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HD 7950: Help Me Choose!

Which 7950 would you choose?

  • Gigabyte Windforce3

    Votes: 4 17.4%

  • PowerColor PCS+

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Sapphire w/Dual-X

    Votes: 16 69.6%

  • None of the above.

    Votes: 3 13.0%
  • Total voters
    23
U

USF-Nealio

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 18, 2012
Messages
373
I need to pull the trigger on a new video card today, and I've got it narrowed down to 3. I wanted to get some [H]ard input on my final decision. My only real requirements are that it's around $300 give or take, and that it has a quiet cooler.

  • Gigabyte WindForce3
    +GIANT Cooler, Dead Silent, longest warranty​
    -Almost Guaranteed to be voltage locked​
  • PowerColor PCS+
    +Potentially unlocked voltage, quiet​
    -Personally not familiar with brand, not too many people using this card.​
  • Sapphire w/Dual-X Cooler
    +Great cooler, quiet, large user and knowledge base​
    -Almost Guaranteed to be voltage locked, serious confusion about minor model numbers, VRM lottery.​
 
Just a heads up; nearly all gigabyte windforce 7900 series cards are voltage locked. I tested one myself (7950 rev 2.0), before returning it months ago.

I have no experience with the powercolor one, but the sapphire dual-x does have unlocked voltage (bios switch 2).
 
The Sapphire Dual-X is voltage locked?? - Now that must be a new development if that indeed is true.

I got mine in December 2012 and have seen people on here get it in the fairly recent past, say a month or so and no one seems to talk about it being voltage locked.

But the VRM lottery thing, I agree. However, most cards I've seen here, can do 1150 on core.

I've the 2L version, the 3L seems to be the newer version and the only difference seems to be in the dimensions of the card with the 3L seemingly a tad smaller than the 2L, but do not just take my word on that.

But on the whole, I like my Sapphire card, its good, OCs well, stays fairly cool (my case has good airflow though), no coil whine unless its doing 500+ fps on menu screens.
 
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The majority of the newer 7900 series cards (boost editions), have a default voltage of 1.25. Only some of the sapphire ones can be raised up to 1.3, using sapphire trixx.

You should be able to hit 1100 core with that default voltage. Anything above that is a crapshoot.
 
The Sapphire Dual-X 2L has a different set of display connections on the back compared to the 3L. I have 3 of the 2L cards and they all run at 1150mhz without issue.

The HIS card looks nice, but I haven't had any reason to not recommend the Sapphire Dual-X from my experience.
 
I was hearing that the more recent Sapphire cards were coming voltage locked regardless of the BIOS switch. Is that not the case?
 
USF-Nealio said:
I was hearing that the more recent Sapphire cards were coming voltage locked regardless of the BIOS switch. Is that not the case?
Click to expand...

I don't know...I never really played with it. I just set the power to +20 and overclocked. Never attempted to manually adjust voltage.
 
kirbyrj said:
I don't know...I never really played with it. I just set the power to +20 and overclocked. Never attempted to manually adjust voltage.
Click to expand...

That does not change the voltage, just FYI in case you thought otherwise.

Like someone else said on here, these Sapphire "boost" cards now have a default voltage of 1.25V, hence most people can OC quite a bit before having to touch the voltages.

My Dual X card from Dec-12, is not voltage locked and I use Sapphire Trixx to alter the voltage.
 
Since the poll is heavily leaning toward Sapphire, does it matter which card I get? Are any of them really any better than one another that aren't $60-100 more than the $300 models?
 
The 7950s for the most part are fairly comparable, just make sure that they're not voltage locked.

I like the HIS, Windforce and Sapphire models and if none of these are voltage unlocked, you wouldn't go wrong with any of them.
 
Were they boost editions, J? The one I had (boost edition), would let me move the slider up to 1.3 in afterburner, but the voltage would remain unchanged at 1.25 regardless of anything I tried.

As I say that, even at a locked voltage of 1.25, I was able to hit 1195 on the core stable.
 
No they are not, they are the OC edition with default clock of 880mhz. I'm running most of them at 1050 core/1380mem at 1.05v.
I'm pretty happy with them.

The goal is to stay under 85C when ambient is 95-100F, stability & low voltage. Some are okay at 1.0v and others need 1.1 to keep it stable.
 
The Sapphires should not be voltage locked. Trixx 4.6.0 will change voltages without a problem. I'd recommend the MSI Twin Frozr version though.
 
I personally have the Gigabyte HD 7950 Windforce 3 edition and it's a fantastic card. I LOVE the cooler on it. I get 67C temps with 100% max load, which is pretty awesome in my experience. Mine IS voltage locked, but it's locked @ 1.25v which is plenty of room to OC. I'm currently sitting on 1125 MHz core, which I could probably push to 1150 MHz, but I don't have time for full stress testing to confirm stability.

Some of the older Gigabyte HD 7950 WF3 were unlocked, but it's pretty much guaranteed to be locked these days. It seems like most manufacturers are shipping locked cards now (With your occasional exception).

Honestly, given that your requirement is a quiet cooler, and you've said no mention of whether unlocked is important or not, I would just buy the CHEAPEST HD 7950 with a good cooler... This so happens that the Gigabyte HD 7950 WF3 is often found for extremely good deals. I got mine for $280 CAD (Can be found even cheaper in the US).

Anyway, good luck!
 
Unlocked voltage would be nice, but realistically is there much to be gained once going past 1.25v?
 
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