Performance Diff. 7870vs7950?

[krzydude00]

Hey guys im deciding on buying a new gpu as soon as i choose what card i want but the problem is, is there a big performance increase from a 7870 to 7950? Also would the 3gb of vram on the 7950 be overkill for a single monitor at 1080p?

My gpu choices are between the MSI 7870 Hawk Ed. vs Sapphire 7950 non oc Ed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127681 Msi Hawk 2gb Ed. $249.99 After rebate.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127681 Sapphire 7950 3gb. $279.99 After rebate


Also i'm trying to spend no more than $300.00 If you guys have any other suggestions for a better budget gpu feel free to suggest but from what i have researched the 7950 beats a 660 ti when both are OC to the max.

 

[amuffin]

Depends on what games you play.

 

[ASHISH65]

Hd 7950 has better performance by hd 7850.3gb v ram is good as you are using 1080p and also 3gb is a future proof.you are getting hd 7950 at good price you should get it.

 

[krzydude00]

Specs

i5 3570k stock speed
gigabyte ud3h
8gb ram
650w psu

I'll be playing games like BF3, GTA IV, Natural Selections 2, Steam games like Planetside 2, Blacklight Retribution and more
Also i'm definitely planning to OC as soon as i get he card. Yea i was leaning towards the 7950 since the price gap isn't that big of a difference but i still want some more opinions

 

[manofchalk]

Relative to a 7970, the 7950 offers an overall 10% better performance than the 7870 (1920x1200). More if you overclock of course.

Numbers taken from here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_Performance/23.html
Bunch of game benchmarks if you want to see how they stack up in individual games.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Hd 7950 has better performance by hd 7850.3gb v ram is good as you are using 1080p and also 3gb is a future proof.you are getting hd 7950 at good price you should get it.

if vid cards start using more than 2gb vram im going to need an SSD to load all that fast enough.

 

[ASHISH65]

For 1080p even hd 7850 can maxout that games.but hd 7870 and hd 7950 would be more better for future.in future games will be more demanding.hd 7950 can easily handle games at 1080p for next 3yr unless there is a big change in gaming industry.

 

[ASHISH65]

If you use mods in game skyrim then you will need 3gb vram For todays gaming 3gb is overkill but not for future as even battlefield 3 uses 1.6 gb vram at 1080p.

 

[krzydude00]

Alright so 3gb of vram is a plus. So if i wanted to OC how would the Sapphire cooler on the 7950 do on OC? I've read good things about the MSI Hawk for OC but not the sapphire? Hmm Idk if the 10% performance increase is worth $30. Also i could go to tigerdirect thats right by mean and buy the MSI Hawk 7870 for $255.00 rather than waiting almost a week for the other cards.
Such a hard decision.

 

[manofchalk]

I'd say a 10% performance boost is worth $30.

7870 performance = 100% lets say and cost $255.
$255/100 = $2.5 per 1% of performance.
2.5 x 10 = $25 per 10% of performance...

OK that actually undermines my point :lol:
But as you get higher up the performance ladder the more it costs to go up a rung, so that result isn't entirely unexpected. But as you can see, its a fairly linear relationship between money spent and performance.