MSI 7870 hawk vs Sappgire 7870 XT Tahiti LE

The 7870 LE is comparable to the 7950 its more expensive because it is a gimped or skinned down version of the 7970. So I don't think that is a bad option for you. I would check out this review it explains it for you but yea they are rather different cards.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/...

Wow nice, reading from the review seems like a awsome card. Would anyone know why there not really "trending" on the forums? Are they still that new?

They are fairly new yes. And I think the real reason they haven't trended as well is because of the pending cards coming out soon the 8000 series.

Exactly, people are mostly waiting for the 8000 series now which will probably be coming out somewhere around march-april. The new 7870 XTs are great cards, especially the sapphire version which offers great cooling. If you really need a card now, go for it, or you can hang on a few months and check the 8000 series. I've seen the 8870' specs, and I have to say, it sounds like a winner.

I would compare it to when the 560Ti came out with there 448 cuda core version which put it near the 570. However, the card was very close to the 600 series cards and people latched onto that more.