High-end Radeon HD card?

[Isaac_thegamer]

I am building a new system. Here's what I have so far:

* i5-3570k
* MSI Z77A-G45
* 8 GB RAM
* Windows 7

The CPU supports PCI-E 3.0, so I'd like a GPU that utilizes that. The mobo only supports Crossfire, so I want to go with a high-end Radeon HD. I'd like to get this ASAP, so within the next week or so.

I mostly want it for gaming, but I also do video encoding and some video editing. I would like to keep the price under $500 for the video card.

I will probably not overclock it. I'm going to use my current monitor, which has a native resolution of 1920x1080. (I may upgrade the monitor in the future though.)

So, my options are basically the Radeon HD 7700, 7800, and 7900 series. But, there are a lot of different cards in those series.

I have read the articles Tom's has available on the subject, but they were not very helpful.

I'd like suggestions as to which card(s) would provide the best performance for my new system, and still be around or less than $500. I don't want to just go out an buy a 7970 3GB for $480, if a card that is $100 cheaper is going to give me almost identical results, or, if Crossfiring two $140 cards would provide better performance than the $480 card. I hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance.

 

[auntarie]

Get a 7970. Two 7950s or two 7870s are too expensive for you. Two 7850s will fit right into your budget, but they'll have close performance to a 7970. Go with the single card alternative for now as you can always add another 7970 when you feel the need.

 

[Sunius]

Best one is HD 7970, costs around $479.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150585

No card will give you identical results and is cheaper by $100. HD 7950 comes close, but it's still below hd 7970.

 

[ilysaml]

Two 7850s will fit right into your budget, but they'll have close performance to a 7970.

HD 7850s > HD 7970. And they will cost around $520, not even close to his budget.

 

[ilysaml]

I'd like suggestions as to which card(s) would provide the best performance for my new system, and still be around or less than $500. I don't want to just go out an buy a 7970 3GB for $480, if a card that is $100 cheaper is going to give me almost identical results, or, if Crossfiring two $140 cards would provide better performance than the $480 card. I hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance.

Well, then your options are the following, HD 7870 & HD 7950. HD 7870 is almost as powerful as GTX 580, when overclocked to a certain level it surpasses it and matches HD 7950, costs $360. HD 7950 costs $400 and it's performance is 7% better than HD 7870 in stock speeds, but this card is the beast in all HD 7000 series, when OCed you have something more powerful than HD 7970!!
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-overclock-guide/1

 

[Isaac_thegamer]

I did some looking around and the 7970 seems to run just slightly better than the 7950. But, with a price difference of around $80-100, the 7950 seems like the way to go. Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

[Isaac_thegamer]

Best answer selected by Isaac_thegamer.

 

[auntarie]

HD 7850s > HD 7970. And they will cost around $520, not even close to his budget.

Noted. For some reason I thought his budget was $500.

 

[Isaac_thegamer]

Noted. For some reason I thought his budget was $500.

I did price out two 7850's and it is possible to get two of them for a few dollars short of $500. However, I'd rather go with the cheaper option, if the performance isn't going to be that much different. Then, I can always buy another 7950 later on, when the price goes down.