7870 or 7950? Can't decide.

[ajchavez91]

Hello people, i come today to ask something that it's been bugging me for some time now.

I currently own an Sapphire HD 6870 running on stock (i don't like overclocking), and my rig is a Core i5 3570, P8Z77-V LX mobo and 8gb RAM.

I would like to get some advice from you guys as wether to buy the 7870 or the 7950. budget is limited to the 7950 tops, but if the 7870 is a better deal for me then i wouldn't like to waste $100 more on something i won't use to its full potential.

The cards i've been considering are these (Click on the name):

-XFX 7870

-Sapphire 7950 Vapor-X

By the way, i play on a 1366x768 resolution.

I'd appreciate any help on this matter WITH an explanation of why should i get either of them.

Thank you beforehand,

Cheers.

 

[Spaniard United]

At 1366x768 I would go with the 7870.

The 7950 will be more power than you will need or use at a higher cost. Besides, you're already going for the GHz Edition 7870, which is a powerful card in and of itself.

 

[Norlag]

I'm pretty sure the 7870 will max pretty much anything at 1366x768, so that's all you need.

 

[ajchavez91]

At 1366x768 I would go with the 7870.

The 7950 will be more power than you will need or use at a higher cost. Besides, you're already going for the GHz Edition 7870, which is a powerful card in and of itself.

The Sapphire's 6870 core clock is 900 MHz, is 100 extra MHz gonna make a big difference?

 

[ajchavez91]

I'm pretty sure the 7870 will max pretty much anything at 1366x768, so that's all you need.

What if i change my monitor to a 1920x1080p one? will it still be enough to max out pretty much anything? By the way, I usually play without AA, and if i use it, i set it to 2x or 4x AA max.

 

[Norlag]

At 1366x768 I would go with the 7870.

The 7950 will be more power than you will need or use at a higher cost. Besides, you're already going for the GHz Edition 7870, which is a powerful card in and of itself.

The Sapphire's 6870 core clock is 900 MHz, is 100 extra MHz gonna make a big difference?

The core clock of the card isn't everything. The 7870 is pretty much all around better than the 6870, being the next generation equivalent.

 

[Spaniard United]

The Sapphire's 6870 core clock is 900 MHz, is 100 extra MHz gonna make a big difference?

What if i change my monitor to a 1920x1080p one? will it still be enough to max out pretty much anything? By the way, I usually play without AA, and if i use it, i set it to 2x or 4x AA max.

Yeah, the 100 MHz will make a difference, but even moreso the architecture of the card. Even if you were to go to a 1080p monitor, the 7870 GHz Edition is still a good fit for you and should show good gains over your current card.

 

[ajchavez91]

The Sapphire's 6870 core clock is 900 MHz, is 100 extra MHz gonna make a big difference?

What if i change my monitor to a 1920x1080p one? will it still be enough to max out pretty much anything? By the way, I usually play without AA, and if i use it, i set it to 2x or 4x AA max.

Yeah, the 100 MHz will make a difference, but even moreso the architecture of the card. Even if you were to go to a 1080p monitor, the 7870 GHz Edition is still a good fit for you and should show good gains over your current card.

so can i be confident in buying a Sapphire 7870 GHz edition (which is 1050MHz against the 100MHz of the XFX one) instead of the 7950 and easily play games at high settings (i'm not looking to go to "highest" possible settings all the time 'cause almost always those are for multi-gpu configurations) at 60fps constant?

 

[Spaniard United]

There are no guarantees, but 98% confident, yes. The Sapphire 7870 GHz edition should be perfect for you.

 

[ajchavez91]

There are no guarantees, but 98% confident, yes. The Sapphire 7870 GHz edition should be perfect for you.

Do you happen to know it the number that apppears next to SAPPHIRE is the sku number of the card? Link here. i'm asking because i've been reading about black screen issues affecting a lot of sapphire cards (specifically) more than other brands and i'd like to make sure i'm getting one from newer batches that don't have that issue. the number i'm asking about is this: 100354OC-2L .

There was another version of that same card with the model number being 100354OC, without the 2L at the end, idk if that means the one on the link i provided has its black screen problems fixed?