R9 270 : ASUS vs MSI ?

[jim_blake]

Hi. I'll be using the card for gaming. The price difference is not an issue.
I wanna know which one's better in terms of failure rate, noise, gaming performance, temperature, fan quality and durability, etc.

My case has 26cm clearance for the graphics card which will leave the MSI card just a few millimeters clear of the hard drive metal cage. If need be, I can saw off a little piece of the metal cage to make more room for the card.

BTW my mobo is an MSI, if that's gonna make any difference.

ASUS R9 270 DirectCU II OC 2GB

vs

MSI R9 270 GAMING 2GB TWIN FROZR IV

 

[i7Baby]

I'd go for the MSI. It has 3 playing settings - http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tech-news-roundup-new-r9-270-graphics-cards

 

[jim_blake]

I'd go for the MSI. It has 3 playing settings - http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tech-news-roundup-new-r9-270-graphics-cards

Are these playing settings selected manually or automatically?

 

[GRUxTSAR]

I'd go with MSI because ASUS recycles their Nvidia coolers for their AMD cards (Not sure if it's exclusively the 290 cards, or the 80s and 70s as well). MSI also has 3 modes as i7Baby said which is a cool feature. Twin Frozr V also cools ever so slightly better than DirectCu

 

[Xtrem Ovrclakr]

Manually, you have to select the settings according to your need. ASUS don't have such settings, so it is easier to use. If you set the clutters ck speed to auto then it will take appropriate to its need. ASUS is best, as I know. Don't know about others.

 

[laviniuc]

which ever is cheaper should be the one you get. simple as that. i myself do tend to like asus-es direct cu cooler but that's just a personal opinion. at those speeds it doesnt really matter so much. you're much sooner bottlenecked by the speed of the 270 chip then the couple degrees or 10s of mhz of speed.

 

[jim_blake]

I'd go with MSI because ASUS recycles their Nvidia coolers for their AMD cards (Not sure if it's exclusively the 290 cards, or the 80s and 70s as well). MSI also has 3 modes as i7Baby said which is a cool feature. Twin Frozr V also cools ever so slightly better than DirectCu

Could you please elaborate a little about the recyling part?

 

[DzOnIxD]

ASUS coolers are designed for nvidia cards, go for the MSI.

 

[GRUxTSAR]

I'd go with MSI because ASUS recycles their Nvidia coolers for their AMD cards (Not sure if it's exclusively the 290 cards, or the 80s and 70s as well). MSI also has 3 modes as i7Baby said which is a cool feature. Twin Frozr V also cools ever so slightly better than DirectCu

Could you please elaborate a little about the recyling part?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290x-case-performance,3710-2.html

Then again, that's what you get when you recycle the same cooling found on Nvidia's GeForce GTX 780 for reasons of economics. Cheers, accountants!

 

[jim_blake]

They are almost same, clock frequency, speed is same. But I will recommend ASUS because of its cooling system DirectCU II. It is the best cooling system and heatsink design. So, ASUS is better than MSI in cooling.

ASUS coolers are designed for nvidia cards, go for the MSI.

?!

 

[jim_blake]

Is the noise and temperature numbers of this test of these two cards trustworthy?

Any comments on the results?

 

[Wolfshadw]

To me, it's a coin toss. Looking at these two cards, I'd probably have to take into consideration other factors like case size. Do you have enough clearance for a 10.08" long (MSI) graphics card? Would you feel more comfortable with a slightly shorter (ASUS) card? Do the added features of a graphics card actually mean anything to you? These are the things you need to decide. As I said, you could go with either card.

-Wolf sends

 

[jim_blake]

To me, it's a coin toss. Looking at these two cards, I'd probably have to take into consideration other factors like case size. Do you have enough clearance for a 10.08" long (MSI) graphics card? Would you feel more comfortable with a slightly shorter (ASUS) card? Do the added features of a graphics card actually mean anything to you? These are the things you need to decide. As I said, you could go with either card.

Well, I'm a little worried about the case clearance for the MSI card. It's gonna be a real tight fit and leave little room for cable management. I might even need physical modification of the hard drive metal cage to make more clearance for the card.

On the other hand, the comparison test I mentioned earlier shows that the MSI card runs about 6 db quieter and 11 degrees (Celsius) cooler. So it's a really tough choice!

Is 6 db more noise from the ASUS card noticeable?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Given this audio decibel chart, 6 db is about five times more quiet than a whisper. It's highly unlikely that you'd even notice. Temperatures may be an issue, but if you provide adequate cooling, you should be able to mitigate that as well.

