7950 OC the best bang for the buck at ~$300?

[xvsanx]

I am just wanting opinions, I want a high-end graphics card that will last a long time and run current games maxed with ease. I was going to go with the 7970ghz but it seemed like overkill, because the 7950oc is comparable and costs $100 less. should I go with the 7950 OC or is there a better option for around $200? I like the idea of overclocking it with my CPU so I can run games like crysis3, assassins creed 3, and far cry 3, and the 3gb of RAM is nice.

it'll go with an i5-3570k, 8gb of ram, the z77x-d3h, and a big fractal gaming case so compatibility won't be an issue

 

[rocktober]

The 7950 is definitely the value sweet spot right now imo (I think I will be getting one in the next few days). At 1080p you should have no problems at all with the 7950 for current games at max.

 

[luciferano]

I'd go for a Sapphire 7950 over any 660 Ti at this price point. For PhysX users, I'd even go as far as to recommend a Radeon 7870 with a low end Nvidia card that would be used to process PhysX instead of the recommending a GTX 660 Ti.

 

[nforce4max]

Forget about anything Nvidia has to offer at that price and below. 7950 with a good overclock should keep you happy for a few years. If physx becomes an issue then a cheap gt430 or 8800gt to go with your 7950 will do more than enough

 

[bigcyco1]

I would say yes a 7950 is best bang for your buck at the $300 price point then again professional reliable legit reviews seem to not agree though so it's hard to say i find this is prob most truthful Quote:
"As it stands, AMD’s position correctly reflects their performance; the GTX 660 Ti is a solid and relatively consistent 10-15% faster than the 7870, while the 7950 is anywhere between a bit faster to a bit slower depending on what benchmarks you favor. Of course when talking about the 7950 the “anything but equal” maxim still applies here, if not more so than with the GTX 670. The GTX 660 Ti is anywhere 50% ahead of the 7950 and 25% behind it, and everywhere in between. Coupled with the tight pricing between all of these cards, this makes it very hard to make any kind of meaningful recommendation here for potential buyers. Compared to the 7870 the GTX 660 Ti is a solid buy if you can spare the extra $20, though it’s not going to be a massive difference. The performance difference is going to be just enough that AMD is going to need to trim prices a bit more to secure the 7870’s position.

On the other hand due to the constant flip-flopping of the GTX 660 Ti and 7950 on our benchmarks there is no sure-fire recommendation to hand down there. If we had to pick something, on a pure performance-per-dollar basis the 7950 looks good both now and in the future; in particular we suspect it’s going to weather newer games better than the GTX 660 Ti and its relatively narrow memory bus. But the moment efficiency and power consumption start being important the GTX 660 Ti is unrivaled, and this is a position that is only going to improve in the future when 7950B cards start replacing 7950 cards. For reasons like that there are a couple of niches one card or another serves particularly well, such as overclocking with the 7950, but ultimately unless you have a specific need either card will serve you well enough."
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/21 "BTW THIS REVIEW IS A MONTH OLD AND THEY HAVE LOWERED THE PRICE RECENTLY QUITE A BIT."

 

[cooldudesubho]

The 7950 is definitely the value sweet spot right now imo (I think I will be getting one in the next few days). At 1080p you should have no problems at all with the 7950 for current games at max.

lol really?.Try maxing out sleeping dogs with extreme AA.

 

[luciferano]

lol really?.Try maxing out sleeping dogs with extreme AA.

When people say max out in this context, they generally don't refer to AA; they usually refer to maxing out texture settings.

 

[toscrawford]

I've been shopping this segment, 7850 ($178), 7870 ($228), 7950 ($280), and have been swayed by this chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

which shows the 7870 and 7950 on the same tier, both a single tier above the 7850. Looking at the pricing I'm not seeing it being worth $102 to move up one tier, nor $52 to stay in the same tier. Now I know this Tom's metric is rather loose and shouldn't be treated as gospel. I also know Tom recommended all three cards at their earlier in the month higher price-tags.

I'd like to hijack your thread a bit and ask the audience what makes a 7870 worth $50 more than a 7850, and what makes a 7950 worth $52 more than a 7870. There's probably a reason, but I don't know it. I think the 7950 has 3GB, but I don't understand why I need 3GB. If I were forced to buy today, I expect I'd get the cheap 7850 for my 1920x1200 rig, but I would like to understand what I'm really giving up by being cheap. My current card is a max overclocked stable 5670 because my 5770 SOC went RMA.

