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AMD gpu

B

bytes

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
263
Hi, iv got an asus gtx 660 ti and im not willing to put up with it any longer so im thinking of going back to an AMD card. Iv had a look and im considering getting this card - HIS HD7870 IceQ

Iv not used an amd card in a few years and was wondering a few things:

1- do any of the amd cards use a boost feature as i hate that shit
2- is it still possible to bios flash amd cards as the nvidia cards are a pain in the ass to flash
3- i use nvidia inspector for game profiles, individually choosing a fps limit for each game and selecting anti-aliasing. Is there anything similar available for amd cards.
4- is there anything else i should be aware of going to an amd card.

Thanks
 
I live in Scotland where prices are crap. I can pick up the HIS hd7870 for £160 and the HIS hd7950 for £200. In a straight conversion that's $253 for the hd7870 and $317 for the HD7950.
 
7870 is not an upgrade to a 660ti. more like a side-grade.
Have you considered lowering voltages and clocks on your 660ti so that it runs smoother?
Or even cheking for a bad RAM stick on your PC causing random issues?
660ti are very leaky chips, but it is unusual such a level of stress with what should be a perfectly usable card for 1080p gaming.

I would reinforce the suggestion to upgrade to at least a 7950, and keep the same cooler model.

This is the best blower cooler on a high end card these days. for the price asked in UK you should consider buying in US and paying shipping + taxes to UK.

1- AMD also has boost, but can you flash a non-boost bios and customize clocks later.
2- AMD sells models with dual BIOS, and flashing BIOS is easy, even under windows.
3- Yes, but expect to find in issues on same games that run without glitches on NVIDIA hardware
4- You only have one dual link DVI per card in cards north of USD 650, while a USD50 NVIDIA card has 2 DL-DVI.

Try to minimize voltage while maximizing core clock.

Do not touch the memory speed.
 
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OP your best bet is a HD 7950. for £180 - 190 its a GTX 670 equivalent. they do come with boost to 925 mhz. but thats not a problem as you think. in fact you can easily overclock to 1100 - 1150 mhz and match HD 7970 Ghz performance. :)

www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+...R5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=57270

http://www.ebuyer.com/454252-sapphi...-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-11196-19-20g

www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HS

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...3GBD5-2DHPP]+++3+FREE+GAMES!+?productId=56898

all these cards have good cooling and unlocked voltage.
 
Il take a closer look at the 7950's but to be honest i don't really need more power and so a side grade is fine.

Iv tried lowering voltages and clocks on my 660 ti but is seems pointless due to boost. As you can see in my sig you cant disable boost, calibrated profiles are ignored the whole 320.00 series of drivers are utter crap. With nvidia iv experienced tdr timeouts, drivers failing to install, having to remove the card with multiple reboots to get original drivers back on it, stuttering and way higher latency than with any amd card i used. With me selling my 3d vision kit a while ago and all games heading towards dx11 (neither amd or nvidia has dx11 anti-aliasing ) i now feel less need to stay with nvidia.

Thanks for answering all my questions.

EDIT: cheers raghu78 for the links. If i do go with 7950 il probably go with the overclockersuk link you gave as that's the cheapest iv seen it and from what iv read thats the best cooler available. I just hate the idea of buying a boost card though as boost sucks, but at least with amd gpu's and intel cpu's you can disable it. Its just ******* nvidia who force it on us ... ******** :)
 
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It's hard not to reccomend a 7950 at this point because of price. That being said, I got a 7870 and i'm very happy with it. I wish they still made the vortex II (one I got) but they dont. The core clocks VERY high and so does the memory. It has huge physically adjustable airflow style fans and I just love it. I payed $206 for it 7 months ago. That being said, you can find a 7950literally cheaper than a 7870 these days. Just be sure to get one with a non-reference dual fan design, they tend to be quiet and have better heat dissapation in my experience. Hope this helped some. I still love the 7870's though if you get one in the 150 range used or refurbed (miracle) do it. They almost always take well to voltage bumps and overclocking. Have fun!!
 
bytes said:
Il take a closer look at the 7950's but to be honest i don't really need more power and so a side grade is fine.

