Hello all. I'm planning on buying a MSI R9 270 Gaming OC and I was curious about what kind of experiences people have had with one. Specifically noise, and temperatures. Also if anybody has something to say about build quality that would be appreciated as well. Also I want to be able to run a Skyrim ENB at atleast 30 FPS at 720p. Is this possible or should I look at something else. Finally how does it overclock and does overclocking make a huge difference to noise and temperature. Thanks to all who reply.
If you're really wanting to play lots of Skyrim, I'd definitely recommend an nVidia card instead. Yeah, the R9 270 should be able to give you 30 fps at 720p, but an nVidia card of a similar price would most likely give you a lot better performance.
You can get much better framerates than that. I have a 270x and it runs Skyrim at 1080p with high/max details with much higher than 30 FPS. Not positive about the exact framerate but it was very playable and I had no issues with it.
I don't believe you will get a better card for the same money. If you can increase your budget, it's always worth considering a higher performing card, but the R9 270 will provide a very good 1080p experience in any game.
If you want to mod games, you will need to compensate.
+1 The R9 270 from both ASUS and MSI can be clocked to 270x speeds no problem. I just bought an R9 270 from ASUS about a month ago and I love it. I can play Planet Side 2, Battlefront 2, Battlefield 3, Quake 3, and Mass Effect 3 on the highest settings at 1080p with 30-60 fps. I can't speak to how well Skyrim will run because I don't play it, but I can't imagine it having any troubles.
A 270 will play the ENB at 1080p 60FPS, its not that hard even my laptop's gtx 560m can handle the ENB at 1080p 60 FPS
+1
As for noise and heat, the msi r9 270x i've got is really sillent and cool. Under gaming i don't hear it, stay's at 25 to 30% max rpm at full load. (75* c)
I overclocked my MSI R9 270 to R9 270X speeds.
Idle temps: 22-25C
Highest I pushed: 65C
I run a slightly aggressive fan profile:
http://gyazo.com/73f3d0cad7dc677aaae789c19d569dc6
My case fans is the loudest as they run 100%. Need to fix that soon.
Thanks to all who replied. I went ahead and bought the R9 270 Gaming. Packaging was good. I love the look of the Twin Frozr cooler. Got it installed and overclocked in Afterburner to 1050/1500. Temps never go higher than 68. Dead silent as max fan speed only got to 25%. Tried out the Seasons of Skyrim ENB without DOF (I use Dynavision) and it was pegged at around 50 FPS. Got into a fight and it went down to around 35-40 FPS. Absolute lowest was 29 FPS. This is at 1080P with an i5 3570k @ 4.4GHz. Totally recommend to any who are looking for a cheap(ish) graphics card. Very happy gamer.