 

[bigcyco1]

I've been shopping this segment, 7850 ($178), 7870 ($228), 7950 ($280), and have been swayed by this chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

which shows the 7870 and 7950 on the same tier, both a single tier above the 7850. Looking at the pricing I'm not seeing it being worth $102 to move up one tier, nor $52 to stay in the same tier. Now I know this Tom's metric is rather loose and shouldn't be treated as gospel. I also know Tom recommended all three cards at their earlier in the month higher price-tags.

I'd like to hijack your thread a bit and ask the audience what makes a 7870 worth $50 more than a 7850, and what makes a 7950 worth $52 more than a 7870. There's probably a reason, but I don't know it. I think the 7950 has 3GB, but I don't understand why I need 3GB. If I were forced to buy today, I expect I'd get the cheap 7850 for my 1920x1200 rig, but I would like to understand what I'm really giving up by being cheap. My current card is a max overclocked stable 5670 because my 5770 SOC went RMA.

Sorry but nobody can help without getting into trouble or banned it's against TH rules to do such things like bump posts and highjack others threads you can always open your own thread though

 

[luciferano]

The 7870 has a roughly 15% performance advantage over the 7850 when running at the same GPU and memory clock frequencies and can generally clock around 10% higher than the 7850s with comparable cooling. Great 7870s are also often found only $10-20 more expensive (if that much) than many 7850s. The good 7950s have an even greater overclocking performance advantage over the 7870s and a roughly 15-20% performance advantage at stock (the new drivers helped 79xx a little more than 78xx and 77xx). The price difference between the 7870s and the 7950s is also generally larger than the price difference between the 7850 and the 7870, but as you go further into the high end, it's normal to have lower value and the 7950 actually has unusually good value considering its position in performance. For example, it can easily hang with the more expensive GTX 670 and Radeon 7970 in overclocking performance and is only around 10-15% behind the 7970 GHz Editions in overclocking headroom.

@bigcyco1
I don't think that we'll get in trouble for this. It's on-topic and is oriented towards ensuring that OP is given the best recommendations.

 

[bigcyco1]

Maybe your right i don't know for sure i don't really think it was on topic but maybe it is anyways i think if you do get into trouble it's being a bit petty on the mods part.

 

[toscrawford]

It's completely on topic. It wasn't clear that xvsanx had considered the 7850 or 7870, but IMO should. He might choose the 7950 in the end, but at least he did with all the available information.

Thank you luciferano for your insight into the matter. I'll have to run some numbers to see exactly how much a 15% bump is worth to me.

To keep on topic, let's go back to the 7950. There's a wide range of prices for what looks to be basically the same card. What factors would encourage you to pick the more expensive card over a cheaper one?

 

[luciferano]

It's completely on topic. It wasn't clear that xvsanx had considered the 7850 or 7870, but IMO should. He might choose the 7950 in the end, but at least he did with all the available information.

Thank you luciferano for your insight into the matter. I'll have to run some numbers to see exactly how much a 15% bump is worth to me.

To keep on topic, let's go back to the 7950. There's a wide range of prices for what looks to be basically the same card. What factors would encourage you to pick the more expensive card over a cheaper one?

They're not all the same card. The PCB, PCB quality, and cooler can vary as can the GPU and memory binning.

For example:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-1003522l
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100352vxsr

The second link has better build quality and a better cooler, and it has much more overclocking headroom, probably as a result of that. It also has a roughly $30 higher base price and if we account for shipping and MIRs, it is about $60 more expensive. Arguably, the better overclocking headroom and better cooler (lower temps and lower noise)b are worth the extra money.

 

[nforce4max]

Don't bother with any particular models that use the standard ferrite shielded inductors due to the buzz and short issue. Asus, MSI, and sometimes Gigabyte are good choices but also keep in mind if there is no power vrm cooling it is not worth buying the card.

 

[luciferano]

I thought that Sapphire was a good brand for AMD/Ati cards. Are you saying that they're not?

 

[nforce4max]

I thought that Sapphire was a good brand for AMD/Ati cards. Are you saying that they're not?

