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R9 270X + PSU Doubts

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  • Graphics Cards
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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June 21, 2014 12:26:16 AM

Hey!
I just made an account and its my first question here, I made sure I read the forum's "How to ask" guidelines before asking, still, In case of a mistake, please be kind to mention it to me, I'll not repeat it again :) 
I have been looking for like a month for a decent mid rannge graphic card for my PC. I live in India and within my budget, these are the cards that fit the bill:

nVidia GTX 750 ti = $ 235 (INR 14100)
nVidia GTX 660 = $ 262.5 (INR 15750)
AMD R9 270X = $ 284.16 (INR 17050)

I also had nVidia GTX 760 in contention but that costs $ 362.5 (INR 21750) here and from all the study I did about all of them the past month, buying a 760 so costly really doesn't make it worth in comparison to 270X. Still any comments would be welcome.

I currently have (or had) a GT 520 which just allowed me to play games till 2 years back, and I really wanna explore gaming again after 2 years (I remember the last game I played was Arkham City without any eye candy.) I'll keep this card for like next 5 years. So please recommend the best value of money card among these.

I have a Cooler Master 500W PSU. When I checked it this morning, I found that there's only one 6-pin from the PSU. I have 2-3 idle Molex connections coming from the PSU. So I hope I'll be able to connect the graphic card if it needs 2 6-pin connections, right? I'm in great doubt over this. Please make me sure.

As for the specs:
Intel i7 2600K
I dunno which motherboard, but Its an Intel one
4GB RAM (32 bit system)
not interested in SLI/Crossfire right now
not interested in Overclocking
Monitor Resolution 1024x768

Thank you very much in advance. :) 

More about : 270x psu doubts

a b U Graphics card
June 21, 2014 12:36:26 AM

Of the three graphics cards you listed the R9-270X will have the best performance. It has a system requirement of "500W (or greater) power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector recommended".

Yes you can use a two molex to 6-pin adapter for the other power input.
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a b U Graphics card
June 21, 2014 12:37:34 AM

I'd imagine you'd be fine.
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a b U Graphics card
June 21, 2014 12:42:12 AM

most cooler master arent that good quality! also power adapter shouldnt be an option! play it safe and go with nVidia GTX 750 ti = $ 235 (INR 14100)which doesnt need additional power to run!also for such low resolution it will be more than enough.running any better gpu with that monitor would be a waste of money!
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June 21, 2014 2:42:31 AM

while I appreciate Chris987's suggestion of a 750 ti, as I said I propose to play on that card for the next 5 years or so, and while I agree that 750 ti will render quite a good number of FPS right now, I'll need to get a good FPS for the next couple of years, for which, I guess an R9 would be better.

As Chris said, I need someone to please give a final assurance if my PSU can run an R9 270X on a 6 pin and a molex to 6 pin adapters RELIABLY for the next couple of years without any hazard.

Sorry for the repeated requests.
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a b U Graphics card
June 21, 2014 3:57:14 AM

ZeusEm said:
while I appreciate Chris987's suggestion of a 750 ti, as I said I propose to play on that card for the next 5 years or so, and while I agree that 750 ti will render quite a good number of FPS right now, I'll need to get a good FPS for the next couple of years, for which, I guess an R9 would be better.

As Chris said, I need someone to please give a final assurance if my PSU can run an R9 270X on a 6 pin and a molex to 6 pin adapters RELIABLY for the next couple of years without any hazard.

Sorry for the repeated requests.


6pin pcie power cable up to 75w / 8pin pcie cable up to 150w . obviously you cannot expect reliability from such config you are planning to do. your psu provides only 1x6pin for a reason, you cant just ignore it!
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June 21, 2014 6:59:49 AM

With full faith in your opinion, I want to still argue with the fact that there would still be some reason that companies provide with Molex to 6 pin adapters with their graphic card package, dont you think? If they were unreliable for the system stability.

and correct me if I'm wrong, but
pcie slot will give 75W
molex to 6 pin would give 60W
pci 6pin connector would give 75W
total = 210W

correct me if I'm wrong, but 210W would be quite sufficient for a graphic card (sorry if wrong, you know, coming from a GT 520 :p  )

