Which 7950 to buy? (Gigabyte WF3 or Sapphire 950 / Vapor-X)

This XFX 7950 is $275 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150616

It apparently has 6+8 pin power, so maybe it uses the 7970 PCB? I read the coolers on these are pretty lousy, though. Has that been fixed? I thought I remember reading it was poor contact, and considering this is a new[er] revision.. maybe its fixed?

@Blkout: Doesnt the Gigabyte WF3 have a reference 7950 PCB?
 
45454asasa said:
This XFX 7950 is $275 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150616

It apparently has 6+8 pin power, so maybe it uses the 7970 PCB? I read the coolers on these are pretty lousy, though. Has that been fixed? I thought I remember reading it was poor contact, and considering this is a new[er] revision.. maybe its fixed?

@Blkout: Doesnt the Gigabyte WF3 have a reference 7950 PCB?
Click to expand...

The Sapphire HD 7950 Boost is a better card. comes with boost clocks of 925 Mhz. the Dual x cooler is better than the Double D cooler.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

The HD 7950 boost cards also have higher AMD CCC core clock limits if you want to stick to overclocking with AMD CCC.
 
It's only a $10 difference between the sapphire boost and the xfx? Sapphire all the way!
 
45454asasa said:
This XFX 7950 is $275 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150616

It apparently has 6+8 pin power, so maybe it uses the 7970 PCB? I read the coolers on these are pretty lousy, though. Has that been fixed? I thought I remember reading it was poor contact, and considering this is a new[er] revision.. maybe its fixed?

@Blkout: Doesnt the Gigabyte WF3 have a reference 7950 PCB?
Click to expand...

I believe it does, but unless you're watercooling and trying to break OC records under water, I don't think its going to make a lick of difference.
 
Well my Saphire 7950 950Mhz version has little to no coil whine. Its very quiet, even the fans are quiet under load.

Great card.
 
Motley said:
Well my Saphire 7950 950Mhz version has little to no coil whine. Its very quiet, even the fans are quiet under load.

Great card.
Click to expand...

Quiet is a subjective thing. Try adding some voltage to that puppy and clocking her up to 1100+ and see how quiet those fans are.
 
Blkout said:
Quiet is a subjective thing. Try adding some voltage to that puppy and clocking her up to 1100+ and see how quiet those fans are.
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It is up to 1100 right now. And under load, with the fans at auto, they are only running at 59%. And even at that they are quiet. And I sit right now to my system.

The dual x cooling on these are really good.
 
Blkout said:
Quiet is a subjective thing. Try adding some voltage to that puppy and clocking her up to 1100+ and see how quiet those fans are.
Click to expand...

Don't generalize your experience with the Sapphire HD 7950 950 Mhz edition card . You really could have got a chip which did not overclock well and overheated when you tried to hit 1100 Mhz. There are lots of users on ocn running this same card at 1150 -1200 Mhz with temps well below 70c.
 
Motley said:
It is up to 1100 right now. And under load, with the fans at auto, they are only running at 59%. And even at that they are quiet. And I sit right now to my system.

The dual x cooling on these are really good.
Click to expand...

Yep and that answers my question then, quiet is a subjective thing because at 60% fan speed, my Sapphire 7950 950 was not quiet by my standards. Just goes to show everyone defines quiet differently. Try running The Witcher 2 and watch your temps go up 8c over any other game you have and the fans will climb right on up to 70-75% fan speed.
 
raghu78 said:
Don't generalize your experience with the Sapphire HD 7950 950 Mhz edition card . You really could have got a chip which did not overclock well and overheated when you tried to hit 1100 Mhz. There are lots of users on ocn running this same card at 1150 -1200 Mhz with temps well below 70c.
Click to expand...

Mine ran in the low 70's in most games but The Witcher 2 would easily make it hit low 80's. However the fans having to run at 60% to keep the card cool duriung most games will still audibly noticeable and annoying for me. Quiet is a subjective thing and maybe I'm spoiled coming from water cooling for the last 3 years but I don't want to listen to annoying fans on a video card. My Gigabyte cards are silent, even under the worst loads and its not even comparable to my Sapphire card.
 
Blkout said:
Yep and that answers my question then, quiet is a subjective thing because at 60% fan speed, my Sapphire 7950 950 was not quiet by my standards. Just goes to show everyone defines quiet differently. Try running The Witcher 2 and watch your temps go up 8c over any other game you have and the fans will climb right on up to 70-75% fan speed.
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Name a better air cooler. :rolleyes:
 
Blkout said:
Gigabyte Windforce 3.
Click to expand...


That looks like a good air cooling design for the GPU heat sink but looks a little weak for VRM cooling when you want to over clock.

Still if quiet and modest over clocks is what you are after then that does look a like a good card.

I prefer maximum performance on a card that can over clock well like the Sapphire 950mhz Edition HD7950.
 
XTF said:
Does yours suffer from coil whine?
Click to expand...

No.


My fan controller for my radiators had some coil whine though and it went away after a couple of months. I think initial coil whine may be related to break in period. Not sure. But my card is water cooled and it is quiet. No coil whine on my Sapphire HD7950 950mhz edition.
 
