7970 vs 760 vs 7950

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Ollie147

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May 2, 2013
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Hi everyone,

I know there are a load of posts regarding which card to get but I am seriously stuck due to the cost I can get these cards at.

I can get a Gigabyte 7970 oc windforce x3 for £125 refurbished with 6 months warranty, a reference Zotac gtx760 again refurbished with 6 months warranty for £110 or a second hand 7950 vapor x with no warranty for just over 100. Ive read the Gigabyte 7970 is voltage locked by hardware and that is the top of my budget.

Really cant decide. Which would be better value? I currently run a i5 760 clocked to 4ghz and a HD7850 2gb but will be upgrading to 4690k or similar in about 9-12 months.
 
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coozie7
HA! HA!, check my specs! ;)
With good case ventilation I'd go for the dual/triple fan cooler every time, those single fan devices do the job but are noisy and not overclock friendly, especially if you're aiming for an overvolted card, you may very well find the cooler will limit the possible OC just because it can't handle the additional heat load, causing the card to throttle.
You sound well versed in PCs but I'll just make one point on the SLI/CF option: Be very careful with the motherboard selection, some still place their card slots too close together which causes the top card to run hot, and with a heavy OC, it can cause the top card to throttle under load.
Nvidia cards don't usually OC as well as AMD and the 7950 (plus a moderate...
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coozie7

coozie7

Champion
Jun 2, 2007
10,015
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Don't like refurbished parts, never have, never will so of the three I'd go for the 7950, used or not at least it's not been refurbished even if it's only the second best overall performer.
BUT...
Are you planning on keeping this part for some time? If so do yourself a favour and go new, even if it means waiting longer, the R9 280 (read 'slightly tweaked HD7950' ) is available for under £150, brand new and with full warranty if you shop around.
If you're just using this as a short term replacement for the GTX770 in your sig, then by all means take the HD7970.
And if there's a problem with it always remember the magic words "Sale of Good Act" and the Spell "Merchantable Quality".
 
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Ollie147

Honorable
May 2, 2013
86
0
10,640
Its not to replace a gtx770, thats another rig. This is a different build with a i5 760 and currently, a 2gb 7850 which is what im looking to upgrade. Im not overly worried about manufacturer repaired stuff as ive gone down that route before and got a bargain. The 6 month warranty means ive got a bit of fall back should things go wrong. Im leaning towards the 7970 as i used to have a Sapphire 7970 that oc'd like a beast but I have two big concerns. Firstly I see a lot of people say the Gigabyte Windforce 3x 7970 is a real poor overclocker, in particular the 2.1 version and it's hardware locked voltage. Secondly I'll be looking at xfire/sli when I do upgrade in a year so would a blower type card be better for cooling with more than one card? Case cooling is not a big issue as I have a phantom 410 full of fans but as I'll be overclocking whatever cpu I get using a big air cooler, im not keen on hot air just being blown around inside.
 
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coozie7

coozie7

Champion
Jun 2, 2007
10,015
10
59,215
HA! HA!, check my specs! ;)
With good case ventilation I'd go for the dual/triple fan cooler every time, those single fan devices do the job but are noisy and not overclock friendly, especially if you're aiming for an overvolted card, you may very well find the cooler will limit the possible OC just because it can't handle the additional heat load, causing the card to throttle.
You sound well versed in PCs but I'll just make one point on the SLI/CF option: Be very careful with the motherboard selection, some still place their card slots too close together which causes the top card to run hot, and with a heavy OC, it can cause the top card to throttle under load.
Nvidia cards don't usually OC as well as AMD and the 7950 (plus a moderate OC) can run with a stock 7970 and with the Gigabyte being locked I think the choice is obvious-Well to me anyway-go for the 7950.
 
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