Opinion: ATI HD 6970 | Asus? | Powercooler? | Other?

[sslazio77]

Hey everybody, I'm looking to upgrade to a HD 6970 from ATI Hd 4850 crossfire.

Which 6970 would you guys prefer?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131394

or should I wait for restock on:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121417


If you have another brand or even another card / crossfire setup instead to suggest please share any opinion. I'm open to any new graphic configuration, not just the 6970. But please note my setup and requirements:

$ Range: Under $400
Resolution: 1680 x 1050

System:
Intel i7 2600k
Asus p8p67 Deluxe
and This PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139022

Thanks for any replies!

 

[shrkbay]

will you OC? what's your resolution? Asus you listed has much better cooler and probably can be OCed to 950mHz Core, you can get more or less the same from 6950 when flashed into 6970 and OCed... you can find some for 220-230$, also this one could be good:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127554&cm_re=HD6970-_-14-127-554-_-Product

 

[shrkbay]

you can also check the 6850s/6870s, they will be much better, but imo CF/SLI have too many issues and having a single high-end GPU is more future-proof than mid-range

 

[sslazio77]

will you OC? what's your resolution? Asus you listed has much better cooler and probably can be OCed to 950mHz Core, you can get more or less the same from 6950 when flashed into 6970 and OCed... you can find some for 220-230$, also this one could be good:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127554&cm_re=HD6970-_-14-127-554-_-Product

I would welcome if the GPU came with factory OC clock / mem speed but I won't do any OCing on the GPU myself, if so just a bit with ATI overdrive, nothing crazy.

Having a good fan / heatsink cooler on the card is important to me since I do not use liquid cooling. And I would rather not go with the 6950 firmware flashing.

Resolution 1680 by 1050.

Thanks for your reply

 

[shrkbay]

if you won't OC then probably best choices you have are: GIGABYTE GTX560Ti SOC, Powercolor, MSI and ASUS that were listed above,
cooling
1. place: GIGABYTE
2. ASUS
3. MSI
noise
1. MSI - noisiest
2. ASUS
3. GIGABYTE - quietest
idk about powercolor
performance:
1. powercolor
2. Asus
3. MSI
4. GIGABYTE
... as GIGABYTE SOC i mean the 950MHz, 1000Mhz has worse cooler etc, means this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125369&cm_re=GTX560-_-14-125-369-_-Product