7870 or 7950?

[Aiden Gilmartin]

Hi, I am planning my Gaming PC build and I can't choose between the HD 7950 or HD 7870.
The HD 7950 is just over my Budget, but im not sure if a HD 7870 will be powerful enough. Im not so interested in playing at the max possible setting but with good looking visuals on a 1080p monitor while keeping above 60FPS most of the time in games like BF3 and Skyrim. I would like to get a Card with good overclocking performance for future proofing somewhat

My main PC Specs so Far:

- AMD FX 6300 @ 3.5GHz (Will overclock slightly)
- 8GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz
- 650W OCZ ZT Fully modular PSU
- Fractal Design Define R4

In my region the prices for the my preferred variants of the 7870 and 7950 are,

3GB MSI HD 7950 TwinFrozr III Overclocked, Boost Edition - £255.35 (GBP)
2GB MSI HD 7870 Overclocked - £185.74

I will consider a 660ti (I have read that it performs in between the HD7870 and HD 7950) I would prefer to stick with AMD though

2GB MSI GTX 660Ti Overclocked - £221.59

Sorry if I've missed any details, any replies will be appreciated, thanks

 

[chromic]

if 7950 is over your budget, have you concidered 7870 xt? its a "crippled" 7950.

5-20% faster than 7870 and 5-10% slower than 7950.
overclocked reached 670-680 performance

 

[Aiden Gilmartin]

if 7950 is over your budget, have you concidered 7870 xt? its a "crippled" 7950.

5-20% faster than 7870 and 5-10% slower than 7950.
overclocked reached 670-680 performance

Thanks for the suggestion,
Is that the card that should have been called the 7930, or am I thinking of a different 7870?

 

[robjon70]

Yes it's the card people say should have been called the 7930. If you going to get this 7870LE card(7930), get the Powercolor Myst Edition. It's the most powerful. It has the highest texture fill rate of all the others. I've done a lot of research on these cards and the Powercolor Myst Edition is the best performing one. The downsides to these cards are that they are louder than other regular 7870's and they are also hotter and draw a lot of power. I also hear that they aren't built that good(some name brands of it). They overclock really well though, but this will add to the heat, sound, and power use. Personally I would just get a regular 7870 Ghz Edition and call it a day. You can find one for around 200$. I own a 660Ti and a 660Ti has around the same performance as a 7870 if you use a lot of AA. And I can run Crysis 3 on Very High settings, with 2xSMAA, with Lense Flares On, and motion blue on high at 40-60FPS. Now a 660Ti does perform better in Crysis but you should still get 35-55FPS at the same settings. So with the 7870 Ghz Edition you'll be able to run any game you want on highest settings. To me, right now, anything higher than a 660Ti or 7870 is really just overkill for gaming on a 60hz 1080p screen. If you game in 3D, or 120hz, or at 2560, then you might need a better graphics card, but at 60hz and 1080p, you'll be able to run anything. I even game at 120hz and in 3D with my overclocked 660Ti and have no problems. Of course I have trouble hitting the 120FPS mark in most current games, but at 60FPS I don't notice a difference.

So yeah, get you a regular 7870Ghz edition that's fairly quiet and cool. These overclock great too. You can get it performing like a 7950 if you overclock enough. Personally the 7870LE is not for me as I like my card to be quiet and cool. I don't care about power so much. But if you don't mind a loud card and you have headphones, and if you don't mind a card being 77c and the build quality, then go far it. I actually ordered one of these cards but I soon decided to get a 660Ti instead. And it's been a great performer for me. Plus I game in 3D, and if you do that, your going to need an Nvidia card because I can't find a monitor that supports AMD's 3D.

BTW, I play Crysis 3, Far Cry 3, CODII, Borderlands 2, BIOSHOCK Infinate, Metro 2033, and Skyrim. And in all these games I can hit that 60FPS mark with the highest of graphics settings. So you won't have any problems playing games for the next 2 years on High settings IMO.

 

[Aiden Gilmartin]

Yes it's the card people say should have been called the 7930. If you going to get this 7870LE card(7930), get the Powercolor Myst Edition. It's the most powerful. It has the highest texture fill rate of all the others. I've done a lot of research on these cards and the Powercolor Myst Edition is the best performing one. The downsides to these cards are that they are louder than other regular 7870's and they are also hotter and draw a lot of power. I also hear that they aren't built that good(some name brands of it). They overclock really well though, but this will add to the heat, sound, and power use. Personally I would just get a regular 7870 Ghz Edition and call it a day. You can find one for around 200$. I own a 660Ti and a 660Ti has around the same performance as a 7870 if you use a lot of AA. And I can run Crysis 3 on Very High settings, with 2xSMAA, with Lense Flares On, and motion blue on high at 40-60FPS. Now a 660Ti does perform better in Crysis but you should still get 35-55FPS at the same settings. So with the 7870 Ghz Edition you'll be able to run any game you want on highest settings. To me, right now, anything higher than a 660Ti or 7870 is really just overkill for gaming on a 60hz 1080p screen. If you game in 3D, or 120hz, or at 2560, then you might need a better graphics card, but at 60hz and 1080p, you'll be able to run anything. I even game at 120hz and in 3D with my overclocked 660Ti and have no problems. Of course I have trouble hitting the 120FPS mark in most current games, but at 60FPS I don't notice a difference.

So yeah, get you a regular 7870Ghz edition that's fairly quiet and cool. These overclock great too. You can get it performing like a 7950 if you overclock enough. Personally the 7870LE is not for me as I like my card to be quiet and cool. I don't care about power so much. But if you don't mind a loud card and you have headphones, and if you don't mind a card being 77c and the build quality, then go far it. I actually ordered one of these cards but I soon decided to get a 660Ti instead. And it's been a great performer for me. Plus I game in 3D, and if you do that, your going to need an Nvidia card because I can't find a monitor that supports AMD's 3D.

BTW, I play Crysis 3, Far Cry 3, CODII, Borderlands 2, BIOSHOCK Infinate, Metro 2033, and Skyrim. And in all these games I can hit that 60FPS mark with the highest of graphics settings. So you won't have any problems playing games for the next 2 years on High settings IMO.

Thanks for the reply!,
With the HD 7870 are the GHz edition cards just pre-overclocked or is the hardware different like the HD 7870 Tahiti LE Cards?