Is the RX 470 more or less power hungry than an R9 270?

[NTMBK]

I'm looking to upgrade the GPU in my Alienware X51 that lives under the TV. The R9 270 has done a good job, but it's starting to fall behind in newer titles.

The case is quite compact, and it can only take cards with a small cooler on them, which usually means a blower (representative picture below):

The R9 270 already gets very loud and hot in shader-heavy games that stress it, so I don't want to try to put anything hotter in there. Do you all think an RX 470 would work alright in there? I was considering the Sapphire model with a blower on it.

If it's going to be too hot, then my alternative would be the GTX 1060 6GB. There's some nice small models from Zotac and EVGA and it seems more energy efficient than the AMD cards, though it is quite a bit more expensive here in the UK.

 

[Piroko]

All three of them should be right around the 120 to 130W ballmark during gaming. I'd say both options should work alright.

 

[zinfamous]

If you're already thinking of choosing between 470 and the mini 6gb 1060, despite the price, maybe, then I'd just go with the 1060. IIRC, the 470 is definitely going to get you less power draw and less heat output than the 270, and it's a great, great price/perf for the 4gb 470...but the 1060 6gb is even better on power draw and a huge boost to performance.

That mini seems like a great choice for your needs. However, *I think* the mobile 470s should be out soon? Or not? I have no idea.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Looking at techpowerup reviews the 270 uses 110W, the 470 uses 120.

Could of course lower the power target, at lower clocks the 470 will still easily outperform a 270.

 

[AtenRa]

I dont know if the XFX RX 470 4GB Single Fan will fit in your case but you can get one from 172 pounds
Blower RX 470 4GB starts from 180 pounds
http://skinflint.co.uk/xfx-radeon-rx-470-single-fan-rx-470p4sfd5-a1488328.html
If you want something faster then you can go for the GTX 1060 6GB.

 

[LTC8K6]

It looks like the 470 with the blower is the easy decision. It's cheaper, much faster than the 270, just as fast as the 1060, power levels are the same, and it exhausts the hot GPU air out of the small case.

 

[NTMBK]

Looking at techpowerup reviews the 270 uses 110W, the 470 uses 120.

Could of course lower the power target, at lower clocks the 470 will still easily outperform a 270.

True, but lowering the power target will take the performance even lower, and make the 1060 seem more tempting by comparison... hmm.

 

[PontiacGTX]

True, but lowering the power target will take the performance even lower, and make the 1060 seem more tempting by comparison... hmm.

you could try to get a rx 480 and underclock and undervolt just to get lower power consumption but if you cant then a GTX 1060 is the best choice

 

[Phynaz]

Real-world power consumption is the same between the two. 1060 is about 20% faster.

More performance for same power consumption would be the card I would buy.

 

[USER8000]

True, but lowering the power target will take the performance even lower, and make the 1060 seem more tempting by comparison... hmm.

As I live in the UK too - Novatech has the RX470 with a blower cooler for £180. The Asus GTX1060 6GB with a blower cooler costs £240 delivered from Novatech and a few other retailERS.

Overclockers UK in the last two weeks has had the Powercolor Devil RX470 4GB for £165 to £170 delivered but this does not use a blower,so is not ideal for your system as the hot air will be recirculated in your case.

 

[Phynaz]

Wow, you guys in the EU get killed on tech prices.

 

[Mopetar]

I'd probably go with a 1060 over a 470 at this point. If you do get a 470, you might want to play with the configuration settings a little bit as a lot of the cards can be undervolted and still hit the stock clock speed settings and a few can even OC and UV at the same time, which should reduce the power draw for the 470 to be more in line with its performance.

It really depends on the games you want to use it for and whether or not you'll be doing DX12 at some point, but even if AMD comes out the winner for those reasons, it might be better to spend a bit more to get a 480 as it's enough of a step up that I'd consider it worth the extra money when you're already spending as much as you are for a 470.

 

[krumme]

I'm looking to upgrade the GPU in my Alienware X51 that lives under the TV. The R9 270 has done a good job, but it's starting to fall behind in newer titles.

