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Which 6970?

Etherton

Etherton

Will Bang for Poof
Joined
Aug 7, 2006
Messages
6,996
I'm selling my XFX 5870 and plan on replacing it with another 6970. Question is which one? I usually go with XFX because of their warranty but if I am swapping the card out every 2-3 years the lifetime warranty is kind of useless. Granted he resell value is more with the transferable warranty. I have never actually had to deal with CS at XFX so I can't comment on that... any good? I don't want to crossfire... would rather just have one strong card.
 
Don't make the same mistake I did by getting XFX for their warranty... the XFX 6970 I got which was supposed to be reference design was actually the stealth revised one which I found is of cheaper build quality(whole thread about it on this forum and several others).

Luckily, I guess you can say, it was defective upon installing. Wouldn't go above 1280x800, flickering screen, artifacts in BIOS/Boot(almost always sure sign of a defective card), and sometimes it would just stay at a black screen after loading windows. I'd suspect the cheaper build quality probably makes it more prone to defects like this. I'm returning mine after concluding the DL DVI connection is faulty. Will be getting a Sapphire 6970 so I can be assured it won't be a cheaper revision.
 
get one with a non reference cooler

i have the reference xfx 6970 its ok but i wish i would have gotten one with a better heatsink and fan
 
GB makes quality stuff IMO. Never a problem from that company I can report of and I have been through my share of GB Mobo's.
 
Just a comment on XFX. I recently sold my old XFX 4850 locally on CL. The guy that bought it claimed that it was bluescreening a lot. It worked perfectly for me when I pulled it so I assumed it was a driver issue or maybe a PSU issue with his machine.

He contacted XFX, they trold him it sounded like it was defective and had him send it in. He kept me in the loop on the process and within 2 weeks he had a new 5750. I was quite impressed with their service, especially since I had heard some stories about their customer service really lacking lately. They took good care of the 2nd buyer and for that I'll continue to purchase their products.
 
I asked about the non-reference XFX 6970's and was told :

Originally Posted by eth3ton
Long time XFX supporter and I am about ready to buy a 6970 to replace my 5870. I have read that XFX no longer carries a reference design of this card? Is it possible to still get one?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

There are two different reference designs from AMD. The first isn't made any longer. All cards are now the version 2 reference design. If you are looking at water blocks or something like that where the layout of the board matters then they do make version 2 blocks. Thank you.
Click to expand...

There are a few threads about XFX's 6970's talking about their current run isn't reference models. I don't plan on watercooling anytime soon. I don't know what to do... narrowed it down to 3 :

XFX
ASUS
Sapphire
 
I either buy XFX or evga. My last evga card was a 9800GT, which happened to be an nvidia card. After that I went with an XFX 4870 and replaced it with an XFX 5870. With the bitcoin frenzy I sold the 5870 and just bought an XFX 6970. I haven't had any issues with XFX and the double lifetime warranty is a + to me when selling it and a + to the buyer because they know they don't have to worry about anything in case something happens later down the road with the card.
 
I like MSI myself. Had a reference 5870 and the fan went bad. RMA'd it and got a R5870 Lightning as a replacement within a week. All of my MSI RMA experiences have been great.
 
Off the top of my head XFX is the only company I know of that makes amd cards with a transferable warranty. But transferable warranty aside... Another +1 for getting an MSI 6970. I've dealt with their customer service when I was shipped a dead 3870 and it was quick and painless. I also think their Lightning Twin Frozr III is one of the best 6970's on the market.
 
I just recently picked up the MSI 6970 mainly based on the cooler design, should show up at my door later today. Glad to hear that RMA experiences have been good with MSI :)
 
Good luck and happy gaming. I expect you'll be happy with your purchase. :)
 
A bit late to chime in again but I've always had good experiences with Sapphire, thankfully for me I haven't had many issues that required any assistance from the vendor.
 
I currently own two MSI 6970 and they seem pretty good so far, other than the heat they generate. This probably has more to do with how close they are to each other in my system, though. My previous card was a Sapphire 5970 and that card was rock solid.
 
I would recommend sapphire 6970 reference board. Perfect fit tonight as I just slapped on my Swiftech Komodo waterblock and my god its running much much cooler than even the best aftermarket gizmo fan thingy can do
 
addictedto60fps said:
I currently own two MSI 6970 and they seem pretty good so far, other than the heat they generate. This probably has more to do with how close they are to each other in my system, though. My previous card was a Sapphire 5970 and that card was rock solid.
Click to expand...

Heh seems like my new problem, popped a 6950 (XFX) below my 6970 with 1 slot spacing between the two and my temps on the 6970 went up about 3-4° C. Which after about 8 hours causing my desktop to lock up.
 
coran007 said:
Heh seems like my new problem, popped a 6950 (XFX) below my 6970 with 1 slot spacing between the two and my temps on the 6970 went up about 3-4° C. Which after about 8 hours causing my desktop to lock up.
Click to expand...

For me, though, I only have a few millimeters spacing between the two. I have to turn my fans up in order to keep both cool.
 
Personally, I would go with Gigabyte just for the fact they don't use reference cooling design and their own cooling design is much quieter than the reference design. I have 2 5870s and one is reference and the other is Gigabyte so know what I say is true.
 
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