Iv tried lowering voltages and clocks on my 660 ti but is seems pointless due to boost. As you can see in my sig you cant disable boost, calibrated profiles are ignored the whole 320.00 series of drivers are utter crap. With nvidia iv experienced tdr timeouts, drivers failing to install, having to remove the card with multiple reboots to get original drivers back on it, stuttering and way higher latency than with any amd card i used. With me selling my 3d vision kit a while ago and all games heading towards dx11 (neither amd or nvidia has dx11 anti-aliasing ) i now feel less need to stay with nvidia.

Thanks for answering all my questions.

EDIT: cheers raghu78 for the links. If i do go with 7950 il probably go with the overclockersuk link you gave as that's the cheapest iv seen it and from what iv read thats the best cooler available. I just hate the idea of buying a boost card though as boost sucks, but at least with amd gpu's and intel cpu's you can disable it. Its just ******* nvidia who force it on us ... ******** :)
Click to expand...

bytes you are welcome . for the best cooler i would have to pick the pcs+ . easily the quietest of the lot. also the pcs+ model runs at 880 mhz. does not feature boost which you hate. :)

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7950_PCS_Plus/26.html
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/35033-powercolor-radeon-hd-7950-pcs/?page=12

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...3GBD5-2DHPP]+++3+FREE+GAMES!+?productId=56898
http://www.powercolor.com/us/products_features.asp?id=389#Specification

btw the HD 7950 is card begging to be overclocked. atleast get it to 1 ghz at stock voltage and match a stock HD 7970(925 mhz) perf.
 
Ok, after lots of comparing the powercolor to the his iv bought the PowerColor PCS+ hd7950 from Aria so it had better be good :D

Thanks for all your help guys.
 
bytes said:
Ok, after lots of comparing the powercolor to the his iv bought the PowerColor PCS+ hd7950 from Aria so it had better be good :D

Thanks for all your help guys.
Click to expand...

Gratz you made a nice choice, running to a 7870 without planing on overclock and without boost would be a mostly downgrade for a 660TI. Now the HD7950 its the better card in the world for price/performance wise.. Now, enjoy it. :D
 
Been doing what Araxie suggested for the last few days, just enjoying the new card :)

Its so much better than my piece of shit asus gtx 660 ti. Lower latency, better performance, noise sounds about the same at load as it does at idle compared with the noisy at load asus cooler and the temperature hasn't gone above 62c compared with the nvidia card running at 90c. I can also finally play metro last light without it being a stutter fest and can play crysis 3 with calibrated colors :D

Its definitely a better card, cooler and drivers than what i got with nvidia. The only things iv found worse so far is the CCC gui isnt anywhere near as good as what nvidia has and it also quite buggy. Radeon pro is also nowhere near as good as nvidia inspector suffering from the same faults as ccc with a rubbish gui and its also quite buggy with settings not taking effect and finally using fraps on videos with nvidia would give a solid 24fps but with amd it varies between 23 and 28fps.

Really its the software letting amd down but even with this im so much happier with this AMD card. Thanks to everyone who helped.
 
What clock speeds have you that 7950 at? Is it voltage locked? Cos those are nice temps ;)
 
OP, do you have the 2 or 3 gig? I might be interested in buying your card when and if you decide to part with it.
 
OP nice to hear the card performing well. your pcs+ HD 7950 card can easily run at 1 Ghz at stock voltage and still stay below 70c. so don't hesitate to push the HD 7950 :)
 
Gumbi10 said:
What clock speeds have you that 7950 at? Is it voltage locked? Cos those are nice temps ;)
Click to expand...

Im just running it at stocks speeds and its not voltage locked. The temps are really good, a lot better than i was expecting.

atom said:
OP, do you have the 2 or 3 gig? I might be interested in buying your card when and if you decide to part with it.
Click to expand...

Its the 3 gig version and il probably be skipping the 9000 series so it will be a while before i upgrade again. I do have a piece of shit 660 ti for sale ;)

raghu78 said:
OP nice to hear the card performing well. your pcs+ HD 7950 card can easily run at 1 Ghz at stock voltage and still stay below 70c. so don't hesitate to push the HD 7950 :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing out this card it seems excellent so far and once i have some spare time il start tweaking the voltage and clock speeds and see what it can do.
 
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