help me choose

[lavaheadache]

This
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131471


This
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127677

or

This
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127670

Don't talk to me about money cause I don't want to hear it.



I run dual monitors and I think the MSI cards are going to be a pain in the Butt for that since both monitors require dual link dvi. Well the U3011 can take a display port instead



I overclock and the whichever I get I pray will take me to the moon



edit**************

Got my card today. Artifacts as soon as 3d starts and locked up the pc within 15 seconds. Checked temps and they quickly got into the 80's. Turns out that the screws that hold the heatsink on to the gpu were very loose. They easily had 2-3 turns to go.

Fixed the artifacting, so I thought. Now it can last about 3 minutes until it crashes.

Overall not very impressed with the card regardless of the issues. No cooling what so ever on the memory chips and the pcb feels real flimsy. It is almost exactly the same as the xfx non reference 5870 card. Very crappy for those who know what I'm taking about.

Even with the back plate there was considerable amounts of give and sag with the card mounted in the case.

I'm sure had I not gotten a bum card I could have overlooked these things but now I'm kind of turned off. FWIW, the cooler seems top notch.

Anyhow, Got in a real good deal on a Open Box Lightning that will be here tomorrow. Hopefully the UPS guy doesn't dump and run so I can give him this card to go back.

My first ever DOA

 

[SickBeast]

I would get the Powercolor card. I would give you a reason but you asked me not to talk about it.

Can I ask why you're not going with a GTX 670?

 

[DominionSeraph]

This

 

[3DVagabond]

Well, if I was buying it for someone else, I'd probably get an MSI. Simply because of MSI's reputation. Although, if I were buying it for me, I'd take a bit of a punt and get the Powercolor. 1100MHz core, backplate (I like backplates ), real nice bundle... All for $490 (I know you said not to mention price, but like I said, if it was for me.). One would think it would have to be a pretty high binned chip to be certified @ 1100MHz.

 

[lavaheadache]

I would get the Powercolor card. I would give you a reason but you asked me not to talk about it.

Can I ask why you're not going with a GTX 670?

I have a 680, why would I want a 670?

Honestly, I think this generation of nVidia cards are junk. Don't get me wrong, they perform great but I just don't like the way they are built.

I also think that I will be holding on to the card for a while and with a 2560 monitor I feel like 3 gb of ram will be better in the long run. My skyrim install already overencumbers 2gb and I don't wanna mess around with undoing anything.

 

[lavaheadache]

Well, if I was buying it for someone else, I'd probably get an MSI. Simply because of MSI's reputation. Although, if I were buying it for me, I'd take a bit of a punt and get the Powercolor. 1100MHz core, backplate (I like backplates ), real nice bundle... All for $490 (I know you said not to mention price, but like I said, if it was for me.). One would think it would have to be a pretty high binned chip to be certified @ 1100MHz.

I concur. That powercolor does seem like a mighty fine card. I too love backplates. I'm curious why the card doesn't show that it comes with the game bundle

 

[Gordon Freemen]

I would get the Powercolor card. I would give you a reason but you asked me not to talk about it.

Can I ask why you're not going with a GTX 670?

People are quick to forget or not mention that the 7970 is CLOCK for CLOCK faster than the GTX 680 let alone 670 and the only reason the GTX 680 is faster stock for stock is the higher factory clock speed Nvidia marketing sells cards once again.

 

[SickBeast]

People are quick to forget or not mention that the 7970 is CLOCK for CLOCK faster than the GTX 680 let alone 670 and the only reason the GTX 680 is faster stock for stock is the higher factory clock speed Nvidia marketing sells cards once again.

Look, I don't want to get into this too much because the OP has a good reason to go with the 7970. But really, for $100 less, you're getting the same performance with a GTX 670 for the most part. They will both overclock to around 1200mhz and will perform within 5% of one another. The GTX 670 has other advantages as well. The 3gb of vram on the 7970 is good if you game at 1440p or higher, but is still not very useful in most situations.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Look, I don't want to get into this too much because the OP has a good reason to go with the 7970. But really, for $100 less, you're getting the same performance with a GTX 670 for the most part. They will both overclock to around 1200mhz and will perform within 5% of one another. The GTX 670 has other advantages as well. The 3gb of vram on the 7970 is good if you game at 1440p or higher, but is still not very useful in most situations.

The 670 is just not as fast as 7970 though on paper and on the synthetic benches it my paint a more rosy picture for the Nvidia cards but that's how she goes marketing sells cards not the actual in game real world performance. That being said I am by no means a biased fanboy I really do enjoy both camps I flip flop back and forth and boy is that GTX 480 looking like a sweet deal at $220. Current card GTX 275 but a GTX 560 is on it's way.

 

[MentalIlness]

I'd go with the cheaper MSI card. I'd also stay away from Powercolor.

