PowerColor R9 270 2GB video card $105 AR @ Newegg

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131688&leaderboard=1

Edit: AT review of 270X and 270.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his

I didn't realize that the 270 has the same number of shaders as the 270X. It appears that the only difference is clock speeds? Wouldn't some overclocking take care of that issue? But this card only has one six-pin, so possibly overclocking might be limited. Still, possibly a better buy than a GTX950, IF you don't need HDMI 2.0 or HEVC. (eg. for strictly gaming only, and not HTPC usage.)

 

[cbn]

Glad to see Power Color resurrect the R9 270.

I wonder if they get a special deal on the older GPUs? (eg, HD 6950 1GB and HD 5450).

 

[cbn]

Edit: AT review of 270X and 270.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his

I didn't realize that the 270 has the same number of shaders as the 270X. It appears that the only difference is clock speeds? Wouldn't some overclocking take care of that issue? But this card only has one six-pin, so possibly overclocking might be limited. Still, possibly a better buy than a GTX950, IF you don't need HDMI 2.0 or HEVC. (eg. for strictly gaming only, and not HTPC usage.)

The card on sale is actually an OC card (30 Mhz on the base and boost clock).

So it should perform a bit better than the R7 270 used in the Anandtech review.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm debating getting one of these for a friend, or myself.

I just bought three MSI GTX950 OC "shorties", that take one 6-pin, for $120 ea. on ebay, a few weeks ago.

Would these 270 cards be any better? I think that they are similarly specced. The GTX950 cards have a clear advantage for HTPC application, though.

 

[Termie]

These cards do not overclock well, but you can probably get them close to reference 270X speed. With the continued success of the GCN architecture in new games, they will generally outperform a 950, even if they originally were identical.

 

[Centauri]

That's a lot of horsepower for $105

 

[srock77]

my machine is older wth a radeon 6850 and PCI express 2.0 slot - The benchmarks for this card are so much better than my card- Will I get substantial improvement or am I going to be "bus-bound"? Major task is photo editing. CPU is quad core Pentium (I know its old but generally fast enough for what I do...)

 

[Termie]

my machine is older wth a radeon 6850 and PCI express 2.0 slot - The benchmarks for this card are so much better than my card- Will I get substantial improvement or am I going to be "bus-bound"? Major task is photo editing. CPU is quad core Pentium (I know its old but generally fast enough for what I do...)

Actually, if your main task is photo editing, your CPU is not fast enough. Desktop quad core pentiums were last produced ten years ago, and that's what I assume you're using based on the bus speed.

A video card upgrade won't help at all.

 

[CuriousMike]

Major task is photo editing.

1. Faster CPU
2. More memory
3. SSD
4. Faster GPU

 

[srock77]

Have a SSD
16 GB memory
Prior poster suggested faster GPU no help (new card)- Generation 2 of express bus
have e6600 core duo quad core - not much faster to be had in this generation of cpu

Was looking for a shor term fix before building a new machine

Sigh...

 

[spdfreak]

Is this card fast enough to run any of the VR stuff that is coming out? I currently have a 6850, 1075T six core, SSD, 16GB.

 

[Termie]

Is this card fast enough to run any of the VR stuff that is coming out? I currently have a 6850, 1075T six core, SSD, 16GB.

It's about half the speed of the minimum recommended cards: R9 390 and GTX 970.

 

[Staples]

The minimum cards for the Oculus is ~$400.

 

[Zstream]

These cards do not overclock well, but you can probably get them close to reference 270X speed. With the continued success of the GCN architecture in new games, they will generally outperform a 950, even if they originally were identical.

Not sure what you're talking about, but I ran two of these 270's for quite sometime and they always reached 270x levels. In fact, I still have one in my older i5 build.

 

[Replay]

Now $99.99 after rebate (offer expires April 30th).