Radeon R9 270  vs GeForce GTX 660 

try to put a small heatsing on uncovered memory chip whitch is under the heatpipes it worked for me on my Msi R9270X i started to get artifacts so i taked the heatsing away found out that 1 of the memory chips isnt cooled at all u can see the uncovered chip on this photo located next to one of the mounting holes for heatsing under the black heatsing plate http://benchmarkreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/MSI-R9-270X-GAMING-2GD5-Video-Card-V303-PCB.jpg

660 is better gaming performance than 270?

yes easily bcoz It only use about 120W

Its beta for a reason stupid.. And Nvidia have bigger problems in stutter etc. Go buy GTX 660 or GTX 760 and see for yourself... I dare you

AMD do sometimes have a problem with older games, but so do Nvidia and it depends on Games. AMD are much better in newer games bcoz most games are AMD sponsored titles. The problem you describe is well known for Nvidia and AMD bcoz its mostly related to memory or some other part in the computer (PSU, RAM & Mother Board etc). Look at some frame latency benchmarks? AMD are superior and Butter Smooth over Nvidia. Edit: Drivers have also improved (Omega Drivers) and gotten allot of new features since then i.e VSR being one (Many More also)

For the past year AMD drivers have been equal or better than Nvidia, especially since the AMD Omega Drivers. You also get more games with AMD for free including Mantle and True Audio. The AMD cards are also much better in work related software bcoz of GCN/HSA Compute. The AMD R9 270 is the better buy.

Just revert to a NON-BETA driver. That seemed to work. If that doesn't work check the the voltage with the reference version of the card. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsDXtVyaHsQ

will the R9 270 or GTX 660 run in my PSU Corsair VS450 ??? My RIG: Intel Core i5 4570 3.2GHz GIGABYTE GA-H81M-S2PV Corsair Vengeance 1x 8GB DDR3 1600MHz HDD: Samsung 1TB & WD Green 2TB

Ok maybe I was a little dramatic about my R9 270, As long as I use 14.4 stable every game runs perfect with no artifacts. But still AMD should correct this in the Beta drivers before they release a so called stable version that artifacts bad in Mafia 2. I have reported it to AMD in the driver issue reporting section on every beta release after 14.4, And they have had many beta versions and have not corrected it at all, As a matter of fact they made it worse on each beta release. I should have chose the GTX 660 instead because less performance with good drivers is always better than more performance with bad driver support. I love My R9 270, But it is a shame that AMD does this crap! They really need to just fire the driver coders. Another Advantage the R9 270 has over the GTX 660 is the R9 270 can match the GTX 760 when overclocked. The GTX 660 does not come close. It is just up to the user I suppose. But if I had a chance to do it over again, I would have got the GTX 660, Or waited and got a 4GB version of the GTX 760. And yes the GTX 760 can fully utilize 4GB of V-Ram, It has a memory bandwidth of 192.2 GB/sec, That is more than enough. The R9 270 can actually fully utilize 4GB of V-Ram with it's 179.2 GB/sec memory bandwidth. Honestly AMD should have put 3GB on the 270's.

I totally agree with you really annoying but just wanted to post a fix if you still had the card. Best of luck!

But that's the thing the clock speed should never matter, The drivers should have the proper coding to keep the card smooth. I finally got my R9 270 working right, It's not easy to do. But if you play only new games artifacts are not a issue anyway, But still there should never be a excuse to artifacts on older DX9/10 titles. AMD needs to fire the driver coders and get new ones. And then finally acknowledge and admit it, Then I would respect them again. But basically just stick with the Windows update driver or driver 14.4 and you will be fine. But still that's messed up they have new drivers past 14.4 that users can't use in games like Mafia 2.

Just a quick thing. The R9 series seems to have a problem (varying by manufacture) where it clocks some settings too low on idle. For instance on my R9 280X from Gigabyte I had to create a new preset that would keep my (Memory? I am not sure its either memory or GPU)Clock above 500 Mhz. This removed the artifacting. Look it up online and you can find a way to easily do this.

