Low 3DMark11 Graphics scores compared to the GPU standard.

Solution
3DMark has plenty of users that overclock their GPU and CPU to the max, boosting the Median Score. Don't use that to compare your performance.
Look at a benchmark instead and compare your FPS to the Benchmarks' FPS.

My R9 290x gets 1800 points below average, since people usually overclock (+120Mhz) and overvolt (+~0.5V) it just before benchmarking, giving an inflated score.

Don't worry about bad cards, you should be instead enjoying your GPU at its fullest. The 7870 is quite good even in 2015.

-Bloc97
3DMark has plenty of users that overclock their GPU and CPU to the max, boosting the Median Score. Don't use that to compare your performance.
Look at a benchmark instead and compare your FPS to the Benchmarks' FPS.

My R9 290x gets 1800 points below average, since people usually overclock (+120Mhz) and overvolt (+~0.5V) it just before benchmarking, giving an inflated score.

Don't worry about bad cards, you should be instead enjoying your GPU at its fullest. The 7870 is quite good even in 2015.

-Bloc97
 
Solution

nVidia Cards are good for gaming, but they lack in raw performance... (eg. I use AMD cards for rendering videos and doing OpenCL compute since nVidia cards are much slower, they are optimized for gaming)

And I don't think everyone needs a 970 to play on Ultra @1440p... The 7870 (R9 270x rebranded) Is fine for all the upcoming games in 2015, and if you're lucky, it might still play games on medium up to 2017.