Reference cooler design

[azeem40]

I am considering a 7870 reference card, but idk which one is the best balance between ocing headroom, quietness, and efficient cooling. Anyone know which one is a good balance of all the above? Thanks.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

the only reference design 7870 is the powercolor card. so its probably a waste of time to look into them.

 

[azeem40]

Oops, I meant non reference. My bad.

 

[azeem40]

Anyone?

 

[RealityCrunch]

I'd probably go with a Gigabye/ASUS/MSI. Since my selection is limited in Australia, I'd prob have to go with a Gigabyte. If you have MSI available, that's also a good choice if it comes with the TF cooler or of the Hawk variety.

Gigabyte
Product page
Review: Temperatures
Review: Noise level

MSI
Product page

Or the MSI Hawk (if / when it's available).

 

[DuronClocker]

I bought the PowerColor reference this past week.

Definitely happy with it. Clocked at 1250/1450 without a problem.

It does get a bit noisy with the stock fan profile when gaming, but I'm okay with noise when gaming as long as it is quiet otherwise, and it is. I might end up re-doing the fan profile to let it get a bit warmer to keep the noise down a bit.. we'll see, I haven't bothered so far.

Honestly, the only reason I went reference instead of the MSI one was because of the ful rear exhaust (my case sucks for airflow, and this card literally cuts my case in half with no exhaust on the bottome side of the card). If you don't care about that, I would definitely suggest going with one of the models with a better cooler.

 

[lagittaja]

I heard the HIS IceQ is good. Also it looks funky which might be a bonus.