Actually I was wrong, I should have got the GTX 660 and I hope you did not buy the 270. I had no idea AMD would still have the same issues with their drivers causing artifacts that they have had now since late 2011. I mean WOW! You would think something would be done by now. I even did a RMA after all the AMD worshipers swore it was a bad GPU and not AMD's precious drivers , It's like a brainwashed cult, AMD can do no wrong, Nvidia and Intel fans are the exact same way too, Nobody accepts the truth anymore, Instead it's all about my team wins and yours looses, It's insane! So instead of getting companies to solve problems these people just worship them, And if anyone goes to a AMD forum to try and discuss the driver/artifact issue to get help, They are immediately told by several different people that they are a troll or they are told they are lying, And if the person provides good proof then they will be told that it must be a bad GPU and to RMA it. I swear it's like people are nothing but brainless dooless zombies now! Anyway! I received a new GPU, And my second R9 270 has Hynix instead of Elpida, My first one had Elpida, But still I get the same artifacts in mafia 2 with 14.6 beta, and you see artifacts every now and then in other games no matter what driver version. Both cards acted the exact same way. I even put my brothers 7950 in my rig and it too produced the same issues. My old 650 Ti? No issues at all! I also recently upgraded my CPU and motherboard, And it's still exactly the same with the i5 3470 with a Biostar TZ77A mobo, as it was in the older i5 750 with a MSI P55-GD65 mobo. So my advice is too stay away from AMD, Do not fall for the price/performance BS!. Unless AMD announces news about a serious overhaul on their drivers, Only then will I consider them again. It's just sad because AMD used to be so good. Now they are getting creamed by Intel and Nvidia badly. This is why you would think AMD would at'least put some effort into fixing the driver/artifact issue, This way they could at'least keep their loyal GPU buyers happy, But they can't even do that now. And since this has been a issue since late 2011, I don't see it ever getting fixed, What is going to happen is they are going to go belly up. And when they loose the GPU market not even the APU's will save them.

I chose the Radeon. Just bought a Sapphire one yesterday.

So going to get the r9 270 over the gtx 660, with the msi r9 you can oc the shit out of it

It's braced/screwed in where the ports are on the backside of the cast. The very VERY minimal sag occurs where the card is at inside the motherboard, the farthest away from where it's screwed it. And I tried taking a picture, but you can't really notice it from the picture.

The 760 is a great performer. I am sorry to hear about the sagging, They usually have a brace at'least on one side of the card, But it looks like they didn't with yours, Send me a pic and I can help you figure it out.

R9 270, I got a HIS R9 270 iPower IceQ X² Boost Clock model. for $179 An ohhhh man! She runs so butter smooth! My CPU is a i5 750 quad core, And they are great together, So I recommend the R9 270. You get a newer GPU and a more powerful GPU for a little less money. This is the best card I ever owned. And the card runs cool too, It idles at 29c and gets to 46c under gaming load.

I don't know of a way to prevent sagging easily if all of your screws are in, if you want to get creative you can Google homemade solutions. Some case manufactures sell GPU supports for their cases as well.

so far so good. I feel like it's so big/heavy that is sags JUST a smidge. Any idea how I could help that? It's screwed in on the case where the ports are, so it's mostly where it's farther in, near the middle of the case.

Sweet! The GTX 760 is a great card.

I got the GTX 760. Just finished the build this weekend, and while I don't have any real heavy games, the ones I do have, like SC2 and even DOTA already look 10x better than on my laptop haha!

IMO, you should go with the 270. It has almost the same performance as the 270X for less $ and power. GTX 660 would be good except it is now a generation older.

I can't decide. Should i get the 270x, 270, or the 660? I second guess myself too much. Got an i5-4570 to go with in, in case you were wondering

yeah! I am getting a new GPU next month! I can choose the R9 270 or GTX 660, as much as I hate amd drivers I still have to go with the mighty R9 270