And meanwhile, if my PSU cannot afford a 2 6pin card, please would you suggest some performance cards that require a single 6pin connector?
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a b U Graphics card
June 21, 2014 9:16:14 AM

check here to see where do you belong and chose accordingly!
Tiered Power Supply List
1x 6pin R7 265 / R9 270 / gtx660 . just to know gtx750ti offer about the same performance
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June 21, 2014 10:22:12 AM

I have this PSU if you need a reference

http://www.flipkart.com/cooler-master-thunder-500w-500-...,,,,,,,

I couldnt find it mentioned in the list of PSUs you provided. Maybe the PSU I have is exclusive to the Indian Subcontinent. Based on the reviews, you may assume my PSU to be a quality one I guess.

R9 is much better than 750 ti from all the benchmarks I've seen. R9 is more GTX760-ish than being closer to 750 Ti in terms of performance.

All I want to know now, is based on my PSU (as the link provided above), would it be able to sufficiently and reliably support an R9 270X or not. If not, I guess GTX 750 Ti may be the only option for me unless there is a better card out there which you guys here can suggest to me requiring a single 6pin connector.
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a b U Graphics card
June 21, 2014 7:09:07 PM

The two molex to one 6-pin adapter will work. If you find that you are experiencing freezes or crashes, then you should replace the power supply. I would recommend a Seasonic or XFX power supply in the 550-650 watt range for the R9-270X. It is better to have some wattage headroom. It provides a more stable system.
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June 22, 2014 3:28:18 AM

Thanks for the reply Terry.

I was going through other people's queries on the same topic here on the forum and I found this thread

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1864497/psu-reco...

I could guess enough that my system would be fine with a 500W PSU (though packed till its potential), but I didnt know how to make sense of the volts and current on the different rails coming through the PSU. I could make any sense of that.

My last query would be, from the link for my PSU I provided, can anyone please tell me if the volts and currents on the different rails are sufficient or not. Please?
I dont know anything about these rails.

Thanks a lot in advance.

EDIT: I just studied Sapphire R9 270 here

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-270-bench...

It requires a single 6pin connector. AFAIK, 270X is an OCed version of 270. How much performance difference would we expect between these two? if its <10%, it might just be better for me to for a 270, isnt it?
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a b U Graphics card
June 22, 2014 8:00:06 PM

From what I've seen on the market, there are some r9 270s with 1024 stream processors and some r9 270s with 1280 (which is what the 270x has). The sapphire ones have the 1280 I believe. But this is just a side note.

The performance difference is probably the same in the end. Overclock it to the 270x and you should be getting the same performance as the 270x or probably a marginal frame discrepancy.
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a b U Graphics card
June 22, 2014 8:59:01 PM

I don't have the specific model of power supply. If you list the model, I can give you a better idea of it's adequacy.

When recommending power supplies, I generally recommend Seasonic or XFX. I generally recommend 50-100 watts over the recommended minimum system requirements.

There is approximately a 100 -150 MHz (Core Clock) difference between the R9-270 and the R9-270X. This correlates to a 10 - 15% difference in performance. The R9-270 would be a better fit for your power supply as stated. As you said, it also requires a 500 watt power supply with one 75 a watt 6-pin PSU cable for additional power.

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June 23, 2014 1:01:37 AM

Okay so what I learn from Calnin's reply is that if I overclock the 270 I have I'll have pretty much the performance of the stock 270X. Thanks for that Calnin.

I listed the power supply in my previous to previous post Terry. This is the one I have

http://www.flipkart.com/cooler-master-thunder-500w-500-...

I was really fretting over the amps required on the rails, I dont know anything about that. Please can you tell me if R9 270 or GTX 660 can get the appropriate amount of amps over the rails?
I switched my choices to R9 270 and GTX 660 after considering Chris987's suggestions. You guys answer a lot of queries people have over here at the forums and are definitely more experienced at these matters. It'd only be foolish hence to disregard the opinion of a fellow forumer. Your opinion is accepted in full faith Chris!

