Going from a 6870 to a 7950. Should I wait?

I did a 6870 to 7870 to 7850. Loving the card! I wish I got your version though.
 
I think you made a good choice as well. Great deal at NE on that card.
 
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Great value, $309 after rebate, hard to justify a GTX 670 for $400+ when there are deals like this to be had (coming from a 670 owner).
 
At first I debated buying it because my 6870 actually had been a fine card. Yes I cant max everything out but the card still runs great. I just seen this deal with 3 free games 1 of which I own already so I had to buy it.

Another thing was is that I felt that with my current specs that my Rig felt incomplete with a single 6870 so I wanted more power
 
4LC4PON3 said:
At first I debated buying it because my 6870 actually had been a fine card. Yes I cant max everything out but the card still runs great. I just seen this deal with 3 free games 1 of which I own already so I had to buy it.

Another thing was is that I felt that with my current specs that my Rig felt incomplete with a single 6870 so I wanted more power
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I see you've updated your sig already to reflect your new card!:D

Have fun!
 
yup i did the card will be here tomorrow. I live 4 hours from new jersey. Waiting is the worst part . I will have pics tomorrow also
 
for those that just want cheap hash rates, 5870's still are top dog. Not the highest in hash/watt, but close. I think the 7970's undervolted are now pulling top hash/watt besides standalone units, but I have no faith in those.
 
card finally came in. Installed but have not had any time to play with it

LL

LL
 
I would love to hear your impressions on the fan noise on the MSI. I am thinking about buying this to replace my 6870 on my home rig, but the 6870 is near silent under normal usage and I would hate to give that up!
 
Definitely a great choice. For the money, that 7950 is a good buy. Makes me kind of wish I waited a few weeks.
 
I would love to hear your impressions on the fan noise on the MSI. I am thinking about buying this to replace my 6870 on my home rig, but the 6870 is near silent under normal usage and I would hate to give that up!
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you must have one with a non reference design. My reference design 6870's in my bitcoin machine are pretty loud. Even just single gpu. louder with 4 of them.

i went from 6870 crossfire to 7870 crossfire, couldn't be happier on triple 1080's. Wish i waited till now because i would be rocking 7950 crossfire for the same price, oh well.
 
MrC4 said:
I would love to hear your impressions on the fan noise on the MSI. I am thinking about buying this to replace my 6870 on my home rig, but the 6870 is near silent under normal usage and I would hate to give that up!
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Honestly I cant here the thing at all. I played about 20 minutes of Saints Row The Third and the temps were 64c & the fans were running at 48% & honestly I did not hear it what so ever. Im happy this card is pretty silent

964694
 
I only start hearing the fan about 65%. Anything above 75% is really annoying. I'm loving this card so far though.
 
4LC4PON3 said:
Honestly I cant here the thing at all. I played about 20 minutes of Saints Row The Third and the temps were 64c & the fans were running at 48% & honestly I did not hear it what so ever. Im happy this card is pretty silent

964694
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Great news. Looks like I am going to be about $330 bucks poorer here in a few minutes!:D
 
MrC4 said:
Great news. Looks like I am going to be about $330 bucks poorer here in a few minutes!:D
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yeah its a great deal at USD 310. and comes with a high quality HD 7970 PCB. whats not to like. Run that card at 1 Ghz at stock volts and you are going to have ref HD 7970 (925 Mhz) perf for more than 100 bucks lesser price. :)
 
Just pulled the trigger on the Amazon MSI for 309 AR. Didn't need the games from Newegg and saved a few bucks on taxes.:D
 
hmmm....how do the 6970 & the 7950 compare? I spent $350+ on it several months back, sounds like this is a better deal.
 
shantd said:
hmmm....how do the 6970 & the 7950 compare? I spent $350+ on it several months back, sounds like this is a better deal.
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the MSI HD 7950 OC review

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_7950_Twin_Frozr_III/26.html

1920 x 1200

MSI HD 7950 (880 Mhz ) -100
HD 7970 (925 Mhz) - 108

At the same clock speeds HD 7950 is 3 - 5% slower than HD 7970. HD 7950 OC cards can easily run at 1.1 - 1.15 Ghz speeds with a bit of voltage tweaking. At those clock speeds HD 7950 OC is going to be faster than the HD 7970 Ghz edition.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970_GHz_Edition/28.html

1920 X 1200

HD 6970 - 65
HD 7970 Ghz - 100
HD 6990 - 103
GTX 590 - 10

The OC headroom of a HD 6970 is very less. You can run at 950 Mhz which is just 70 Mhz. HD 7950 OC at 1.15 Ghz will be 50% faster than HD 6970 at 950 Mhz.

here is a HD 7950 (1050 Mhz) at stock volts perf

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/18

In DX11 games like Metro 2033 , Batman AC the perf is generally around 50% or more better.

