the AMD GPU. Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos are compatible as well.

The R7 series also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU. Called Enduro, the technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Furthermore, the M270 can directly support multiple monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.

Other features include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off and Power Gating to power down areas of the chip that are not used. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP limit. For example, the chip may be underclocked when running FurMark and OCCT, but will overclock in certain games like Lost Planet, Crysis or Resident Evil 5.

The integrated HD audio processor is able to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos). Additionally, it allows audio output simultaneously and in parallel to multiple devices with the new Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio (DDMA) feature.

Power consumption

The power consumption should be similar to the old Radeon HD 8750M or the Nvidia GeForce GT 730M (30 W or lower). As a result, the R7 M270 is best suited for 13-inch notebooks or larger.

ManufacturerAMD
Radeon R7 M200 Series
Radeon R7 M275DX (compare) 896
Radeon R7 M260X (compare) 384 @ 715 MHz128 Bit @ 4000 MHz
Radeon R7 M270 384 @ 825 MHz128 Bit @ 1800 - 2000 MHz
Radeon R7 M265 (compare) 384 @ 825 - 980 (Boost) MHz64/128 Bit @ 1800 - 2000 MHz
Radeon R7 M260 (compare) 384 @ 715 - 980 (Boost) MHz64/128 Bit @ 1800 - 2000 MHz
CodenameOpal XT / Mars
ArchitectureGCN
Pipelines384 - unified
Core Speed825 MHz
Memory Speed1800 - 2000 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory4096 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 12 (FL 11_1), Shader 5.0
Transistor Count1040 Million
technology28 nm
FeaturesMantle, PCIe 3.0, Zero Core, PowerTune
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement07.01.2014

Benchmarks

3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Score 1280x720
min: 4366     avg: 4830.5     median: 4830.5 (8%)     max: 5295 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 4766     avg: 6364.5     median: 6364.5 (3%)     max: 7963 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Score 1920x1080
min: 1129     avg: 1177     median: 1177 (4%)     max: 1225 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Graphics 1920x1080
min: 1184     avg: 1258     median: 1258 (3%)     max: 1332 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Ice Storm Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 14683     avg: 31288     median: 31288 (4%)     max: 47893 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 2002     avg: 2014     median: 2014 (6%)     max: 2026 points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 1842     avg: 1857.5     median: 1857.5 (4%)     max: 1873 points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark Vantage
P Result 1280x1024 +
P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06 Standard 1280x1024 +
Unigine Heaven 3.0 - DX 11, Normal Tessellation, High Shaders 1920x1080
23.9 fps (9%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Unigine Heaven 3.0 - OpenGL, Normal Tessellation, High Shaders 1920x1080
21.1 fps (12%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
min: 15.2     avg: 17.9     median: 17.9 (8%)     max: 20.5 fps
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit +
Cinebench R15
OpenGL 64Bit +
Ref. Match 64Bit +
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 1920x1080 +
T-Rex HD Onscreen C24Z16 +
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Offscreen OGL off screen
min: 33.4     avg: 33.7     median: 33.7 (6%)     max: 33.9 fps
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Onscreen OGL on screen
min: 9.4     avg: 28.3     median: 28.3 (8%)     max: 47.2 fps
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Room GPUs-only
min: 299     avg: 318     median: 318 (6%)     max: 337 Samples/s
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Sala GPUs-only
min: 469     avg: 534.5     median: 534.5 (5%)     max: 600 Samples/s
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
ComputeMark v2.1 - Normal, Score 1024x600
min: 1201     avg: 1203     median: 1203 (5%)     max: 1205 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

GTA V

GTA V

2015
low 1024x768
51.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
43.5  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
11.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
8.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Battlefield Hardline

Battlefield Hardline

2015
low 1024x768
47.3 47.4 ~ 47 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
34 34.5 ~ 34 fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
14.6 14.7 ~ 15 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
9.2 9.4 ~ 9 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Evolve

Evolve

2015
low 1024x768
30.5 30.9 ~ 31 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
23 23.2 ~ 23 fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
12.8 12.8 ~ 13 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
10.9 11 ~ 11 fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition

2014
low 1024x768
37.2 38.3 ~ 38 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
29.9 31.7 ~ 31 fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
17.5 17.8 ~ 18 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
12.1 12.3 ~ 12 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4

2014
low 1024x768
38.4  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
27.8  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
13.1  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
10.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
F1 2014

F1 2014

2014
low 1024x768
89 97 ~ 93 fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
59 65 ~ 62 fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
31 41 ~ 36 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21 25 ~ 23 fps    + Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
The Evil Within

The Evil Within

2014
low 1024x768
26.8  fps    + Compare