Which 7950 ?

[BizVenture]

Hello all,

I am brand new to this community and am venturing out into my very first PC build. I have currently purchased an i5-3570 an ASRock z77 XTreme 4 and have a Thermaltake 600W PSU and a standard 1TB HDD and 128GB SSD.

I am finally at the big decision moment , which GPU!

I finally narrowed it down from nvidia of course and AMD Radeon.

I went with Radeon. And although there are rumors and AMD is said to be releasing the 8000 series later this year, I could not wait and wanted to go with my absolute best bang for my buck.

I decided to go with a 7950 as this card seems to be an awesome performer with all around quality and a good price point. Yet this led me to another point of confusion. Which effing edition to go with!
I'm stuck between the XFX double D. The MSI Twin Frozr and a Sapphire Flex version.

Of course I'm looking for great cooling and noise reliability but also, long term, am looking for a substantial warranty period and if I'm lucky some customer service to go with it. ( I've heard some nasty stories of RMA cases) SO! With that said, please help put me in the right direction. I do plan on going Eyefinity with my setup and ultimately Xfiring dual 7950's for better FPS levels and all around gaming performance. Which is why at this moment, I am at an 80% favor of the Sapphire Flex. Comes with various and useful adapters and is built with an eyefinity focus in mind.

 

[Guest]

If you plan to overclock from reviews ie seen the flex doesnt seem to overclock as well as the other sapphire cards.Its a good card no doubt but i prefer this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006
Its cool and quiet and overclocks like crazy 1150 mhz without touching voltage.Flex is a good choice to though,

 

[BizVenture]

Thanks.

Yes, from what I've heard they are both good cards, however I've read the warranty on them along with technical support is terrible.

I'm at the decision between the Sapphire Flex and the XFX Double D. Pretty sure I'll be going with a Sapphire. And of course I will be Xfiring a pair of these.

 

[Guest]

To be honest ive heard all ati brands are pretty bad with support ect.I believe 2-3 year warranty is enough atleast for me since i seem to upgrade every other year anyways.If its warranty you are worried about got with xfx some of there cards they offer lifetime warranty tho becareful alot of them only come with 2 year warranty.I believe there the only company that do offer lifetime on some of there gpu's could be wrong tho

 

[Marcopolo123]

Gigabyte and the msi twin frozer models are also very very good.

 

[BizVenture]

Thanks, yes I've read all of those details. Unfortunately, and I am sure we've all realized, there are no real specs at certain price points that can separate a 7950 from another. I mean one has better cooling, one has more advantageous display support and some the warranty. So I guess it boils down to exactly what I want, for what price, and at what being offered.

I experienced the same with the processor decision. First aMD versus intel. Then 3570k versus mid level i7's.

At my price point with dual cards in xfire,I'm choosing between better overclock capabilities, (factory boost) and a more readily capable multi display supporting card right out of the box. A sapphire factory OC or a Sapphire flex. Black edition looks amazing, vapor X looks good as well.

 

[bluhefner]

Best one IMO is his iceq x2 boost from the range of 7950's

 

[Marcopolo123]

Crossfire has a lot of microstutters