7970 worth it over 7950

Good value, yes, but I've heard that this possibly is voltage-locked.

EDIT: Sorry, my bad, I thought that this was the Gigabyte one. I'm not sure if this particular Powecolor model is voltage-locked.
If this one isn't, yes this could be a good buy since the 7950 typically costs about $280 after MIR.
 
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QDemon19 said:
Good value, yes, but I've heard that this possibly is voltage-locked.
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It's not. I've had a few of them and they all had voltage control.

I'd say it's a pretty good deal. PowerColor is pretty fast with their rebates (plus you get a check instead of a rebate card). The only downside with that card is that it uses a non-reference PCB (no-go for a FC waterblock).
 
Not a water cooler.
My 5850pcs+ is voltage locked.
So it surprises me that this isn't
 
7970 seems to have more of a gap over 7950 than typical with Crisis 3 and Tomb Raider, and it's barely enough for Ultimate settings @ 1080p. Might be worth the extra money.
 
I would have sprung for a 7970 if I had know that I would end up playing games in 3D. Every little frame you can squeak out is a blessing when dealing with 3D gaming.
 
Pretty good deal. Looks like you don't have much, if any, time left, so why not? Bioshock and Crysis are icing on the cake at that price.
 
Its worth it just for crysis 3. Really there's very minimal difference. Approximately 3-6% clock for clock from what I've seen. If you can find a 7950 with unlocked voltage it'll easily do 1100/1500 and be about the same as a GHz 7970. But crysis 3 is pretty good so may as well just grab 7970 like I said. I bought 7970 got crysis 3 then traded my buddy + some cash for some 7950 that do 1200 core ;).
 
I'm an idiot crysis 3 comes with 7950 to. I'd get 7950 and clock the hell out of it. Gotta make sure u get 1 with unlocked voltage tho. Asus or MSI.
 
Asus or MSI. u sure they are unlocked? What abut gigabyte 7950 (not 7970)
 
HOODedDutchman said:
I'm an idiot crysis 3 comes with 7950 to. I'd get 7950 and clock the hell out of it. Gotta make sure u get 1 with unlocked voltage tho. Asus or MSI.
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Yep, great value especially if you were actually looking at buying the games.
Some Sapphire 7950s are still unlocked voltage and overclock great on stock voltages.
 
I think all MSI cards are unlocked and Asus dcu is unlocked as well. Don't quote me on it tho. I heard gigabyte is hit or miss. Got a dual x 7970 the other day (stock clock version) and it was unlocked in afterburner but not trixx ??? It also hada non reference PCB. I think Asus and MSI are the sure bets tho. Trixx showed voltage control but it didn't actually change it when I monitored in GPUz.
 
I had some pretty bad OCD when trying to pick out my cards around 3 months ago. Multiple trips back to the store etc.

Tried the following setups...

a. 2 GTX 670 MSI power edition

b. 2 7970 Diamonds with a core clock of 925

c. 2 R7970 MSI with a core clock of 1010 out of the box


I ended up choosing the R7970 xfire for a number of reasons. The GTX 670 sli setup would not run a few games on ultra such as Sleeping Dogs and Hitman.

I flashed the diamond 7970 with the ghz bios and ended up with all kinds of issues.

The R7970 was perfect considering Its factory OC unlocked plus a reference. I really did not want a non reference card because of heat dissipation inside of my case but I would have opted for the MSI lighting non reference if they were not so expensive.

Bottom line, at least get a factory overclocked non reference card or a ghz reference card.
 
I had 1 of those MSI cards on the week 7970 released. Like that its reference but doesn't look reference. But too loud for my taste even at 50% fan it was loud at got into the 70s at that fan speed in a corsair 600t case. My current 7950 dual x cards don't go over 70 on auto fan. In xfire. I totally agree with you on the 670s. I have 2 gigabyte wind force 3 670s and they were not what they're cracked up to be, even compared to my 900 core stock over clocked 7950s and I had 1202 boost clock bios on my 670s.
 
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