BFG 295 vs current gen/drivers

T

tubular

Gawd
Joined
Apr 10, 2008
Messages
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Ok so I have an old BFG 295. I have one of the newer revisions they made before they went out of business, though I had to wade through a bunch of crap to get it. Seriously, my original had a GPU died so RMA
RMA1)DOA
RMA2)worked for 5 minutes then ceased to function
RMA3)Caught on fire inside my case, not kidding
RMA4)DOA

RMA5)got them to send me a brand new unit, and not a refurb, which is nice and what I am using today.

So anyways, lately I think my card is starting to die on me. I'm having a bunch of strange graphical glitches and am starting to get bluescreens more often. Now it might be my motherboard or my CPU or RAM I suppose, but I'm guessing it is either my CPU (920 OC'ed to 3.31ghz) or my GPU.

Now, I wouldn't mind upgrading my GPU and my CPU anyways, just for better more reliable performance.

So I have been looking very heavily at the 6970, though I am also considering the 580. Which one would be the better choice to upgrade to? I do eventually plan on pushing 3x24" Monitors, though that will be the largest expense, as I am a professional photographer and a 24" pro monitor doesn't go for under $500-600. SO that means I won't end up pushing 3 monitors for a while, though for now I have 2.


Current system
Cooler Master Cosmos
Asus p6t deluxe
12 gigs corsair dominator memory OC'ed to 1600
i7 920 OC'ed to 3.31
KINGWIN Mach 1 - 1220 W
2xWD blacks in raid 1
ASUS xonar dx 7.1
 
I was kinda curious on how it stacked up against newer cards my self, i can pick one up for $125 but i would go with the 6950 You can unlock it and have a 6970.
 
I would get the 6950

Make sure to ask around which models are reference to get a better chance of successfully unlocking it
 
I think I might just go with the 6970 in that case.

Any particular brand or card that is better bet?
 
I've dealt with XFX enough times to know that I do not want to buy from them again.
I had to RMA about 6 of their cards, one at a time because I didnt want the charge held on my card. Not very customer friendly practices, plus hold times were usually ridiculous.

MSI and Sapphire make good 6970's? How does ASUS perform? I've never bought one of their graphics cards.

I could do the 6950 route but only if its pretty easy to do, and if I wouldn't really have to OC the card to get it up to speed.
 
By now you are probably better off just buying a 6970 if you got the money for it.
By the way, how many times have you RMA'd a video card?
 
How many times have I RMA'd a video card? hahaha, ummmmm
More than 10 times. That is why customer service is ridiculously important to me.
BFG was great, sigh.

I have had to RMA more computer products in the past 8 years than the next 3 people will have to RMA in a lifetime. I don't know why my luck with them is so bad, but it has gotten to the point of humorous. My friends have come up with theories about why this happens, like that when I burp I am actually emitting low level EMP waves and such, hahahaha.
 
Anybody know which companies that manufacture 6970's have the best customer service?
 
I've been wanting to upgrade anyways, the very limited amount of RAM the card has holds me back in some games.

You think baking it will fix the problems?
 
Hahaha, ya, looks like baking might indeed fix it. I'm ready for a new one though.
 
Well that one certainly LOOKS the coolest :p
Is their customer service the best? Do they make the best, most solid, products?
That one just because its the cheapest?
 
tubular said:
Well that one certainly LOOKS the coolest :p
Is their customer service the best? Do they make the best, most solid, products?
That one just because its the cheapest?
Click to expand...

From the picture you can see the MSI has more connectivity, and ALL gold plated / covered adapters. MSI generally has about the best Air Coolers on the market (Frozer2 and 3), it does have a little more height, but it's still a dual slot GPU and actually the height just adds to the fact that the coolers heatsink is larger than the Gigabyte one. Make sure you don't have an El-Chepo dinky case ;) I would never hesitate to pick up an MSI Graphics Card. MSI + AMD/ATI = A cooler running card than Nvidia also at idle. :p

That Power cooler has no gold plated / all Aluminum recycled beer can connectivity? :D Korea's finest El-Cheapo Fans, a cheaper heatsink etc. I would not get that one. The gigabyte has only 1 gold plated connection the HDMI, plus a third fan...that's about all I can tell is better than the MSI.

It goes up to 3? :p 3 is a magic number too. ;)
 
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hahahahahaha, well after a lot more reading I decided I'm just going to go with two 6950's right off the bat and unlock the shaders on them.
 
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