I have the steam version of the game and I can't get it to recognize my AMD Radeon R9 270X and forced play in software mod.
So my question is, is this version of the game just drm striped out or are there any improvements on hardware detection?

I doubt that there's a big difference, but I don't know for sure, as I don't own the Steam version. GOG offers it's games with the latest official updates and without DRM. Afaik SC4 doesn't have any DRM by itself, so there's nothing to strip. The Steam DRM was forced upon the game by Steam. The good thing about all GOG versions is, that you can apply community patches and mods most of the time, while Steam sometimes causes problems, especially when the game's executable file needs to be altered.

As for your AMD issues, check this thread:
http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/54082-simcity-4-launcher-updated-140b-r7/

The SimCity 4 Launcher might help you.

I'm afraid launcher didn't help at all.
this is more related to getting the game recognize the newer video card and select hardware rendering. As I asked here http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/33931-how-to-configure-sc4-to-work-with-your-new-hardware/?p=1499669

I see, I know that forum and it's a good place to ask. Please let us know if anything interesting comes up there.

That's completely up to the publisher/developer, actually. Yep, at least for the steam version for newer video cards you need to enter a regex-like match line in "Graphics Rules.sgr" and a very precise device identifier in "Video Cards.sgr" (it's hard to do so as the game doesn't provide much feedback despite the logging). I assume GOG will make a small script in the installation that adds your video card to those files.

as in [url=https://secure.gog.com/forum/simcity_series/sim_city_4_blinking/post12]post #12.

My guess is it's the same (latest official patch = v1.1.638.0) as the CD and Origin versions I have, minus the DRM. GOG rarely adds anything extra to a game unless it needs small fixes (ddraw or nglide wrappers, for example). Hope this helps.

Flynn Nice. I'll have to remember that for my Origin copy if I install it on my laptop. Works fine on the GTX 550 Ti in my desktop. Laptop uses a newer AMD chip, so this should help if it flakes out on me. =)

Flynn

I reinstalled windows 8 and everything works fine.

By the way, to the person thta said SC4 had no DRM.

It actually had.

The CD versions needed the CD on the drive.
The Origin version needs Origin, also the Origin version cannot be updated, and break some mods...
The Steam version, I think it needs Steam (I don't checked).

GOG version is the awesome DRMLESS version =D

Also GOG version is the only DRMLESS version that works with mods (some mods check if you are using the lastest patch, and as side-effect of this check, versions with DRM removed (also known as "cracked") are flagged as "non-updated" by said mods.