So basically, can my PSU satisfy the power needs of R9 270 or GTX 660?
And, is GTX 660 perform at par with an R9 270? I mean, I really never used AMD, and I do play a lot of old games like UT2004, RoN and like those. From all that I hear is that AMD Drivers dont support old games as much. I really aint after PhysX by nVidia, I can use it from my CPU. So any suggestions?

EDIT: I also am pretty much swooned over the idea of doing an SLI/Crossfire in the future someday. Which card would be better for me in that perspective also?
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a b U Graphics card
June 23, 2014 1:10:55 AM

The 270 is stronger than the GTX 660 I believe. If you go with an SLI/Crossfire build, you will definitely need a stronger PSU.

As for the amps and what not, I believe you should be fine with either choice of GPUs with that cooler master. You might be limited on the option to overclock I'd imagine, but outside that everything should be good enough.
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June 23, 2014 1:25:15 AM

Calnin said:
The 270 is stronger than the GTX 660 I believe. If you go with an SLI/Crossfire build, you will definitely need a stronger PSU.

As for the amps and what not, I believe you should be fine with either choice of GPUs with that cooler master. You might be limited on the option to overclock I'd imagine, but outside that everything should be good enough.


Yeah I know I'll have to buy a new PSU. Even I guess a new MOBO. Thats why I said that arrangement is for the future. When I start getting troubles with these individual cards.

And, the driver issues? Any there? Anything to make me stay with nVidia?
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a b U Graphics card
June 23, 2014 1:30:36 AM

From my experience, I haven't had any driver issues with AMD that is unbearable. Just different optimizations and some different features with each card. The r9 270 is a newer card and is more powerful than the GTX 660. It'd just come down to budget in the end. If they're the same price, I'd go with the r9 270.

I'm not sure about nVidia drivers, but for the GTX 600 series I'd imagine most of the driver problems should already be fixed. In regard to the nVidia vs AMD drivers, they should be alright. Either one would be fine. It'd just come down to the individual card I'm thinking.

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June 23, 2014 1:46:33 AM

I actually saw this video:

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=g...

So its like, in all the different reviews of 270, all I see is the 660 lagging behind like 3-4 FPS minimum. I dont care about that 3-4 FPS lag, if at least I dont get a problem like this guy is having in the video. The comments didnt fail to dishearten also. So I just need 2 or 3 people sharing their experiences over AMD drivers. Because in the end I dont mind getting a card performing less than what I could have had got, if it doesnt give me any problems later.

EDIT: I surfed the web for this guy's problem and I found a couple of forum links on the very same topic. It seems the problem is quite widespread. The latest problem was reported on one of these links at 3/21/2014 and the very last one I could see was reported at 11/02/2014. So basically people were experiencing the same problem all through these 4-5 months. I dont know if the problem has been sorted out. All of these were like "we experienced problem with this R9 card, we installed a GTX card, it worked fine". THIS is exactly the thing I fear. Especially being with nVidia since I ever started gaming.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1789011
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=176346.0
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=176220.0
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=443&th...
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a b U Graphics card
June 23, 2014 7:00:01 PM

I personally have an r9 270x. I only encountered a flickering problem when I first got it back in december. It was just a driver issue and was fixed in an updated beta driver released on AMD's website.

From what i skimmed over, I saw that most of them were using 13.12 drivers or 13.11 drivers. Might've saw 1 person having 14.1 or something. The issue probably has already been fixed. The other common factor I see is that 3 of the 4 were MSi cards.
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June 23, 2014 11:58:19 PM

So..even if the problem may have been probably sorted out already, I would better placed buying a Sapphire one?
Which one do you have?
It isnt much of a difference to me, but the 256bit bus on R9 is a pretty good bonus over the 192bit one in 660. Or correct me if the extra bus size would not play a major role at my resolution (1024x768).
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a b U Graphics card
June 24, 2014 12:29:54 AM

If you don't plan on going to a higher resolution, just pick one or the other. If you're more comfortable staying with nVidia, then just go with the gtx 660.
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June 24, 2014 12:46:20 AM

That'd be all then, thanks a lot to all the forumers :) 
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