Radeon 7950 Manufacturer Differences: Cooling, Acoustics, OC Ability, Crossfire

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ultra_blue

ultra_blue

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My question is in regards to the ADM Radeon 7950 GPU. The following areas are very important to me when it comes down to deciding on a manufacturer of this particular GPU:

1. Cooling ability; I'd like a 7950 that has good cooling technology as I will not be purchasing a water cooling system at this time

2. Acoustics; Looking for a 7950 that is quiet when performing at a high level

3. Overclocking ability; I will be overclocking my GPU in the future so I'd like a 7950 that is a good candidate (i.e not voltage locked)

4. Crossfire; I am interested in purchasing another 7950 in the future for Crossfire so I'd like to choose a card that is known for working well in this mode

I was originally going to go with the Gigabyte version, but I read somewhere that it is known to be voltage locked, which is not good for OC

Which Radeon 7950 manufacturer should I go with based on the areas mentioned above? Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.
 
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dudewitbow

dudewitbow

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with all you wants, you are basically wanted a better card. I cant say a certain model is the jack of all trades. at that point, its what you have on priority, as saying, the best clocker thats quiet and low sounding is just the better card overall. but none of us know which aspect you value best.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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I agree with the above answer.

1. Crossfire has issues. Not only microstutter but NVidia's SLI works better. (and YES, micro-stutter is a major issue which is being investigate more thoroughly now).

2. Overclocking - There are several cards that can be overclocked, however the NOISE also goes up quite quickly. A Crossfire solution also adds a lot of heat.

I don't feel comfortable recommending anything other than the best single, SINGLE-GPU card you can budget for, so my only recommends are like these:
a) Asus GTX 680 DC2T (3-slot)
b) HD7970 or HD7970 GHz
c) Geforce Titan

If you want the BEST gaming experience the Geforce Titan is it (GTX690 has higher raw frame rates where SLI profiles benefit but the Titan is far smoother due to the micro-stutter and other issues the dual-GPU 690 has).

I don't know if this helps.
 
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martinuv

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Guys, the man wants to know about a 7950. Perhaps we could give him information on a 7950?

I've been doing research on 7950s too. The major brands that I keep turning up (not to say there aren't other good options) are Sapphire, MSI, and HIS (I'm not including Asus because of its massive size which pretty much rules out Crossfire). From what I know on the topic of overclocking, the best overclocker will be the one that has voltage unlocked and the best cooling solution. Tom's Hardware did benchmarks a while ago and recommended the HIS IceQ as having the best cooling.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-14.html

I'm still in the process of choosing which 7950 I'm going to get too, so I hope people will give more feedback. Anyway, here are the three cards I've found that are rated the highest:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161420
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202003

These are the cards I started with when comparing:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600286767%20600286739&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48|14-161-420^14-161-420-TS%2C14-125-414^14-125-414-TS%2C14-161-429^14-161-429-TS%2C14-127-667^14-127-667-TS%2C14-202-003^14-202-003-TS&percm=14-161-420%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B14-125-414%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B14-161-429%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B14-127-667%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24%3B14-202-003%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24
 
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ultra_blue

ultra_blue

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Amen! Thanks for being specific with you answer as I tried to be specific with my question. I will check your recommendations out. If you have any new ideas, please reply.

Thanks.
 
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martinuv

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After doing some more research it looks like the Vapor X has some serious VRM heating problems that can fry the card or give you constant BSODs. I would stay away from that if you plan on overclocking the memory or running memory intensive programs. Here's a link to some VRM tests:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?284714-Sapphire-HD7950-3GB-Vapor-X-Review

EDIT: Some people are saying that the VRM cooling isn't quite as bad as this article makes it out to be, but it's still bad. It's enough to make me put the MSI Twin Frozr at the top of my list.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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QUICK ANSWER:
this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202026
Why? (excellent customer reviews, good cooling)

LONG ANSWER:
3xCrossfire:
It may interest you to know that a 3x setup has significantly reduces micro-stutter, though it's not an ideal setup. Even when frame rates are identical to a 2x setup, the 3x setup is usually far smoother.

While I dislike Crossfire and strongly encourage SLI if you want a multi-GPU setup, my advice is basically read the customer reviews at Newegg/NCIX/Amazon to look for any noise/dying issues.

I love the 3-slot Asus cards but they likely are not suitable even for a 2x Crossfire/SLI setup.

Companies: Sapphire, MSI, Asus, Gigabyte

*ALTERNATIVE:
It's worth at least pausing to consider waiting for the GTX 780 (not the Titan). As a single-GPU card it won't have the same micro-stutter or multi-GPU profile requirement issues. It should also perform as good as a 2xHD7950 (at its best with a profile) and far better at other times. Just food for thought.

Release (couple months?). Price ($600?).
 
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martinuv

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The card you linked to might not have the same problem, I don't know. I just have found a number of sources saying that the Sapphire Vapor X has some serious VRM cooling issues. I linked to one in a previous post if you want some evidence.
 
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ultra_blue

ultra_blue

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The 7950 you suggested above is voltage locked. Not interested in voltage locked cards.

 
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dudewitbow

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the twinfrozr 3 is a good card. if you had bought it during a period of time a few months ago, there was a short period where the TF3 was on a 7970 PCB and had a 6+8 pin connector giving it more juice for better OC chance. even though current models probably do not have that, MSI is a pretty safe bet for performance.
 
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ultra_blue

ultra_blue

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Are you referring to this GPU: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 OC 3GB?

Can anyone comment on the GPU I posted above? I've heard good things about the latest Sapphire 7950 version in terms of OCing etc... this one doesn't look like it's voltage locked. It's funny to me how people reply with suggestions that contain links to voltage locked cards when I clearly ask for cards that are good for OCing. Makes me think that people don't really know what their talking about... kinda hard to take advice over forums and the net.
 
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Mephic

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1. Cooling ability; Asus 7950 DCII V2 or HIS IceQ/IceQx2

2. Acoustics; Asus 7950 DC II V2

3. Overclocking ability; His IceQ/IceQx2 or Sapphire DualX (although some versions are also voltage locked)

4. Crossfire; Can't comment on that.

Basically I'd go for His IceQx2 for pure performance or Asus for high performance and quiet cooling solution.

DualX only if it's cheaper than one of those two above.

MSI Twin Frozr had some issues with TIM and the cooler is quite loud
Gigabyte is voltage locked (most of them) but the cooler is amazing and quiet
Club3D has loud cooler and it seems to be faulty
Vapor-X is biggest piece of cr**. Huge cooler but VRM is burning.
 
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G

Guest

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Ya that one you linked is hands down the best 7950 out there its every bit as cool as the ice-q and got mine to both hit ridiculous numbers.

 
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ultra_blue

ultra_blue

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Thanks for the reply. I've been doing a lot of research and the Sapphire 7950 seems to be the best in terms of fitting my needs: OCing, good cooling ability, good price, good performance, not voltage locked, comes with Crysis 3 and BioShock; can't go wrong.
 
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