7950 replacement recomendation?

[3DVagabond]

OP the dual x has better VRM cooling than vapor-x . so go for dual x. the sapphire hd 7950 boost has very good user reviews. most users are running at 1100 - 1150 mhz at stock voltage of 1.25v. the his iceq is a good option too.

The Vapor-X has full coverage for the Memory from the main cooler and separate heatsinks for the VRM. Cooling should be superior for both the memory and the VRM's.

These are images for the Flex with the Dual-X cooler. It has a single plate for cooling both the memory and the VRM's.

Do you have a source for the 7950 dual-X stock voltage? I know the original boost bios ran at 1.25v, but I haven't seen where the 7950 Dual-X uses the same voltage. I can't even find a review for it.

 

[hodgenutts]

Thank you very much for the pictures

 

[3DVagabond]

Thank you very much for the pictures

Something to know though is the Vapor-X uses slightly more than 2 slots. You won't be able to use the 3rd slot on your mobo with it. I don't know if this matters or not.

 

[hodgenutts]

it doesn't matter. Currently I'm just pursuing a single card solution, but thank you for pointing that out.

 

[raghu78]

The Vapor-X has full coverage for the Memory from the main cooler and separate heatsinks for the VRM. Cooling should be superior for both the memory and the VRM's.

Do you have a source for the 7950 dual-X stock voltage? I know the original boost bios ran at 1.25v, but I haven't seen where the 7950 Dual-X uses the same voltage. I can't even find a review for it.

this is from user feedback on overclock.net and the newegg user reviews. the sapphire hd 7950 boost gets lower VRM temps than vapor-x and the stock voltage is 1.25v.

 

[lehtv]

I have owned both Vapor-X OC with Boost and Dual-X Boost. I first bought Vapor-X, had to RMA it (it was my own damn fault due to overvolting but whatever) for another Vapor-X in return, which I also had to RMA as it was unstable at stock clocks.

Both Vapor-X's had core voltage tied to power limit setting, otherwise voltage locked. VRM temps at Power Limit 0 were OK (70 or so, IIRC) but that power limit couldn't hold the boost clock most of the time (which is normal). Increasing the power limit to +20 increased voltages and thus VRM temps to well over 90 degrees during Heaven 3.0. The fan was pretty noisy using the stock profile, and increasing fan speed further toward 60-70% had a pretty big effect on VRM temps (at least a 10C reduction) but very little effect on GPU temps which were excellent to begin with (60C or so). There was a lot of room in GPU temps to use a quieter fan profile but the VRMs ran too hot for that.

After RMA'ing the second Vapor-X I went ahead with the Dual-X Boost, it's been great all around. The stock voltage is alot higher than with Vapor-X, and it's able to maintain much lower VRM temperatures at a slightly lower fan noise level. Voltage isn't adjusted with Power Limit, it stays at 1.25V. With power limit +20 I managed to OC to 1100MHz - VRM temps are 75C and GPU is also 75C. So the GPU is hotter than with Vapor-X but I think the VRM temps and lower noise make up for it.

At stock, temperatures are even more manageable at under 70C for both GPU and VRM.

For what it's worth, the first Vapor-X had a bit under 90% ASIC, the second was almost 91%, while the Dual-X is a little under 60%. It's probably the lower ASIC that allows the card to maintain higher stock voltage, but I have no idea how to explain the difference in VRM temps.

 

[hodgenutts]

Thank you very much for the info

 

[hodgenutts]

First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS! and thanks to everyone for the advice.

Quick question, would my overclocked 2500K CPU bottleneck a 7950? How about a 7970?

 

[lehtv]

It won't bottleneck. Well it will in the poorly optimized Planetside 2 when a lot of players are in the same fight. Not that it matters... there's nothing to upgrade to. If you play PS2, try to push that OC higher.

 

[hodgenutts]

Got a 660ti for Christmas...

After all the pondering on what would be the best 7950 to get, my mother was nice enough to put in the effort to get me a video card for Christmas. First of all my mother doesn't know anything about computer hardware. So, she went to the local Best Buy (that I worked at years ago) and asked them for "the biggest video card they have."

Well they gave her a EVGA 660ti that is exclusive to Best Buy. They told her I could try it out, and if I didn't like it she could return it back to Best Buy for a a full refund as long as it was before January 24th.

It is basically an EVGA 660ti O.C.ed 2 gb model that EVGA made and just gave it a diff model number for Best Buy I would assume. It has the stock clock on the memory and a factory 76 mhz overclock on the GPU and that is it. It has the reference cooler. Anyway it ended up costing my mom around $327.

I fired it up and could only O.C. the gpu another 70mhz, so it runs around 1200mhz in boost mode now. I was able to O.C. the memory arond 200mhz and I got a 3dmark11 score of 8347. I do not know if this is any good as that was the first time I've tried 3dmark11, and I'm out of the loop on nvidia cards.

So now I'm debating on wheather this 660ti will meet my needs are not. I'm kind reluctant to ask mom to take it back and get me a different card from newegg because she put effort into this, but at the same time I feel I could prob get a better value for the $327 she paid Best Buy, even if it was another 660ti. For example:

this MSI but it has no active cooling on vram to my knowledge
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127711

or

Zotac O.C.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500269

MSI O.C.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127696

Then I was wondering how a 3GB O.C. model would fair against a budget 670 as they are almost the same price...

This 3gb FTW looks like it is built nicely with a backplate and decent factory O.C.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130817

how would that fair against this budget priced Galaxy 670?
I don't know much about Galaxy...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162108

and then there is this MSI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127675

and finally this EVGA 670 FTW:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130802


Basically it just seems for the money she spent ($327) there are better options. I just was curious if a 3gb O.C.ed 660ti would beat out a 2gb 670. Or should I just scrap and still get a 7950. I know AMD is the best value, but the games I play (blizzard titles) seem to favor nvidia. Or would a 670 or 7950 be overkill for the games I play and should I just get the cheapest 660ti on the market. Sorry just don't know what to do. Looking to play the games (Diablo 3, W.O.W. , Starcraft2 and maybe Assasins Creed 3) at max settings at 1080p.

Sorry to bother everyone but I do appreciate all the help. Happy holidays!


I have been so wrapped up looking at 7950's I haven't given nvidia much of a look.