-Wolf sends

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Hi. I'll be using the card for gaming. The price difference is not an issue.
I wanna know which one's better in terms of failure rate, noise, gaming performance, temperature, fan quality and durability, etc.

My case has 26cm clearance for the graphics card which will leave the MSI card just a few millimeters clear of the hard drive metal cage. If need be, I can saw off a little piece of the metal cage to make more room for the card.

BTW my mobo is an MSI, if that's gonna make any difference.

ASUS R9 270 DirectCU II OC 2GB

vs

MSI R9 270 GAMING 2GB TWIN FROZR IV

Get the MSI card.

 

[Gam3r01]

I also am for the MSI card.

 

[jim_blake]

Given this audio decibel chart, 6 db is about five times more quiet than a whisper. It's highly unlikely that you'd even notice. Temperatures may be an issue, but if you provide adequate cooling, you should be able to mitigate that as well.

-Wolf sends

"Perceptions of Increases in Decibel Level" Table in that page shows that a 5 db increase is a "Clearly Noticeable Change" and a 10 db increase is "About Twice as Loud".

 

[TechyInAZ]

I would go with the MSI card. MSI has some very reliable cards, coolers are really good also. And their MSI afterburner software is the best overclocking GPU software I've used.

Asus makes good ones, but MSI in my opinion is better.

BTW...This is more of a personal preference, both cards will perform identically (both clock at 975mhz).

 

[ko888]

If you check the return rate due to failure here (you may need to run it through a page translator if you don't understand French):

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-5/cartes-graphiques.html

You'll see that the MSI Radeon R9 270 Gaming has a return rate, due to failure, that is below 1%.

The ASUS card isn't on the list because the large French e-retailer, that the stats are based on, didn't sell 100 or more of that model during the sampling interval to be able to make a reliable statistical determination.

At factory clocks the MSI card runs cooler so less thermal stress should lead to better longevity. Being quieter is also a bonus.

 

[Kari]

I'd like to throw a spanner into the works and point out that MSI tends to 'cost optimize' their board designs in later revisions, especially on their custom line-ups like the 'Gaming'. r9 270 is by now a rather old card and might have under gone such operation... The launch reviews are based on the rev1.0, but if you end up getting say rev1.3 they might have used lower quality components (like cheaper coils) or indeed left some of the power phases unpopulated. The card will of course work as intended but it might not overclock as well as the ones in the reviews or it might have coil whine etc... So once you get the card take a close look at it and compare it to the ones shown in reviews, for example TechpowerUp has nice close up pics of the board:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/R9_270X_Gaming/3.html
...wow, the review board is version 1.1 and has 2 unpopulated power phases 😀 they've been quick 😀 (or maybe they use the same board for the top of the line models like lightning with all the phases..)

(Asus afaik stick to their originall designs.)

 

[ko888]

I'd like to throw a spanner into the works and point out that MSI tends to 'cost optimize' their board designs in later revisions, especially on their custom line-ups like the 'Gaming'. r9 270 is by now a rather old card and might have under gone such operation... The launch reviews are based on the rev1.0, but if you end up getting say rev1.3 they might have used lower quality components (like cheaper coils) or indeed left some of the power phases unpopulated. The card will of course work as intended but it might not overclock as well as the ones in the reviews or it might have coil whine etc... So once you get the card take a close look at it and compare it to the ones shown in reviews, for example TechpowerUp has nice close up pics of the board:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/R9_270X_Gaming/3.html
...wow, the review board is version 1.1 and has 2 unpopulated power phases 😀 they've been quick 😀 (or maybe they use the same board for the top of the line models like lightning with all the phases..)

(Asus afaik stick to their originall designs.)

Why would the OP look at a picture of a graphics card that they're not even considering? The MSI R9 270X GAMING 2G, that you linked to, doesn't even use the same circuit board as the MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G.

Custom PC Review of the MSI R9 270 Gaming 2GB:
http://www.custompcreview.com/reviews/msi-r9-270-gaming-2gb-review/19213/3/

 

[Cons29]

not sure if you bought one already. but a few things to consider is thermal performance, noise, size and even looks.
read some reviews (this is always a good idea), it will help you decide. both are good, so you can't go wrong with either (unless there are specific issues that i have not heard of)

 

[Kari]

Why would the OP look at a picture of a graphics card that they're not even considering?

oh right, i missed the lack of the 'X' 😀D