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- Joined
- 9 Jan 2011
- Posts
- 58
Hi guys
I was lucky enough to be browsing the overclocker website when i came across the deal of the month ( if not year ) ... the MSI R9 270X was there for just £69 and straight away i got my credit card and purchased it along with a asus xonar DGX soundcard
moving from a 1gb HD6850 this is a massive upgrade and this should keep me going for a good few years hopefully ... so lets get on with the review
As allways the overclockers delivery was amazing and it was delivered to me saturday dinnertime without any excess charge ( thanks to adam for this )
the card came without any damage ( as expected from overclockers ) and the first thing i noticed was the weight of the box ... its by far heavier than any other card ive purchased and that includes the evga 7900gtx which i bought 10 years ago and that was very heavy
upon opening the box the accessories are in a seperate box and these include drivers,manual,vga to dvi adapter and hybrid bios info .. pretty sparce for a R9 270x but you dont buy a card for its accessories do you
the card itself was well protected in a antistatic bag and upon opening the bag the first thing i noticed was the back plate .. this is another first for me and backplates allways come in handy both viusually and for cooling
all connectors and ports are covered with red protectors which are nice and ive left on all the rear ports covered except for the hdmi port which im using
INSTALLATION :
My main concern was my OCZ 500w stealthXstream psu wouldnt cut it ... so i replaced it with a SEASONIC 520w psu which is more than ample and it also has the required 2 x 6pin peg connectors ( the ocz psu has just 1 x 6pin and i didnt want to use a molex to 6pin with a card of this calibre )
the card installed without any problems however make sure you have at least 11 inches spare ... also theres a overhang on the card( see image below) however this shoulnt be a problem for midi and full tower cases ... ( im using a aerocool xpredator x1 red devil ) and it fitted without any problems
as i mentioned try to avoid using molex to 6pin connectors and thats why none were included with the card ( as MSI would rather you not use them ) ....
POWER :
The MSI R9 270X is quite a power hungry card and MSI/AMD recommend a 500w psu and at least 24A on the +12v rail(s) .. and 2 x 6pin pci-e power connectors are needed ...
with my core i5 3330,8gb ddr3 ram,128gb ssd/1tb sata HDD (main specs ) it draws a max 388w load ... however a decent 500w psu should be fine ... avoid cheaper budget models such as ace,alpine or winpower as these psu,s overstate their specs and a 500w version of these would be lucky if it delivered 400w .... use seasonic,xfx,antec,be quiet or corsair
PERFORMANCE :
This is were the R9 270X become interesting .... as i mentioned i was previously using a HD6850 and the jump in performance is nothing short of stunning ... literally 50% improvement across all games and this is what you call a "UPGRADE"
as it stands ive only ran crysis 3 and bioshock infinite burial at sea episode 2 ... both these games ran at maximum ingame settings and AA/AF set to their maximum values ......
these games ran above 50fps and im allmost sure other games will perform the same .. i will also run some 3d mark benchmarks and i will post these on this forum when complete
TEMPS :
at the time of writing the MSI R9 270x idles at 35c and my bedroom ( were my rig is situated ) is warm all the time ... and it only rises to 55c(approx ) when gaming which is impressive ... this is a extremely cool card considering its power and ideal if cooling is a issue
CONCLUSION :
The MSI R9 270X is a amazing card and will run any current game at 1080p at max detail settings ..... the hybrid bios switch is a nice inclusion however make sure this is set to legacy if your mobo,s bios is a oldstyle blue type .....
unfortunately this card sold out within hours and you will be lucky to find it for £69 anywhere else .. however keep visiting overclockers on a daily basis for other deals : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56
in a nutshell this is a
AMAZING CARD AND MEGA THUMBS UP
Well done overclockers !
I was lucky enough to be browsing the overclocker website when i came across the deal of the month ( if not year ) ... the MSI R9 270X was there for just £69 and straight away i got my credit card and purchased it along with a asus xonar DGX soundcard
moving from a 1gb HD6850 this is a massive upgrade and this should keep me going for a good few years hopefully ... so lets get on with the review
As allways the overclockers delivery was amazing and it was delivered to me saturday dinnertime without any excess charge ( thanks to adam for this )
the card came without any damage ( as expected from overclockers ) and the first thing i noticed was the weight of the box ... its by far heavier than any other card ive purchased and that includes the evga 7900gtx which i bought 10 years ago and that was very heavy
upon opening the box the accessories are in a seperate box and these include drivers,manual,vga to dvi adapter and hybrid bios info .. pretty sparce for a R9 270x but you dont buy a card for its accessories do you
the card itself was well protected in a antistatic bag and upon opening the bag the first thing i noticed was the back plate .. this is another first for me and backplates allways come in handy both viusually and for cooling
all connectors and ports are covered with red protectors which are nice and ive left on all the rear ports covered except for the hdmi port which im using
INSTALLATION :
My main concern was my OCZ 500w stealthXstream psu wouldnt cut it ... so i replaced it with a SEASONIC 520w psu which is more than ample and it also has the required 2 x 6pin peg connectors ( the ocz psu has just 1 x 6pin and i didnt want to use a molex to 6pin with a card of this calibre )
the card installed without any problems however make sure you have at least 11 inches spare ... also theres a overhang on the card( see image below) however this shoulnt be a problem for midi and full tower cases ... ( im using a aerocool xpredator x1 red devil ) and it fitted without any problems
as i mentioned try to avoid using molex to 6pin connectors and thats why none were included with the card ( as MSI would rather you not use them ) ....
POWER :
The MSI R9 270X is quite a power hungry card and MSI/AMD recommend a 500w psu and at least 24A on the +12v rail(s) .. and 2 x 6pin pci-e power connectors are needed ...
with my core i5 3330,8gb ddr3 ram,128gb ssd/1tb sata HDD (main specs ) it draws a max 388w load ... however a decent 500w psu should be fine ... avoid cheaper budget models such as ace,alpine or winpower as these psu,s overstate their specs and a 500w version of these would be lucky if it delivered 400w .... use seasonic,xfx,antec,be quiet or corsair
PERFORMANCE :
This is were the R9 270X become interesting .... as i mentioned i was previously using a HD6850 and the jump in performance is nothing short of stunning ... literally 50% improvement across all games and this is what you call a "UPGRADE"
as it stands ive only ran crysis 3 and bioshock infinite burial at sea episode 2 ... both these games ran at maximum ingame settings and AA/AF set to their maximum values ......
these games ran above 50fps and im allmost sure other games will perform the same .. i will also run some 3d mark benchmarks and i will post these on this forum when complete
TEMPS :
at the time of writing the MSI R9 270x idles at 35c and my bedroom ( were my rig is situated ) is warm all the time ... and it only rises to 55c(approx ) when gaming which is impressive ... this is a extremely cool card considering its power and ideal if cooling is a issue
CONCLUSION :
The MSI R9 270X is a amazing card and will run any current game at 1080p at max detail settings ..... the hybrid bios switch is a nice inclusion however make sure this is set to legacy if your mobo,s bios is a oldstyle blue type .....
unfortunately this card sold out within hours and you will be lucky to find it for £69 anywhere else .. however keep visiting overclockers on a daily basis for other deals : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56
in a nutshell this is a
AMAZING CARD AND MEGA THUMBS UP
Well done overclockers !
Last edited:
Thank the lord that horrendous fan whine has gone lol.
