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Gigabyte vs MSI 7950

M

Messerschmitt

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 9, 2009
Messages
76
I'm trying to decide between

MSI Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr III 880MHZ 3GB 1250MHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2xMini DP DX11 PCI-E Video Card

and

Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 900MHZ 3GB 5GHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2XDP PCI-E Video Card


Here are my points (please take into consideration I live in Canada):

-I will be buying an MSI Z87 GD65 motherboard. Not sure if having a MSI brand GPU makes any difference

-MSI has a RMA center in Vancouver. It means if my card goes belly up I could just drive there, rather than having to pay shipping costs, and to the US if going with Gigabyte.

-From newegg reviews, it looks like the Gigabyte has more failure rates.

-Gigabyte is voltage locked. However, it seems it's 1,25v, so it's already pretty high.

-Both cards seem to be able to overclock at the same scale?

-Using MSI afterburner on an MSI GPU would allow for better overclock-ability?

-Gigabyte is cheaper. Atm it's 245 vs 260 after rebate. It was the same situation last week

-Gigabyte apparently has a better cooler (quieter and lower temps)



So taking the above points into consideration, and your own, if you were to buy one of these two cards, which one would you go for?

Which in general makes better quality products and has better and easier warranty support?
 
MSI. Pretty sure the gigabyte 7950s are voltage locked now. This is a BIG downside for 78/79xx cards. Considering with voltage you could get another 200-300mhz out of those cards. Meaning if its voltage locked (which it likely is), you are costing yourself a big performance gain. Your not guaranteed to get a 1.25v card. I'm pretty sure you'll only get that if the card is badly binned. Although I did here about a bios update for them that raised base clock to 1000mhz and 1.25v. Seams pretty sketchy when you can get an unlocked MSI card for $15 more. Only cards that I for sure know ship with a voltage that high is the 1100mhz wf3 7970s.
 
Edit: All 7950 rev2 on bios FZ0 (latest bios) are voltage locked to 1.25v.

If you get a card which isn't on the latest bios and you want it at 1.25v then grab the latest bios from Gigabyte's site.
Or you could go the other way and downgrade the bios to get a lower voltage.
 
Last edited:
Gigabytes are locked up, easy to flash but they don't have good VRM cooling (mine were Rev 2.1 IIRC, don't know if they added some heatsinks since then). I've had a stack of the damn things and they all throttled due to VRM temps. I just picked up two MSI 7950 TFIII and they appear to be reference 7970 PCB, fully unlocked with memory voltage control as well. One is an average overclocker maxing out at around 1125mhz but the other easily goes to 1300mhz, I have not tried to push it more yet.
 
OP consider the sapphire dual x too for 260 bucks. good cooler. unlocked voltage.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202026

Gigabyte comes clocked at 1 Ghz. but locked voltage. still 1100 - 1150 mhz is quite easy. good cooler but no VRM heatsinks.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1416711/gigabyte-windforce-gold-standard
http://www.gigabyte.in/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4121#sp

also the MSI HD 7950 TF3 OC BE comes at 960 mhz out of the box. unlocked voltage. good cooler.

http://ncix.ca/products/?sku=88277&vpn=R7950 TF 3GD5/OC BE&manufacture=MSI&promoid=1470

the card you chose comes at 880 mhz. the thing is worst case if you get a dud clocker you want higher stock clocks. so take your pick from one of the above 3 cards.
 
raghu78 said:
Gigabyte comes clocked at 1 Ghz. but locked voltage. still 1100 - 1150 mhz is quite easy. good cooler but no VRM heatsinks.
Click to expand...

Latest Gigabyte 7950 rev2 finally got a VRM sink stuck on.

Gigabyte-Radeon-HD-7950-WindForce-3X-3GB-GDDR5-(GV-R795WF3-3GD-Rev.-2.0)-PCB.jpg
 
Don't touch the Gigabyte card with a bargepole.

I have owned both types and the MSI TF3 leaves the WF3 in the dirt for overclocking due to unlocked voltage.

If you overclock at all and purchase a locked voltage GPU you are deliberately asking for trouble.
 
I would say both cards are good open air solutions.
1100Mhz is about already the point of reason for these cards, above that you will face massive power draw and meager FPS gains.

I choose 2xHIS 7950 IceQ (non-x²) blowers, so that i could CF without resorting to watercooling nor trusting my case could handle 2 open air cards in CF. Do not let the blower design fool you, reviews showed that this card runs just as cool and silent as the open air competition.
 
geok1ng said:
I would say both cards are good open air solutions.
1100Mhz is about already the point of reason for these cards, above that you will face massive power draw and meager FPS gains.

I choose 2xHIS 7950 IceQ (non-x²) blowers, so that i could CF without resorting to watercooling nor trusting my case could handle 2 open air cards in CF. Do not let the blower design fool you, reviews showed that this card runs just as cool and silent as the open air competition.
Click to expand...


Thats really good advice all around.
 
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