Opinions on Power Cooler video cards

[sparrowlord01]

Hi. I need to replace my video card and I haven't stayed very current with what's out there since I bought my last card. I found a PowerColor AX7750 4GBK3-H Radeon HD 7750 4GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card, for a really good price, but I have never worked with any of their hardware. Has anyone ever used one of their cards, and if so, what is your opinion on them? Or does anyone have any recommendations for alternatives in the $130 or less price range? Thanks

 

[Norlag]

What are the rest of the system's specs? You can get a 7770 for less than $130, which is a better card, but I want to be sure your pc can handle it.

 

[sparrowlord01]

I built it mysef.

MSI 990FXA-GD80V2 AM3+ motherboard
AMD Phenom II x4 CPU
16GB Corsair RAM
Auzentech Cinema X-Plosion 7.1 sound card.
Samsung SyncMaster BX2431 24" Flatscreen Monitor
Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
I currently have a Sapphire 4870x2 2GB PCIE video card.

The thing that got me interested is that the Power Cooler in question has 4GB of RAM. Which would double what I currently have.

What are the rest of the system's specs? You can get a 7770 for less than $130, which is a better card, but I want to be sure your pc can handle it.

 

[Norlag]

A 7750 can't use 4 gb of ram, so that would be useless to you. I would definitely get a 7770 over a 7750. Just make sure that your psu can handle it you need 400w.

 

[sparrowlord01]

I should add that in addition to games, I do a lot of 3D modeling, so I need something mid to high end. The card I was looking at is here.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PowerColor-AX7750-4GBK3-H-Radeon-HD-7750-4GB-128-bit-DDR3-PCI-Express-3-0-x-/300861243968?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item460cba4240

 

[Norlag]

Again, the 7750 can't use 4 gb of vram. Mid to high end is not a 7750. Mid is at least a 7850. High end is at least a 7950.

 

[dudewitbow]

power color in my opinion is getting better. only gripe is most of their cards look very reference coolery and they dont have as much of a definitive cooling style as the other established brands do.

 

[sparrowlord01]

Why do they install 4GB if it can't use it? That's also what's listed at the main Newegg site for that card. I'm not worried about power, I have a 1000W supply. I almost never stick with the manufacturer installed cooling system. I was thinking it might be easier to just get a couple of 2GB cards with crossfire. I will be going from a dual core card to a single core card. I'm on a really tight budget or I would be going more high end.

 

[sparrowlord01]

Would it be worth going down to a 1GB card to get a 7770 chip? Or maybe a higher tier 6000 series chip card? I did notice something a bit odd on the power cooler site. The memory clock says 800Mhz, x2. And there are a couple of vague references that make me thing they may have some kind of middle layer handling all of the memory interaction. I remember back in the Atari days (yes I am that old) we used to use all kinds of tricks to get both the 8Bit systems (800, 400, 130xe etc..) and the 16/32 bit ST systems to handle more memory than they technically should have been able to by their architecture.

 

[sparrowlord01]

I ended up getting a good deal on a used HD 6970 2GB card. The HIS one. 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, and 2 Mini Display ports. For $125 I couldn't resist. Now if I can just get the stupid catalyst control center to see it, I'll be happy. The drivers installed, but I get nothing in the CCC panel as far as options to configure the card. I may end up reinstalling Windows.