Visiontek Radeon HD 7970 vs Sappire Radeon HD 7970

[kylej85]

I am building a gaming rig and trying to see what people reccomend for a GPU between Visiontek Radeon HD 7970 3gb or the Sappire radeon hd 7970 3 gb? My spec in my computer so far are
Cpu-i5 3570k
MB- gigabyte UD3H
cooling-H100
HDD- 1tb D caviar
PSU- 750w PC power and cooling
RAM- 16gb corsair vengence
SSD- samsung 840 pro 250GB
CAse- thermaltaker chaser MK-1

I am trying to stay around the 1500-1800 dollar mark.

 

[DarkSable]

Sapphire, hands down. More reliable company with better cooling.

Other things:
Drop the H100, unless it's the H100i. Either way, you're way better off with a high-end air cooler, rather than a closed-circuit cooler. Watercooling has more moving parts, which means they break more often, and when they do break, they don't have a giant metal heatsink to allow your CPU to downclock properly.

Get 8GB of ram - with Battlefield 3, Photoshop, and 20 tabs in chrome, all at once, you'd still only be using just over 7GB.

I'd grab an AsRock Extreme 4 over the Gigabyte. I've had that motherboard, and though it's a great motherboard that allows good overclocking, the UEFI / BIOS is, well, finicky. It's a freaking pain to change anything.

 

[Novuake]

Sapphire is comparable to Asus TOP GPUs, they have excellent PCB construction and components and because they are AMD's biggest manufacturing partner they tend to get the best binned chips at the best price(thats why Sappire is cheaper than Asus but of similar quality).

So definitely Sapphire, try getting a Dual-X or even a Vapor-X version from sapphire. Best cooling EVER!

Now for the rest of your build I really suggest you post links or exact model number for the parts listed.

A few important things to consider.

1. A reliable adn stable power supply is VERY important, DO NOT GO CHEAP! Rather spend more and save your system form damage. Also 750W is overkill. A 600W already is sufficient. Post the EXACT PSU you have chosen so we can advise whether it is decent or not. Chances are the one yopu have is really bad.

2.Great choice is SSD!

3. The motherboard as DarkSable said is not great, there are easier and cheaper boards with more features, the ASRock Extreme4 being one of them. I own it, and love it.

4. 16GB of is overkill but since RAM is so cheap, its worth it.

5. DarkSable has a point AGAIN. The H100 really is not worth the cash, a noctua D14 performs similarly but does not cost an arm and a leg.
The best air cooler in my opinion is the Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme.
Here is a comparison between the Noctua and some Closed loop water coolers.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h100i-elc240-seidon-240m-lq320,3380.html

6. Lastly, the RAM you have chosen. I would suggest making sure they are the low profile version, this will allow you a lot more flexibility for different coolers. Those fins are just for looks, they have zero functionality.

 

[Novuake]

Sapphire, hands down. More reliable company with better cooling.

Other things:
Drop the H100, unless it's the H100i. Either way, you're way better off with a high-end air cooler, rather than a closed-circuit cooler. Watercooling has more moving parts, which means they break more often, and when they do break, they don't have a giant metal heatsink to allow your CPU to downclock properly.

Get 8GB of ram - with Battlefield 3, Photoshop, and 20 tabs in chrome, all at once, you'd still only be using just over 7GB.

I'd grab an AsRock Extreme 4 over the Gigabyte. I've had that motherboard, and though it's a great motherboard that allows good overclocking, the UEFI / BIOS is, well, finicky. It's a freaking pain to change anything.

I disagree with that part, you could rip the cooler right off the CPU and would shut of INSTANTLY with no damage at all.

But I believe I have mentioned this to you before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrEaAMt9SnA

There is a video just to show you. Those are old CPU and yet every single Intel CPU survives the removal and shutdown. Newer CPUs have even better thermal protection.

 

[bigshootr8]

Right computers are pretty smart now when they get to a certain temp they safeguard themselves and shut down. Also if you were to get either the h100i or the h100 I would change out the fans get something like SP120's to pair with them the stock ones at least with the h100 sucked monster you know what.

I do agree with Sapphire being superior and comparable to the ASUS TOP however to my knowledge only the Vapor-x comes with the better caps, mosfets, and chokes.

Black Diamond Choke & Full Solid Cap Design

Choke is an important component of the graphics card. By working with the component engineer, Sapphire’s patent pending choke is 10% cooler and offers 25% more power efficiency than a normal choke. The graphics card will be more reliable and save energy.
Improved reliability and better overclocking are possible by using only high-polymer, aluminum capacitors which posses far superior characteristics than regular aluminum capacitor for a longer product life. When operational temperatures drop by 20°C, the product life span is extended by a factor of ten, when the operational temperature increases by 20°C, the product life span only decreases by 10%.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1547&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

I feel the h100 is great if you want a good cooler and still have some really high profile ram sticks otherwise yea I agree the NH-D14 is a good option as well.