In games like BF3 or Crysis 2 the perf lead of a HD 7950 (1.1+ Ghz) wrt HD 6970 will be more than 70%.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7950_Flex/31.html

BF3 1920 X 1200 4X AA
HD 6970 - 41.3
HD 7950 (1025 Mhz) - 69.7

http://www.guru3d.com/article/his-radeon-hd-7950-iceq-turbo-review/19
http://www.guru3d.com/article/his-radeon-hd-7950-iceq-turbo-review/23

Crysis 2 DX11 Ultra 4x AA 1920 x 1200

HD 6970 - 36
HD 7950 (900 Mhz) - 60
HD 7950 (1125 Mhz) - 71

Crysis 2 is a rare case of close to double perf because of very high and at times excessive tesselation used in a game. HD 6970 is seriously slow because of the very huge tesselation load (especially at ultra settings) in this game.
 
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I'm hungry but I don't really have anything to eat. Also, HARDOCP imposed an arbitrary 50 post requisite to post in the forum I actually want to post in. So, I'm going to keep posting about lunch until I reach my 50 post requisite.
 
lespaul50 said:
I'm hungry but I don't really have anything to eat. Also, HARDOCP imposed an arbitrary 50 post requisite to post in the forum I actually want to post in. So, I'm going to keep posting about lunch until I reach my 50 post requisite.
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Banned; no surprise there. At least s/he was honest about the intent.


Can I just say that I fucking love this card? Mind you, I have the Gigabyte 7950, which may even be as quiet as the renowned Sapphire ver. at normal loads.

Which is to say, it's INSANELY quiet. It's FRIGHTENINGLY quiet. It's SEXUALLY GRATIFYING-LEVEL quiet.

And to think I got this for exactly $100 less than the Gigabyte 670 (also just as quiet as the adjectives above) that I had to return for a defective fan 3 weeks ago.

The MSI ver. looks pretty kick-ass too, and is also priced really well at retailers right now, but from what I've read, it's not LEGENDARY quiet as the Sapphire and Gigabyte, albeit still very respectable.

I've only tested some mild overclocks on my 7950 so far (right now, it's at 950/1400, or 7970 equivalent performance, but it holds at 40% fan, which is HOLY SHIT quiet).

Did I mention that it's quiet?

EDIT: Also, no coil whine! I'm guessing these cards don't even suck that much power so there's even less chance of occurrence! Hallelujah!
 
Awesomeness. The MSI I assume? According to HWC and TPU(? IIRC) it's slightly louder than the Gigabyte and Sapphire, but not noticeably, and it could potentially also pull off some sick overclocks.

Myself, I'm just glad to be back on Red Team. Enjoy the QUIETNESS !

EDIT: Just noticed the OP also has the MSI, didn't notice that when I posted before.

... WICKED SICK quiet. :D
 
Oh Yeah I love my 7950. Just ordered a White with blue trim Phantom 410 to accent my setup. Felt my NZXT 210 Elite did not make it worthy
 
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i have a Twin frozr 6870 and i love it, from now on i will only buy Twin frozr cards, they over clock amazingly, are silent, and look amazing. When i buy my 7950 ill be sticking with Msi as well. Grats on the new card!
 
raghu78 said:
At the same clock speeds HD 7950 is 3 - 5% slower than HD 7970. HD 7950 OC cards can easily run at 1.1 - 1.15 Ghz speeds with a bit of voltage tweaking. At those clock speeds HD 7950 OC is going to be faster than the HD 7970 Ghz edition.
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I have a question hopefully someone can clear up for me. I have been reading the 12.7 beta drivers allow the 7970 GHz edition to beat out the 680 in several games tests. I have my Twin Frozr 7950 currently at 1020 core and 1400 memory with stock voltage. Is it possible that a 7950 overclocked to 1150/1200 core and 1575 memory on the 12.7 beta drivers would also match up to a 680? Or would things like fewer shaders come into play to hold it back?

Even if the answer is yes I still might stick with my current settings on stock volts as I am quite happy with the cards performance today. My temps under load hit about 64c and I don't want to go any higher than that.
 
For $329 and 3 free games, that is a killer price for a 7950. I have been using my single 5870 card I bought the first month is came out, to power my triple screen Eyefinity setup, but haven't played anything newer than WoW or Left 4 Dead, because system can't handle it.
 
So... fuck me. I may have a returned bad overclocker on my hands.

I've noticed--with my 670 from before as well-- that Gigabyte does NOT seal their boxes, making it very easy for someone to open the box and anti-static bag very carefully, test it out, and then put it back if it doesn't overclock well, returning it as unopened. (Doesn't mean anything conclusively, I know)

As well, I've just noticed this card came set at bios switch #2. (Again, not conclusive)

Strike #3, this card has an average ASIC quality of 79.0% and can't do 950/1400 stable at stock voltage. (Once again, not conclusive on its own)

But putting all that together, there's a chance that I am, once again, a victim of the anonymous greed of all the people who cheat the silicon lottery.

Maybe, maybe not. But the thought of it still ruins my day. Why doesn't Gigabyte (as well other companies) just seal their goddamn boxes?
 
I finally got some OC on my 7950

Running 1000/1350 Stock voltage 63c max. I can prolly push it farther but no time ATM.
 
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