Sometimes it doesn't matter about brand, Sapphire does on occasion make some of the best AMD cards that money can buy but these past few years everyone including Nvdia is using low quality inductors that don't last for very long. I would get this card based on warranty ect but it is one thing to keep in mind.

 

[toscrawford]

Quotes:
PCB, PCB quality, and cooler can vary as can the GPU and memory binning.
Don't bother with any particular models that use the standard ferrite shielded inductors
if there is no power vrm cooling it is not worth buying the card.
Avoid voltage locked boards

These sound like the right questions, but when comparing cards, how do I find out the answers? None of that information is listed in the description.

 

[xvsanx]

I'm happy to consider/hear about any card that might be a better purchase for me, thankyou for adding the 7850 it'll be worth it to me to do some google research on it

I was interested in the 7950oc because I was thinking it'd run everything out now at 1080p on my HDTV with all textures and AA settings turned high to max, is this true or is this impossible to do at this price range?

if there's a comparable card in the $200s I'd like to hear about it as well, I haven't heard much about the 7850s but the 660ti didn't seem like it would offer nearly as much power with the OC version, but tests say its as good as the 7950oc for way less?

 

[determinologyz]

Sometimes it doesn't matter about brand, Sapphire does on occasion make some of the best AMD cards that money can buy but these past few years everyone including Nvdia is using low quality inductors that don't last for very long. I would get this card based on warranty ect but it is one thing to keep in mind.

Everytime i see your post you hating on nvidia..Really?

 

[nforce4max]

Everytime i see your post you hating on nvidia..Really?

Because their quality is sinking and they still keep their prices sky high while certain areas of compute performance suffer. Also lacking in openGL support which hurts some users enough to not upgrade.

 

[bigcyco1]

Everytime i see your post you hating on nvidia..Really?

You half to ignore fan boy talk whenever somebody says bad things about either company. I try to ignore it.As i know better both company's make solid cards.Different strokes for different folks.

 

[nforce4max]

Quotes:
PCB, PCB quality, and cooler can vary as can the GPU and memory binning.
Don't bother with any particular models that use the standard ferrite shielded inductors
if there is no power vrm cooling it is not worth buying the card.
Avoid voltage locked boards

These sound like the right questions, but when comparing cards, how do I find out the answers? None of that information is listed in the description.

The quickest way is to look through pictures and reviews. Always look at customer reviews and if there is a wall of complaints then one needs to consider looking for something else.

http://www.modding.fr/?p=2953 Take a look at the picks of the bare card and look at the end of the card where all the caps ect are. Look at the gray boxes, those are the inductors and they are ferrite shielded. They don't provide long lasting performance and life but for the space they take up they can for short periods of time offer a lot of current. For sustained loads and heavy overclocking they degrade very quickly. They also buzz which drives some nuts only to weaken later on before shorting out. Some have tried a few things to band-aid the problem such as painting them over with nail polish but that doesn't work. Inside they are only a simple wire coil and sometimes also with a resistor but the problem is always the same. The wire has only a thin coat of protective varnish that doesn't like heat and doesn't hold up long to mechanical loads such as vibration. Overtime as the coil goes through heating and cooling cycles as well mechanical loads the insulation breaks down allowing some of he current to leak out into the ferrite core and shield. When that happens it gets weak and acts like a little heater wasting power until the wire shorts out. When it shorts out it break the circuit so nothing from the vrm phase reaches the gpu or memory. That problem caused a lot of problems for GTX260/280 owners as well 295, 570, and 580 owners. When it comes to AMD cards their lower power consumption buys time but how much depends on how long the card is used and if it is overclocked while under load. Once they go bad the card can get bricked until the coil is replaced or they become less stable even to where at stock they have to be downclocked.

 

[xvsanx]

my friend bought the 7950oc, i think the msi twin frozr edition, and had some problem with the pcb

 

[bigcyco1]

AMD card had problems that's just IMPOSSIBLE!Your friend is lying ahaha just kidding!

 

[nforce4max]

my friend bought the 7950oc, i think the msi twin frozr edition, and had some problem with the pcb

Another basic rule when shopping for graphics cards is making sure there is something to cool the mosfets in the power vrm. Some cards get away without having any cooling in that area but a lot do not. Also if you can't fix it don't buy it