I also like the choice on the SSD samsung produces really great SSD's the newer OCZ one would of been a good choice as well the Vector I believe its called.

And in terms of ram for gaming typically 8GB is the sweet spot but beyond that if you can make use of 16 gigabytes of ram go for it. Although in most cases you really don't need it.

 

[Novuake]

Right computers are pretty smart now when they get to a certain temp they safeguard themselves and shut down. Also if you were to get either the h100i or the h100 I would change out the fans get something like SP120's to pair with them the stock ones at least with the h100 sucked monster you know what.

I do agree with Sapphire being superior and comparable to the ASUS TOP however to my knowledge only the Vapor-x comes with the better caps, mosfets, and chokes.

Black Diamond Choke & Full Solid Cap Design

Choke is an important component of the graphics card. By working with the component engineer, Sapphire’s patent pending choke is 10% cooler and offers 25% more power efficiency than a normal choke. The graphics card will be more reliable and save energy.
Improved reliability and better overclocking are possible by using only high-polymer, aluminum capacitors which posses far superior characteristics than regular aluminum capacitor for a longer product life. When operational temperatures drop by 20°C, the product life span is extended by a factor of ten, when the operational temperature increases by 20°C, the product life span only decreases by 10%.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1547&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

I feel the h100 is great if you want a good cooler and still have some really high profile ram sticks otherwise yea I agree the NH-D14 is a good option as well.

I also like the choice on the SSD samsung produces really great SSD's the newer OCZ one would of been a good choice as well the Vector I believe its called.

And in terms of ram for gaming typically 8GB is the sweet spot but beyond that if you can make use of 16 gigabytes of ram go for it. Although in most cases you really don't need it.

The H100i actually comes with 2 SP120 Quiet fans. I would prefer the SP120 Performance, but the stock fans for H100i are decent. The cooler itself is juts overpriced for what it can do.

 

[kylej85]

Thanks from everyone for the help and I bought the h100 from a friend for 50 bucks cause something came up so he had to sell his computer stuff so it was brand new never out of the box so I thought for 50 bucks would be a great deal

 

[Novuake]

Thanks from everyone for the help and I bought the h100 from a friend for 50 bucks cause something came up so he had to sell his computer stuff so it was brand new never out of the box so I thought for 50 bucks would be a great deal

In that case HELL YEAH!!! Lucky you...

Consider replacing the fans though.
Get 2 of these if you want great performance:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181027

If you prefer decent performance but rather more silence, get these :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181025

 

[bigshootr8]

Well the SP fans are more centered around heatsinks it would make more sense to get the SP120's. I know the h100i's came with what looked like SP120's but they aren't exactly the same as the regular performing SP120's as you outlined.

You literally just got away with high way robbery as well with 50 dollars on a non i h100.

 

[Novuake]

Well the SP fans are more centered around heatsinks it would make more sense to get the SP120's. I know the h100i's came with what looked like SP120's but they aren't exactly the same as the regular performing SP120's as you outlined.

You literally just got away with high way robbery as well with 50 dollars on a non i h100.

As i said, the H100i comes with SP120 QUIET Edition fans, they are SP120, just not the Performance Edition. Look at my links I posted to newegg. Those are the 2 different types.

 

[bigshootr8]

No I saw. I just thought you had linked a AF120 fan. My mistake I realize there are 2 versions of the SP series as well as the AF

 

[kylej85]

Best answer selected by kylej85.

 

[Novuake]

Strange choice of Best Answer but ok... LOL

 

[bigshootr8]

It's not about the best answer its about helping the person asking for help at least it is for me. Sorry that its game to you :\

 

[Novuake]

It's not about the best answer its about helping the person asking for help at least it is for me. Sorry that its game to you :\

I never said it was about the Best Answer. LoL just mentioning the obvious.

 

[bigshootr8]

Well I was just making the point with the Sapphire cards that they aren't all on line with the TOP card from ASUS that not all cards are built with superior components like the higher end cards are built with.

Also, I don't hate on the H100 which does fairly well just needs to have its fans changed out as I had mentioned.

I felt like I did more then just say this is better get this. I just think if you have something unkind to say then you should probably keep it to yourself. He chose who he did but instead of being baffled by it we can all just move on and help the next person who needs help.

 

[Novuake]

Well I was just making the point with the Sapphire cards that they aren't all on line with the TOP card from ASUS that not all cards are built with superior components like the higher end cards are built with.

Also, I don't hate on the H100 which does fairly well just needs to have its fans changed out as I had mentioned.

I felt like I did more then just say this is better get this. I just think if you have something unkind to say then you should probably keep it to yourself. He chose who he did but instead of being baffled by it we can all just move on and help the next person who needs help.

I was not being unkind in the least, you gave a lengthier explanation. i could not care less for the best answer.