AMD's Radeon R9 270X gets the custom-cooled and overclocked PCS+ treatment.

Fans of AMD's Radeon graphics cards are eagerly anticipating custom-cooled variants of the hard-hitting R9 290 and R9 290X. Such cards are now just around the corner (we have one sat on the testbench this minute), but for the time being we're turning our attention a little further down the GPU hierarchy.

This holiday season, if you're looking to buy a new graphics card at around the £150 mark, you should certainly have the R9 270X on your radar. While ultimately based on the same Pitcairn XT silicon as the previous-generation Radeon HD 7870, the R9 270X ships with higher clock speeds, a couple of under-the-hood improvements, and, just as importantly, AMD's partners have already made it available in a wide choice of flavours.