Radeon R9 270 slides into AMD GPU family, new Battlefield 4 bundle revealed

In the swirl of HSA and APU talk at its 2013 Developer Summit, AMD gave standalone graphics cards a little love.

The company announced its Radeon R9 270 GPU is heading out the door today, starting at $179 (€134 excluding VAT). The new card brings up the rear of the R9 Series family, occupied by the R9 290X at the top. The R9 270 usurps the R9 270X's place at the bottom.

Based on AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture, the new card is further enhanced by AMD's Mantle API. R9 270 owners will also find API support for DirectX 11.2 and OpenGL 4.3.

From a straight spec perspective, the R9 270 is home to 1,280 stream processing units, the same as the R9 270X though less than the rest of the R9 line. Engine clock can hit 925MHz (the 290X snaps up to 1GHz) with memory clock speed capable of hitting 1.4GHz (5.6bps).

Memory bandwidth smacks at 179.2 GB/s max, and the R9 270 pocket 2.37 TFlops Single Precision compute power. The card comes running 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Unlike it's brethren, it won't support 4K resolution but will for 2K.

As AMD tells it, the R9 270 should be the choice of gamers who want to play at 1080p on high settings. Throw in a single power connector and 150W TDP, and users who prefer to follow a lengthier upgrade cycle can keep their rig living longer.

Board designs from Asus, HIS, MSI, PowerColor and Sapphire are all available at launch.

Have a holly, jolly game bundle

The holidays haven't technically begun, but it's prime time for seasonal specials to hit the airwaves.

AMD is having a bit of a one-year anniversary celebration/holiday hoopla for Never Settle, wrapping a few updates into the gaming bundle's bow.

Battlefield 4 holdouts may be pleased to learn that starting today, when they purchase select R9 Series products, they'll get a copy of title with their purchase. However, before you jump to cart off some cards, check availability here.

• Update: On November 15, AMD clarified just how its BF4 bundle works. Read on for the details.

AMD is also extending the Never Settle Forever bundle to the Radeon R7 260X graphics card, fitting into the Radeon Rewards Silver tier. What exactly does that mean? Up to two free games with the purchase of the card, that's what. Titles include Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and the newly added THIEF. Like the above, check availability before purchasing.

• Want more holiday gift ideas? Check our TechRadar Gift Guide for inspiration.