The case is quite compact, and it can only take cards with a small cooler on them, which usually means a blower (representative picture below):

The R9 270 already gets very loud and hot in shader-heavy games that stress it, so I don't want to try to put anything hotter in there. Do you all think an RX 470 would work alright in there? I was considering the Sapphire model with a blower on it.

If it's going to be too hot, then my alternative would be the GTX 1060 6GB. There's some nice small models from Zotac and EVGA and it seems more energy efficient than the AMD cards, though it is quite a bit more expensive here in the UK.

I have a saphire 470 blower 4g in similar situations. Node 304 in a closet. Bought it because it was very cheap - yeaa eu.
Its oc 10% at stock voltage.
And i prefer it to earlier msi gaming 970 that was oc like 20% because it doesnt throttle due to internal heat and total noise is lower because heat is exhausted.
You have to notice there is just so slightly a fan noise at idle as there is no zerro fan setting. I dont notice it but you might depending on placement.
I think my oc clock is on the high end but that said if you can reduce freq eg 2-5% i am sure you should be pretty darn unlukcky if you dont get this card to 90w tdp just by lowering v. Those card is factory voltage hiked to the near max probably to maximize yield and perf so you are nearly guaranteed a huge perf w improvement.
Amd standard driver software is really excellent at managing it btw. Set target temp at 85c. That alone might solve all noise issues. Notice the reference blower cards is very high quality with quality digital vrm so they can take the heat. Its very high quality parts.
I am sure you will end up with a card that is both much faster and much quiter than the 270. And very cheap to boot and age well like the 270.

 

[USER8000]

Wow, you guys in the EU get killed on tech prices.

We do and in the UK the pound has crashed by 20% due to all the political uncertainty.

 

[Abwx]

True, but lowering the power target will take the performance even lower, and make the 1060 seem more tempting by comparison... hmm.

The required frequency delta is much lower than one would think..

Polaris voltage/frequency curve above 1GHz is roughly cubic, wich mean that at 0.95x the stock frequency voltage is reduced by 0.95x and GPU TDP by 0.86x.

Not sure that the 480 is not the best guinea pig for such a setting rather than the 470, it has the advantage of 8GB RAM and looks like RAM size is not to be downplayed.

 

[NTMBK]

The required frequency delta is much lower than one would think..

Polaris voltage/frequency curve above 1GHz is roughly cubic, wich mean that at 0.95x the stock frequency voltage is reduced by 0.95x and GPU TDP by 0.86x.

Not sure that the 480 is not the best guinea pig for such a setting rather than the 470, it has the advantage of 8GB RAM and looks like RAM size is not to be downplayed.

True, but the 480 is closer in price to the 1060, and hence again makes the 1060 look more appealing

I think I'll hang on until the January sales, see if there are any discounts on either side.

 

[USER8000]

The case only has one tiny intake fan. Open coolers will push heat into the case.

There is hardly any ventilation.

Size is not really relevant - the case lacks proper ventilation.

So newer games cause the system to get noisier since the card is being pushed and the heat is being trapped in the case,causing the card to get hotter and for the fans on the graphics cards and CPU cooler to running quicker to compensate.

Blower type cards exhaust the heat out of the case.

This is why after trying an open cooler in my last Shuttle,I switched to blower type coolers on my graphics cards.

When I moved to a newer case,it did not matter as much.

Even a GTX1060 will be producing a lot of heat and in a case with no real ventilation you will be just raising the case temperature quite a bit. Ultimately,on UK retailers only the Asus GTX1060 has a blower cooler for a Nvidia card. The blower type RX470 and RX480 cards are generally cheaper.

Plus I am not sure waiting for January is going to change much - unless the pound goes up,I don't expect decent deals on anything other than previous generation hardware. A lot of retailers like Overclockers UK have commented the weak pound has pushed up prices for them and things like new generation graphics cards,will be purchased at the newer prices.

All the new parts me and my mates bought a few months ago have gone up in price.

The OP will have more luck getting a decent deal during Black Friday.