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Sapphire 7950 950MHz edition is no longer produced it seems... so that leaves the

Sapphire 7950 Boost [Reference PCB?]
Sapphire Vapor-X [Looks like the voltage lock can be removed easily, but has poor VRM cooling, hence the lock]

Thats disappointing.


@Blkout: I meant on a non-reference PCB. I only care because I cannot stand coil whine. I went thru so many PSUs to find one that was quiet and didnt have coil whine awhile ago... ended up with a Cooler Master Silent Pro 600W in the case someone is interested.
 
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45454asasa said:
Sapphire 7950 950MHz edition is no longer produced it seems...
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It's still available just not in stock at newegg. I found a few of them for sale using google search just a few moments ago.


I don't think Sapphire would stop selling this card if it sales so good unless vendors are trying to get rid of excess stock of other Sapphire HD7950 models. Sapphire has alot of HD 7950s.
 
I only see it on Amazon, and that could easily be just leftover stock because its priced too high.
 
What?? The XFX cooler is listed as loud and poor thermal performance in every review I've seen.
 
SonDa5 said:
It's still available just not in stock at newegg. I found a few of them for sale using google search just a few moments ago.


I don't think Sapphire would stop selling this card if it sales so good unless vendors are trying to get rid of excess stock of other Sapphire HD7950 models. Sapphire has alot of HD 7950s.
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They released a new 7950 OC card.
 
@Garming: So it's true...? They dropped the best model available for a presumably reference PCB turd? Who wants to bet its voltage locked, too.

@ebduncan: I've never seen a review of it, but neither the 7950/7970 DD or DD Black Edition get good marks on their noise/cooling. Do you own the newer revision?
 
@ebduncan: I've never seen a review of it, but neither the 7950/7970 DD or DD Black Edition get good marks on their noise/cooling. Do you own the newer revision?
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I actually own gigabyte windforce 7870's in crossfire. My room-mate has the XFX 7950 based on the 7970 pcb. Cooling is decent, noise what noise. He runs his at 1200core/1500mem.
 
I hate you! You convinced me to pull the trigger on the $270 XFX 7950 and now its out of stock! GAH!!!! :p
 
I got this result with a MSI TF3 (7970 PCB, 6+8pin power, 88.3% ASIC). Full load temps are 72C in Furmark.

dH3GO.jpg
 
Just small update considering 7950 vapor-x. Latest trixx 4.4.0 beta supports voltage adjustment without needing to force constant voltage.
 
Bump for a question.

I've found out that the Sapphire 7950 Vapor-X has the exact same price with the Gigabyte WF3 one.So what should i choose?

Side note:The Vapor-X won't be available in at least 4 days (my retailer has to return the whole batch due to BIOS error).No info on the availability of the WF3 yet.
 
m3ta1head said:
I got this result with a MSI TF3 (7970 PCB, 6+8pin power, 88.3% ASIC). Full load temps are 72C in Furmark.

dH3GO.jpg
Click to expand...

Holy crap! can you please do one Crysis/Crysis Warhead bench for me? (stock and overclocker) with 8XAA please? thanks in advance.
 
Silent Knight said:
Bump for a question.

I've found out that the Sapphire 7950 Vapor-X has the exact same price with the Gigabyte WF3 one.So what should i choose?

Side note:The Vapor-X won't be available in at least 4 days (my retailer has to return the whole batch due to BIOS error).No info on the availability of the WF3 yet.
Click to expand...

Interesting to hear about bios error (even though that might not be the real reason).
I've 7950 vapor-x and the default non boost bios with 850MHz clock was unusable because the gpu voltage raised under stress up to 1.25 which caused overheating and driver reset.
I changed to the boost bios which increased the gpu clock to 950MHz and keeps the gpu voltage at normal 1.056v under stress. I wonder could it be similar issue or something different altogether.
 
loc said:
Interesting to hear about bios error (even though that might not be the real reason).
I've 7950 vapor-x and the default non boost bios with 850MHz clock was unusable because the gpu voltage raised under stress up to 1.25 which caused overheating and driver reset.
I changed to the boost bios which increased the gpu clock to 950MHz and keeps the gpu voltage at normal 1.056v under stress. I wonder could it be similar issue or something different altogether.
Click to expand...
I got 2 guys reported about the VRM temp stayed at 102 degrees Celsius (idle) and 132 under load,then the PC shut down.They told me that they touched the PCB and it was only warm and nowhere near being hot.

So i called the retailer and they confirmed about the problem and told me that the whole batch is returned to the distributor for RMA.
 
So the Vapor-X may actually have sufficient VRM cooling for a nice over-volt, contrary to what was previously thought? I just want to make sure I'm understanding this. I've yet to purchase a 7950 yet, no deals :p
 
In open case vapor-x's (just as reference because then the air flow is similar in each case) gpu stays at 65C and vrm 75C under Unigine Heaven bench. Clearly there was some bad patch. Maybe they forgot heat tapes between vrm heat sinks.
 
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