Help me choose a radeon 7950

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andresava

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Apr 3, 2013
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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within a month. BUDGET RANGE: 250-300€

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming (Skyrim, Tera, The elder scrolls online, Assasins creed, Tomb raider, Bioshock... watching movies)

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: (ATI Radeon HD 4850 in my old pc). I will be getting the 7950 card for my new pc to which i already have a Rosewill's 550w 80+ platinum PSU.

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: The card will work together with an I5 3570k+asrock z77 extreme4 and 2x4gb ddr3 dual channel. I have a Fractal design define r4 case.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: I will be ordering the card together with other components from germany hardwareversand/mindfactory or another. I live in Finland myself and the prices are abysmal here.

OVERCLOCKING: Yes SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1200

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Im looking for a card with known high quality because the less chances for having to go through rma process the better. 3 year warranty with the ASUS or MSI is looking good. And if i read it correctly it seems that MSI won't void the warranty if you remove the cooler and apply your own thermal paste if the temps are too high i might do this.

Im not looking for the coolest or the quietest card but the best overall card for moderate overclocking and with the least known issues.

Something which i read about the vapor x cards: They seem to have a really good cooler but many people have reported a faulty vrm cooling design. I would like more opinions on that before i would go for this card.

Thanks!

 
Solution
JJ1217
Andre don't worry about the voltage lock. The set voltage for the locked one is 1.25 V, whereas the standard is 1.093 V. Since the maximum safe voltage known around is exactly 1.25V for the 7950, you won't run into any OCing issues. Of course the problem is you won't be able to downvolt to get better temps. But overclocking will be fine. However, that doesn't exactly mean the Gigabyte its a good card, I'm not implying that at all.
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Heironious

Heironious

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Oct 18, 2012
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A little confused here, you said "yes to SLI and no to crossfire"....crossfire is AMD's thing.

Edit: DOH! It's yes to overclocking and no to sli and crossfire...reading comprehension at 2 AM = bad for me.

Go for ASUS, thier cooling is beast = better overclocking. Newegg.com reviews help.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414 have you considered Gigabyte? Tons of 5 star reviews, but like ALL computer hardware, a few bad ones.
 
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4745454b

4745454b

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I know a lot of people don't like the Gigabyte cards because they are voltage locked. They are voltage locked a bit higher then norm but when OCing you usually want all the tools available. If you are looking to get high clocks you might want to avoid them.

I bought the Gigabyte WF3 7950. Overall its great, but I'm about to try and RMA mine. My system was rock stable before it went in and now its nothing close. I've managed to change somethings so it not longer reboots every day, down to about every other or three. Works great when it wants, but not often enough for me. Perhaps its bad and the replacement will be better, or maybe Gigabyte will let me trade up.
 
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andresava

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Apr 3, 2013
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Thanks for the replies!

I have indeed read good things about the sapphire dual x card. The one thing that holds me back a bit is the 2 year warranty. I was looking at that gigabyte card as well and reviews look good although i don't appreciate the voltage lock which was mentioned. So im probably not going for these.

If i were to choose the asus is this the newest model out there? Asus HD7950-DC2T-3GD5-V2. it comes slightly more expensive then the other cards. 288€ vs 263 for gigabyte and 271 for sapphire and msi.

And one extra question. For my case should i consider adding a side panel fan to blow air to the gpu? 1 front and 1 side intake with 1 rear exhaust or 2 front intake and 1 rear exhaust?
 
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JJ1217

JJ1217

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Jun 1, 2012
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Andre don't worry about the voltage lock. The set voltage for the locked one is 1.25 V, whereas the standard is 1.093 V. Since the maximum safe voltage known around is exactly 1.25V for the 7950, you won't run into any OCing issues. Of course the problem is you won't be able to downvolt to get better temps. But overclocking will be fine. However, that doesn't exactly mean the Gigabyte its a good card, I'm not implying that at all.
 
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Solution
JJ1217

JJ1217

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Jun 1, 2012
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Also the Vapor-X cooling system is great if you can find the model with two 8 pins instead of two 6 pins. They are different coolers. If you can find the store you are going to buy it from to confirm it has two 8 pins, you won't find any OCing issues.
 
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