Anyone with a 7950?

[lopri]

While looking at the specs, I learned that 7950 to 7970 is literally the same as 670 to 680.

Both 7950 and 670 were chopped 1/8 off their bigger brothers, on the number of processing units (shader/texture). But they both retain the rest of the specs. (Edit: Missed the memory frequency difference)

Reviews put the 7950 quite behind the 7970, and 7950's clock frequency is quite conservative @800 MHz. Knowing they both are using the same chip (Tahiti), my question is, would 7950 perform as well as 7970 once overclocked (assuming it's capable), like 670 does compared to 680?

How would a 1100 Mhz 7950 perform, compared to, say, 7970 GHz edition?

Edit: Nevermind. Found the answer -> http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/18

 

[brandon888]

How would a 1100 Mhz 7950 perform, compared to, say, 7970 GHz edition?

performance will be close .... but overall 7970 GHz edition a bit faster .... u will not notice difference ....

and there is a same story with 670 and 680 .... better get 670 or 7950 if you like radeon more .... imho 100$ does not worth 10-7% difference

 

[Jhatfie]

Clock for clock, the 7950 is on average only about 3-5% slower than the 7970. So a 7950 at 1100mhz should perform very close to a 7970 at 1Ghz.

 

[3DVagabond]

The MSI TF including the 3 free game bundle @$320(AR) has to be about the best deal out there. No way I could justify buying a 7970 when you can get a good custom cooled 7950 for that price.

 

[Dark Shroud]

The MSI TF including the 3 free game bundle @$320(AR) has to be about the best deal out there. No way I could justify buying a 7970 when you can get a good custom cooled 7950 for that price.

+1 That is a well built card that you can OC further if you want too.

 

[RussianSensation]

That HD7950 is a good deal. Lopri if you waited this long to buy a next gen card and you still have a decent card (GTX570/6950 OCed) for games, aren't going to Bitcoin mine with the new AMD card to subsidize future upgrades, there isn't a particular rush to buy it yet imo.

Darksiders II – August 14, 2012
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition – August 24, 2012
Borderlands 2 – September 18, 2012
F1 2012 – September 21, 2012
Resident Evil 6 – October 2, 2012
Dishonored – October 9, 2012
Medal of Honor: Warfighter – October 23, 2012
Call of Duty: Black Ops II – November 13, 2012
Assassin’s Creed III – November 23, 2012
Far Cry 3 – December 4, 2012
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 – December 31, 2012

The major gaming releases are away for another 1.5 months. Lots of time for HD7950/7970 cards to fall more since this generation everyone loves the power efficient GTX670

Rumored specs for HD8000 are starting to trickle down:
http://www.3dcenter.org/news/eine-erste-prognose-zu-sea-islands-aka-amds-radeon-hd-8000-serie

What a tease

 

[lopri]

No I don't have a high-end card at the moment after I sold the GTX 580. I'm using an HD 6870 and a GT 240 for now. It's just so that there isn't really a game that attracts me much right now and that is especially fatal during the summer time as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't have minded trying out Battlefield 3 single-player (I am incredibly bad at fast-paced shooting games) for its visuals but the "Origin" requirement turned me off. Maybe sometime in the future Amazon might offer DRM-free version and I will be happy to get a copy.

I think I have made up my mind on upgrades - it's going to be a GTX 670 and a HD 7950. Only question being when and which AIB's. $300~$350 a pop sounds alright to me.

 

[lopri]

And normally I don't wait too long for a GPU upgrade but this go round things were a bit different. I wasn't impressed by the performance gap between the GTX 580 and the HD 7970 initially, and the Kepler rumors started leaking. Since I usually get one high-end and one mid-range, I figured I'd wait and see.

Then the GTX 680 came and while what NV has achieved was impressive but it's still not the performance jump I expected. I wasn't impressed by the HD 7970's performance in the review, so the same went for the GTX 680 which competes with it. Especially knowing that the chip isn't exactly designed to be a high-end one, I had no desire to pay $500+ for either.

But in the end the desire to see AMD's first take on GPU compute and the desire to see improved memory management NV finally managed (will hold it against Cookie Monster if it turns out otherwise) made me want both high-ends (or mid-range turned to high-end). But there was no way I am paying $500 a pop for both, when it was pretty clear to me the prices will fall shortly, because the rationale that I give myself for buying those $500 video cards is "it's a lease."

That has worked out for me in general. Buy a card for $500 and sell it for $300~400 before the next gen hits, and it's roughly like renting it for ~$10 a month. Not a bad deal in my book. Hope it turns out well for this time as well.