Quick video card question (7870)

tobiashensch

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Oct 18, 2009
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Hi!
I'm gonna buy a new gpu today and I've chosen the amd 7870 from XFX. The clock speed of the normal edition is 1000mhz but a "black edition" with 1050mhz is available for a higher price. Isn't this small difference just silly? I mean will it even make a difference?

For the 1000mhz edition there are two different cards available. The first has one fan and the second has two fans. The odd thing here is that the second one is actually a little cheaper even though it has an extra fan. Which card would you recommend? I have linked the two cards below

http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=745855#extra

http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=745860#extra

My system:
Windows vista-64bit
Core i7-920
6GB ram 1600mhz
Velociraptor HDD 300GB
XFX 4870x2 (dead)
Corsair 850W

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
you wont really know how loud it is until it's in your case. it depends on how sound proof your case is, what kind of stress you are going to put the card under (for example, if you OC the fans will run like helicopters) and it will of course add to the sound coming from the rest of the fans in your case. furthermore just because its two fans it does not mean its louder. it could be they are two weaker fans that are not so loud and the other card with the one fan is much louder because it has to do all the work by itself. from personal experience - that is from looking at the cards that i have owned - i would say usually the one fan cards are a bit quieter but that is coming from someone who doesn't pay much attention to fan noise. i...

targaryen26

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Jul 4, 2011
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i can't imagine you will notice a major difference between 1000mhz and 1050mhz. that is tiny. not to mention you can easily overclock the 1000 to the 1050 with minimal effort. and even if you dont overclock the difference in the design of a gpu is what really makes the difference. so if you have let's say a 560ti overclocked to same clocks as a 570 that does not mean the 560 ti will perform the same as the better card. the better card will still be better and get you better framerates than the 560 because it has better components.

as for the fans, again i highly doubt you will notice any difference. the only time when that will matter is when/if you are going to be overclocking the card pretty hard and causing it to run hot. at that point you need to understand how the fans work - where they draw air from and where and in which direction they expel it and how that relates to other components in your case and the general airflow through your rig. i am not an expert so i cannot tell you which to choose if you are planning to overclock but i will say that based on my experiences trying to overclock the 560 ti that unless you are planning to go hardcore with crazy aftermarket cooling options it's not really worth the hassle. personally i think not overclocking results in a much more stable system less prone to crashing.
 

tobiashensch

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Oct 18, 2009
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Thanks for the fast answer! I'm not all that into overclocking gpus and since the performance boost will be as tiny as you say I won't OC the card. This may be a stupid question; you say that the number of fans doesn't really matter in this case but the card with 2 fans is not louder than the one this 1 fan right? :)
 

Diamond-HP

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The black edition will have a big boost if OC'ed, my HD 7850 has a 10 frames per second boost over stock settings.

However that is if your planning on overclocking? I prefer to have the option just in case you play a high demanding game however if you buy the right card you probably don't need to, but for example even though I don't need it now on any games I will be using the OC setting when I get Rome II.

 

targaryen26

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Jul 4, 2011
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you wont really know how loud it is until it's in your case. it depends on how sound proof your case is, what kind of stress you are going to put the card under (for example, if you OC the fans will run like helicopters) and it will of course add to the sound coming from the rest of the fans in your case. furthermore just because its two fans it does not mean its louder. it could be they are two weaker fans that are not so loud and the other card with the one fan is much louder because it has to do all the work by itself. from personal experience - that is from looking at the cards that i have owned - i would say usually the one fan cards are a bit quieter but that is coming from someone who doesn't pay much attention to fan noise. i usually wear noise cancelling headphones when im playing games or doing work so unless it literally does run like an actual helicopter i'm not actually hearing it.

again this is all very much subjective - my preferences for not overclocking, the fact that i do not care about fan noise, etc. i have read reviews of people who returned cards because they are too loud - i find that ridiculous. much more important are your temperatures. use a utility like gpu-z or cpu-z and if the temps are too hot on a card or a proc that is not overclocked then yes maybe the fans have a problem otherwise i couldn't care less.

generally i think the 7870 is pretty damn good choice right now. excellent value for money. the only thing that could possibly go wrong is if a particular manufacturer had a bad run and some cards have issues. you would know this if you went digging on the internet for lots of user reviews. but unless you plan on buying it now and letting it sit for like a year you can just get that card replaced by the manufacturer. more of a hassle and waster of time than anything else.

but this is all my personal preference. i recommend you wait until someone else on the forum here also gives their opinion from a different perspective.
 
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