Timing on Buying a New Graphics Card 3rd Qtr, 2013

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SS580

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Jul 4, 2013
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Hi All,

I'm building a new system:
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
Mem: 32 GB 2400MHz
CPU: Intel 3770 (no 'K')
PSU: 750 Watts

Intended Use: I'll be doing some gaming, but more a learning platform to experiment with hypervisors and learning C#.

I'm leaning towards the ASUS Radeon DirecdtCU II 7950 right now due to performance and noise (Thanks Toms Hardware for the great reviews). I'm also looking at the Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X 7950.

I'm weighing the cost of bumping that up to a 7970, but probably not the ASUS DirecdtCU 7970 because it seems to have gotten worse ratings, so probably a Sapphired model instead. But it seems that the 7950 to 7970 jump really is rather small (5% to maybe 15% at most?!).

Also, thinking about the strong rumors of the next family of AMD video cards coming out within a month.

I should mention, I'm leaning towards AMD instead of nVidia because of the Eyefinity, yielding up to six monitors (I'll have to grow into that due to $$$ constraints).

QUESTIONS:
1. Fedback on the 7950 family and my choices? Do they look sound to you?
2. Is a jump to a 7970 worth it?
3. Should I put an old Radeon X1950 Pro in there for now and bide my time for the costs to come down on maybe a 7970 (or even an nice entry level from the new family coming out), and maybe make a purchase in November instead of September?

Thanks much! I've had great, thoughtful answers before and looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
 
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Zero Cool

Zero Cool

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I just went through the exact same thing that you are haha. I had a GTX 760 but was already coming very close to capping out the 2GB of VRAM (1950mb in Bioshock Infinite) so I sent it back. After hearing a few guys in the forums here raving about how fast the 7950/7970's were, I decided to pick up one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121560 just like you mentioned. I wont lie, I'm a little embarrassed about hating on AMD for the past year or so (I had a really bad experience with 2 6950's haha). The card came in the mail today and it is amazing! The DirectCU II cooling system is the best I have ever used. The fan stays around 40% regardless of what I'm doing and temps have yet to go above 62c. I mostly game with it but I'm sure it would work just fine for your uses as well. I was going to wait until October to see the new cards but to be able to pick up the Asus at $315 when 6 months ago it was $500, I couldn't pass it up. Mine is overclocked to 1150/1600Mhz and I had it as high as 1200/1650Mhz on stock voltages. I read the same review as you about the 7950 but I figured for the extra $75 going all out for the 7970 was worth it. Plus the black laser etched back plate is amazing. This card is a thing of beauty haha. Anyway, I decided to pull the trigger now rather than waiting but I am confident that this will work out just fine for me until the new Maxwell chips come out next year or even longer if they are a let down. Overall I couldn't be happier!

DSC6197_Edit_Edit_1.jpg


Look at how massive it is haha!

Oh, and one more thing. I found out after purchasing it that the 3 free game deal doesn't expire until December 31st and they will be adding new titles up until it is over. They just added Saints Row 4 and another new game and from what I have read they might be adding Watch Dogs and BF4 sometime in November!
 
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trawetSluaP

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I had a Gigabyte 7950 and Gigabyte 7970GHz and they were good cards although I had a few problems. I sent them back an got an Asus 7970, this one:-

http://www.asus.com/uk/Graphics_Cards/MATRIXHD7970P3GD5/

The highest the fans have got up to are 35% and temps haven't gone over 65c. If I put the fans on 100% manually they keep the GPU under 50c even under full load. Compared to the 75c under full load of the Gigabyte 7970. I'd definitely recommend the 7970, particularly the Asus variant. I'm thrilled with mine!!!

From what I've read the general consensus is the 7950 gives the best performance for it's cost but if you can get a 7970 for cheap I'd go for it.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Since you will not be gaming, I might suggest you start with the integrated graphics and see how you do.
The X1950 is not much better than the integrated graphics.
You can then have time to evaluate the new offerings from amd in the fall and the NVidia response.

Even the strongest single gpu card does not need more than 600w.

If you will not be overclocking, I might suggest a B75 motherboard which will be cheaper.
Better yet, look at a haswell 4470 and a B85 chipset.

Intel cpu's do not perform significantly better with ram faster than 1600.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

I would not do too much planning more than 6-12 months out.
Parts and values will change.
Buy what you need today today.

 
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