 

[JohnnyChuttz]

This
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131471


This
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127677

or

This
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127670

Don't talk to me about money cause I don't want to hear it.



I run dual monitors and I think the MSI cards are going to be a pain in the Butt for that since both monitors require dual link dvi. Well the U3011 can take a display port instead



I overclock and the whichever I get I pray will take me to the moon

I say go with the 7970.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

I'd go with the cheaper MSI card. I'd also stay away from Powercolor.

I second that notion of staying away from Powercolor cause I just recently purchased a Powercolor Radeon HD 6870 that crapped out within 3hrs after first installation needless to say I RMAed it and am now going back to Nvidia. POWERCOLOR SUCKS !

 

[lavaheadache]

I bit on the powercolor. Worse thing that can happen is that I return it for being a piece of crap and try again =)

I was just readiong that at computex 2012 powercolor is going to release a vortex 3 along side the ghz edition 7970's release

 

[Tempered81]

Sapphire Dual X

 

[lavaheadache]

Sapphire Dual X

I was eyeballing it but I really couldn't get past the out of box clock speed of 1.1 ghz of the PCS+

 

[Tempered81]

If you get 1260-1300 core / 7000mem that is maintainable within temp range, then you did great, and probably couldn't expect more from the Dual X anyway. The dual X OC board has a fully stocked VRM section, which equates to better OCs & better temps, plus the cooler is pretty effective. Hopefully your Powercolor performs equally, I will be interested in the OC results.

 

[lavaheadache]

I will definately post my results

 

[lavaheadache]

My 'old" reference gigabyte 7970 did 1250mhz at 1.26v

 

[spinejam]

All ~8 of the 7970's that I have had reached 1100Mhz core w/ varied mV. Most of them hit 1150-1175 tops. Can it clock 1200Mhz+??? -- that is the real question.

My current card likes 1200c 1700m w/ 1131mV so far.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[lavaheadache]

niiice guy, vettty niiiiice. Glad one of them is able to really rip.



my gigabyte reference.

 

[3DVagabond]

I concur. That powercolor does seem like a mighty fine card. I too love backplates. I'm curious why the card doesn't show that it comes with the game bundle

To be honest I hadn't noticed it doesn't include the gaming bundle, which kinda sucks. I was referring to the adapter bundle.

I'll be curious to see how she O/C's and if the "higher binning" (if there is any such thing) pays off.

I hope it rocks +1300MHz for you! :thumbsup:

Hi, I'm lavaheadache and it's been 3wks since I bought a video card.

How am I going to tell my support person I fell off of the wagon?

 

[spinejam]

niiice guy, vettty niiiiice. Glad one of them is able to really rip.



my gigabyte reference.

That was a sweeeeet card!!!! :thumbsup:

 

[lavaheadache]

Got my card today. Artifacts as soon as 3d starts and locked up the pc within 15 seconds. Checked temps and they quickly got into the 80's. Turns out that the screws that hold the heatsink on to the gpu were very loose. They easily had 2-3 turns to go.

Fixed the artifacting, so I thought. Now it can last about 3 minutes until it crashes.

Overall not very impressed with the card regardless of the issues. No cooling what so ever on the memory chips and the pcb feels real flimsy. It is almost exactly the same as the xfx non reference 5870 card. Very crappy for those who know what I'm taking about.

Even with the back plate there was considerable amounts of give and sag with the card mounted in the case.

I'm sure had I not gotten a bum card I could have overlooked these things but now I'm kind of turned off. FWIW, the cooler seems top notch.

Anyhow, Got in a real good deal on a Open Box Lightning that will be here tomorrow. Hopefully the UPS guy doesn't dump and run so I can give him this card to go back.

My first ever DOA

 

[Don Karnage]

Got my card today. Artifacts as soon as 3d starts and locked up the pc within 15 seconds. Checked temps and they quickly got into the 80's. Turns out that the screws that hold the heatsink on to the gpu were very loose. They easily had 2-3 turns to go.

Fixed the artifacting, so I thought. Now it can last about 3 minutes until it crashes.

Overall not very impressed with the card regardless of the issues. No cooling what so ever on the memory chips and the pcb feels real flimsy. It is almost exactly the same as the xfx non reference 5870 card. Very crappy for those who know what I'm taking about.

Even with the back plate there was considerable amounts of give and sag with the card mounted in the case.

I'm sure had I not gotten a bum card I could have overlooked these things but now I'm kind of turned off. FWIW, the cooler seems top notch.

Anyhow, Got in a real good deal on a Open Box Lightning that will be here tomorrow. Hopefully the UPS guy doesn't dump and run so I can give him this card to go back.

My first ever DOA

Sucks man. The lightning should be better.

 

[p_monks33]

Dang man I feel like a dick for recommending the powercolor. Thats some serious BS to pay 500 dollars for a card and it be a POS. I hope MSI works out well for you.